photo by fiveinchpixieWhat happens after the show?
What if you don't come back for 6 months, a year, 2 years? What if they were too trashed to remember your band name? No matter the case, you still want this fan to interact with you, check for new tracks, promote your music to their friends and become a lifer. How do you accomplish this?
The List
The first step is to get their email address as fast as possible. This ensures that you can get in touch with your fans when you have something important to say. I know its hard in a bar or venue to bring out your laptop, but its also worthless to get a sheet of paper full of emails you can't read.
Two services that help with emails on the road are FanBridge and Reverbnation. FanBridge allows you to upload an Excel file right into your account. If you can get online, Reverbnation has a great tool as well to collect fans and street team members.
For bands with a larger following, and the need to put out quality newsletters or have multiple groups to send out messages to, a great service is Aweber. It's also the service that I am using for my newsletter, so yes I am a little biased. They haven't let me down yet. With customized forms, autoresponses and open rates, they offer a rock star email service.
Once you get the emails, be sure to send something out. The day after the show, a simple thank you and introduction will do. Be sure to link to your site/blog/Myspace page and give info on upcoming shows/promotions in that area. After that, a once a month newsletter is plenty to remind your fans that you are still grinding it out, recording in the studio or living the lavish life.
Fun Promotions
Beyond the all important mailing list, there are endless ways to get your fans excited about you and your music and get them to continue the buzz of the night. Below are a few examples that we have used with our artists and some that I have heard through the ropes of merch booths and van tours.
Picture Time
Take a picture with YOUR camera of any fan who buys a merch item. Tell them to go to your site sometime tomorrow and you will have a link to a Flickr slideshow with all the fans who supported you the night before. This works well because everyone wants to see pictures of themselves and they love to share that with their friends. By tagging your photos in Flickr with strong keywords, people searching the site for venues, people and more can stumble across your photos as well. Plus it gets you familiar with the people for your next visit into town.
DropCards
DropCards are little Credit Card Looking pieces of plastic that work much like a gift card, excpet it for your music. Instead of or in addition to buying a physicla CD, fans can buy your drop card, go home, enter the website and password found on the back and can download up to 1Gig of material that you have put online in your DropCard folder. This can include music, videos, pictures, lyric files and more! It's up to you!
These cards will run you about $350 for 1,000. Cheaper than CD's and they take up less room in the van. The key to the DropCard campaign is to host your material on your own site and not with DropCards.com, this will ensure that your new fan gets to your site and has every opportunity to join your mailing list, subscribe to your blog, buy merch, or read up on our dates.
Live Tweets
photo by laihiuThe trick is remembering to follow up with anyone that @'s you, follow them and stay in touch. The live interaction will get the crowd going as everyone wants to be on stage. This is their opportunity. As Twitter continues to grow, this will become a great tactic for bands of any size.
If you have a geeky friend, there is a trick you can do with Hashtags and refresh that make it even easier, but it requires some setup and coding.
The next time you are talking to a new fan at a show, remember that the conversation does not stop that night. Find a way to keep it going. It will be worth it and you will be well on your way to becoming a Gen-Y Rock Star!
-Greg Rollett
