If you wait to network when you’re out of a job, you’re fucked.
If you wait to engage with your fans until you’ve got an album to sell, you’re fucked, too.
YOU’RE PAYING RENT TO SOCIAL MEDIA, and if you’re phoning it in, those checks will bounce.
I tell this to a lot of musical folks; your talent lies in making music, not being an online marketing expert.
So it’s okay you don’t know every strategy, tactic, and trend. But that doesn’t mean spend six hours a day tending a garden you don’t own.
Let us not forget that you’re in the magic business.
Some folks would sell their soul for that magic of being able to sing, play guitar, paint, design an album layout, tour with a band, and / or take photographs.
Deliver fucking magic in everything you do, because fandom is fucking real.
Fans cry, fans tattoo band names on their arms, fans dance to your songs at weddings.
Maybe you're not there yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start now.
Every day, reply to your fans instead of just photocopying the nice things they said about you and showing it to people who are already fans.
Then, on occasion, ask those fans to subscribe to your email list. And make sure you have a good “lead magnet.”
“Don’t just say, ‘sign up for tour dates,’ say, ‘sign up to see photos from our last tour,’ which then gets people to subscribe. Then you eventually send them your new tour dates,” from my BEST WAYS TO GET PEOPLE TO SIGN UP post.
The whole point of this HEAVY METAL EMAIL newsletter is to get people on your email list.
That’s because social media will be murder in 2022, and I don’t think any of us want to spend more time on those networks than we have to.
Set up an email list, get your fans from social media to subscribe, and send them an email once a week.
As you grow your email list, it’ll start to be more effective.
You’ll spend less time preparing and sending an email than you do on social media, and it’ll sell more albums, more tickets, more shirts.
Take back your time in 2022, baby. Start your email list today.
Ask me where to start with setting up an email list - just reply to this email.
Get in touch at: seth@heavymetal.email
THIS EVENT BELOW HAS PASSED
Okay, so it might be the most boring live stream idea to a lot of people, but I’m actually streaming when I set up emails for Metal Bandcamp Gift Club using Substack, so you can see first hand how it’s done.
You can tune in and watch, and ask me questions during each 30 minute session, you just gotta RSVP here. I have a couple coming up (next one is Dec 28th), so book now (it’s free, too).