Direct-to-Fan: Measuring Success

The guys in Hollow Vixen have a lot to be proud of: they launched a website, released their first EP, played a bunch of shows, and managed to get it all done without (as many bands do…) coming to blows. So now, as they rest and rehearse before the summer tour kicks off again, we all thought this would be a good time to stop and see how things were going thus far.

Before someone else mentions it, we all thought we should: Comparing the two platforms (Nimbit and Topspin) to weigh the pros and cons for this band has become a promotional tool all by itself. And that’s cool – even if it’s an unintended benefit.

But no matter which platform you use, being able to see how you’re doing is critical. And since both platforms offer a variety of measurement and analytics tools, we thought an update (and feature comparison) was both valid and timely.

To start, no one expected the band to achieve massive overnight success. But we did set a goal to show consistent growth. In that regard, we’ve had equal success and failure. And yeah, I just admitted some sense of failure. Maybe I’m not such an expert marketer after all.

Upon login, Topspin does a nice job of giving you the “basics” on how you’re doing. There’s a big, unavoidable graph that’ll confront you with your stats. It breaks down based upon “subscribes, sales, shares, and plays” of your content. It’s easy (if you keep track of what you do and when…) to match response with efforts and campaigns. Here’s what that graph looks like for Hollow Vixen…

It should be noted that we haven’t added any sales programs into Topspin yet (except for on Facebook), so the sales chart is, err, non-existant. What’s gratifying is to see that the music is getting played a fair amount. Taking this chart into account, we need to work on subscribes. But that’s ok. We’ve got a very cool video sitting in the can, and distributing it will likely involve some type of email capture — that decision is being made somewhat based upon what we see in the chart.

On Facebook we created three different opportunities for sales/promotion: Nimbit’s MyStore, a custom store using Topspin widgets and FBML, and Topspin’s own Facebook store. Topspin tells you how each placed widget is doing, and in this case Hollow Vixen had 24 views and 19 plays on their Facebook (Topspin) player. Not thrilling numbers, but again, gotta share the good numbers with the bad. Transparency is key, even when every marketing bone in my body wants to bury numbers like that.

Nimbit’s MyStore for Facebook got the most praise from folks checking out the various storefront options. And while it’s easy to track sales from that storefront (there weren’t any…), you don’t get a stat for views/plays. This would be a cool thing to have — especially if there were LOTS of views/plays but no sales. We could use that info to adjust pricing or offer different promos. That being said, people clearly like the look/feel of the Nimbit store best. But if it doesn’t lead to sales, mailing list signups, or sharing of the storefront, then something needs to be adjusted.

The third Facebook option was Topspin’s actual Facebook store. Without going into detail (that’s in the previous post), this was the least preferred choice by the people we polled. It didn’t seem to mesh well with the existing Facebook page, and it didn’t offer as much as the other storefronts. In fairness, with some more time, resources, and expertise, we could’ve done something much cooler with the Topspin store, but we’re getting started and lack time and resources. Suffice to say, there was minimal (no…) response to this storefront in terms of sales.

On the official website (HollowVixen.com), we opted to use the nimbitSkin store that is part of the band’s Nimbit account. Setting it up would normally cost $99, but with our collective expertise, we got it installed and working fairly quickly on our own. From this storefront came the great majority of our sales. All told, Hollow Vixen sold 8 albums and a single track. And we knew about those sales the moment they occurred! The reporting from Nimbit looks like this:

OK, so, selling 8 discs and a single track may not seem like earth-shattering, needle moving success. But add to that the dozen discs sold at shows, and the guys have earned $139.99 on their discs while spending $200 to make ’em. In other words, selling about 20% of their inventory has recouped 70% of the cost of making the discs. That is definitely a success. Please note: if my math is off here, I’m a marketing guy who went to music school. I still count on my fingers…

Harder to measure, but readily apparent and important, is the buzz which is growing around Hollow Vixen. GoogleAnalytics shows that site traffic is trending upward nicely, and booking the second half of the tour was a fairly painless experience — we got gigs that paid more, on better nights, and in better locations. In addition, the band is starting to be approached by folks interested in partnering with the band for things ranging from licensing and publishing to stuff like creating custom iPhone apps. It’s entirely possible that some of these opportunities come from the publicity surrounding this experiment, but if the music truly sucked, I don’t think anyone would be interested.

Putting it all together, Hollow Vixen is moving forward. They’ve set a solid foundation for growth backed by some quality music and a willingness to work hard. We can point with certainty to our successes and failures, and we know what we have to do to move things forward. Both Topspin and Nimbit deserve some of the credit, but there’s a lot more to test and evaluate.

P.S. Not to give it all away, but the next installment covers social media integration — in particular engaging Twitter through both platforms.