FanMail Marketing | Blog » Band Marketing Tools

QR Code Best Practices

JGirdler — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:49:59 +0000

The QR Code, or “quick response” code, has been around for quite sometime but hasn’t yet flourished to its complete potential. As we move more and more towards digital and mobile experiences, the QR code is seeing some new life. Currently no other tool provides the same benefits and if you’re creative in your QR application than it will for sure be a valuable addition to your marketing campaign. It’s possibilities are far reaching, as long as you pay attention to some simple “Do’s and Don’ts”.

DO make sure you’re landing site is mobile optimized. Forgetting this most important step can cost you, the whole point of QR’s are to enable quick access and sharing of your digital content on a mobile device.

DON’T be the guy that forgets the aforementioned note.

DO create value in what your QR offers. Having a QR code directed to a website or landing page is common and useful, but not what your fan is always looking for. Making the content access something fun and value added gives your fans incentives to check it out, share it, and lets you as a marketer engage them better.

DO be relevant and create a call to action. Along the same lines as creating value, make sure there is a point to your QR and let your fan base know what that is.

DON’T make your QR too small or else the photo capture applications might not be able to pickup on the embedded code. 1”x1” is pretty standard.

On the same hand, DON’T make it too complex either. Links with long URL’s will create a more complicated code and can be harder for readers to decipher. If you do have a long URL use a URL Shortener site like Bit.ly or Goo.gl so that your code stays simple and accessible.

DO be creative in your QR code design. Many sites and mobile apps let you add custom flare to your QR design to where you can brand it with your logo or create a completely unique design to reflect your campaign or company. For some creative ideas checkout Custom QR Codes site which has some neat images and ideas. Also checkout this interactive campaign by Zoo Records in Hong Kong which has implemented some pretty advanced and guerrilla marketing style QR’s that have generated a lot of buzz.

Check the difference out between a basic and creative QR code design:

While being creative with your QR can be cool, DON’T forget that too complicated is bad as well. Over design, too many colors, and too light of colors can all make for a hard to read QR.

DON’T link to Flash enabled pages, most mobile devices cannot access this. So while you might have some cool content, it won’t matter if people can’t see it.

DO test you QR code and DO it on multiple devices. A code directed to a broken link is one of the worst-case scenarios and a code that is difficult to read by some devices is just as bad.

And last but not least, DON’T wait to implement a QR campaign after everyone else has caught on, and DO look out for my follow-up blog on uses of QR codes in the music industry. If you have any questions or looking for ideas on how you can implement your own QR, feel free to leave a comment or reach-out to me at: Jeremy@fanmailmarketing.com.

Foo Fighters Creatively Engage Fans Like Never Before

Lauren — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 03:53:18 +0000

Our clients, Foo Fighters are great musicians and great interactive marketers! Recently they teamed up with Blackberry and local radio stations to host a contest where the winners will have songs from Wasting Light (Out April 12), the new album they recorded in Dave Grohl‘s garage, in the garages of eight lucky fans in eight North American cities

April 8 New York (RXP 101.9)
April 13 Washington DC (DC 101)
April 14 Toronto (102.1 The Edge)
April 19 Chicago (Q101)
April 20 Minneapolis (93X Rocks)
April 25 Denver (Channel 93.3)
April 26 Dallas (102.1FM The Edge)
April 27 Seattle (107.7 The End)

Fans explained in 25 words or less, why they (and 50 of their friends) deserved to win and sent in a picture of their garage. The campaign combined qr codes, blackberry messaging and twitter. They did a great job at targeting their audience and speaking to them on the channels they prefer with different and compelling content. What a great way to engage your fanbase!

Check out the sexy new video for the single “Rope” off the new album.

Live Capture – Grow Your List Anywhere, Anytime With SMS

Murray Stall — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:01:17 +0000

Mobile marketing is a hot topic in the interactive marketing world. With mobile phones in the hands of well over 90% of Americans, SMS is the universal text language of the cell phone… no matter how smart or dumb your phone is.

In the world of music, there is probably never a more engaging experience than the live show. It’s time to fully leverage the deep connection that exists during a live event.

With FanMail’s Live Capture Program, you can collect email addresses for your subscriber list via SMS/text message. And it’s easy. You choose a keyword that will activate the message. It could be a band, label or event name, like Lollapalooza. There’s a quick setup process that FanMail will assist with. Then BAM! Get the word out and start collecting emails.

Live Capture can be a great alternative, or a great compliment, to a smartphone app, when thinking in terms of a mobile strategy. It’s also a convenient way to collect emails without the standard clipboard and paper. We can even set the program up in conjunction with FanMail’s Sound Cloud Integration to deliver media as incentive for fans to sign up.

Check out this video to see how it works!

Try it yourself: Text Fanmail to 88769. If you are looking for help with establishing an effective mobile marketing strategy, including Live Capture, drop us a line.

Them Crooked Vultures Wow With Email Focused Marketing Strategy

Lauren — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:45:37 +0000

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.

Their fan base has mostly been fueled by hype: The band was first announced on a fourteen second, vague youtube.com advertisement which played a clip of one of their songs and ended in a direct call to action: a link to their website. The video left intrigued fans wanting to find out more, like who the hell is in that band!? Once at the site, you are asked to “Consort” with them by entering your email. The simple, yet innovative webpage only offers four other links: store, forum, tour and x (their location on Google maps). The only way to uncover clues about Them Crooked Vultures is to sign up for their email list. This marketing strategy grew their subscriber list vastly.

What they do really well is their integration of Social Media Networks and their webpage/email subscriber lists. Unlike some companies and bands who use social media sites as their main information supplier and major touch point with fans, they use social media to hype their band, but also provide a call to action/link back to their website to grow their subscriber list, which is their main form of information sharing.

Their emails are really neat too! They have the same crooked feel as their website. They are darkly designed and provide their tour dates with passcodes to buy tickets early and links to their social networks.

For more about Them Crooked Vultures, consort with them and join their email list for really neat emails and updates.

New Service – Live Capture (How To Grow Your List Fast)

david — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:10:37 +0000

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!