Let me just begin by welcoming Cartfly to the FanMail family. Cartfly makes it easier for anyone to run there own on-line store through a PayPal account, which means the barriers between artist and consumer are continuing to fall.
Everyone knows that music is traded in files, not on tapes or CDs anymore, but there are somethings that cannot be downloaded. Posters. Shirts. Commemorative coffee-cups that let everyone at the office know that while you might work a nine-to-five, you are still more hip than they are. But how is an artist supposed to sell these things? There are two ways that immediately spring to mind: door-to-door (merch table), or by mail order.
Obviously the direct person-to-person method has its limitations, especially for smaller acts who play to smaller crowds, but mail order also has its problems. The main problem with selling merch by mail is that you have to have someway of getting the orders and processing the payments. That is where Cartfly comes in.
Cartfly allows a seller to create an online shopping cart widget that can be posted anywhere. I mean anywhere: Facebook, MySpace, blogs, websites, on your daughter's homework. Okay, so I might be exaggerating a little with the last one, that is, unless her homework is an online presentation or web-site. All it takes is the ability to copy and paste the code that they give you. That's it. Oh, and a PayPal account. All of Cartfly's sells are immediately processed through the seller's PayPal account. That means a band can set-up shop on the cyber-strip without a merchant account or dedicated host-site. Wow.
Did I mention that it's free? That's right, free. That leaves only one question, really. Why isn't your band/venue/label/grandmother peddling their wares via the Internet right now?
In case you haven't heard, Google is releasing their new web-browser today, Google Chrome, in beta for all of us web-heads to play with and ooh and ahh over.
Apparently, a comic book that they had made to promote the new browser got leaked last week, so the folks at Google figured, why not go ahead and roll out the browser in beta so we can get some feedback? I gotta say, good call. Instead of trying to play coy, or act like it was all a big mistake so that they could launch a new, perfect product when they were ready, Google is capitalizing on the current buzz that has been created and are using that interest to improve their product.
It seems to me that there is lesson to be learned in all of this... I just can't seem to find it... Oh wait! There it is, right under the stack of napkins from my lunch and next to the coffee stained daily calendar that still says March 14. it seems that contrary to popular coorporate oppinion, listening to the feedback of your customers is actually a good thing.
Of course, those of us here in the entertainment business have known that for years. Right? Well, at least we seem to be catching on to it very quick. With the collapse of the traditional sales pipeline, record label>radio>store, to push sales and dictate what fans of music will buy, artists have learned that they do much better actually giving their true fans what they want. Which means the fans have to have a way to communicate with the artists. That's why we give our clients the ability to embed surveys in their emails.
Try it out, set up a few questions to include in your next send and see what kind of a response it generates. It is amazing how much people appreciate being asked their opinion, especially when they feel like it matters.
From your cell, send a text message "mopo youremail@yourdomain.com " to 66937. It will trigger a text message back as well as an email reply. On the backend, your email will be added to Motion Potion's FanMail list.
Here is an awesome case study from our partner ExactTarget on TicketsNow.
TicketsNow has been using ExactTarget's transactional send engine. This is particularly interesting to us because this is the exact same engine that FanMail uses for our client's automated interactions.
In a nutshell:
TicketsNow took a hard look at where they were loosing people in the sales pipeline. After a complete evaluation they implemented a re-marketing strategy to automatically reengage people who abandon their shopping carts.
Using dynamic content and automatic triggers, TicketsNow saw an immediate lift of 30% in total company revenue from email contribution.
Also, be sure to check out the section "TicketNow Stands Out from the Crowd".
"TicketsNow offers the first and only loyalty program in the industry. The InCrowd features tiered member benefits that increase brand loyalty and perks on parallel tracks."
- Mark Hodes, Senior VP of Customer Marketing for TicketsNow
Sweet. Gotta love a company that loves their customers!
FanMail client Rock Paper Scissors is the industry leading publicity firm for World Music Genre. Innovator and founder Dmitri Vietze has been using FanMail for a number of months to manage all RPS press releases and publicity communications. Using the survey tool has been invaluable for gaging interest among media.
I could use your help. I am facilitating a discussion next week called "Genre Hopping: How Some Global Artists and Presenters Have Avoided the World Music Ghetto" (see right) at the Arts Presenters conference. I would like to use the knowledge of our entire field to inform the discussion. So in advance of the session, I am asking you and others in the "world music field" to complete the survey below. The survey format makes it easy to compile a lot of info, but if you are not a survey kind-of-person, please shoot me an email with your thoughts. Thanks in advance! Much respect, Dmitri
Dmitri got a ton of feedback from his request and lots of very interesting insights into the discussion.
Look for a full Case Study from Rock Paper Scissors in the next few weeks.
