How to Get the Most Out of Your Fan List

by Noah Dinkin, Fanbridge

Tips for your fan list:

1. Communicate Regularly
Some of our clients like to talk and they are able to write great newsletters each week to their fans. They aren't particularly long, but fans like hearing from the band and it keeps the band fresh in each fan's mind. Even if you can't find the time to do a weekly newsletter, you absolutely must send something at the very least once per month. If you wait longer than a month between messages, you are not going to maintain as strong a bond between the artist and fan as you could.

2. Encourage Interaction
Many of our clients write their newsletters in a very 'one way' fashion. This is not a newspaper, it's the internet! Use the technology available and ask questions of your fans. Do surveys! Maybe pick a winner out of all the responses and give them a small token prize. Encourage your fans to interact and they will look forward to your email each week/month. They will want to open your message and be the first to reply. It will become an important event instead of just an afterthought.

3. Include Links to Places You Want Fans to Go
This one seems obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many bands do not include a link to their website in each message. Not only should you be including a link to your website, but you should have a link to your myspace/facebook/etc profile, your merch store, a place where they can download your music, your tourdates, and anything else that's important. You'll be surprised how much more traffic you get when you start including links.

4. Create a Special Event in Each Message
This one ties in with #2. If you can create a special event in each message, fans will learn that your messages are important, and will not want to miss any message from you. Examples of special events could be: a limited time sale on CDs or other merchandise items, posting a list of upcoming tourdates just for newsletter subscribers before they are released to the general public, secret special downloads of live recordings or unreleased material, contests to win backstage passes or signed merchandise, or any other kind of special things your fans would crave.

5. Ask for Help
Fans signed up for your list because they want to hear from you and that indicates a level of devotion to the band. Because of this, don't be afraid to ask for their help. Ask them to forward the newsletter on to their friends (we automatically include a forward to a friend link in the footer of each email you send). You can also ask for help with street teaming (putting up posters in a town before a show), promoting online, looking for places to sleep, ideas of other bands to tour with, ideas of venues to play in a city you've never been to, and just about anything else. Your fans want to see you succeed, so let them help you!

We hope you think about these 5 simple tips and incorporate them into your fan communication strategy. They've worked for other artists, now start making them work for you!