Setting Up Tastemaker Campaigns in Mailchimp, Pt. 1
Learn step-by-step how to replicate, edit, and send Tastemaker campaigns in Mailchimp for EasyStar Records, including best practices for subject lines, audience segmentation, and updating release links for artists like Flying Vipers and Mortimer.
In this guide, we'll learn how to update and send a new Tastemaker campaign in Mailchimp for EasyStar Records. We will cover how to replicate a previous campaign, update the subject line and content for new releases, and ensure all links and information are current. This process helps keep your email list informed about unreleased and newly released music, while making sure only the intended audience receives the message.
Let's get started
Alright. Now we have everything set up for Disco. Go to Mailchimp, then Campaigns, and select All Audiences. Find the most recent Tastemaker and replicate it.
Alright.
Then we'll edit the name to list the included releases.
This is for internal use only, so it doesn't really matter. It's Flying Vipers and Mortimer. Both releases featured other artists, but Flying Vipers and Mortimer are the EasyStar artists on them. The others are different artists. I usually include the send date in the title to make it easier to identify each email from the main Campaigns tab.
This will remain the same. The "from" field is EasyStar Records, using the publicity email address.
You can... Double-check that it's being sent to All Subscribed Contacts and the EasyStar Tastemaker list, which totals about 800 contacts, instead of the master list with over 20,000 contacts. Ideally, we do not want to send the release early to the entire list. Then we'll edit the subject.
For subject writing, I recommend checking Mailchimp.
There are only so many ways to tease, "There's unreleased music from artist X or Y." Generally, if the artists are more recognizable and have greater name recognition, I try to include them earlier in the subject line. This acts as a hook to grab people's attention.
If the artist is more developmental with a smaller presence, such as Flying Vipers, I focus on their fan base size, not the quality of their music. In these cases, I might avoid mentioning them until the preview text section. The subject line could be something like, "New unreleased reggae music from EasyStar artists inside." This relies on the appeal of the unreleased aspect, the cool factor, EasyStar, and reggae to encourage people to click, rather than promoting a band they haven't heard of before. Um, so in this case, in, in... You want to go ahead? I have a tool I used at my previous job for subject lines.
Uh-huh. I already showed it to Beau. Oh, really? Actually, I just realized—show me later. Show me after this so we can finish the recording part.
Okay. All right, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. In short, yes, that's...
Whether you use ChatGPT or another tool, even Mailchimp offers feedback features and AI to help generate content. But you're not going to... It's... The main content of our emails doesn't really change. The artist and release vary from one Tastemaker to another, but it's always unreleased music we're trying to share.
Yeah, there's only so much- ... early. There are only so many ways. "Exclusively for EasyStar Tastemakers" is a phrase you will see very often.
I’m going to say, “New unreleased music from Mortimer inside.” I usually add an emoji—one in the subject and one in the preview text. I almost always use the eyes emoji, speaker emoji, or flame emoji.
Fire, yes.
... you know? Uh, okay. "New unreleased music from Mortimer," and "Flying Vipers inside," exclusively for EasyStar Tastemakers.
I usually ignore any feedback that Mailchimp provides. A third-party tool is probably better than Mailchimp's AI. Under Email Link, it will automatically generate something, which is fine. It uses the source we are replicating from as the baseline, so it includes the last send date.
I usually just change it to today's date.
But again, it does not matter at all. This is the extremely unlikely scenario where someone we send this to clicks "View this email in your browser" and then cares about the slug.
We are doing our best in everything we do. It's just another thing. Now, at this point, we have the subject. I usually avoid adjusting the send time to prevent any issues. I wait until everything is ready, then edit the content and design.
As a general rule, I include a section called "In case you missed it." This highlights the most recent release. When we duplicate this email, the Naomi Cohen song and the Double Tiger tracks will move to the "In case you missed it" section. You know? These items already in the "In case you missed it" section, I will generally... If it was within 30 days, I...
Keep it, right? So like- Okay. ... This Royal Blue one has been here for over a month. We can get rid of it now.
Just click on it.
Uh, da-da-da-da.
All right, we'll leave this one since it was released about two weeks ago.
Then we handle the annoying task of dragging things.
... In Mailchimp. Did you use Mailchimp at your previous job?
No, we used HubSpot for our work.
Mm.
You'll find that you won't use that here because the music industry doesn't have that kind of budget.
All right, we have that.
Double Tiger one down there.
We will drag this Naomi file.
Naomi's...
I think I might have mentioned this to you, but her dad was Bob Marley's tour manager.
Yeah. She was in the Bob movie, right? Uh-huh.
Was it called Bob Marley, or just Bob?
Oh, God. W- I don't know. One Love, I think, yes. One Love? Is it called One Love?
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I thought it was pretty good.
They went through some parts quickly. Honestly, don't tell anyone, but I haven't seen it yet.
Oh, oh, okay. Sorry.
All right. Once a release is out, there are a few things we need to do. Any of the previously linked releases... We need to ensure the links are updated and correct. Last time we sent this email, we included the disco playlist link.
Those expire after seven days, so this will no longer work. Now that it's released, we prefer to direct people to the pivot page. For the release, right? Every release will have a pivot page. In this case, it will be moremusic@.
Moremusic@ is our owned domain. We use a link-shortening service called Genius. It's G-E-N-I-U-S. And then it powers... We bought a custom domain to look cool and...
Lem creates these automatically with... I created a Google Form that uses an API to transfer data from a Google Sheet to Genius and automatically generate these links. You will receive an email that says, "Thank you for using the Soundwave link-shortening service." Here is your link. Please double-check to make sure it works. You will see moremusic@cherryonthop when he sends it out. That redirects to thisorchard.co. The service that creates these pivot pages for The Orchard is feature.fm, which is a good service.
Honestly, this needs to be updated. I'm going to give Lem a hard time because it only lists Spotify, Audiomack, and Bandcamp. Now that this is released, it's also on Apple Music and other platforms. The information should have been updated to include all the DSPs. Uh. Once the track is released and we've sent the download link, it's mainly about sharing the streaming link for those who missed it. If someone is interested, they can reach out and ask. We're going to replace the links and update the text.
Since it says "Listen early" here, we'll remove "Listen here!" and change "To Be Released" to "Released," as it is now past tense.
Review the copy to ensure it makes sense and is in the present tense. Update anything that needs to be changed. Um, looks like we got... Here we go.
This small separator, and another one below.
Go.
All right, cool. That was released. This needs to be updated.
Uh.
What is this called? Uh. I've just memorized what Lem used for... Usually, it's just the song title in title case, meaning the first letter of each word is capitalized. Right?
That's important to note as well. More music links are case-sensitive. For example, it uses a capital "Y" right now. If we put lowercase... "" Did that actually work? Maybe they changed it.
Or maybe we made both. Let's assume they are case-sensitive. You will never have an issue. You can see that this is a typical "out now" pivot page. It has links. Do you think there is any strategy to the order of these platforms?
Yeah. There's... I mean, they're ch-... Any label will try to sell physical copies first. It's...
You definitely make more money, right? And then it... It's usually about considering which platform the audience is most likely to use. "We want you to buy from Bandcamp or the artist's store because there's vinyl available." They'll earn more money that way. Maybe we could also sell a T-shirt at the same time.
If you can't do that, then it becomes a matter of convenience. Usually, it's Spotify and Apple Music, followed by other platforms. Audiomack is another streaming platform you may not have heard of before. One of Ezy Star's former interns, who also worked part-time at Soundwave, later became the director of marketing at Audiomack. ...
A while ago, he became the director of marketing for Universal Music Group or a similar company. I don't know. He just got a great job. Ezy Star also has connections with Audiomack. We often get playlist features there, which is why you'll usually see it included on any Ezy Star pivot page, but not on others.
It's a streaming platform that's very basic and works well without much data. It has a large presence in Africa and the Caribbean, where internet connectivity is less reliable than it is here. Shit. Most people don't care about titles. As I mentioned, it's unpredictable after that. We'll update the Double Tiger links to direct to the pivot page.
Y.
Sorry? I said capital Y.
Yes, capital Y.
Um, okay. This should have already been updated.
You can see it, as it was already shared. In case you missed it in the last email, that is the pivot page for this.
Typically, I just duplicate the elements I need. Oops, that wasn't supposed to be there.
There we go.
We need a title.
We need another image.
Oh no, we’ll need four of these. There are two sets because there are two releases this week.
Do that.
Duplicate this.
You. Is there a way to duplicate them all at once? No.
... uh...
As far as I know, there may not be a way to do that, but I can't say for certain.
Uh, da, da, da, da.
Okay. It gets much easier once you're in the same section.
Uh.
