While there are multiple reasons why most artists don't get the response they want, some dealing with the email text or the timing of their emails, one major reason is that they are emailing the wrong people! One of the biggest problems I have found is that artists don't collect some of the most important information when having people sign up on their mailing list. Here's what you need and why.

Their Name - Obvious but you need to personalize their emails and it also helps against spam accusations.

Email Address - Review what they wrote down carefully. Make sure you can read all the letters and numbers. Review what they wrote with them. * If they have a Hotmail, Yahoo of other free email address, expect your emails not to get through! Free services offer "limited box size" which spammers fill quickly and these companies have been accused of "dumping" emails before they are delivered. (That means erasing email messages before they go through their servers. Some companies have already been fined for this.) If they give you a free service email address, ask for another.

City & State - While you know where they signed up, you need to mark it down in your database. Simply because when your list expands to thousands of people, you won't remember everyone on it. Besides it doesn't do much good to email fans about a show that is hundreds of miles away from them!

Zip Code - One of the most important if not the most important. Most cities are huge. For example, Los Angeles is considered to be 90 miles in size. Simply listing someone as living in LA doesn't do any good. As you know, fans only drive a few miles when it comes to drinking and driving. The safe distance they feel they can get home before the cops will catch them. Research what are the closest zip codes around the venue and only invite those fans to the shows. After all, even if you were invited to a show that didn't serve alcohol, would you drive 20 plus miles each way?

Venue & Date - Something you should put in a separate field when entering in their email information into your database. Always make a note of what venue they came to see you at because they will most likely come to that one again. Noting the date is important to see when they came to see your show last.

These are a few of the items that your email database should have per person. There are a number of others that I teach at my workshops http://www.MusicStrategies.com

Tim Sweeney