TODAY'S DEEP DIVE STORY
🔥Amp Up Engagement Pre Release (5 Proven Strategies)
Warming up your audience before a release is crucial, especially if you haven’t been communicating with them regularly or releasing consistent content—which tends to happen during periods of intense recording or songwriting.
And let's be honest, life responsibilities can often crowd out the time we've set aside to reach out to fans.
But don’t worry. You’ve got plenty of time to get back into the habit of communicating with fans before your next release. But you NEED a plan.
Let's jump into some strategies you can use to win back your fans' attention.
1. Share your plans
A big mistake artists make is holding everything close to the vest and "springing" a new release on their fans.
It may seem like a good idea to "surprise and delight" your fans with your new release, but you're missing out on a TON of promotional power and relationship building by doing that.
Let your audience in on the secret. Make your fanbase feel special, that they have exclusive knowledge that something big is coming, in exchange for having supported you along the way.
Once you’ve got your timeline nailed down, share it with them. Give them a heads-up about when to expect behind-the-scenes footage from the studio to build that sweet anticipation! As the project starts to take form, share bits and pieces with them such as demos of a few of the songs, cover art, etc.
You can even get them involved in some of these decisions. For example, you can create a poll and let your fans vote for the best cover art for the single or even let your fans vote on the final title for a song.
If your audience feels personally invested in the project, they’ll be much more likely to listen, purchase, and share widely when it is released.
2. Take them on the journey
Since you’ve let them in on the secret, your audience should already be starting to get excited to get the first taste of the new music. Now use that to pull them in even further—take them along with you inside the studio.
If you’ve spent a lot of time recording in studios in the past, it may seem commonplace to you. But remember, most people have never set foot into a recording studio before. So to them, this environment is likely a bit mysterious and unique; the playground of professional musicians.
The problem is: too often you’re simply too busy to think of capturing studio footage while you’re actually recording. To solve this, I recommend assigning the role of “behind-the-scenes reporter” to a friend, family member or someone hanging around during the recording process. Give them access and ask them to come up with ideas for shots and video footage to capture while you’re hard at work.
3. Offer a chance to invest
I often encourage artists to do some form of crowdfunding for albums or EPs (or even singles if you're mounting an ambitious promo campaign).
Since you’ve gathered great studio footage, you can use this in your campaign pledge video to offer potential donors tangible proof of your progress.
Starting a crowdfunding project after your studio sessions are over is beneficial because you can show that the project is already underway. In other words, it’s clear the project is going to happen. Your patrons will feel like they are jumping onto a moving train (which feels exciting!) instead of pushing to get a motionless train started.
So, if you’re not raising money for the studio recordings, what can you raise money for?
A lot! There might be physical manufacturing of CDs or vinyl, digital distribution, PR campaigns, Facebook & IG ads, print marketing, release parties and potential tour costs to cover; not to mention any extra donor merch or experiences you can build into your campaign.
Even if only 20% of your audience invests in the crowdfunding campaign, the promotion has continued to warm up the rest of your audience and has built credibility for you and anticipation for your release.
4. Release singles
For an upcoming album or EP release, singles can act like a trail of breadcrumbs to lead your core audience and any potential new fans toward your big release.
Every individual single gives you a new chance to get in front of your audience again with a new message and product. Even if you’re simply asking them to add the song to their Spotify library, each “micro-commitment” warms them up with a new touch point, and moves them further along what I call the “fan discovery journey.”
You can release as many or as few singles as you want before your full release; I’ve found that 3 is a magic number because it gives you enough new opportunities for promotion while preventing burnout for you or oversaturation with your fans.
5. Share the stories behind the music
A single song gives you the opportunity and platform to dive deep and share the story behind each song, talk about collaborators who contributed, as well as focus on things like the lyrics and instrumentation.
There’s no limit to the kinds of content you can create around one single.
- Perform the song live on video and talk a little about the idea behind the lyrics.
- Do an acoustic livestream and tell the story.
- Create a blog post or email where you share your writing process.
- You can create lyric cards to highlight the most poignant lyrics and share on social media.
- I have even seen some artists adopt a special hashtag and encourage their fans to use it when talking about that particular song.
Warming up your audience is the key to reaching your sales and streaming goals, and it’s the best way to build engagement into your release runway at every stage.
The process doesn’t have to be overwhelming—intentionality and consistency are key. Having a plan and a timeline will give you the time and space you need to do it right.
Good luck!