Stop Spamming Your Fans!
We write a lot of articles about how you should be promoting your music, where you should focus your efforts and what you should do. What we never seem to do is talk about what you shouldn’t be doing. Now, enough is enough. We want to see artists succeed and move forward with their careers and the only way to do that is to help them grow. That’s why we want to talk to you about bad practices like spamming your fans.
There are so many musicians out in the world with their eyes on the prize. They all want to be heard and they all want success. What sets you apart is your music, your work and you.
The internet has bought us many convenient ways to share our music. Now, it is easier than ever to get a track in front of potential fans. But, sending music links out blindly doesn’t work. In fact, what you are doing is spamming people and damaging your image.
Spam is when you send someone a message without their permission to be contacted or without them knowing you personally. We all receive spam on a daily basis. But we are here to help. If you want to make a success out of your music and are considering spamming, we have this advice for you…
Do not spam your music.
Permission based marketing should always be your go-to avenue for promoting your music!
We’ve all been there. Minding our own business before being flooded with reminders, news and prompts from artists to listen and download their latest tracks. Have you ever been tempted to go and listen to the track? No, probably not.
When musicians use this strategy it just annoys fans. It feels like you are having something pushed on you. Like when your parents try and force you to watch a movie from the 1940s and tell you it’s better than modern films. You go into it with a negative mindset and you rarely enjoy it.
What is permission based marketing?
Permission marketing is the term used to describe messages that audiences have given permission to receive. These could include a blog, where fans will choose to visit and read the posts. Your social media account, where followers opt in to view your posts and newsletters that they have opted in to.
Why you shouldn’t engage in Spam
It won’t reach your target audience
Everyone has their own individual music taste. As we have explained before you need to get to know your fans and define who your audience is. Your ideal fan and their similar counterparts are those who are likely to listen to your music. Most listeners have a personalised taste in music and enjoy specific genres more than others.
It is highly unlikely that you could really define the music preferences of a random person you found on Instagram. If you were to send a link to your drill track to someone who liked pop, you wouldn’t get a listen and you certainly wouldn’t develop a new fan.
Whenever you market your music you stand the most chances of success through focusing your strategy. Promoting your music should be about getting it in front of those who are interested in it.
In order to optimise spam to potential fans you would need to invest a large amount of time. This would be a lot more time consuming than working on a lucrative marketing campaign and would produce far less positive results.
It will damage your image
By spamming prospective fans, people will become irritated by you and rather than being a cool artist, you’ll become annoying. This will affect people’s perceptions of you for years to come and create many difficulties in growing your brand. Focus on marketing strategies which promote a positive public image and raise awareness of your music.
People Receive too much spam
Spam is received by people on many different medias, such as email, social media and advertisements. It can be overwhelming and because of this most people block out they don’t want. Many platforms allow them to mark you as spam and this could cause you issues if you are marked as a spammer. The likelihood is that people who are not looking for your music will ignore it.
It’s not creative
You are a creative! Music is all about creativity. You should be able to come up with something a little more creative than spam. You don’t need to spend loads of money, you can just invest a small budget and employ some creative strategies.
Spam Tactics To Avoid
“Sliding Into The DMs”
When someone follows your page, they’ll get to see all of your posts and updates. When you announce your new music, they will see your update. There is no need to send them a copy-and-paste message telling them to stream your music. Also, if someone hasn’t followed your account, they haven’t “opted-in” to receive your updates. So, steer well clear of messaging random people that haven’t interacted with your content before.
This is also true with industry professionals. Whilst some businesses encourage contacting them by DM, others don’t. Here at Identity Music, we have a dedicated social media team who work closely with our support team to ensure your queries are dealt with. We are always happy to receive messages via social media. However, many companies do not operate in this way. If you do message using any social media platforms make sure you open with an informative message. Don’t just send “hey” as many companies will not respond unless you detail the enquiry.
Over-Posting
You surely know the age old saying “Quality over Quantity”? This is something that you need to hold dear in your marketing approach. A lot of musicians believe they need to be posting more to get interaction when they actually need to be posting better. On Facebook and Instagram the algorithm is built upon engagements. So, when you look in your news feed, you’ll see posts spanning hours, if not days. It does not prioritise by time posted. Posting regularly will not ensure that you appear at the top of the newsfeeds. Posting quality will.
@’ing people
Similar to direct messages, don’t keep tagging people in your posts. They will see them in their news feed if what you post is of good quality. They can also choose to receive notifications whenever you post. If they haven’t done so, don’t take that as an opportunity to force notifications on them.
Commenting on other posts
Finding a popular account probably seems like a fruitful opportunity. But commenting on their posts to encourage people to check out your music is not a good idea. Firstly, the success rate of this is abysmal. Secondly, the page operator will not like it. If they wanted to refer your music, they would do so. Third, it just looks desperate.
Hashtags and Hashtag stalking
Hashtags are a wonderful thing. They allow you to connect with new people and allow new users to find you. They make networking a dream! However, they bring the potential for spam with them. Don’t scroll through hashtags like “#rap” “#indiepop” and bombard these poor defenceless users with comments to your link. Don’t be that person.
Emailing Too Much
Just like over posting on social media, over-emailing is something which never lands well. Even if you have fans who have signed up to your newsletters and updates, you need to respect them. This means respecting their privacy and time. Emailing more than once a week is overkill. For some fans, once a week may be too much. You could start by being transparent to fans and allow them to sign up for different frequency of updates or advertise it as a weekly newsletter. But respect your fans and don’t spam them. Otherwise, your emails will eventually get sent to the junk box!
By engaging in these activities, you seriously risk being reported as a spam account. If any platforms investigate you, you’ll be found guilty! This will leave you suspended or blocked from using key platform functions, severely limiting any reach you could produce.
Remember to work on a permission-based marketing plan. You need to value your fans and the first step is treating them and their time with respect.
People will not take you seriously if all they see is you spamming the same message to everyone. If you push your product onto someone you have never heard of and has expressed no interest in your sound, you’ll be met with crushing rejection. More than that, you’ll be damaging your reputation as a credible and successful musician. Don’t act desperate. Work hard, promote your music the right ways and gain the respect of those that you respect.
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