It’s no secret. Merch is big business. Some even say that it literally “saved the music industry.” And in the case of UK doom band Conan, selling merch kept the band together when countless others broke up or went on hiatus.
Conan’s latest album “Evidence of Immortality” is streaming now.
Band leader Jon Davis elaborated:
My band Conan has enjoyed considerable success, perhaps none more so than with our merch sales. The turnover of our UK store and our US store combined is almost £350,000 over the last 5 years.
Considering at least half of those 5 years were lost on the pandemic, when touring and performing were extremely limited, this revenue was crucial for the trio.
At one point, Jon says he sent an email to less than 8,000 former customers, people who’d not purchased for an extended period of time, and in response made £1500 ($1,923) in under 24 hours.
While impressive in itself, it highlights the broader need to stay engaged with fans:
From Shopify – “Repeat customers have a higher (customer lifetime value): The more repeat customers trust you, the less they hesitate to buy from you. That’s why promoting new products to repeat buyers takes less effort than promoting the products to new customers.”
From HubSpot – “Acquiring new customers costs 5 to 10 times more than selling to a current customer.” Think about it – make five more REELS, or just email a former customer – which is gonna make you a dollar faster?
From Mailchimp – “The success rate of selling to an existing customer is 60 to 70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is anywhere from 5 to 20%.”
From Paychex – “Little to no additional marketing is generally required to attract a repeat customer back, as opposed to starting from scratch with people who know nothing about your company.”