Granted we grew up on these movies and as a 9 year old, the Millennium Falcon was one of my most prized possessions, but the thrill these days is in the experience. The full orchestra, massive HD screens and a well coordinated narration through the saga is a must see event.
Needless to say, FanMail is really excited to be supporting this through our clients Another Planet Entertainment as it travels the world. Check out the tour dates, take the family and be ready to experience a really one of a kind concert event.
I am an old man (in some circles). When I find myself on most undergraduate college campuses the days, it seems that the students have more in common with my 12 year old step son than with me. I’ve been out of college for almost 15 years now. So it was with great curiosity and mild mischievous humor , that I have entered into the hallowed halls of online course-dom by way of Berklee’s Online Music Marketing with Topspin course.
I feel a bit like Rodney Dangerfield in “Back to School”.
As CEO of a pretty well respected direct-to-fan marketing shop, our clients kinda expect us to already know quite a bit on the topics of online, social and so forth. And we do. And we pitch and deliver outstanding programs every day. So it is a bit of a running joke around the FanMail office that that I might be bit overqualified for the class… and so likely doomed to failure based on murphy’s law.
I got a C on my first assignment for not answering the whole question, “Please outline your top 10 pros and cons (5 each) of a direct-to-fan sales and marketing approach. Which traditional outlets do you think are still effective for selling and marketing your music?” I got the 10 pros and cons but skipped the question on which traditional outlets still work. Rats… the details get me every time.
But it is the dialogue that I’m most interested in. That is the good stuff. The grade is really negligible for me.
I mean the music industry sucks for open dialogue. Generally there is just too much ego and posturing and and self congratulation and fierce competition for the industry to actually openly discuss what works or doesn’t work in their marketing methodologies. It is interesting. If you go to any number of main stream “corporate” marketing conferences often you find presenters (one person showing a case study or telling a real story of success) or round tables (open dialogue with the audience and a moderator). But in the music industry it is all about “The Panel” (a group of hand picked experts who are really there to propel their own agendas).
So I’m looking to Academics for dialogue and I applaud Ian and Shamal and team for bringing it into a forum where such things can hopefully thrive. My fear of course is that the promise of open dialogue here could quickly be clouded by the marketing agenda. We shall see.
I’m also interested in the Topspin platform. I don’t think that it is akin to the second coming of Christ as the hype would lead us to believe, but I do think that it is a game changer and puts some pretty powerful tools in the hands of artists and their team. At FanMail, we are hoping to expand our programming over the next months to execute services for our clients on the Topspin platform. This is a good way to “dip our toe in the water” without taking a full dive.
We have a number of clients who use both FanMail and Topspin in tandem. FanMail for email, sms, automation and database management and Topspin for transactions, media and widgets. I’m hopeful that as the dev team continues to build out their APIs, that the doors will be opened where these two world class systems can continue to compliment each other. Ian, can I hear an open source yelp?
To top it off (and inspired by the class project) I’m working with Josiah to bring The Lion’s Rampant album “It’s fun to do bad things” to market for a March release on Topspin. This band it too much fun and I’m sure there will be more insights on this to come.
I stumbled across Michelle Bowles “5 Top Email Marketing Tactics for 2010″ blog and had to share it with everyone! The blog discusses 5 tactics that will help any company’s email marketing efforts. If you are familiar with this blog, these tactics may seem familiar to you. In May 2009, we published a blog about Roadrunner’s social media pioneering. They are an excellent example of a company that has utilized social media and email integration, as well as launching a full re-engagement strategy. (For more neat ways that our clients pioneer and utilize email marketing best practices, you should check out our video “Five Clients in Five Minutes”)
Bowles’s blog offers 5 ways to improve your email marketing:
1.Integrating Email With Social Media
-Using a blog to highlight content from an e-newsletter once or twice a month, inviting readers to download the full content via a landing page. Which reminds me, click on the blog homepage to get the full “Is Email Endangered?” white paper.
- Leveraging social media to offer different ways to interact with the subscriber– twitter feed promotions, rss feeds and a monthly newsletter
2. Focusing on Engaging Subscribers
-Personalize subject lines
-Incentivize click-throughs
-Make it as easy as possible for an email to be shared on social networks and forwarded
3. Re-engaging Inactive Subscribers
-Incentivize and create reasons to open the email ex, free trials or whitepapers
-create sense of urgency around an ending subscription
-segment inactive subscribers and cut back on the frequency of communications
4. Creating Viral Campaigns
-Instead of generic terms like “forward to a friend”, tailor them to a specific email/campaign (Ex. “Forward these tips for building credit to a colleague”)
-Make content available to everyone and easy to forward
-Vary the placement of share this links
5. A/B Testing and Optimizing Landing Pages
-Use this testing to find out the best response and layout for an email
I highly recommend that you read this article and utilize these tactics! We have found these techniques invaluable.
In 2001, when we first met the 4 founders of ExactTarget at a dry cleaning conference, who could have guessed where our two businesses would be today? We could have partnered with any number of technology providers to help us drive our direct-to-fan vision… and these days there are dozens if not hundreds of database/email/voice/social/sms service providers out there that run the spectrum in quality and cost.
“Email marketing is a commodity,” is what one exec told me not long ago. Yeah, well sort of… The ability to send lots of messages to lots of people is a commodity, but the ability to accomplish great marketing is not. Permission marketing is not a commodity… it’s a premium. Delivering the right message to the right person at the right time through the right medium is not a commodity… it is a premium.
So, yeah we were lucky. Out of all the partners we could have picked, we picked the one that understands that it isn’t about sending emails but about helping organizations connect with their customers in real and meaningful ways. Great technology is just the beginning, but real and true customer relationships are the glue that keeps it together.
This partnership has been incredibly valuable to FanMail and has allowed us to push some of the most sophisticated direct-to-fan marketing initiatives ever seen in the music and entertainment industry. The technology which ExactTarget has built allows us to ask “how” instead of “if” when it comes to complex direct, lights-out and lifecycle marketing programs. Almost anything we want to do is possible. In addition, their dedication to the FanMail Reseller Partnership and our vision and commitment to the music and entertainment vertical has permitted us to bring ExactTarget technology to our customers in a way that is accessible and cost effective for them.
So, we were not surprised to hear that ExactTarget has swept the field in the latest Forrester Wave report. Earning the title of “Leader of the Pack”, ExactTarget dominated the competition.
The Forrester report analyzed the products and services of 15 top-tier email service providers, using over 70 criteria and found ExactTarget dominated in nearly every category! In fact, ExactTarget earned perfect scores in 6 of the 14 categories – Product Roadmap, Vertical Strategy, Executive Vision, Strength of Management Team, Employees and, most importantly, ExactTarget was the only Email Service Provider to earn a perfect score in the Customers Category – a clear validation of realizing their core value of “Make clients look like heroes.”
The graphic above is a quick synopsis of the report. Notice ExactTarget’s placement in the upper right, making them a “Leader in the Industry.” It’s clear that it’s become a two-horse race between ExactTarget and Responsys. The data behind the graphic tells an even more compelling story. We beat or tied Responsys in 11 of the 14 categories, and ExactTarget beat them especially where it counts: current offering, technology platform, services and customer satisfaction! ExactTarget distanced themselves even further from the rest of the competitive pack, including e-Dialog, CheetahMail, Epsilon, Silverpop, Lyris and EmailVision. Even Forrester made mention in the report of ExactTarget’s acceleration and separation in the market. “ExactTarget has vastly expanded its organization to cater to marketers in any market segment. It offers a highly usable self-service application and has a growing services organization that offers the ability for its personnel to be deployed at the client location.”
Congratulations to the ExactTarget team. This show a tremendous amount of work and dedication to being the best of the best. As we enter 2010, FanMail is very proud to have such a prominent technology leader as our partner!
I know that I am way late on this one, but since it is Festivus, I am going to air my grievances. Remember that now “infamous” Wall Street Journal Article titled, “Why Email No Longer Rules”? If not, this article seeped through the email marketing community in October of this year and mostly fell on deaf ears. Here is why:
Author Jessica E. Vascellaro only did half her homework. She claims that, “a new generation of services [are] starting to take hold—services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world”. What she fails to notice, is the fact that all of these online networking communities are powered by email. Without email, one cannot opt-in to any of these communities or continue to communicate within them . Secondly, lets think about MySpace. Myspace was the premier social network before Facebook and Twitter took over. Companies poured money into harvesting their communities, only to find out that everyone left and moved on to the next community. If they “owned” those relationships through email, it would not matter what community the consumer subscribed.
So, what does this all mean? Email is not dead or dying, but rather the opposite, it is fueling these new communities. Email allows the user to share articles they enjoy or shows they would like to attend or even updates about what band is coming to town. What savvy email marketers should take from this, is how to incorporate an eco-system of marketing.
Sean Corcoran recently wrote an awesome blog which explains all of the relationships that can form a successful eco-system, incorporating owned relationships (email) with partially owned relationships (social networking sites). He states that, “Owned media is a channel you control. There is fully-owned media (like your website) and partially-owned media (like Facebook fan page or Twitter account). Owned media creates brand portability. Now you can extend your brand’s presence beyond your web site so that exists in many places across the web – specifically through social media sites and unique communities”. Using this idea, email is still the big mama jama. Incorporating social media to your marketing plan is great and it plays real nice with email. Check out Sean’s blog for more ideas to create a solar system of owned media and rest assured that nobody has usurped email’s throne.
If you have some music lovers, marketers and/ or tech savvy people to buy for, we have some advice from the pros: us. Here are some of our favorite holiday picks:
“Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us” by Seth Godin
This book is great for your marketing or business savvy friend. It is all about leadership, interesting case studies and how one inspires their tribe. Pretting much everything that Seth Godin writes is gold, so check it out!
“Outliers: The Story of Success”
Ever since I saw Malcolm Gladwell speak at ExactTarget’s Connections in October, I have been a fan. This book is excellent. It is very well written and easy to get through. I learned a lot from the included case studies about success and I definitely recommend this read for anyone who is interested in being successful or learning about how history can influence the future.
DJ Hero
Ok, lets face it, everyone wants to be a dj even if its just in the the club called Home. If DJ Hero is as popular as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, this gift is a shoe in! Not to mention, one of our neat clients in featured in the game, DJ Shadow. Hurry up and buy!
4 Port High Speed USB 2.0 Cassette Hubs
This is enough to make any punk rocker who plays with a computer drool. Thats right, look close… those aren’t cassette tapes, those are 4 port high speed USB 2.0 cassette hubs. Find them here.
The Think Geek 8-Bit Tie
We admit that we love thinkgeek.com. This is a great place to shop for your geeky friend. Take a look, I know you will find something.
People Under The Stairs“Carried Away”
Sean, our billing guy, highly recommends this album. Their beats range between Latin Jazz and Funk, but will often foray into strange beat selections that they somehow make work. Check out their new album at AmieStreet.com .
Them Crooked Vultures “Them Crooked Vultures”
- Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and John Paul Jones put out an album and their talent is apparent in every song. If you need to know more than that, the three band members have each belonged to Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age and, oh yeah, Led Zeppelin. Check out their new C.D.!
Killswitch Engage “Killswitch Engage”
I have always been a fan of anything Roadrunner Records puts out. If your tastes run a a little heavier, you should swing over Roadrunner Records to check out this album, and while your there sign up for their mailing list! If you are a metal fan you receive all kinds of free tracks when you’re hooked on the list, and with their show alerts you’ll never miss your favorite bands show again.
Our partner, ExactTarget recently published a white paper named ” Inside Scoop on Successful List Growth”. Check out the embedded article below. This article is awesome and it reminded me of a client we currently have, Steel Train, whose list just grew like my holiday wish list on steriods. According to this whitepaper, “The core of a successful list growth strategy is incorporating the right subscribers into the right list. By putting your subscribers first, listening to their individual wants and needs, and leveraging permission-only tactics, you can create and grow a powerful, effective email marketing program.” That is exactly what Steel Train did with our help.
In late September of ‘09 Steel Train, a Five piece band from New Jersey, partnered with us. They were dissatisfied with their current email marketing solution and wanted to grow their list and re-engage the fans they already had. Using a free song download as leverage, together we launched a re-engagement campaign to renew current fans’ interest in Steel Train’s mailings by asking them to confirm their email address and zip code. Their new subscribers were also tempted with their free downloads.
This campaign was so successful, they doubled their list in one week and 61% percent of their total subscribers now have full profiles with Steel Train ! Full profiles are like the mecca of email marketing providing customer information beyond just name and email. They usually include zip codes and personal preferences which can easily help a marketer segment and target a group better which equals a much larger ROI. Holy crap, way to utilize a permission-only tactic!
Check out Steel Train and sign up for their mailing list. They are always doing neat stuff!
The thing that sucks about most marketers is that they think too much like marketers… like solicitors. They have a very hard time stepping away from themselves long enough to ask their audience/client/customer/ticket buyer/fans, “why is that important to you?” and “what are your needs”. Most marketers are only concerned with their own needs… their own point of view and what is important to THEM.
I had a interesting conversation over lunch with a gentleman in the music industry who didn’t understand why permission marketing was important.. or how it worked. The question he raised was, “if cost were not an issue, why shouldn’t promoters send as many emails as possible, to as many people as possible, as often as possible?”
And he has a point… after all, if I throw enough shit at the wall, certainly something will stick.
However, email marketing is NOT permission marketing. Email is just the vehicle… a very efficient vehicle, but just a vehicle none the less. The value is not in the email, but in the PERMISSION… that somebody cares what you are saying and is looking forward to it.
The problem with just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks… is that the people who might have once cared and once gave you permission are likely to get hit along the way.
And once those people go away and block you out… they almost never come back.
Over the summer, while on our family trip to Michigan, we listened to Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser which heralds a resounding cry against modern agribusiness, industrial food processing, meat processing and fast food culture. In the months since, our eating and consumption habits have changed and we are consistently more focused on locally grow, fresh, non-processed foods. You are what you eat.
So it was with great surprise that I found our FanMail client Wookiefoot recently released a video on the subject as well. It is so good, that I just had to share. Enjoy.
Recently, I attended ExactTarget’s Connections 2009 Conference and I really enjoyed Kelly Mooney’s discussion about her marketing theory, O.P.E.N.Brands. One of our clients, Pretty Lights knowingly or unknowingly, utilizes this theory in their email marketing and website. What makes Pretty Lights an O.P.E.N. Brand? Let me explain a what O.P.E.N. Marketing is and how Pretty Lights meets this criteria.
The O stands for On Demand: The brand delivers accessible, self directed, instantly gratifying experience. Pretty Lights offers live streaming of their shows to include fans who are age or geographically “challenged”. These shows are then archived at iclips.net for fans who may re-live their experience. These features offer an accessible, self directed way for all fans to access the band.
The P stands for personal: The brand facilitates meaningful interactions to markets of one. Using Dynamic (personalized) content, their newsletter encourages fans to be a part of Pretty Lights by submitting pictures of themselves at their shows. These submitted pictures are then be accessible to the whole world wide web on their website photo gallery. This feature of the Pretty Lights website, makes it personal to the fans and their experinces. It also creates a fan network and bond with the brand.
The E stands for Engaging: The brand deepens attachment through relevant emotional experiences. Pretty Lights engages their fans live, through web-streaming, photo galleries, and their neato flash website.
The N stands for Networked: The brand taps the exponential potential of individual consumers and online niche communities. Pretty Lights makes themselves attached and well-networked to their fans by providing communities for their fans to interact with them as well as receive incentivized opportunities. The band is on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.
Pretty Lights does a great job making their brand O.P.E.N. and accessible to its fans. They have also mastered the newsletter call to action. The homepage of their website only has one call to action, to join the newsletter. This join button stays at the bottom of the screen on all other pages of the website as well. On the website, they offer some free downloads and ask again for the fan to sign up to their newsletter. Overall, Pretty Lights has a great strategy for hooking and keeping fans! Check ‘em out!
