INDIE INSIDER
The Overlooked Importance
of Email Marketing for Musicians & Music Companies
By Manus Hopkins
For the educational component of NAMM ’ s 2021 Believe in Music Week virtual event , Ayana Webb , owner of The Musical Webb and The Digital Webb recorded a seminar called “ Email Marketing Tips to Increase Sales by 3x .” Webb decided to deliver a presentation on this topic because she says that even with all the different social networks musicians and providers of musical services rely on today , “ email marketing is still the most powerful way of generating sales .”
In the video presentation , Webb touched on the algorithms that dictate who sees what on social media , noting that while an artist or company may have thousands of followers on social platforms , it is far fewer of them who actually see and respond to each post , whereas with an email list , nearly everyone who receives updates will open them , bringing a higher engagement rate .
“ If you have an email list with the same number of people [ as social media followers ], if you send out one email , everyone single person gets it ,” she tells Canadian Musician . “ So , you have a much bigger reach , you have a higher response rate , you have more sales , and you get more people to access your content if you leverage email marketing .”
With email appearing dated and ineffective compared to more modern social platforms , the potential for success when it comes to email marketing is often overlooked and underappreciated , according to Webb . Many people don ’ t consider how valuable a tool it can be , in part because getting emails all day can be a nuisance . This is why it is important to put quality over quantity when it comes to amassing a following , and make sure all the people on an artist ’ s or industry figure ’ s email list are people who are genuinely interested and want to see new content .
“ If you think about it , we may get a lot of emails that we don ’ t want , but then there are places we subscribe to that we do want to hear from ,” she says .
Music industry companies can greatly benefit from effectively taking advantage of email marketing and using it to its full potential . By using email marketing , companies in particular can boost sales by making sure none of their consumers miss the unveiling of new products or content or other important announcements , the way they might not catch certain social media posts that don ’ t make it to the tops of their feeds .
Music marketing was not always Webb ’ s field , and her parlay into fusing the world of marketing with music is a story that shapes much of what she does . She was brought up musically , but when it came time to choose a field of study and career path , she originally chose accounting so she could guarantee that she would always be able to support herself financially , something she didn ’ t feel confident she could do if she pursued music .
“ I always wanted to do music but I kept running away from it because of people telling me that there ’ s no money in music ,” she says . “ I kind of had that idea in my mind .”
In her first year of college , Webb started an accounting internship and got a taste of what the rest of her life would look like
10 CANADIAN MUSICIAN