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Newsletters
are a great way to keep your name in front of your public.
It keeps them up to date on what you are doing, where you
will be performing and any exciting band news. Newsletters
can be of two types: electronic or print.
Electronic Newsletters
If you are familiar with
the Internet, Web and e-mail, you might want to create an
electronic newsletter. This is a way to get your news out
there on a tight budget. With the e-mail, postage is free.
It also saves on printer paper and ink or the cost of
taking it to a printer. With an electronic newsletter, you
can freely use pictures and links to other sites and
articles of interest on the Web.
You can create an
electronic newsletter using a word processor that allows
you to export to HTML or Web page editor. If you aren’t
comfortable with these software packages, just write your
newsletter as a friendly e-mail and attach photographs if
you want to include them. Remember whether you are
creating a Web page to be sent or attaching photographs to
e-mail, you want to keep the graphic files small in size.
No one wants to open their e-mail and have huge files to
download. Another thing you can do is to place the
newsletter Web page on your Web site or in any space you
have on other sites such as MP3 and just e-mail a link to
the newsletter rather than sending the full page. If
it’s on your Web site and you have access to statistics,
you can then see how many times that web page is viewed.
Print Newsletters
You can also create print
newsletters for regular postal mail. If you feel
comfortable with word processors, you can create a very
professional looking newsletter and either print it
yourself or take it to the printers. Keep in mind that
color copying will be more expensive. You can choose to
spend the extra money or use graphics and photographs that
look great in black and white. As I mentioned in my
previous article on keeping in touch with your fans, you
should have your mailing list up-to-date so that you can
quickly compile a list of names and addresses of your fans
and contacts.
Writing Your Newsletter
The purpose of a newsletter
is to make people aware of who you are and what you are
doing. In your newsletter always include important news
such as the dates and places where you are playing, new CD
and song release information, record deals, and recent
reviews. In addition to these news items you might include
photographs of the band and fans from recent shows. This
is always a winner with fans. Other items to consider for
your newsletter:
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Funny stories from the
road (particularly travel horror stories)
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Stories about people
you’ve met
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Fan letters or any fan
e-mail you’ve received
-
New releases of MP3
files for download
-
New places that you are
listed or reviewed on the Web
-
Web sites or print
articles that might be of interest to your fans
- Exciting CD or ticket
sale information such as international sales or
distribution contracts
- Radio stations where
your music can be heard
- Contests or competitions
you’ve entered or won
- Status of your new CD
- Trade shows or
conferences you are attending
If you are using an
electronic newsletter, you might want to include hypertext
links to your MP3 files, your web site or band web page,
articles and sites of reviewers, online retailers of your
music, etc.
In either type of
newsletter always include information on how
and where to purchase your music. If you are running your
own mail-order operation include a mail order form or a
link to where and how fans can order your music on the
Web. Try to include some sales tag line to remind people
to buy your music such as "The Holidays are coming -
a CD makes a great gift." Also, don’t forget to
include your band contact information including the
booking contact.
Your newsletter should be
fun for people to keep reading so think about things like
contests for song titles, CD titles, band mascots,
captions for photographs, etc. It will keep your fans
involved and let you know who’s reading your newsletter.
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