Hello, sunshine. I hope today's smiling right back atcha because we're going to be talking about building your audience. And I want you to have all your inspiration ready to go. But first, as a quick recap, in our last video, we discussed that you should call your fans by their name and address them individually in your email. Showing your fans how much you value their time by segmenting them in your database, so they only receive relevant emails to them. Not all of your fans are the same and they should not be treated as such.

And encouraging your fans to write back to you. Let's begin by talking about opt in freebies. Now, an opt in freebie for those of you who are unfamiliar, is the free thing you get when you give someone your email address. It's basically a tricked. People are very hesitant to give their emails these days because of Everything they get in their already cluttered inbox. So you need to prove that you're worth it right out of the gate.

Now, a couple freebies that have gone out of style that were popular couple years ago, but are really not working at this point, our basic song downloads, if this song is already available, you know, and fans can get it on Spotify, or Apple Music for free. Why are they going to bother and give you their email address to get a download, they've already chosen streaming they've already chosen not having heavy files, weighing down their storage space on their devices. They want to keep that for pictures of them and their friends. stuff they can get anywhere. Same idea as with the basic song download, if it's something that's not special and they can get anywhere, whether it be things you always show on social media. It's not that special, and stuff that disappoints as well.

So don't go promising a huge wonderful thing, and then deliver a shell of it that sets up your relationship with your fans who have just taken the step up to getting emails from you welcoming you into their inbox as one where you're gonna disappoint them. And also out of style is the nothing at all. So a lot of musicians I see who set up basic websites at the beginning, and they have their first mailing list up usually comes with the website, providers provider, you know, fans just enter their email, they don't even get the chance to give their name. You don't know where this email is going. You don't know what it'll be used for. You don't know anything about it.

So those have very low chances of getting fans in trusted, let alone excited. You want your fans to be excited to be closer to you. So here's some ideas of things that are all the rage and get fans excited. Anything exclusive and personal. So what are these beat? unreleased tracks, so they can't just get them on their favorite streaming service, behind the scenes stuff that provides value stuff that just fits into who you authentically are.

So, behind the scenes packages I've seen are going really well access to a fan club, an exclusive Facebook group, all these kind of things. Figure out what works for you get creative because who you are individually as an artist might lend itself to some even better things than just what I'm listing here the vague ideas, go for it. Next let's talk about opt in forms. pop ups are the worst Am I right? I think I'm right. You know the kind you go and read a news story and then you get like accosted from Three different angles with pop ups for ads.

That's the same kind of feeling that fans get if they go to your website for the first time. And there's a big flashy pop up that blocks the screen. It's ugly, it makes them want to run for the hills, or rather slide their fingers across to the close tab button as soon as they can. Don't have pop up. This is my opinion. I'm sure there's lots of people who brag about the high conversion rate they have but it's if you only have that as a way to be able to get through to the rest of the content in central gatekeeping I'm sure it works.

But remember you want to make feel fans feel special and you want to build a real connection with them. And you being a bully or having that impression on the first time they come to your website is not a good one. We use pages on the other hand, are awesome. So what a squeeze pages It is a page on your website that is explicitly dedicated to getting them to sign up. So like that you can link the form you have directly to fans, which comes in handy whether you want to use that as an Instagram bio, or tweeted out, just being able to click that link go directly to the signup box. The next thing you want to keep in mind when it comes to the opt in form is you want to have as you want to make it as painless as possible.

So for them to have as few forms as makes sense. So I used to for example, I used to have asked fans to fill out first name, last name, their email address their birthday, what they do in the industry. It was a lot. Since then, I've narrowed down to name, birthday and email. You know, super Simple and even then I don't always get people telling me their birthday because they don't understand the birthday card stunt I do. So that's why I asked them for their birthdays later on and from time to time within the regular emails to make sure that they get the idea of what I do with that information.

Next, you want to make sure you have a single opt in. So as soon as they type in their name, email address, and go, they don't have to go to their inbox and click something else to confirm. Because that just complicates the whole shebang. They want to get their freebie you want to get them on your list. And last thing I want to say about opt in forms is have an exciting button to click. And I don't mean that in like the Flash Player kind of sense.

I mean that don't have it say subscribe to list. I'm not someone who wants to be subscribed to a list. I want to join the community. Get that free thing. Just change the wording on that button. So it's something more authentic to you.

Less salesy less corporate sounding more along the lines of what your fans would get excited for, so that they hit the button and get really excited and brush to their email inbox. Now, we talked about opt in sequences. So you're welcome email. So once they subscribe to the list, they will get a welcome email from you. That is the single most read email you will ever send. Make it count, because fans are willing to open that one up because it's going to have the thing that you wanted.

So the exclusive links on the freebies, that stuff. So make a count because they're gonna always check that one, they might not always be able to look at what you send for personal reasons for lack of interest. Remember those dismal open rates. So this is your chance because you're going to have nearly perfect opening rates on this one email. So in Introduce yourself, ask them about themselves to build up your data on them. surprise them with extra free stuff.

You don't have to send this all in one email either you can set up via your email provider to have different triggers so that you get several emails that go out over several days. So, you know, once a day, for the next three days, you're going to have that be your welcome sequence. So the first one is the free thing and you introducing yourself. The second email could be ask them about themselves. And the third one would could be surprising them with extra free stuff so that their impression of you from your email is you're someone who showers them with love. If you are considering putting it in a paid offer, do it at the end.

So if stuck on this long, because that goes out, you can make it and exclusive new fans Only kind of discount or rate just as a thank you. And as long as you aren't salesy right from the get go, it should be good. So to summarize what we talked about today, your OPT in gift needs to be something exclusive that shows fans how much you appreciate them for giving you their email address. Your opt in form should be tasteful and simple, all while not coming across as corporate and dull. And your welcome email and its sequence is the single most read emails you will ever send. Make them count.

Your action items this week are to brainstorm and build some opt in freebies. To think about what is the most important information you need to know about your fans in order to be a better artists for them and plan out how you will welcome your fans on your list and shower them with love.