Marketing your music (the ghetto-ninja basics)
nova for nifty internet marketing links - go to my website: www.novamusicservices.com
music services artist management and marketing
don’t panic Hi! Some of what I say in here is pretty basic... some of you may already have this dialed, but what I have noticed is that everyone has an opinion about marketing your music, but no one has a “do-this-and-it-works” approach. That’s cause there isn’t one. Some things work better depending on the artist’s committment, genre, style, level and budget. So, this is a pretty pragmatic approach that should see results these are the basics. Have fun and if you have any questions email me at nova@novamusicservices.com.
no matter what - do this first BRANDING - specifically this means to create some rules about how you want your image presented. This makes everything easier. Create a logo for your name, choose a main photo and some back-ups, create a style or design that best represents your image (ie. funky, emo, goth, elegant, etc.) Why? Companies use branding to ‘imprint’ their brand on the public so their brand becomes synonymous with their product. In some cases, the brand is also used to appeal at an emotional level, so stay in line with your genre or image - if you are a goth/emo band that uses light beige and happy sandy beach themes... not cool. Think like a corporation (even if this queases you out a bit). Ultimately - create your brand from an honest place that’s in line with your band’s personal philosophy. If you don’t like it - you won’t be proud of it and won’t promote it. It pays to do a little research: check out this wiki for more info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand.
USE YOUR BRAND - now that you’ve got your brand nailed down stick with it and use it everywhere. Put it on your everything: your website, myspace, one-page, fliers, merchandising, etc. Don’t be shy about it. It takes at least a few dozen impressions of your brand before people really start to remember you. You want to keep your main brand elements like your logo for quite a while - like a year or more. Consider this the backbone of your visual presence and once you’ve done it you now have more free time for other fun stuff like vlogs. It may seem boring, but you have limited time in a day and if you buy yourself a little time by having your brand elements ready to go, you can put your energy into coming up with new, super-cool marketing, creating new music or making sure you don’t get fired from your day-job. MAKE IT EASY - Put all your stuff in one folder on your computer. Put your bio text in there, your one-page, your top 5 photos, a couple of videos, properly encoded rips of your mp3s. Keep this folder in a handy spot. I’ll come back to the importance of this folder in the populating section... GET HOSTING - the final thing you should do before anything else is get a host. You have access to FTP if you have a website, or use a site like yousendit.com. This way you can offer big files for promo easier - by sending links instead of files. Such as the full album download or your press photos. GET HELP - enlist your favourite tech-saavy friend (who hopefully knows a little HTML) to design your stuff, help you get set up, tell you more about that damn FTP thing I was talking about or format your myspace. Give them free swag or tickets to your shows or links on your web or consider hiring a graphic designer.
strategize - write it down The next thing you want to do is create a strategy and a timeline. Most importantly, be realistic - don’t make a plan that is out of your budget or that will take more time than you have. You should have three game plans: 1. show marketing; 2. tour marketing; 3. general marketing. Give yourself more time if you can, it’s less stress. If you are planning for an album release you need at least three months. Remember these are the basics - have this nailed down so you can do more fun stuff later. Show Marketing: week 1 - create artwork online listings week 2 - press release advertising email newsletter web marketing postering/fliers week 3 - street team hit up similar shows/events engage fans week 4 - street team reminders
Tour Marketing: week 1 - create artwork online listings week 2 - press release radio advertising email newsletter web marketing week 3 - street team engage fans follow up media week 4 - engage fans web marketing week 5 - tour kick-off reminders
General Marketing: - pick events to go to and give away fliers - set aside time every week for web marketing - always carry fliers with you to give away - do regular blogs, vlogs or videos - set a monthly date for an email newsletter - always appreciate your fans and enlist them - always seek out media
real world marketing Real world marketing is something that should be done all the time and everwhere. If you have a show, then you can put up fliers, posters and such. Even if you don’t have shows you should create generic little fliers or stickers that you can give away. Make sure to direct people to your website, have your general email address on it and put a free download link (ie. free download on our myspace!) Bigger isn’t always better, be enviro-friendly, use recycled paper and keep em small so you can do more for less waste. And, if you are on a tight budget do it all in black and white. The biggest secret with marketing is in the numbers. You could do 50 really pretty full colour posters or 500 black and white ones - your goal is to get as much exposure as possible. Your real-world marketing will generate more internet marketing, which will get more people to shows. Also, always put out generic fliers at your own shows as well as hit up other, higher profile shows. Things to always do in the real world: generic cards/fliers, stickers, show posters/ fliers, email list sign-up sheets, cool promo items like gum, comdoms or matches. Don’t be stingy with your promo. But don’t put stacks in coffee shops. I prefer giving away flier/promos hand-to-hand, then you know people actually look at it and how many have seen it. If you are shy, enlist friends or pay a street team. Try to keep in mind you are trying to find new fans, so go where strangers are.
internet marketing The internet is chaos. Find peace in chaos by having a home site. If you can have someone do a website proper for you - then cool, but if not, myspace is still a highly functional web presence. I tend to encourage myspace use - why? It’s easy to update. Nothing is worse than having a website be completely out of date. My rule of thumb if you are on a budget - keep your website static (ie. your content is not time sensitive) and direct to your myspace for blogs, videos, etc. Devote your time to your home site whether it is your official site or your myspace. Then populate other sites in order to drive traffic to your home site.
popuLating The trick then is to get your image out there by populating other web sites. Remember that folder that contains all your stuff? Now it comes in handy. Your job is to put your picture, songs, videos, etc. on as many indie music sites as possible. Always put a link back to your home site and encourage by offering something - free downloads, pictures of your underpants, whatever you think will strike your fans’ fancy. Every time you upload stuff to new sites you increase your chances of random traffic moving through to your home site. This will get you new fans. There are thousands of sites, online radio, music blogs, social networking, music sites like CBC3 and Reverbnation, iLike and Projectopus. Keep a list of where you website or funnel all sites to put your band and check back once in myspace main site a while to offer something new.
myspace is crap? is Facebook, too? Don’t believe all the hype. Yes, people aren’t using myspace like they once were, and nor will you use myspace like you once did. Myspace is still a great way to market for new fans. It is still the best way to develop a fan base, search geographically, target by age or sex. The difference between now and two years ago? Now, you have to be clever, be honest and interactive. Use flattery - it works. Don’t ask someone to check you out - really look at their site and pay them a sincere compliment. Notice fans that are interacting with you and give them something. I like to give them unreleased songs - or entire album downloads. Every so often I’ll pick someone to send a t-shirt to. This builds fan loyalty and turns casual fans into fans that will work for you. Don’t use friend-adders or other bots, they’ll only get you in trouble with myspace. Yes there are a lot of users who aren’t on Myspace anymore, however, there are an estimated 43 million users worldwide that log in frequently. Facebook is a different beast. With an estimated 60 million active users - there is definitely a market here. I tend to use Facebook at the indie level to promote local shows. The ability to target certain demographics (say geographically) is limited and Facebook is much stricter about how many messages sent or friends added in a short period of time. As the nature of facebook is more personal you may want to create two accounts - a public one and a private one (using a silly name) that just your friends will know about. The addition of the “Pages” has created a better way for bands to interact on Facebook, but there are limitations to its use. You still have to use apps like iLike or Reverbnation and get fan interaction to make it viral.
etiquette You will not please everyone. Be nice, be thankful, keep your frequency at a tolerable level. Put yourself in a stranger’s shoes. I rarely delete people for over-marketing, but recently I received 7 messages in the same day from one promoter. I removed him. The honest truth - you need to send emails, comment campaigns on myspace, event invites on Facebook, and tap every other source of your online fan base. Don’t be shy - if you don’t tell them your news they won’t know. But, be honest about why you are approaching them, give them something for their time - free downloads, etc and interact with your fans. Always offer to remove them, and when they ask - make sure you do. Don’t steal emails - try to offer incentives to get people to sign up for your fan list. Make sure to have a fan sign up at shows and offer a prize. Offer something in return for a digital fan signup. Put that info on your generic fliers. Your list is worth money to you - in terms of getting people to come to shows, buy your stuff and, well, making you famous - like the rockstar you are.
Thank you Thank you for reading this little info-book. There is so much more I wanted to put in here - you have no idea - I could write a book! I hope this helps a little - however if you need further assistance and you are on a budget - the most economical way is to hire me to create a strategy for you, designed specifically for your image and needs.
www.novamusicservices.com | info@novamusicservices.com