Mailing List - Need Advice

[Gearhead17]

Ok, my cover band has a mailing list and we have had decent success with it. We are trying to up the ante and getting no where with it. I have paid people (good looking women too!) to go around after our first set or between the 2nd and 3rd sets to sign it. Unfortunately, we get about 70% fake e-mails and the other 30% are an unintelligable mess of scribble. Fun to sort through! There are still good e-mails in there, at least I think so...

At other shows, the mailing list becomes a pad of paper for friends to write messages to each other. Or even better, a place for everyone to write down their requests.

I am getting sick of wasting ink and paper for these morons. Keep in mind these are "college bars" and a bunch of 21-35 year old audience members.

Bars still want us to bring a following and we would like to be able to tell them we have a lot of people on our mailing list. Are there any tricks to getting actual e-mails? Or a better way to do this? Our business cards have our site, facebook and myspace on there - my thought is "if they like us, they will sign up themselves". We do litter the tables with business cards at every show.

It would be nice if alcohol was not involved

 

[Altitude]

We provide a free song download when people sign up for the lists. It's still pretty weak sauce, but it does encourage a few extra people to provide legit information.

A serious approach is to buy a [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. These are data collectors, like little purpose-built computers that capture email addresses directly into a database when people type them in. They are nearly indestructable and not interesting enough that they would definitely be stolen, although I would still keep a keen eye on it.

 

[Drop-the-One]

yea an incentive like a song works sometimes. Or I guess, a printable "coupon" for a drink special for your next show there. Deals on alcohol might work, even if it's only a buck off.

Facebook seems to be the easiest for everyone, but it's still hard to get people to even press "like".

Just gotta keep being the party everyone's talking about I guess. Word of mouth.

 

[Gearhead17]

Let's throw this in the equation - do we even need to worry about this? For the most part, we get friends to the shows and spread the word. We mostly focus on playing well every night and things have been going well lately. But how can we do better?

 

[troy mcclure]

I am equally frostrated by bogus and illegable mailist list names. we just keep anoucing our website and facebook 3 x a set.

 

[Gearhead17]

I am equally frostrated by bogus and illegable mailist list names. we just keep anoucing our website and facebook 3 x a set.

Gald to hear you are in the same boat! We do the promo thing 1 time a set. I am happier to give out a business card and hope they will pay attention to our schedule. When they want to join our e-mail list, there is an easy fill-out box on our site.

At the last show, the mailing list was nothing more than a beer coaster.

 

[Syco_bass]

You have to give, give, give. You have to continually ask the "WIIFM" (what's in it for me) question.

We have a nice full color "tear off" type card with the next two months of show dates on one side (think concert dates on a t-shirt) (if you don't have a gig booked for a particular date then just put "To be announced". This will keep them wanting to find out where you will be playing. Then on the other side we have things like;
logo, 15 second pitch, website, CD info, name of artist, band photos, Face book, twitter info, myspace, reverb nation (where to download music), local celeb quotes (if any) etc.

Then on a tear off stub, we have a place to put your name and e-mail address on it. IF you drop it in our tip jar we'll e-mail you a free mp3. Also, we draw one name per set to win a CD/T-shirt combo pack. (must be present to win)

If the e-mail address is not legible it goes in the trash. Plus our singer's wife is e-mailing ppl the free mp3 in between sets so we know if they are bogus or not before we enter them into the data base. We've had ppl come up to us in between sets and say "Hey-I already got my free MP3!, that's cool." Then they'll ask us to perform the song live for them. It works. Since we've been doing this, we've actually begun to sell CD down loads at the gigs. ppl have come up to us and told us that they have gone to CD baby, or itunes and downloaded the whole record on their iphones! It's been cool. We don't usually meet the ppl that buy the music online.

You have to be pro-active and you have to make it fun for your fans. Always remember, if it's not fun for you, it's not fun for your fans either. So keep it fun and enjoy what you are doing. It becomes contageous. (IMHO, get rid of the sexy girls. Although they are fun to look at, most of them can't sell anything and are usually too intimidating for most ppl to approach) Your front man has to be the catalist (cause he is most visible) and he/she has to be personally engaged and accessable to/with the audiance in between sets as well as while on stage. Interact with the crowd, don't just talk to them.

Here is a great book to read; (no i'm not endorsed by her, I bought the book just like everyone else)

http://musicsuccessinnineweeks.com/

It has helped my band tremendously locally and we are now starting to move into other parts of the state. One promoter from 300 miles away called us to do a huge (20K ppl) 3day music festival. (too bad we were already booked.) 6 months ago we were unkowns in our small town.

Good luck.

 

[lowtide]

"First beer on us" coupon deliverable to real email address. Payable by the club owner. After they've collected their first beer/drink the rest of the night is cake.