Letting Fans Reply to You

Turn Your Emails Into a Conversation

Every email Sleeve sends on your behalf... welcome notes, new releases, posts... can carry a reply-to address of your own. A fan hits reply, and their message lands in your inbox instead of going to Sleeve.

You set it once, and it applies to everything you send.

How to Set It Up

• Go to Manage → Settings → Replies From Fans
• Enter the address you want replies to go to
• Click Save

That's it. The next email you send carries it.

To turn it off again, clear the field and save. Replies go back to Sleeve, and nothing else about your emails changes.

Choosing an Address

If your artist page or EPK already lists a booking, management or press contact, you are already doing this. A reply-to address is the same idea, pointed at fan mail instead of industry mail, and fans see it the same way they see the contact address on your site.

A few things worth knowing:

• It does not have to be on your domain. A regular inbox is fine.
• It does not have to be yours. Management, a bandmate, or whoever actually reads mail can take them.
• You can reuse a contact address you already publish, or keep one for fans and another for industry.

What to Expect

Most replies come from the welcome email. Someone has just joined your list, they are as interested as they will ever be, and a reply is the easiest thing for them to do. Tour and release announcements are the other big one.

You are not signing up to answer everything. Artists who answer even a handful, especially early on, tend to hear from those same people again... and those are the fans who go on to buy tickets, records, and memberships.

Write the Message They Are Replying To

You can write your own welcome email, per membership level. Go to Manage → Membership, open a level, and fill in the welcome message. What you write is sent instead of our standard one.

That is the natural place to ask something. "What brought you here?" turns a broadcast into an opening, and with a reply-to address set, the answers come back to you instead of to us. Each level can say something different, so a paying member and a free follower do not have to get the same note.

A Few Other Ways to Use It

• Point it somewhere staffed. If you tour a lot, a management address means replies get read while you are away.
• Watch for the useful ones. Fans reply with broken links, wrong dates, and cities you should play. It is the cheapest feedback you will get.

Learn more about reaching your audience in the Artist Guide.