HOW TO GET PAID FOR YOUR MUSIC ONLINE

By Johnny Dwinell

So we just got done with CMA week here in Nashville this past week.  Crazy!!!  Tons of fans and tons of artists and Tons of INDIE artists!!!  I can’t believe that the indie artists are not educating themselves on this important business aspect of selling music.

 

Step two is LEAD CAPTURE (a.k.a squeeze pages).

 

If you are unsure what a squeeze page is, then check on our blog section to read about it. I devoted a whole blog post to the subject; because it’s important.  The short answer is a squeeze page helps you capture email addresses.  So now we have the email address and the attention of your new fan.  These email addresses should be considered SALES LEADS; get it?

 

Once we have their email addresses they are clearly interested in what you have to offer, at least the free download.  Now, assuming you have a KILLER sounding track and most importantly a KILLER song, the market is going to respond.  I remember the first time I heard Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” on the radio, THE FIRST TIME…yes, yes, I was already exposed to Metallica and I was prepared (or at least hopeful) to LOVE the track.  God, that riff was UNBELIEVABLE!!!  The song was so DAMN GOOD I FREAKED OUT!!  I’ll bet you all have had many experiences like that with your favorite artists; after all, this is why we are here, we freaking LOVE music.  Well, if you take care of business with the writing and you take care of business with the recording then the internet market will have the same reaction!  “HOLY SHIT!!  This track rocks!!  Where can I buy the CD??”  That’s the response you should be getting.  If you are not, then you’re music isn’t that good or your fishing in the wrong pond.

Now begins the marketing process.

Step three is MARKETING.

This is where you begin to cultivate your following with constant, appropriate contact and content.

This is where you make money.

This is where a big cash register is located for your business that none of you are minding.

When you have their email address and the consumers “Opt In”, you now have permission to market to them through their email; where you will stay until the email is opened or discarded opposed to social media where you here and  gone in a few seconds.  Think about that for a second, while you will take everyone in social media, the whales with big followers/friends/etc. are quite ideal because if they like you and give you a shout out, now you’re exposed exponentially to more people.  However, the more followers/friends one of your followers has, the more “chatter” is constantly on their RADAR screen.  For instance with Twitter, any tweet is going to show up momentarily before they have to “dig” for it.  Make sense?  With an email address you’re inside the circle.

It is important to remember that you can’t blast anybody with “BUY THIS NOW” and “BUY THAT NOW”, because if they feel like they are being marketed to, they will “unsubscribe” so fast your head will spin!!  So there is a definite art to the language you have to use to peak their interest.

There is an art to sales.

Don’t believe me?  Don’t like the word “sales”?  I know, I KNOW, we all hate the sales guys, right?  We all hate the smarmy sales guys.  It’s true; but we don’t hate the good ones, because we don’t FEEL like we’ve been sold.  The fact is that EVERY PERSON HAS to go through a certain mental process before they will part with money.  This is the art of sales.

Sales, is the act of walking someone through the psychological steps they need to satisfy before they purchase and then ultimately asking for the money.  It’s been proven for over 130 years!  It’s been taught with many different names and metaphors, but the simplest program is a 4-step program called AIDA.

Here’s a breakdown of those steps in the simplest form.

AIDA

• “A” – Attention (or Awareness) – This is where you attract the attention of the customer.  (This is what the free download is for!)
• “I” – Interest – This is where you raise customer interest by focusing on the benefits of what you have to offer.  (Packaging works well for this like 2 for the price of 1)
• “D” – Desire – This is where you increase the desire of the customer to get your product, you convince them that they need it NOW!  Scarcity still works well here, i.e. limited time offers etc.
• “A” – Action – This is where you take action to get the customers to take action and purchase the product.  This is the CLOSE.  This is where you get paid!!!

 

Check out the definition of AIDA and the history of it HERE

Every infomercial has these elements, watch for them now that you can define them…you will be amazed.  Every sales pitch, every deal ever made has these elements with the exception of drugs, LOL.  Like Chris Rock said, “I don’t know why people should be busted for selling drugs.  Drugs sell THEMSELVES!  I never knew a crack dealer who was quoted as saying ‘WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH ALL THIS CRACK!!!’”

Well, y’all participate in sales/marketing constantly every day.  When one of your best friends calls up to tell you about a party he wants to attend in lieu of your current plans, he/she is marketing to you.  When y’all are trying to decide what restaurant to go eat at, someone is marketing to you about their favorite place because that’s what THEY want to do.  That’s where THEY want to go and they want you to convert to their way of thinking.  In short, they are influencing (or not influencing) your buying decision.  Consider this, you deal with sales and marketing from your friends every day but it doesn’t FEEL like marketing, does it?  It doesn’t FEEL as invasive as the sales phone call, or the used car salesman, or the CRAZY EDDIE’S ELECTRONIC STORE COMMERCIALS!!!!!!!! (Every town has a Crazy Eddie of some sort!)

Why?

The answer to this question is the secret to online marketing.  It’s because y’all are friends.

Crazy, right?  This is the secret.  People will give you much more of their attention and at least RECEIVE the information you want to give them (i.e. “hear you out”) if they feel an attachment to you, a connection of some sort.  So when you focus on this aspect of your relationship building on social media sights along with your marketing once people are in your sales funnel and become LEADS, you have a far better percentage of people who will convert.

There is an art to the language you will use to market to your prospects without them “feeling” like they are being marketed to and you can AUTOMATE the responses and the email “drips” for everyone that enters the sales pipe.

There is an effective formula for what language is on these emails and when, exactly, they go out.  There is also some gangsta technology like “exit pops” and “redirecting” that helps increase your percentages.

Again, I’m sure there are hundreds of companies that offer in depth data on these processes, and I feel the best one is from John Oszajca.  This program costs money, but it’s worth the education if you are serious about making a living.  You can check it out HERE

Dig in Y’all.  You can do this.  You can make money selling your music, but it’s no different than selling anything else, ok?  You have to be a business person to make it happen or surround yourself with a business person who is willing to do it for you.

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