Real list and store numbers from The Band of Heathens, the give, give, sell, sell rhythm I plan releases around, and why a plain note from the band pays.
Email is still where a band’s money comes from. 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 plain note from the band brought in about $6,000
- How email outsold paid social during a 2024 vinyl pre-order
- 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.”
That last line is why this post exists. 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.
Don’t judge a list by its open rate. Mailchimp’s email benchmarks warn that Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection can skew opens. Treat any open rate as a rough signal and watch sales.
Does email really sell more than ads?
It did for the Hayes & The Heathens vinyl pre-order in 2024. In Google Analytics, email brought about 12% of the store’s visits and about 24% of its revenue: a quarter of the pre-order sales.
Paid social brought more visits than email and less than half of email’s sales.
Here’s where I push back on a lot of release advice. The ad budget gets the planning and the list gets whatever time is left. Flip that. Ads still have a job, which is finding people who aren’t on the list yet. I broke that 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." They almost always do, and a lot of them send love along with it. That one reply tells their inbox you're someone they talk to. Open rates go up and you stay out of the spam folder. It's a simple trick and it works.
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.
- First email: welcome them in the artist's voice and ask for a reply with the artist's name.
- Next few emails: one gift each, like a download, a livestream, a first look.
- Last email: the shop, with the thing they've been previewing.
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.
What to take from the schedule:
- Plan the gives first, then slot the sells between them.
- Put at least one email with no store link between your launch and your deadline.
- Give every email one job and one button.
How plain should a band email be?
In my 2017 proposal for Steve Kimock I recommended “breaking emails down to promote one clear action.” 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.
Plain mail that fans recognize also helps you stay out of spam. Google’s email sender guidelines require one-click unsubscribe on marketing mail and ask senders to keep spam rates reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.30%.
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 button.
- 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 your biggest sales day.
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. The store data points the same way on email itself, though.
The notes do hold a line from that 2024 meeting I keep coming back to: “people need to feel like it was their idea to sign up.” It was about Patreon. It fits the list too. Tease what’s coming, show what subscribers get, and let fans come to you.
Questions musicians ask
How often should a band email its list?
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?
Don’t chase one. Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection can skew opens, so judge an email by what it sold. The Band of Heathens’ note from the band earned about $6,000.
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 brought a quarter of the revenue from 12% of the visits. Paid social brought more visits and less than half of email’s sales.
What should you do this week?
- Your list is where the sales are: 24% of one pre-order’s revenue from 12% of its visits.
- Give more than you sell, and put the gives on the calendar first.
- Write like a person: a note from the band, one button, a P.S.
Ads find fans. Email is where they buy, so give it the planning time.
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.
