The internet is a veritable treasure trove of information, but at the core of it, all are three key principles which are at the heart of basic music marketing. To increase your income you must first increase your active fanbase.
These principles are critically important.
None of these three parts are brain surgery. But they do take time and strategy.
I’ve said in previous posts that you cannot market music online in the same way you would market a diet product or car insurance. Traditional internet marketing – in my opinion – doesn’t work very well for music. Why is this?
Products that sell online tend to solve people’s problems (like losing weight or making money). In order to market music effectively, you need to approach the whole thing a bit differently.
With a little customization and savvy strategy, musicians can use those three basic principles to increase their own incomes.
The Three Ways to Increase Your Artist Income:
1. Increase your number of fans (fanbase).
Here is how you can do this:
Get serious about your newsletter.
Yep, stop wasting time on Facebook ads and tweeting till your fingers go numb and adding more filters to Instagram!
The #1 way to get fans to engage and purchase is still with your newsletter.
You need to be consistent in sending and have a reason for fans to open each and every one.
Use Mail Chimp or Constant Contact to send your newsletter at least once per month. Track the effectiveness of your emails by monitoring open and click rate
Mine your inbox and outbox for names and addresses to add.
Send DMs to your most engaged fans on Facebook and ask if you can have their e-mail addresses for your newsletter. This is a bit arduous but the results will pay off.
Bring a clipboard OR get a burner phone
Invite people onto your mailing list with a raffle or giveaway from the stage, and collect e-mail addresses.
During your performance, hold up a merch item on stage and then give it away: you’ve just inserted a full commercial into your set without feeling “salesy” and you’ve excited one of your fans by giving them a gift.
Or get a cheap phone and ask fans to text you their email straight from stage
TIP: While you’re out searching for new fans, don’t forget the ones you already have.
These fans don’t need to be found, because they’re already following you!
Studies have proven that it is much harder to make a new client and get them to purchase something than it is to get a client that already knows and trusts you to purchase from you over and over.
2. Increase the frequency of purchase (how often your fans buy from you).
To do this, you’d better have more than just music to sell!
Ask yourself: what can I offer your fans on an ongoing basis that will get them to buy?
First, you have to have real fans that have proven they want to buy.
Here are some ideas:
Monthly Fan Club – Use Patreon
Record a unique track, live session or video once a month and charge your fans a small fee and have a sliding scale the club ($2 – $10 a month).
Special Events with the Band Club
Create a fan club that hosts periodic special events a year. Not all of them have to be you performing. You can get creative. Have a wine tasting, a bowling night, a dessert party or a pub crawl. Get local businesses involved by holding these events on a slow night, like a Monday, or during a down month for the business.
Artist Critique and Feedback
Invite your biggest fans to come hear the songs that you’ve written for a new album or EP release. If your fans don’t all live near your hometown you can do this on a live streaming site or as a Facebook Live!
Play the tracks and give listeners feedback cards and let them contribute thier opinions. This makes your fans feel extra included because they can help you choose what will make it onto you new record.
Private Gigs
You can play a dinner party or a backyard BBQ, or a coffee shop gig that’s private-invite only. You could arrange these 2X – 4X a year. Offer the fact that you are available to play private gigs in the newsletter. Your fans may bite – but you have to make the offer!
An Event for Each Season
How about a concert for each season? This would be a great way to get fans to pay four times a year. Hold a quarterly concert with a theme, such as Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Summer Solstice, April Fools, or Winter Wonderland.
3. Invest In A Long-Term Marketing Plan
Before you go straight to hiring a radio promoter, a Spotify playlisting company or a publicist – STOP! Ask yourself what your objectives and goals REALLY are! Most of the time just getting PR won’t add money to the bottom line – to do this you need a Long-Term Strategy that focuses on the things that you can do to earn money – Is it playing more gigs, licensing to film and TV, or creating better merch that sells? Without a plan in place for how to do this, you won’t.
I deeply suggest you work with someone who knows how to build a plan or take some real time to get clear on how you are going to build and make sure you allocate serious time for each part.
Source . cprmusic
