One of the things that makes your email communication with your fans more effective is to know a little bit about them. This begs the question, do you know how to spot your fans in a crowd?
We’re going to assume that your fans like your music, but hopefully that’s not all you talk to your fans about in your emails. That’s fairly one dimensional. In other words, it’s not very interesting.
It’s good to know about some other things your fans might be interested in. A good exercise to do is draw up a profile of your typical fan. Obviously your fans will have a very diverse persona, but there’s probably a few things that many of them share in common.
Let’s say, for example, that you’re a gospel R&B artist who sounds a bit like Israel and New Breed. What are some observations we could make about the type of fans, or experiences they are looking for?
- Probably a religious group of folks
- They could be either male or female – 50/50
- They could be just about any age, but probably a younger or middle-aged crowd.
- The atmosphere and times of the shows are probably not going to be late nights in dive bars, but maybe more like Sundays in churches.
- The geographic appeal – where is your music most likely to be the hottest? Alaska, or Atlanta?
- You may be able to make some assumptions about their social or ethnic demographic. Think of the roots of the music and who that might appeal to.
You get the idea. Once you’ve drawn up a pretty clear picture of what describes your typical fan – and equally important what they are not, you can start to get an idea of some other things they may or may not be interested in.
For example, if your fans are religious, they may also be interested in hunger relief efforts in third-world nations. They’re probably not going to be interested in fund raisers sponsored by Hooters Restaurants. You may want to stay away from gender-specific issues and senior citizen discounts at Walgreens, but you may want to talk about the importance of culture and society.
How does knowing the profile, persona or avatar of the person on your email list help you fill shows and sell more songs? Communicating with your fans about topics that are important to them…besides your music, makes you more engaging, more relatable, more real. People resonate with you on deeper levels.
When your fans are congruent with you on many levels, they are more likely to support your musical efforts as well.
Bring them along for the ride!