7 Website Changes that turn Fans into Paying Customers

Your music website could be the key to turn fans into paying customers. These 7 simple strategies can boost sales, grow a fanbase, and help build a sustainable career as an independent artist.

7 Website Changes that turn Fans into Paying Customers

by Lisa Occhino via Bandzoogle

Turning casual listeners into paying customers is one of the biggest challenges for independent musicians, but it’s the key to a sustainable music career. If you want to make a living as an artist or band, it’s not enough for people to occasionally stream your tracks on Spotify. You need active supporters — and your website is a pivotal tool for making those conversions happen.

If your music website isn’t quite optimized to generate income, don’t worry. Follow these best practices, and you’ll be set up for success in no time.

1. Make a strong first impression

Think about the kind of websites you feel comfortable making purchases on. Are they professionally designed with clear navigation? Are they actively maintained and always kept up to date? Your music website shouldn’t be any different. If it looks amateur or has a poor user experience, it’s highly unlikely that a stranger will want to make any sort of transaction.

Besides nailing the website design, your homepage also has the important job of conveying your brand and musical style. Make sure to use high-quality images, have a compelling tagline, and be clear about the action you want fans to take without making them click around.

2. Feature a call-to-action on every landing page

No matter which page of your website you share on social media or include in an email newsletter, anyone who clicks through should see a clear call-to-action (CTA) on that landing page. Every website click you get is a new opportunity to transform a casual fan into a paying customer, so don’t waste it.

Strategically place your CTAs both above and below the fold for the biggest impact. In other words, your visitors should immediately see the action you want them to take without scrolling, and you should give them an extra chance to click your CTA even after they scroll to the bottom of the page.

Another way to increase your conversion rates is by being specific in your CTA text. Why? Because people are more likely to click when they feel confident that the next page will align with their expectations. Instead of a vague “click here,” be descriptive — for example, ”shop merch,” “join my fan club,” or “sign up for my newsletter.”

3. Incentivize email signups

Email marketing is still one of the most effective tools for musicians to sell merch, tickets, music, and subscriptions. Once fans are subscribed to your email list, you have a direct line to people who have confirmed they want to hear from you — typically with much better conversion rates than any social media platform.

Consider promoting incentives on your website like a discount code, exclusive content, or presale access in exchange for email addresses. As you grow your list, you can get even better engagement and conversions through segmentation, personalization, and targeted offers.

Essentially, you want to use your website to funnel people to your email list, and in turn use your email list to direct fans to high-converting landing pages.

4. Make the purchase process frictionless

The easier you make the purchase process, the more sales you’ll get. If you use Bandzoogle for your music website, you already have all the tools you need to sell directly to your fans with no middlemen.

Your e-commerce store can include music, merch, tickets, subscriptions, crowdfunding, or even a virtual tip jar. Highlight best-selling items and bundle deals to increase sales, such as offering a free sticker with any purchase. Be sure to provide diverse payment options like credit cards, debit cards, and PayPal to reduce cart abandonment rates.

Also, keep in mind that most fans are probably visiting your website from a phone rather than a computer, so mobile responsiveness and website speed are crucial. It might not seem like much, but every extra second of load time has a negative impact. Fortunately, all Bandzoogle website templates are mobile friendly and load quickly, so you never have to worry about poor performance being the reason why you lose sales.

5. Offer exclusive content

Offering exclusive content on your website is an excellent way to drive engagement and grow new revenue streams. ​Whether it’s an email signup incentive or a fan subscription perk, people love getting premium access to their favorite artists.

This could include hearing new songs before everyone else, behind-the-scenes videos, VIP Q&A sessions, first dibs on tour tickets, or any other perk you can think of that makes your fans feel like insiders.

6. Promote limited-time offers

One of the best ways to get an influx of revenue is by promoting limited-time offers. They create a sense of urgency, encouraging purchases that fans might not have made otherwise.

You can achieve this through time-sensitive discounts, such as “get 20% off all merch this weekend only.” Or you can offer limited-edition items, like only making 100 signed copies of your latest album available for sale. Pair either of these strategies with countdown timers and regular reminders on all of your channels to boost the urgency effect.

7. Analyze your website data

Any time you implement a new technique, make a website change, or run a new campaign, always be sure to analyze your data before, during, and after. This is the only way to make strategic, informed decisions about maximizing fan engagement and sales over the long term.

Use built-in analytics to monitor individual page performance as well as your overall website performance. If you notice any high bounce rates, try to identify the cause and run a quick experiment to see if your numbers improve. For example, you might change the text on a landing page’s CTA, or improve the placement so it gets more clicks.

You can also use fan data to see what’s already working well and double down. If you notice a lot of visits and engagement coming from specific cities, for instance, take note of that and plan your upcoming shows accordingly.

Final thoughts

A well-optimized music website that employs simple best practices can make all the difference between passive listeners and paying fans and turn fans into paying customers. But remember, you don’t have to tackle everything at once. Try making one small improvement to your website today, analyze your stats, and build from there.