SONG CONTEST BLOG

Whether you’re tricking out your MySpace page or performing at your local venue, you should always consider the things you can do to collect more email addresses.

Believe me, there is nothing more important than your email list…

…Except what you do with it!

Using an online newsletter service allows you to create gorgeous newsletter designs yourself, turn new fans into subscribers, track how many of your readers are actually reading your message, and schedule promotional campaigns.

It’s powerful marketing on autopilot, simpler than you thought possible and more potent than you probably realize.

Of all the newsletter services I’ve used, Mad Mimi is the friendliest.

But for good measure, here is a list of some other newsletter tools, some that I’ve tried and some that I haven’t:

Campaigner
ConstantContact
Emma
FanBridge
FanReach
Graphicmail
iContact
LetterPop
MailChimp
MyNewsletterBuilder
Newsberry

Yep Roc Records, home to Paul Weller, Madness, Apples in Stereo, among many others, has adopted ReverbNation’s robust newsletter client, FanReach Pro, as part of a new and forward-thinking promotional strategy.

“FanReach Pro is simply the best email service available in the marketplace for Labels and Artists,” said Hank Stockard, Director of Online Promotion and Marketing for Yep Roc.  “It’s the only solution out there that can integrate content with a single click, carry out a variety of very specific marketing objectives, and track the most important metrics about email marketing.  Its also baked right into our label dashboard alongside the other critical ReverbNation marketing tools, giving us a central place to manage online promotion for the roster.”

“Yep Roc is one of the most credible labels in the industry and we are ecstatic to have them using our solutions,” said Jed Carlson, co-founder and chief operating officer of ReverbNation.com.  “Fanreach Pro was designed to make it easy for labels or artists to drive sales of new releases, recruit new fans, grow and execute a street team, promote upcoming shows, distribute widgets and banners, and much more.”

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ReverbNation, the prominent music marketing and promotion resource for over 375,000 artists, labels, managers, and venues, has launched FanReach Pro, a premium version of its successful FanReach email service used by more than 80,000 of its members to manage and communicate with their fanbase.  FanReach Pro boasts a number of distinct upgrades, including ‘One-Click Content’ which pulls the artist’s profile content (i.e. music, videos, gigs, press, links etc.) into any outbound message in a single click, saving much time and effort in the swift deployment of newsletters and promotional emails.  In addition, FanReach Pro includes ‘Fan360’, a semantic search feature that feeds back public data from the web about the individual mailing list subscribers.  This is especially useful when it comes to composing a compelling and targeted message, and provides a means to segment the mailing list based on subscriber characteristics (e.g. location, gender, age, and online presence).  To my knowledge, ‘Fan360′ will be the first real-time subscriber metrics feature incorprated into a web-based email client, perhaps making FanReach Pro the most powerful email/newsletter marketing tool on the market.
 
FanReach Pro is available for a 30-day free trial, and starting from $9.95 per month, which is significantly cheaper than its rivals and, in terms of its feature set, presents some serious competition for FanBridge.

Further to the Email & Newsletter Marketing Services post, I wanted to add another player in the game: FanBridge.  The service advertises an email and mobile fan list management bundle, something the competition I mentioned earlier does not.  It’s also exclusively tailored for musicians which is a plus.  Their free account is enticing with a 400 messages a month limit and the paid plans are certainly cheaper than their rivals’ at $12 for 10,000 messages a month, with a significant discount to larger plan commitments.  One of FanBridge’s unique selling points is the free branded browser toolbar which allows artists to syndicate their news and content to their fanbase, drive traffic, and communicate directly without the need for an email or mobile client.  Conduit is a pioneer of this technology if you’d like to learn more.

Learn more about email marketing.

We Are Listening’s first web-based newsletter client was Constant Contact, a fiddly system with customer support reps reminiscent of US immigration officers.  Geared toward corporate email marketing and communication, the company boasts a huge client-base and offers a 60 day free trial with restrictions.  After one year, we moved to Emma which I loved!  Their user interface is gorgeous and they clearly invested into attractive newsletter templates and superb design features, albeit the most expensive web-based newsletter service I stumbled upon.  Customer support was also fabulous.  In fact, I remember sending a newsletter out about an up-coming trip to Nashville and one of Emma’s reps picked up on it and invited me to visit their offices in town.  Nice, huh?  With Emma, you have to pay set-up fees rather than enjoy trial runs but, if you can afford it, the service ? and its savvy team ? will consistently add value to your marketing efforts (from my experience).  Mad Mimi is my most recent discovery.  If we had not developed our own newsletter system last year, that’s where I would invest my newsletter marketing dollar today.  From the outset, the service is uber cool and does away with unnecessary features.  It’s easy to use and looks fantastic.  One of the founders, a charming South African bassist by the name of Gary Levitt, attended Berklee College of Music with me.  In a recent conversation, he seemed pumped about Mad Mimi’s commitment to a “sensible”, no-bull web service that’s both design conscious and user friendly.  Mad Mimi is cheaper than Emma and offers a “100 contact free trial”.  I recommend signing-up and playing with it.  iContact is another consideration and seems to be making a splash at the moment.  Offering a 15 day trial limited to 250 subscribers, the service is not as attractive as Emma or Mad Mimi in terms of design but appears to be easy to use and boasts excellent email delivery rates and server reputation.  Apparently, 9% of the company’s client-base is in the music field.  MailChimp, which I haven’t tried but I know is popular, positioned itself as a flexible service, advertising its Free Starter Plan as “perfect for bands, little league teams and groups with tiny lists”.  I’m not sure what the differentiation is but I like the UI.  I shall investigate further…