Mailing lists offer many advantages over social media when it comes to contacting fans. I’ve therefore been thinking of ways to get social media followers to sign up to a mailing list.
The best possible position for us is to have the option of contacting fans through either social media or a mailing list. So let’s look at ways we can encourage our social media followers to sign up to our mailing list.
Create an incentive
Like any worthwhile endeavour, getting people onto your very own mailing list requires some work. Simply posting a link on Twitter that takes people to a page to sign up to your mailing list will probably not be very successful.
People will need an incentive. Think of sites you shop on. How many give you a message along the lines of “Sign up to our newsletter and get 10% off your first order”. No company wants to give you 10% off but they understand the power of dangling the carrot.
Followers probably aren’t going to bother about your mailing list unless there’s a good reason to do so. Use the power of incentives to help get people signed up to your mailing list.
People love winning freebies so much they'll boast about it for days, spreading the word. Offering to put followers in a draw for free tickets to the next gig in their area is one example of an incentive that will encourage sign ups.
Don’t be over generous though. You want people on your mailing list that actually want to be there rather than people who just sign up for the incentive and then leave.
What can I offer as an incentive
Prize draws for free or discounted tickets, money, free merchandise, a private gig, money off your next album.
If you have devoted fans that’d love to meet you, why not offer backstage passes. How about merchandise such as t-shirts, badges, drum sticks or plectrums.
Think about teaming up with influencers closely related to your music and offering discounted deals on the products they push.
Marketing your mailing list as the primary and first place fans get updated information will be useful in adding value to the mailing list in the eyes of followers. Just make sure you always use your mailing list first when promoting a show for example.
Show people what they’re missing out on
Posting on social media about the great things happening in your mailing list will get people’s attention.
Remember a well crafted and maintained mailing list will trump social media so make sure those on the mailing list get the best offers and promotions. Then make sure everyone on social media is made aware of this, in a subtle way.
Forceful posts such as “Sign up here or else you will miss the next opportunity” will probably not work so well. If I read that I'd purposely not sign up but maybe that's just me! Make people aware of what’s going on and give them a gentle nudge in the direction of your mailing list.
It may also be worth thinking about ways to encourage current mailing list subscribers to post about the email content they receive on social media.
Make it easy
The least amount of thinking and navigating a user has to do the better. Make sure any links go straight to the "Sign up to our Mailing List" page on your site where the user can enter a few details and submit them.
Use a clear call to action (CTA) where possible to clearly define what you want the user to do.
Post about your mailing list
Taking the above points on board, create a post to advertise your mailing list and pin it for a period of time.
Don’t constantly bombard your social followers with these posts. A balanced approach incorporating other topics will work best.
When you do advertise your mailing list, make sure the post is different from the previous time you advertised it.
Use images
Text only social media posts are not going to get much attention these days. Make use of images or even a video. If you can use a call to action as well, you're really rocking.
Use a link in the bio
Social networking sites allow you to add your email address which gets added to your bio usually. Instead of linking to the home page of the site, link through to a mailing list sign up page.
If you can, add some text along the lines of “We’d love to see you in our mailing list” or using an incentive such as “Enter our prize draw by signing up to our mailing list”.
In Facebook you can add a “Sign Up” button to your page which you can link straight through to your website mailing list sign up page.
Image showing the Sign Up button (highlighted in red) that can be added to your Facebook page
Be patient
Don’t expect to get all your social media followers onto your mailing list in a week or two!
The reality is some people will probably never sign up to it but using the methods outlined in this article you should be able to get people signing up at a steady rate. Play the long game here. Things like this don’t happen overnight.
Conclusion
Mailing lists outperform social media but getting people onto your mailing list will take some time and effort.
You will need to give people an incentive to sign up to your mailing list. Along with incentives, show people what they’re missing out on if they’re not signed up.
Write clear posts advertising your mailing list from time to time and make sure the actual process of signing up is dead easy for the user.
Your thoughts
If you’ve had experience getting followers over to a mailing list, let us know your experiences.