The best way to start this article is to stress that there is no right way to market yourself. A good marketing strategy can gain traction and get you results over time. Don’t think that you’re just one viral video away from Glastonbury (although that still could happen!). Instead, think about preparing yourself for when an opportunity comes your way.
Marketing will be a topic that we address a lot, and there’s far too much info to put into one article.
Instead, let’s get you into the mindset of marketing yourself properly, and we’ll go from there!
What is Marketing?
In a nutshell, marketing is merely informing people of your product or service. The easiest way to explain it is through the circus analogy:
- A circus comes to town and puts up posters. That’s advertising.
- They parade an elephant through town. That’s promotion.
- The elephant tramples the mayor’s new flower bed. That’s publicity.
- They get the mayor to laugh about it publicly. That’s public relations.
- They get the local citizens to go to the circus, show them entertainment booths, and what they can expect to see. That’s sales.
If they planned the whole thing, that’s marketing. Marketing is a holistic plan to gain awareness of your product or service. Ultimately, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to find out who you are and what you do.
What is a Marketing Funnel?
Your funnel is made up of four strategies:
- Awareness: Focus on reaching as many people as possible.
- Consideration: Provoke a second or third look at your page or product.
- Conversion: Provide enough value to your audience that leads them to follow, like, or buy tickets.
- Loyalty: Audience retention.
What is a Marketing Strategy?
A marketing strategy is made up of goals that are fulfilled via a campaign, split into macro and micro goals. Here are some examples of macro goals:
- Gain 100 followers
- Release 3 songs
- Learn to produce music
These can then be split into micro goals:
- One post a week, one story per day, one link click per day.
- Spend 2 hours per day writing and working on a track, write three songs a month, etc.
- Watch one video on EQ, one on compression, and another on how to balance a mix.
Channels
These can be either traditional or digital, mostly via social media but also through other major tools:
- A website can help generate leads.
- Social media can help generate awareness.
- Posters help generate awareness.
- Business cards help generate conversions.
Review and Analysis
Finally, once you have completed your campaign, you can often see insights on social media tools. These are often found via Home > Settings > Insights on your apps. Review the most engaged audiences, captions, view-through rates, and other metrics to learn which content works best for you.
Who is Your Target Audience?
A lot of people believe their product is “for everyone,” which is a huge mistake. Instead, try to identify key demographics who are interested in your music. Look out for similar age groups or genders, check insights on social media apps (we’ll go into this in future newsletters), and try to recognise who responds most to your act.
Define your most successful social media apps. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter are all powerful marketing tools that bring you closer to your audience. Try to define age, gender, interests, and then tailor hashtags and content towards them.
Once you can define your audience, you can target them with campaigns down the line to maximise your return.
As we said from the beginning, marketing is a huge area to cover and we’ll release further newsletters to go through social media, print, web design and branding to make the most of your act!
Comment below if you have any questions or give us some ideas about what works for you!
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