Hey artists! The opportunities are endless for different ways you can launch your channel and engage your fans.
Here are a few best practices to keep in mind for launch. 🎶
⏱️ Frequency: BE CONSISTENT.
Fans stick around when artists continue the dialogue. Just like a good social strategy, artists who are successful on Subtext maintain a consistent and regular schedule.
- 3-5 texts a week is a sweet spot, with more for exciting news or important updates to share.
- Weekday texts typically see higher engagement than weekends with best times to text usually landing around noon (12pm-3pm EST).
💡 Content Ideas: Take a minute to think through your launch timeline and see what possible ways you can provide value to your audience.
- Some texts should be exclusive to SMS fans
- Share exclusive sneak peek at new music (double digit CTR w/ SMS audiences}
- Encourage album pre-saves with text countdowns
- Promote exclusive early merchandise, tour announcements & ticket pre-sale code/links
- Engaging fans via questions, polls, or live Q&As
- Encourage fans to share/repost links and content to bring more awareness to your channel
✔️ Fan Acquisition: There are tons of ways to promote your channel and sign up!
Here are the basics to start:
- Text to sign-up: The artist favorite! Many artists drop their phone number on social media for fans to text into to sign-up for the channel. Fans can text anything into your marketing number to start the sign-up process OR we can even set up a dedicated keyword to make the process automatic.
- Sign-up URL: Every channel has their own landing page where fans can complete the sign-up process. We recommend linking these on your social bios and even dropping in posts as well. You can find this link under the “Campaign” tab of your dashboard.
- Embed Code: These codes live directly on your website, allowing fans who already visit to sign-up directly on your page. The codes can also be found under the “Campaign” tab of your dashboard.
- SMS links: SMS links can be included in your IG stories, Reels, Tiktok’s, etc. When tapped from a mobile device, SMS links will open the fan’s primary messaging app, with the number of the channel pre-loaded. All the fan needs to do is hit ‘send’ to begin the sign-up process and VOILA. Let us know if you’d like one created for you!
- QR Codes: Scannable QR codes that work just like our SMS links, opening the fan’s primary messaging app, with the number of the channel pre-loaded. These codes can be used for external promotions and marketing for seamless and quick sign-ups.
- Call to sign-up: Our newest sign-up feature! If your channel has a voice component, we now have the ability to send a text to every fan that calls in to your marketing number. This text is completely customizable and will include sign-up instructions for the channel to continue the fan engagement. Huge conversion rates!
Inspiration Time ✨
Take a look at some of the following examples for inspiration 👀
Promotional Examples
Perrie Edwards
Alkaline Trio
Corey Taylor