Many brands want deep and long-lasting relationships with their customers. Social media makes these interactions even more likely, because it encourages customers to speak up and to connect.
Seth just blogged the above as part of, yet another, insightful post on consumer marketing.
As we prep the upcoming Wakey!Wakey! release for next February/March, and continue to work Casey, Pearl and the Beard and set up Lacrymosa, the main quest is to develop an ongoing relationship between the artists/Family Records and our listeners/customers.
Business 101 tells us that it’s more expensive to gain new customers than it is to continue and grow your relationship with existing customers. How can we put this knowledge to use in the music business? One thing we’re looking into for the Wakey!Wakey! project is to launch a subscription service. I have written about the idea of a record label subscription before, but the difference here is that it would focus solely on one artist, and that it involves material outside of the mainstream album release. Where the album release will focus on new customers, casual listeners and existing fans, the subscription service will target those listeners that are looking to engage beyond the level of just buying the album. By getting a W!W! subscription this niche group gives us permission to engage with them beyond the one-time purchase event of the album release, and lets us come into their inbox once a month to provide them with more music or merch, and grow our relationship with them.
In line with the principles from ‘Getting Real’ we’re looking to set up as simple a service as possible for an immediate launch, rather then making it a complicated, multi-tiered proposal to fans. We can always grow the service once we learn more about the user behavior and satisfaction level. It might look a little bit like this:
“Get a limited edition Wakey!Wakey! subscription for under $2 per month! Each month you will receive an MP3 in your inbox that only subscribers will have access to. These recordings will not be available on “Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said The Last Time I Saw You…”, and range from exclusive demos to live recordings, new songs, and more. Additionally you will receive a Christmas package containing a poster, sticker and limited edition 5 song EP, access to a quarterly give-away contest, and a personalized birthday video message. Limited to 500 subscribers. $19.99 for one year. (That’s less than $1.67 per month!)”
Exploring this possibility now for a possible January Beta launch. Thoughts?