[Video] How to create an email newsletter that doesn’t suck

Hey, I thought your advice was absolutely on the mark. I will try it, I think it will work, it is subtle and so obvious when one thinks about it. We all miss it because it is right in our face….Thanks again PW
PS. I would appreciate you reading a couple of my web pages and let me know your thoughts

Thanks for the tips. Being in a band (and the band manager) and trying to market, engage, and expand through emails (or any medium) can be tough. I have tried giving away free music but it doesn’t always work. We once even handed out about one hundred free download codes at a concert and not one was used… ha. Maybe I just need some tweaking of the language. We always get really great responses from live shows, but hooking them after they leave the show (even after they signed up for the email list) seems difficult, it is hard to figure out if people are actually reading or interested once they get home.
Keep it up, I am glad to have found you through your following us on the Twitter.
Sean Lamborne

I think marketing can be tough for anyone, not just band managers! But you bring up an interesting point– meshing offline events with online marketing. This is something you deal with every day that does add complexity to the marketing loop. Whereas online marketers are usually marketing online from the get-go, as a band you have to figure out how to convert a live show attendee into an online user of your website, which is really tough. I was talking with some other web companies that recently did a coupon postcard handout at a conference and they had the same problem – a fraction of people actually redeemed the coupon, something like 1/10th of 1%. I think this area might require some additional thought and blog posts!
I wonder if you tried to collect their email at the live event in exchange for something useful if this would be better, and then to send the promo codes via that email list. At least you get their email upfront, as this seems like the most important step.
Thanks for finding us on Twitter and following back!
-Casey

Hey Casey,
It is difficult to move from in person to online. But I may do what you suggest and tell people they will receive free downloads if they sign up. We do get quite a lot of emails for our list, and our email server (reverbnation.com) allows us to give away free tracks with a signup. The other (comical) problem lies in trying to get legible emails from people at shows who have been drinking. Ugh.
Also something you mentioned that I have thought about is to get some cheaper schwag to give away… we already give away the free tracks, but something physical with our website printed on it might help (however, when I receive things like that I often lose and forget about them quickly, but maybe a certain percentage of folks will actually respond that way. Buttons, bottle openers???) Things to think about…
Thanks again!

Those are all great ideas. One option instead of giving away cheap items to everyone, you could offer more expensive items (t-shirt, hoodie, etc) as a giveaway during your show, maybe after every 3 songs or something, and ask people to put their name and email into a fishbowl for a chance to win the item or prize pack. This way youd get everyones emails but not have to give out quite so much $$ worth of merchandise. Regarding the legible handwriting, not sure how to solve that one!
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Now I need to a blog post/video about your video about what good email marketing is :)
Seriously – Thank for popping on camera and just going at it. Great tips and I am sending this around to everybody I know. It will probably even popout on twitter via @patrickallmond soon. Subscribed

Casey,
Thanks for the reminder of the importance of the “call to action” in a newsletter. I would also ad having call to actions on the strategic points on the website is also crucial. Of course test, test, test via split A/B testing to make sure you have the best call to action.
Check out http://www.whichtestwon.com for more on the results of large split A/B tests perfomred by big companies.

That’s half the battle with anything – just getting out there and doing it. Looking back on my video there’s tons of things I need to change and get better at. But you just gotta start. Thanks Patrick for just leaving a comment, and I hope you do create that video and link it back here!

Here at GoDaddy we’re experimenting with a new email format, this is a great video – thanks for sharing your experiences.