Taylor Bradshaw

TRAININGS COMPLETED:

• The Buddy System
• Selling Tickets for Live Shows
• The $1-A-Day Traffic Plan
• Build The Perfect Artist Website
• How To Get New Fans Daily (Fan Finder)
• Fan Page Optimization
• Ones & Zeros 101
• How To Create Your Brand
• Be Your Own Videographer
• Make Merch That Fans Want
• How To Turn Listeners Into Real Fans
• Email Marketing for Musicians
• FREE + S&H Funnel Strategy
• How To Profit From A Launch Campaign
• How To Generate Sales Year-Round
• Grow Your Email/Text List
• Spotify Field Guide

Tell us about your A-Series:
I tried two different A-series in 2024. The first was for a silver necklace, and the second was for a deluxe vinyl bundle.

For each, I used the same format. The customer would receive a printed card with their F+SH package that highlighted the offer with a photo and bullet points on one side, and had a QR code to claim it on the other.

The silver leaf necklace was at a discounted price from what they would see in my store, with free shipping in the USA. This was a product I hadn't offered them before. The take rate was poor, so I switched to the vinyl bundle.

The vinyl bundle is the last offer in my FSH funnel, and I offered it to them at the same discounted price they saw in the funnel, plus free shipping. The landing page for this had a montage video of user-generated content: people unboxing their vinyl bundles and being really excited about it.

Earlier this year, I removed the email automation, as I found that keeping customers out of the regular mailing segment for the extended period to receive their A-series was less beneficial than having them receive regular mailing of real-time offers, based on take-rates. This is only beneficial when following a regular offer schedule.

Tell us about your Promotional Calendar:
I use a promotional calendar on a 6 week cadence. Though I fell off it for a few months while overwhelmed by concerts/festivals, I resumed at the end of summer 2024.

This means 5 weeks of weekly nurturing emails, with an offer split across weeks 5 and 6. I try to hype people up with nurturing relevant to the offer in the first 4 emails (eg. telling stories about live concerts before a live album release), tease the offer in the 5th week, and then present the offer.

The offer is usually 3 emails:
- Friday week 5: announcement
- Tuesday week 6: reminder
- Friday week 6: last chance email

This allows for 2 Fridays to be hit, meaning that most salaried people in the USA would have received a paycheck in this time. I also always provide my mailing list early access before I begin my social campaign.

I also do a free livestream concert during each sales run, in which I use the pinned comment and verbal selling to showcase the new product and generate more sales during and immediately after the concert.

I use a mix of new products, temporary sales, and important events such as the first vinyl repressing of an album for my promotions. I've found that story-driven music career events are the most effective. Even something like "This little music project of mine has gotten so big because of you, I'm having a hard time taking day-job work these days. So I'm raising all my prices. But for this week only, you can get anything you want at the old prices, plus X as a free extra as a thank you" can work very well.

Tell us about your FSH funnel:
Oh boy howdy did I run a Free + Shipping campaign. In the last year, my FSH funnel has generated 8,033 new customers and $151,867 in gross revenue. At its peak, I ran it at over $1,500/day in ad spend in Feb 2024. In the end, I have broken almost exactly even with all FSH costs in the last year.

At first, my creative was primarily live performance videos with live audio, captioned lyrics, and animated text CTAs in vertical format. I included stickers on packages asking people to film their unboxing and upload with a QR code. I then created F+SH unboxing montage videos (with their consent) and added them to my ad campaign, and those provided some stability to my F+SH with those two different creative options.

My copy is primarily two kinds:
- Short, sweet, and direct
- Story-driven and longer format (using compiled fan language from email replies and comments)

My landing page is simple, but somewhat lengthy. I approached it with the mindset "each scroll is one more try to convince them." At the top, it's just a headline, subheadline, unboxing video montage, and a button to check out. Then, it breaks down the offer more explicitly with another button. From there, I use fan comments/testimonials, press, a minidoc, a VSL, etc. Each is treated as its own "try" to convert them.

The core product is a signed CD with a pressed flower, postcard, and letter. This often converts people who don't have CD players.

Funnel Structure:
- Bump and first upsell: more signed CDs
- Second upsell: personalized notebook bundle with fountain pen, handwritten lyrics, and pressed flower collage
- Final upsell: deluxe signed vinyl bundle with sticker pack and signed Polaroid
- No downsells - I've found these generate minimal money compared to customer annoyance they introduce

Tell us about your product launches:
I ran multiple product launches in 2024:

The "Cabin Collection":
- Tees, totes, and hoodies featuring flowers and cabin design
- Presale with 4 colors and all sizes available
- Used presale funds to buy heat press and supplies
- Later reverted to one color with limited size inventory

Necklace Collection:
- Real wildflower necklaces
- Leaf necklaces electroplated in 4 metal choices
- Multiple quantity discount tiers

Live Album Launch:
Basic version:
- CD and full concert movie download

Deluxe version:
- Signed and numbered (out of 200)
- Pressed flower
- Hand-signed lyric sheet on flower-infused paper
- Firefly drawings
- Extra bonuses: signed concert Polaroid, chance to win original drawings

Tell us about your physical merch:
My fulfillment process includes:
- Custom logo stamp on every mailer
- CTA sticker for unboxing videos with QR code
- Free artsy postcard with QR code to join Album Launch Experience

Revenue overview (last 12 months):
- FSH Campaign: $151,867 (break-even after costs)
- Ascension Products: $8,348
- Streaming: $4,832 (with zero direct promotion)
- Concert Fees: $4,832 ($150 ad spend)
- Concert Merch: ~$800
- Credit Card Points: $4,097 (from FSH expenses)

From my Free + Shipping campaign (Thrivecart sales), I generated $151,867 in revenue in the last year, which was break-even after all costs.

From my ascension products (Shopify Sales), I sold $8,348 of merch in the last year.

My streaming revenue was $4,832 in the last year. I feel it’s important to note that I put zero promotion into streaming. These songs increase streams in direct proportion to F+SH ad spend, and then get algorithmic traction from people looking them up.

My concert fee income was $4,832 in the last year, with $150 spent on ads. Though I didn’t keep strict record of all merch sold at concerts, this was roughly another $800 total.

Credit card points can also generate significant revenue, and I received $4,097 in rewards points in the last year because of my F+SH. There are business credit cards that have 3x points for ads and shipping costs, which I wish I switched to sooner.

Gross Revenue: $174,776

Net Revenue: $21,239 before software costs, equipment, stock, team labor, etc. Break-even after all expenses.

My highest-performing, revenue driving asset is my F+SH, generating $151,867 in gross revenue. However, this was break-even.

I’m still getting the hang of regular sales promotions, but this generates roughly $1k-$2k per promotion on a 6 week cadence, which I hope to increase. My total revenue from these promotions was $8,348 in the last year.

My most underutilized opportunity is live concerts in the form of fan-hosted house concerts and flat-fee festivals that my fans are able to get me a foot in the door with. I’ve been easily able to leverage $600 to $1,500 per concert fee (plus merch sales) so far this year, and have fans that are willing to pay $2k-$3k in the future for concerts. These opportunities are the result of my fanbase built by my F+SH campaign, as I have no industry connections of my own.

Lastly, please tell us why you think you should be a finalist for the Money Maker Award:
I have moved a crapload of money through this business in the last year selling merch, performing concerts, and receiving significant streaming revenue for the first time. Even though this project isn't very profitable as a whole yet, I have built the groundwork for major opportunities, and used this revenue for scaling and business building.