A band's email should sound like the people making the music. Real list and store numbers from The Band of Heathens, the welcome email we used for Todd Snider, and the give, give, sell, sell rhythm I plan releases around.
A band's email should sound like it came from the people making the music. Sometimes it shares a song or a story. Sometimes it asks fans to buy. Plan both, so the list is useful to fans between offers.
In Part 4 of the E-commerce Success Series I covered the setup: segments, the welcome email and the automations worth turning on. This follow-up is about what you send once that's running, and how often you ask for the sale.
In this post:
- What one band's list was worth: a note from the band brought in about $6,000
- What email brought in during a 2024 vinyl pre-order
- The "Hey Todd" welcome email and the nurture sequence behind it
- The give, give, sell, sell schedule from a real album release
- Six steps to plan your next campaign
How much is a band's email list worth?
In February 2024 I sat down with The Band of Heathens to plan their year. My notes from that meeting say: "Your most valuable marketing tool is email. 18k contacts. 40% open rate. Nearly all revenue producing. Note from the band = 6k revenue."
Cut. A note from the band was worth about $6,000. The rest of the meeting was about Instagram, TikTok and Patreon, all good ways to find new fans. The list is where the money was.
Mailchimp's email benchmarks warn that Apple's Mail Privacy Protection can skew opens, so treat any open rate, that 40% included, as a rough signal and watch sales.
What did email bring in during a pre-order?
In the GA4 pre-order report for the 2024 Hayes & The Heathens vinyl, email accounted for about 12% of the store's visits and 24% of recorded revenue. It was the largest attributed revenue channel in that report.
Paid social brought more visits than email and less than half of email's recorded revenue. A channel report credits each sale to one source, so it doesn't measure everything the ads did.
Email and ads can both introduce music and close sales. In our campaigns, the list deserves its own plan rather than whatever time is left after the ads. I broke the ad side down in the Hayes & The Heathens album ad recap.
What does a note from the band look like?
The Band of Heathens' announce email for Simple Things in January 2023 opened with the header "A note from the band" and a video. The offer sat underneath: an autographed translucent 2-LP, limit one per customer, one of 100 copies, plus vinyl and CD bundles. There was one button, and it said pre-order now.
The note comes first. The offer is one button under it.
The same format works for asks that aren't sales. My 2024 draft of an email asking fans to follow the band on Instagram opened "Hey Friend, Ed here!" It linked one new video and asked for one follow.
What should the first email to a new fan say?
Ask them to reply. On Todd Snider's welcome email we asked every new subscriber to hit reply and write two words: "Hey Todd." Fans send it, and a lot of love along with it. In our experience it almost always works: open rates go up and less of the mail lands in spam. Simple trick, very effective.
Then give before you ask. The welcome email starts a nurture sequence, a few emails that hand fans something good each time. For Todd it was an updated screensaver, access to an exclusive livestream, and an early look at the merch and the VIP passes. The last email in the sequence sends them to the shop.
How often should a band sell to its list?
"Give, give, sell, sell, give, give." That line sits at the bottom of my release plans from 2018 on, as the rule for email automation. Two emails that ask for nothing. Two that sell. Then back to giving.
My email schedule for The Band of Heathens' Duende, out in January 2017, already mixed it this way:
The Thanksgiving email thanked fans for the community and for letting the band play music for a living. It had no store link. It sat between the pre-order launch and the holiday deadline, right where another sale would have gone. Plan the gives first, then slot the sells between them.
How plain should a band email be?
In my 2017 proposal for Steve Kimock I recommended "breaking emails down to promote one clear action." Give each email one primary action. Any supporting links should help it, not compete with it. A Band of Heathens email from 2020 shows how plain that can be. It opened "Hey there, we need to ask you a favor" and signed off "-BOH."
The thank-you came in the P.S.: two more singles out early on Spotify before the album. A P.P.S. told fans who weren't on Spotify not to worry. I take that email apart in the post on turning Spotify listeners into followers.
That release week we also scheduled a plain-text email with a P.S. for four days after street date. Plain text reads like mail from a person, which is the whole idea.
Write in a voice fans recognize, but don't rely on plain text to keep an email out of spam. Permission, authentication, easy unsubscribing and sender reputation still matter. Google's email sender guidelines ask senders to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.1% and never reach 0.3%. Anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail must support one-click unsubscribe on marketing mail.
What is your account already sending?
In 2022 I helped a concert series move its list into Hive. Their ticketing platform had set up a cart-abandonment series on its own. It had brought in about $5,000 and it wasn't on brand yet, so the first job was rewriting it to sound like them.
Before you write anything new, open your automations and read what fans are already getting.
How do you plan the next campaign?
- Pull your last 12 months of sends and mark each one give or sell.
- Plan the next release on a give, give, sell, sell rhythm. Thank-yous, stories, early listens and videos are gives. The pre-order, bundles and last chance are sells.
- Write the announce as a note from the artist, signed by a real person, with one primary action.
- Send at least one plain-text email per campaign, with a P.S.
- Once per campaign, ask fans to hit reply. Read every answer.
- Tag every link so you can see which emails sold.
The biggest sell in that rhythm is the deadline. Here's why the last chance to pre-order email is a must.
What can't these numbers prove?
My notes don't say which send the $6,000 note was or break it down by format, so I can't prove plain text beats a designed email.
Cut.
Questions musicians ask
How do you balance useful emails and sales emails?
Plan around a give, give, sell, sell rhythm. The Duende schedule ran about two months, and the Thanksgiving email in the middle asked for nothing.
What is a good open rate for a band's email?
Treat opens as a rough signal. Apple's Mail Privacy Protection can skew them. Judge each email by its purpose: listening, clicks, replies or purchases. A thank-you email with no store link shouldn't be judged only by sales.
Should band emails be plain text or designed?
Write them as a note from the band either way. Send at least one plain-text email with a P.S. each campaign. I can't show that plain text beats design, but the note from the band earned about $6,000.
Is email worth it if we already run ads?
Yes. During the 2024 Hayes & The Heathens pre-order, email accounted for a quarter of recorded revenue from 12% of the visits. Email and ads both have a job, so give the list its own plan.
What should you do this week?
- In one pre-order, email brought 24% of recorded revenue from 12% of the visits.
- Give more than you sell, and put the gives on the calendar first.
- Write like a person: a note from the band, one primary action, a P.S.
Give the list its own plan, not the time left over after the ads.
This week, write your next email as a note from the band in plain text with one link, and send it to yourself before anyone else.
Plan your next email campaign with us
Once they've bought, here's how to bring them back: E-commerce Success Series, Part 7: repeat buyers.
