Hello, sunshine. I hope you and your fan base are doing well today, because in this video, we're going to be talking about getting to know your audience. But first, as a quick recap, here's what we discussed in our last video that you want to keep the emails you send your fans tight and focused. Not all your emails that you send should be sales pitches, don't ever be the inbox match. And it's important to be consistent with the conversation frequency, but how often you actually send the emails is between your fan base and you because you know them better than anyone else. In today's lesson, we will be discussing subject lines, audience segmentation, and how to use Reports and Analytics to your advantage.

So, let's begin with subject lines. You can have the most valuable content inside but if no one opens it, it's all for not when I find works for me and is actually backed up with numbers is putting your fans first name in the email subject line. Now, if you have many names on your list, it does not make logical OR logistical sense to put their names in individually. But since you're using an email service provider, the legal way to do things as we'll discuss in the how to keep things legal video coming up, this meta tag, which I like to call a shapeshifter is where we'll let you put anywhere in the email subject line or the body. The fans first name if they entered their first name, or if they entered their first name when they signed up for your email list. This is what the shapeshifter will transform to take the shape of individual for every artist and be left blank.

If they'd never give a name, line I like To tell them what the highlight of the email is all while giving them a reason to open it for the details. Another technique I discovered along the way with how to make fans feel special via emails is this is a small one, but it's addressing the email to the as in just the no plural greeting towards a group. Know Hey guys, hey fan base, it just write it as if they are the only one reading it. Not only does this make them feel closer to you, but that switch in mindset helps you be more comfortable and conversational in your words, and not feel awkwardly thrust into salesperson mode. Next, let's talk about audience segmentation. Audience segmentation is a fancy way for saying not all of my fans are the same.

Let me write down the relevant details about them so as to show that I value their time and attention span. Essentially, as you learn things about your fans via surveys shows the attender forms they fill out, you want to tag them with that information in your email list database, meaning you now have the ability to send emails just to that particular group. Here are some ideas for things you should find out about your subscribers and why they would be useful geographical location, if you are a touring act, this comes in handy. If you are playing a show in New York, don't invite a fan who lives in Hong Kong for example. Not only will that makes them excited for nothing when they open it up and see the details of where you're actually playing, but it makes them feel less special. And over time, that kind of feeling of none of the emails the artist sends are relevant to me boils up and they finally stop opening them or unsubscribe and you lose the loyalty of your fan and you lose their attention.

Even when you have have something to say such as you're coming to Hong Kong, or another event, such as a crowdfunding campaign which can be reached from all over the world. Next age, if you are an act who has a younger or teenage fan base, are they old enough to get into bars and clubs. For example, if a lot of the venues you play are ones that require the attendees to be above the legal drinking age where you're from, you might want to have a segment of your email list just to tag the people who are under 21 or under 19 under 18, or whatever the legal drinking age is in your area like that. You can invite the younger people to the all ages shows but not invite them to the ones that are only legal age plus, and then they feel special. They feel more excited and less disappointed to open those emails.

On. So that's what the younger end of the spectrum on the older end of the spectrum. If you are an artist who plays quiet older communities, senior residences, family events by day, you might not want to invite the same people to the dirty dive bars at night. Another segmentation idea is birthdays. They can be used for inviting people but also for wishing your fans a happy birthday, whether it be singing happy birthday to them individually in a social media story, or sending them something. I go all out and send handwritten birthday cards in the mail to the people on my email list.

Here's a picture in the slides. And another idea for a segmentation of your list is have they spent money on you? There's a difference between a fan who likes your Instagram selfies, and one who lays down cold hard cash to go Do you play live or buy your merch? If you can know who your VIPs are and treat them accordingly, they will feel even more special. So whether it be creating a virtual fan club for them, giving them first access to new merch getting to vote on March, because they're likely to be the ones who buy it, or inviting them to your crowdfunding campaign first as the people most likely to donate as they have in the past. Lastly, in this section, I want to talk about how to use Reports and Analytics to your advantage.

The average open rates for artists according to MailChimp, is 26%. And the average click rate is 2.66. That's pretty dismal. Looking at it there, but it's still much higher than social media or have you know, and on top of that, these are the averages so this counts everyone who marks themselves as artists, musicians. Including the people who don't make their fans feel special. My email list is small compared to artists who have thousands or businesses that have thousands and thousands and thousands of people on their email list.

But I very easily have double both these rates, which is amazing in the world of email. I think you can do the same if not better, just by making your fans feel special. One last note, remember that quality is far more important than quantity. Don't be afraid to prune your list. That means kick people off to have a smaller number of subscribers but a higher open and click rate as the inbox algorithm likes that. It's better to have a small number of people who are all very actively engaged and subscribed and they like your stuff.

Because then inbox algorithms such as Gmail go, Oh, this person provides value we're not going to accidentally Put them in the spam filter. Your numbers will also go up with well done segmentation. If fans consistently get relevant and valuable stuff sent to them, they never have a reason not to care about you and tell their fans about you. And that's how fan bases grow. Also, encourage your fans to write back to you and reply to them right away. Just because you're using an email service provider doesn't mean their replies don't show up in your actual inbox.

So, to summarize what we talked about today, you want to call your fans by their name and address them individually. You can show your fans how much you value their time and attention by segmenting them in your database so that they only receive relevant emails. And you should encourage your fans to write back to you by asking them questions and engaging in conversations. And your action item this week is to think of what Things are important for you to know about your fans for you to segment. So they could be the things I listed up above such as geographical location, age birthdays, have they spent money on you, but it's possible that there are others or once that don't apply. Think about that.

And I will see you on the next video. Stay colorful