One of our newest clients, Them Crooked Vultures, are something to write home to your Mom about. Not just because they are a SUPERgroup made up of drummer Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), but because their marketing and email strategy is highly effective in growing their fans and subscriber list.

The fun part is that everybody is carrying little computers around in their pockets which brings endless chances to interact with an artist, events or each other.

The challenge for many direct music marketers is figuring out how to own the relationship. (ie having permission to contact a fan directly in the future).

To that end, we are happy to introduce “LIVE CAPTURE” which uses sms protocols to collect an email address and trigger the associated responses and confirmation messaging.

Wanna try it out? On your cell phone text “stubbs” to 88769 to see the whole process at work.

Notice that the goal here isn’t to grow a mobile fan base or collect a cell phone number to blast messages. That is so 2006 and has kind of lost the shiny “second coming of Christ” luster that it once had. (after all a mobile fan base is kind of limited and many folks see mobile marketing as highly intrusive).

The goal here is to collect an email permission in a live environment or as a means to maximize print advertising. This takes a direct live experience and translates it into a direct online experience which has real lifetime value and depth and color.

Goodbye ye ‘ol beat up clipboard that the merch table. Goodbye endless hours of having interns transcribe email addresses by hand. Hello instant gratification!

The best part is that early indications are showing that LIVE CAPTURE can be one of the fastest email list growth mechanisms out there. Of course it has be done right. It has to be promoted with savvy, in the right places, with the right incentive like an unreleased MP3 or live show. After all, if people don’t know or don’t care then they won’t sign up.

Expensive? NOPE. There aren’t any upfront costs. We set it up and customize everything to your needs and only charge based on the number of subscribers you actually collect.

Oh interactive marketing bliss!

Well folks, things have been busy. I don’t mean just normal busy, but really busy. The winds of change are in effect and everywhere pundits and experts and music geeks are shouting, “but you’ve got to have a relationship with your fans!” and “email works!, social networking works!, Communicate, communicate, build a fanbase” We are seeing first hand the success and revenue which properly executed direct to fan initiatives can drive. As our friend Ian recently said, ” The business is changing, artists have choice, and artists will find partners to help them get done what they need to.”

To that end we are thrilled to welcome new clients like DJ Shadow (yeah, I’m a huge fan), Beck, Cucu Diamantes, Sugar Ray and Bad Lieutenant and who have all launched new fan marketing campaigns to connect more closely with core fans.

One of the most exciting new clients in the mix is Them Crooked Vultures – a super group made up Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. The mystery around this group is only starting to become clear, so join their list to get the scoop.

Outside of the music space we are thrilled to present our new client Coach Pete Carroll. On top of being the well known coach for the USC Trojans, he is a inspired author, speaker, leader and mentor. His “Win Forever” philosophy has not only led the USC football team to win the last 74 of 83 games but is now the topic for an upcoming book, DVD and educational track. We are thrilled to be working with such a leader.

We have also been busy playing with new features which are helping our clients acquire, retain and grow their fan bases. Social Forward is a new feature which encourages your fans to pass on content from your emails.

Social Forward from David DeVore on Vimeo.

This really is the coolest thing since sliced bread since it vastly expands the ability of your content to be viral as well as your ability to track the reach of a message. Early indications are showing 80 times the pass around which normally happens from traditional Forward to a Friend. All the major social networks are supported and full tracking is available.

We also have a new user community, which looks to expand the knowledge and support which all clients have through 3sixty.

Highlights from our new community include:

• Home page: Topics of recent interest (for example : how to add web-collection forms to facebook). You can also find announcements, new feature highlights & navigation for the entire support desk

• Knowledge Base: Segmented support topics on an array of topics.  From the ‘Getting Started’ page to help jump start your new account to ‘Additional Software Tools’, the FanMail Knowledge Base is the place to find information, documentation, videos and much more on a vast array of topic
• Submit a problem or issue: Using the ‘Submit a request’ tab, you can create a ticket and a direct line of communication with our account management team.  Your ticket will be noted and work will begin immediately to answer your question.
• Track your support requests: You can log into the Knowledge Base to track the results of your submitted ticket.  Here you will see updates and notifications made by our account management team.

Lastly, we are seeing some massive early results through our text collect (also called Capture) technology which collects email addresses through SMS.

The Capture Package can help you:
•     Grow your list of mobile subscribers through Text Capture
•     Engage mobile subscribers through Voting and Keyword Response
•     Increase subscriber conversion from offline to online

Early indicators are showing that when this is executed correctly Text Collect can be one of the fastest list growth mechanisms out there. We we be excited to post some real case studies and results over the next few weeks.

Cheers!
David

Take five minutes to check out some of the progressive things which our clients are doing in their direct to fan marketing and Fan Relationship Management programs.

Thanks so much for those who attended our Fan-Centric Future presentation during SXSW and to Jeff Rohrs, Josh York, Josiah Kaiser, SuzAnn Brantner, Ian Rogers, Sarah McGoldrick, Jeff Kreinik and Jeremy Rosen who all contributed to helping make it a success. H

Here is the PPT slides from the event. Even without the audio from the presentation these slides tell a great story.

Yup, it is SXSW time and we are thrilled to be returning to Austin for the music industry’s biggest party. Over the past year, I have had the fortune of hanging out in Austin quite a bit. Four trips in all to work with our friends at Front Gate Tickets and C3 Presents. These visits to Austin coupled with support from my friends Jeff Rohrs and Jeff Kreinik inspired me to do something a little bit different this year. On Thursday, March 19th we will be gathering some of the most progressive direct-to-fan marketers we know to talk about the work they are doing. The event will take place at Threadgill’s World Headquarters (which is where Janis Joplin was discovered by Chet Helms, fyi) and will include lunch and drinks. The program will be dished up in three acts from 11am-2pm: Act 1 will present the”fan’s rule” philosophy. Act 2 (this is the juicy stuff) will present case studies and interviews with:

Act 3 is general discussion and questions. We will be digging in and looking at the real challenges and progress music marketers are making in Fan CRM, direct-to-fan marketing, social networking and message channels. For example, our friend Jeremy Rosen will be talking about how Roadrunner Records is driving their new label model with social networking and fan-focused marketing automation. Ian Rogers will talk about Topspin and the enormous success they are seeing by helping artists connect directly with their fans. Jeff from Front Gate Tickets will show off the tools they are building for their clients that help them understand and target live music fans and Sarah from C3 Presents will detail the work she has been doing for Stubb’s, Emo’s and the other venues they work with. To top it all off, our friend SuzAnn Brantner from William Morris Agency will be laying out the future of direct-to-fan marketing for artists and managers. Below is more information and a way to RSVP. People who RSVP will receive a final confirmation email a couple of day before the event. We hope to see you there! If you can’t make it by Threadgills on Thursday but still want to catch up follow me on twitter, send me an email (david@fanmailmarketing.com) or come by the panel “Fan Based Marketing” on Saturday 3:00pm which I will be a part of. Thanks,

David DeVore FMGM

Long time client Umphrey’s McGee has started an extraordinary pre-order campaign for their upcoming release Mantis.

“Herein lies the core of our pre order concept–we are going to add more and more bonus content as the pre-order gains steam. The more pre-orders that are placed, the more bonus content will be added. Each time a new bonus level is reached, we will unlock another bundle of content for everyone. Of course, these bonus tracks are free to all who pre-order. The load of bonus material will be made available for digital download the week of album release. But of course we wouldn’t want to make our fans wait months for everything, so the first bonus level will be available for download in early December.”

Nice work Vince and the gang. Can’t wait!

FanMail and long-time clients and friends, HeadCount, teamed up for a voter-registration drive at the beginning of October. With the deadline to register for the upcoming election as early as October 5 in some states, time was of the essence.

As we all know, democracy only works if we all exercise our right to vote. HeadCount approached us with the idea of allowing FanMail’s clients to send a free mailer to their subscribers encouraging them to register and vote. This proved amazingly successful. Over the course of just a couple of days, FanMail and it’s clients sent almost a half of a million registration reminders and successfully registered thousands of previously unregistered voters. Thank you to all of our amazing clients, such as Another Planet Entertainment, Outside Lands Festival, Gathering of the Vibes, SCI Fidelity Records, and Umphrey’s McGee, who participated in this event, and if you haven’t done so, please register to vote. The deadline has not passed in many states yet, but time is running out. Please go to www.headcount.org to register and see a list of each state’s requirements and deadlines.