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Here’s
a short summary of some of the techniques I use and plan to use to increase my
website traffic, sales, and brand recognition over time. These are some of the
most successful actions ever designed which I’ve collected over many years of
practice and study. These tactics can be added to your existing traffic
generation strategies or used to improve the ones you already implement.
You
will find that many of these techniques are quite obvious and common, while
others are more sophisticated and technical. I thought you would benefit from
seeing my list of profitable activities to assist you in developing your own.
So check out these ideas and let me know how they can help you or someone you
know.
Part 1: Off-Line Music Marketing
This
approach to music marketing encompasses any activity that seeking to improve
brand recognition or increase sales through marketing tactics that are used
primarily through advertising, print media, incentive programs, and promotional
materials.
Mini-CD’s, CD Demos, Free Digital Downloads
Mini-CD’s,
CD demos, or free digital downloads available exclusively for VIP’s or
supporters for their continued assistance and funding. Mini-CD’s, CD demos, and
free digital downloads can also be used as music samplers for promotional uses.
Place CD samples in music stores. Make a list of stores like Penny Lane,
Amoeba, and other music stores like DJ record shops or indie record stores that
are friendly to independent artist and offer them a small inventory of your CD
sampler. Rather than wait for their customers to take one on a voluntary basis
ask the store clerks if they can place one of them into every customer’s bag
until they run out. This way you can be sure someone actually got one, but
you’ve got to be willing to eat the expense. Remember free CD samplers should
be a cheap, no-frills version of your professionally made albums. It should be
nothing more and nothing less, just good free music to get buzz started and to
spread. Include stickers, bumper stickers, hats, T-shirt and other
paraphernalia to your list of promotional music products.
CD Compilations
Create
a CD compilation with other artists and split costs with them.
Street Teams
Multiply
your efforts by creating a volunteer street teams to promote your music project
and provide them with incentives. Give incentives. It can be as simple as “For
every 20 people a fan signs-up on the mailing list, they get a free T-shirt.”
Location, Location, Location
Good
locations for passing out flyers and gig invitations are places like tourist’s
areas, bazaars, fairs, stadium events, colleges, high schools, and popular
local hang out spots. Take your free promotional flyers, CD samplers, and other
promotional products and material and approach people at clubs either when
they’re coming or leaving. Because most people generally favor specific types
of music and the few have extensive music collections you’re more likely to get
success with your promotional materials by locating clubs that play artists
similar to your genre or style. So look for clubs that play music and acts with
music similar to yours.
You
could also approach film, photography, performing arts, video, and radio
departments in colleges and vocational schools. Students in these departments
may need to develop their skills in a variety of contexts for college credits
and you might be able to receive free services in exchange. A number of quality
and long-term industry relationships might begin from these sorts of
experiences.
Try
advertising on bus stops and small billboards if you've got the budget. Another
clever but advanced strategy is to create a music event or movement (political,
religious, or environmental) with your music or music project at the center.
This strategy can only work if you've got the connections to pull it off or the
organizational skill to make it happen.
Find
alternate marketing channels like furniture stores, yoga studios, fitness
studios, clothing stores, bookstores, upbeat places, cafes, restaurants, malls,
festivals, etc. And don’t forget to always include your contact information in
your promotional pieces such as an e-mail address and phone number.
Classifieds and Community Boards
Promote
in newspaper or magazine classifieds and community boards where film makers are
looking for new music and composers. Website designers looking for sound artist
or composers for web design might also be another option.
Music Libraries
Music
libraries can also offer a terrific source of additional income for you or your
music project. Contact a company like iStock Music to get more information
about qualifications and compensation.
Part 2: On-Line Music Marketing
This
approach to music marketing encompasses any activity that seeking to improve
brand recognition or increase sales through marketing tactics that are used
primarily on the Internet through article marketing, copywriting, parasitic
marketing techniques, creating brand alliances, video marketing, blogging,
generating digital mailing lists, and e-mail.
Video, Music Blogging, Article Marketing, and Affiliate Programs
Start
a blog or use article marketing as a platform to talk about music you like,
music you’re making, music you finished, things you do beside music and ways
your fans and supporters can connect with you. Article marketing can also drive
unsolicited traffic to you from around the world with very little effort on
your part.
A
vlog (video blog) is another great way to expand your reach because it allows
new people and long-time supporters to see you, which is very important because
it adds an element of accessibility to your professional image. In your vlog
you can make videos of you in the process of production, during the songwriting
process, sharing musical sketches, and even performing covers of some of your
musical influences.
And
if you’re so inclined you can also talk about your craft and discuss topics
such as how to compose electronic music, increasing one’s musical output,
creating memorable melodies, beat matching (if you’re a DJ), starting out as
musician, and developing a signature sound.
You
can include a “Recommended Music” section in your blog or website and attempt
to generate additional revenue from joining an affiliate marketing program like
Amazon Affiliates or ClickBank. Furthermore, writing reviews on books and music
can give you a way to show different sides of your personality while staying
connected with your audience.
Remember
to close every article, blog post, or video with a short pitch for your visitor
to sign up for a FREE album or some kind of free gift.
Influence through On-Line Reviews
Commenting
on the news or shares news about yourself, your music – new songs, albums, and
future releases – are all great ways to keep your fans and supporters engaged
in your musical development and progress.
Free Tools
Take
advantage of free websites, blogs, and social media, especially Twitter. One
Pager, Blogger, and Google Pages are all cheap and easy electronic tools to
help funnel traffic to your main website. This is where much of your energy
should go, which is to learn technical Internet marketing tactics to increase
the effectiveness of your branding efforts such as understanding SEO and
forging business alliances with other marketers and promoters.
Artistic Quotes
Use
artistic quotes in order to turn your website or blog into a source of
inspiration.
Mailing Lists and Artist Profiles
Build
your mailing list and increase sales by learning how to write copy. To write
copy is simply the art of selling in print. Your website, blog, articles,
social media accounts, etc. are all excellent places to test your copywriting
skills and find out what results you can achieve in generating and creating an
on-line following.
Create
a profile, press kit, or bio for your readers, fans, and supporters to use in
promoting you. Provide a ready-made story for the readers of magazines.
Parasitic Marketing
Employ
parasitic marketing strategies on Amazon, MySpace, Official Websites, YouTube,
and Bandcamp. With Amazon, MySpace, YouTube, official websites, and message
boards for established artists you can post reviews, add responses, leave
comments, while simultaneously linking back to your profile or website to bleed
traffic off from their site to yours. The reason this is called “parasitic
marketing” is because you’re using someone else’s platform to get your message
across.
In
contrast, with Bandcamp what you can do is add an album roll of other artists
on Bandcamp, link to other artists in the Bandcamp network, offer other
Bandcamp artist’s free music downloads as free gifts to your audience, and
occasionally change up the look and feel of your Bandcamp page.Any free music
you make available for your growing audience should be set to ask for their
e-mail address in exchange for their free digital music package. This step
alone will separate serious fans from freeloaders who just want indiscriminate
free stuff. This step will also provide you with an important piece of contact
information that you can later use in your e-mail marketing campaigns to expand
your audience and generate sales. Furthermore, your mailing list just might
also be the beginning of your street team.
Part 3: Production and Business Services to Deepen Your Music
Marketing Program
Audacity
is a music recording and editing program that you can use to create ringtones
and shortened versions of your songs for purposes like selling ringtones, and
edits for T.V. and radio commercials.
Bandcamp
is a great service that I also use as a point of purchase for my music. You can
use this service to promote free music giveaways in exchange for e-mail
addresses to build your mailing list and sell your music and merchandise.
Animoto
is a terrific service that’s great for making commercials, ads, videos, photo
film strips, to pair your music with images.
iContact
is a contact management service that you can use to manage your growing
personal and cold list of contacts. You use this service to send them a steady
stream of communication regarding your interests, music news and progress.
Trusonic,
Ricall, and Getuplayed are also wonderful services for licensing your music to
businesses for royalties. Many other services such as these exist, but these
are the only ones that I’ve had some experience with.
Reverbnation
is another excellent service that takes your music and creates brand
association with products and services that your music complements. This
program also pays the artist a royalty.
Last.Fm
has interesting marketing component for you because it allows artists to create
playlist and a customized radio station to promote their own music such as the
Stereo Thesis Radio Channel. I have yet to explore the possibilities this
service has to offer, but I plan to discover whether or not it can be
integrated into my promotion and marketing approaches.
Wikipedia
– Getting a page on Wikipedia might be a bit tricky. I haven’t been able to get
my own up for Stereo Thesis because of the following:
According to Wikipedia’s Notability guidelines,
you must be a notable person in order to get an article. You have to be famous
for something. If you're not famous, then you cannot get your own Wikipedia
page. The guideline states that there must be several articles written by a
third party about you. You must have some kind of sources or articles that are
written by someone else like online or magazine articles written about you.
Once you’ve accumulated enough third party sources about you, then you an
attempt to create a Wikipedia page for yourself. So basically, the trick is all
about getting a little press about yourself or music project to qualify for an
article that might get approval from the people at Wikipedia.
Otherwise, if there are no articles or info
available about you from third party sources, then you cannot have a Wikipedia
page.
Bandzoogle
– This is a website template service specifically geared towards musicians and
the unique characteristics musicians need a website to have in order for us to
properly display our image and artwork as well as providing us with a clean and
simple user interface.
Echospin
or Nimbit – These are 2 services that make it possible to sell your own music
from your own website.
OnePager
– Provides you with an additional knot in your marketing web by offering you
another free space on the Internet to place your contact info.
Bonus Video: Seth
Godin
To
further assist you in developing a more detailed music marketing plan here’s a
great video with Seth Godin, master marketer, noted author, and founder of
Squidoo, discussing how to get your ideas, products, and music to spread like a
virus.
Related Articles:
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P.S. To support Stereo Thesis with a financial donation, click here.
Marc
