Lots of bands and musicians do a great job of getting email addresses at a show, on tour, or even trading a free Mp3 for an email address.

But they let the list go cold by sending them just two emails a year.

One promoting your new album or tour and then another during Black Friday because you’re hoping to sell some merch.

A big problem musicians have when emailing their list is that they say “Oh, I don’t want to spam you or annoy you.”

But you have to remember a few things…

If someone gave you their email address, they are essentially giving you permission to contact you again because they want to hear from you. So you shouldn’t feel like you’re bothering them when you email them.

The second thing is that if you only send emails to your list to promote things, you’re basically like that friend we all have who never keeps in touch and only sends a message when they want something.

And that’s exactly what you’re doing when you come out of nowhere and try to sell your album by email.

This person could have been drunk at your show and doesn’t even remember how they got on your list in the first place!

So what you need to do is send weekly emails to people.

Take advantage of the fact that you are a musician in a band and you are living a life that most people will never experience.

They don’t know how to write songs, or what it’s like to tour or play a show in front of people. They really have no idea.

So what you can do is instead of just sending them promotional emails every week. You can send an email saying “hey we’re working on a new song, here’s a video of our rehearsal space”.

Or check out this crazy story from a show we played this month. You could even start a conversation with them and ask them about their favorite band. Try and connect with them!

It doesn’t have to be long, maybe 200-400 words, or you could even link to a video if you don’t like to write. But keep that connection with your fans so they expect to see your name in their inbox. It keeps them “warm”.

So when you want to promote an album or sell merch, they’ll be much more likely to open your email and buy from you because they like you.

Growing your fan base is all about building and maintaining relationships. When you have an email list, you can do it very easily with only about 20 minutes per week.

So if you haven’t emailed your list in the past few months, go ahead and send them some love today.

If you want to set up a way to build your fan base and sell your music with a predictable online system instead of spending years on tour.