Tag Archive for: Instagram

How To Build Your List Feature MEME

How to build your customer list?How To Build Your List Key Ownership MEME

 

Why should you build your customer list?

 

We’re going to answer both today.

 

The reason why is you have to own the information.

 

Simply put; if you don’t own it somebody else does.

 

Whomever owns the information controls the information.

 

How To Build Your List Nacho Contacts

 

Huh?

 

Yeah, those 10,000 fans that you busted your butt to locate and connect with on your Facebook page belong to Facebook, not you.

 

 

Even if you paid Facebook to help you reach them, they’re not yours.

 

Because Facebook owns the information they do whatever or charge whatever and whenever they want to allow you access.

 

Oh, and you trust them to ensure that your message is actually getting to those followers and some random accounts from a crappy click farm.

How To Build Your List Cypher Feature

 

Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, Snapchat, YouTube, and every other platform will behave in exactly the same way.

 

Here’s a real example:

 

In December of 2013 Daredevil Production was marketing for Collin Raye who is 90’s country music star with 24 top 10 hits, 16 #1’s and over 8 million records sold.

 

Collin Raye Record

 

At that time, Collin’s Facebook page had 118,000 likes. We were promoting his latest release (while producing the new one) and needed to ramp up the activity on his Facebook page prior to a CTA (Call To Action) post advising people to purchase.

 

In 2013, Facebook had something called “Edge Rank” which was an algorithm that essentially filtered all posts by popularity and relevance to the user. This means that your Mom will probably see every one of your posts and the people you interact with less would need to rank as more popular to get their message to appear on your feed.

Like Collin Raye.

We devised a guitar giveaway contest that was designed to create Collin Guitar Contest 100k commentsmassive amounts of comment activity in a very short time.

 

We ran the contest and we received over 100,000 comments in 1 hour on Collin’s page. (This meant more people would organically see the next post which announced the sale of the new release. Make sense?)

 

Raging success!

 

We replicated this exact same contest with 3 other country music starts in October of 2014.

 

Jamie O’Neal had around 13,000 likes on her page and we garnered about 13,000 comments in 1 hour with the contest.

How To Build Your List Andy Griggs

 

Andy Griggs had about 45,000 likes we got about 45,000 comments in one hour.

 

Ty Herndon was the biggest of the three with 67,000 likes on his page and, you guessed it, we summoned around 67,000 comments in 1 hour.

 

 

FYI, I don’t have a clue why there is a correlation between the amount of likes and the amount of comments in 1 hour, but there was; four times in a row.

 

Fast forward to February of 2015 and we get a super exciting opportunity! Tracy Lawrence with 1.1 million likes on his page.

 

How To Build Your List Tracy LawrenceCan you imagine where my head was at?

 

This is news! 1 million comments in 1 hour is NEWS!

 

Hell, even if we failed miserably and only got 500,000 comments that’s still news, man. That would have blown my company up.

 

Facebook went public, changed the rules, and we only got 50,000 comments.

 

Tracy and his team worked HARD and SMART identifying and connecting with those 1.1 million fans but, like every other person on FB, they had zero control and would have to pay to reach them.

 

Get it?

 

The way around the system is to be collecting contact data, RELIGIOUSLY, the entire time you’re connecting, so you can reach your following whenever you want and as often as you want.

 

The frequency costs money on Facebook.

 

The frequency is free on your list.

 

Don’t hate on Facebook either. They’re a company they need to make money. They have an awesome platform that How To Build Your List Frequentallows an incredible capability of targeting, connection, and communication. It’s worth it.

 

But why pay more than once per fan?

 

That’s the why you build your list.

Here’s 5 ideas on how to build your list.

 

There are many ways to constantly improve your list. The most important takeaway is that you’re constantly asking, “How can I get more people on my list?”

 

If you you’re asking the right questions, your subconscious will reward you.

 

First you’ll need to set up some relatively simple technology to capture these contacts.

 

  1. Squeeze Page – IHow To Build Your List Tonyf you’re not familiar with the name, you’re definitely familiar with the technology. This is where you offer something of value (like a free song, or in my case a free Twitter book) in exchange for their email address. If you want to see what a squeeze page looks like you can peek in at GiftFrombailey.com, GiftFromAbbey.com, GiftFromTony.com, GiftFromAlora.com, and GiftFromJohnny.com

 

Notice a common thread?How To Build Your List Bailey

 

A common look?

 

 

 

 

How To Build Your List AbbeyIt’s because they work. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Text Capture – Text capture works really well too, especially for live shows. There are many competitors, we like Call Loop. It only costs $10/month for a key word. If you text BAILEY to 38470 you’ll get to download a free song and we get your phone number.

 

How To Build Your List Call Loop

 

You can opt out of both of these technologies at any time. So step one is get the information and step two is make sure you have some content ready to keep them interested.

 

Get it?

 

Here are some killer strategies to get them to actually sign up.

 

  1. How To Build Your List Merch TableLive Show Merch Table Sign In – Have a computer on the merch table by the person who is watching your merch for those who don’t have a device. (Don’t forget you’ll need WiFi somehow…make it happen)

 

If you don’t have a merch table make one.

 

If you don’t have a person, find one.

 

Go to the bar owner and tell her that you’re intelligently building your contact list which will help both of you to improve the draw moving forward as you’ll be able to contact these people directly to inform them that you’re coming back to her bar.

 

How To Build Your List Bar Tab FREE

 

Ask her if she’d be willing to put up a $25 bar tab to a winner that you’d randomly pick from a list of people who signed up that night.

 

FYI, every time an artist has followed my instructions on this, the bar owner DOUBLED the amount to $50. Remember this is NOT $25 or $50 dollars cash from the bar as $25 worth of booze only costs a couple bucks to the bar. It IS worth $25-$50 dollars to the fan.

 

Get it?

 

Remember, everyone is a winner because they ALL get a free song for participating, but the people who stick around till the last song have a chance to either drink for free or put a nice dent in their bar tab.

 

But they have to sign up to win.

 

Can’t win if you don’t play.How To Build Your List Live Show Phone2

 

This will work if you SELL IT from the stage.

 

 

 

“Who likes FREE MUSIC?? If you like free music, get your cell phones up in the air!! Go to GiftFromJohnny.com and get your free song from us as a THANK YOU for coming out tonight. All you have to do is tell us where to send it. BTW, if you do it RIGHT NOW I’m going to pick a name at the end of the night and that lucky person will get a $25 bar tab so if you like free music AND you like to drink, this is perfect for you!”

 

How To Build Your List FSMS

 

This same idea works with the text capture too.

 

We had Bailey James do this at her first show, which was to 730 middle school kids, not all of whom had devices, not all of whom brought their device, and we got 150 contacts. Abbey Cone did it in Texas at a High School and got 400 phone numbers in 5 minutes.

 

 

  1. Recurring Twitter (Social Media) Posts – If you’re Tweeting like you’re supposed to (at least 14-24 Tweets per day) you have room every 3rd or 4th Tweet to THANK THEM for following. Because your #Grateful or #Blessed to have them, here’s a free download of our single. #YOUROCK.

 

How To Build Your List Recurring Tweetts

 

 

 

These will create a slow, steady trickle that builds up over time and increases as you grow your reach on Twitter.

 

 

 

 

  1. Interview Benevolence – In the case of a Squeeze Page, you are NOT plugging anything, rather you are Santa Clause, grateful for the interview, interviewer, listeners, readers, community, etc., and want to offer them a free song as a “thank you”, or a favor, or out of respect, etc.

 

How To Build Your List Adam Carolla
We did this with a killer indie rock band called 7Horse (who’s song “Meth Lab Zoso Sticker” was the theme song for Scorcese’s Wolf of Wall Street). They were able to secure an interview on Adam Carolla’s podcast. We assembled the squeeze page, Joey and Phil mentioned it twice, before and after they performed a live song. We got around 800 email contacts in 24-48 hours.

 

Every radio, print, podcast, and TV interview better have a mention of the squeeze page.

 

If you’re always thinking, how can I get these people to opt in? You’ll figure it out.

 

Then you’d better hit me up on social media and let me know what you came up with!

 

How To Build Your List YouTube Annotations

  1. YouTube Annotations – If you’re posting regular weekly videos on YouTube then annotate each video informing consumers that you’re appreciative of them watching the videos so here’s a free download right now. Bailey’s email list has grown significantly over 18 months using this method alone (she hasn’t toured yet).
  2. Social Media Bios – Screw your webpage, screw your store (you don’t have enough of a relationship yet to ask for money) and put your squeeze page link up on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

 

Listen, I know you don’t get all of this right now. You don’t have to. Just get that list started. It’s MISSION CRITICAL

 

The money is in the list. I promise.

 

Every time we send out an email to Bailey’s list, we get sales.

 

Period.

 

What have you got to lose?

 

Stay

In

Tune.

 

 

 

Content Magic Glass FEATURE

If you’ve read my first book Music Marketing On Twitter: How To Get 1,000 Loyal Fans Every Month In Just 15 Minutes Per Day (whContent 1 Gift From Johnnyich I give out for free just click through if you don’t already have it) you have figured out how to identify your audience, target them, and connect with them on Twitter. You’re growing your audience. The next steps will require you to assemble a content strategy that will begin to deepen these new found relationships enough to monetize in the future.

First off we need to set some realistic expectations here. You Content Datingreally have to think of this like dating.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, there is a magic equation of content out there that will deeply connect you with your audience to get them interested in you enough to listen to your music.

 

Content Wizard

 Hopefully you and your music are compelling enough to persuade them to buy it, but all this doesn’t happen on the first date.

 

If you’re ready (y’all think you’re creatively ready and your product sounds competitive but most are not yet which is why you need help developing in that department…but I digress), they will respond but it will take more than a couple tweets to make that happen.

 

When you’re dating someone with the intention of beginning a relationship, you can’t expect to close the deal on the first date or the second date if you want it to be worth a damn.

Content Takes Time

Content marketing A.K.A. Permission Marketing takes time.

 

Let’s dive into some ideas to get you started on how to think about crafting YOUR content.

Content is about revealing who you are inside; it’s about your story.

 

Content Whats Your StoryAs a person.

As an artist.

As a musician.

As a fan.

As a music lover.

As a parent.

As a party animal.

As a comedian.

Your dark side.

Your funny side.

Your sad side.Content DNA

Your hopes.

Your dreams.

Your fears.

 

Get the picture?

 

I believe that every artist has a unique story to tell which will make them stand out.

 

This is the DNA to your brand.

 

Content Share Yourself

 

Sadly, most artists won’t be that vulnerable, or take that much time to dig down and bring all this “personality gold” up to the surface.

 

Wait, isn’t that the job description of an artist?

 

 

 

Here’s some soothing thoughts to take the edge off the quest to expose your inner artist soul.

 

Your beehive is out there no matter how crazy, weird, or controversial you are.

 

I love to tell my artists if your music only resonates with pale, young, Asian boys under the age of 14 with freckles, bad acne, and one leg, that club is out there and you can find them.Content Beehive

 

Small as that Universe may be, they ARE out there.

 

If you want to connect with them, you can.

 

So go for it.

 

 

 

Here are some content angles you should be considering:

  • Be interesting.
    • This should be easy if you consider yourself to be an artist. Your talent should be interesting or you need to consider a career change. We have had amazing success exposing our artist Bailey James’ talents on YouTube with Content Who You Areconsistent cover content. This now 13 year old has over 300,000 views and 3,250 subscribers. All completely organic without promotion (that’s about to change now that her debut single and EP are being released)
  • Be funny
  • Be controversial
  • Be an authority
  • Share discoveries and experiences
  • Be Weird
  • Introduce people to new things
  • Fascinate people
  • Be obnoxious
  • Surprise people
  • Be unconventional
  • Foster your uniqueness
  • Be curious

 

Here is a great example of artist content that capitalizes on MANY of these points. The artist is Social Repose. This dude is OUT THERE and I think he’s brilliant. He looks and acts outrageous and obnoxious. He’s unique, he’s humorous, and he’s controversial.

Content Social Repose Tour

 

 

Love him, hate him, be baffled by him, he has encapsulated so many sides of himself on several social media platforms that he is COMPELLING to watch.

 

On his YouTube channel he has a mixture of funny Vine-like videos (that were originally Vines originally and were repurposed to YouTube), cover songs (where he definitely puts HIS artistic interpretation on the track), interesting talent spotlight videos (where he will cover a song in 13 different vocal styles showcasing his vocal [and engineering/auto-tune] skill set), Interactive type videos (where he responds to haters, truth or dare tweets, and prank calls his fans).

 

 

Brilliantly, he has his own original material videos up there as well.

Content_Social_Repose_1

 

Note how some videos are very raw and some videos are more produced. Richie is extremely resourceful here and has conquered social media and found his audience.

 

I promise this kid is making a good living being a creative.

 

You should study this channel.

 

Now, I know what you’re thinking, (insert snotty 5-year-old voice here) “I’m not going to put on a headdress, crazy Goth makeup, flaunt some insect-like wings and act like a moron to get heard.”

 

Content_Social_Repose_Vocal_Cover

 

You’re missing the point.

 

See how he worked so many different facets of his personality into his social media content?

 

This is really him!

 

The question to ask yourself is, “what makes you compelling?”

Are you funny?

Are you controversial?

Are you angry about certain things?

Are you elated?

Tell the world and be clever about it.

 

If you’re a killer guitar player, play guitar. Post 15s videos on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube and make them feel something.

 

Get it?Content_Guitar_Player

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s another example. We have a client, who is a very fascinating individual.

 

Patience Reich is a female jazz singer (who is creating a pop record), Physician of internal medicine, Christian, and a humanitarian who regularly travels to Africa and Haiti to help children.

Content Patience 2

 

I look at all her attributes and see a tremendous amount of “Brand DNA” to work with. The content we create involves connecting with people who orbit around her same interests in and outside of music.

 

We put out humanitarian quotes and content. We encourage Patience to post real life images of her work when she is on a mission.

 

Patience regularly posts content of her religious interests like pics of her at church with different people, etc. Never preachy, just inspirational content and to a degree, voyeuristic in that we get to see into her real life occasionally.

 

It’s clear she’s human, just like us.

Content Patience leastmedicines

 

 

 

We post funny, interesting content that revolves around Medical Doctors.

 

 

 

We post content about her favorite jazz artists and we make it attention-grabbing. Here is an example of a jazz music factoid that has had some great engagement.

Content Patience 1

 

 

Of course, we post clips of her live performances to introduce her vocal talent and connect her social media following with her artistry.

 

Patience DILIGENTLY responds to EVERYBODY that engages her and we are growing her account and most importantly, deepening these relationships.

 

 

 

They like herContent Patience 3.

 

They will buy from her.

But it takes time.

 

It takes time to find your voice but you HAVE TO FIND YOUR VOICE or you won’t stick out.

 

I promise if you approach your marketing and/or your artistry half-assed, nobody will care.

 

When you’re writing or performing songs, as an artist, you must hope to connect with your audience on some level, right?

 

You want them to be moved.

 

If they can relate to your story, you win.

 

Just approach your social media tactics in the same manner as you approach songwriting.

 

Bond with them emotionally.

 

Relate to them.

 

Here are 2 great books I would recommend to further your education on this subject.

Content Advanced Music Marketing

 

 

The first book is my new Advanced Music Marketing On Twitter release. This book teaches the next steps on how to cultivate your new audience relationships. It is a logical progression after you have absorbed the first book. There are a ton of tricks, techniques and strategies in this book to show you how we do what we do at Daredevil Production including the tools we use to make us as efficient as possible with our precious time.

 

 

 

Content Cracking The Content Code

 

 

 

The second book is The Content Code: Six Essential Strategies For Igniting Your Content, Your Marketing, And Your Business by Mark W. Schaefer. This book will help you formulate some purpose to your content. It will get your creative juices flowing.

 

 

 

 

 

These books (and any others you may read) can’t tell you EXACTLY what YOU should be doing with YOUR content because you are a unique person

 

You are a unique artist.

 

So you have to attack this with the idea that these books will help you connect some dots, using that big brain of yours, and help you apply solid strategies to your specific personality that will resonate.

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

If you thought this article was helpful, SHARE it please!

 

The Climb 200x200

 

P.S. You might also like my new podcast called The CLIMB with my cohost and hit songwriter Brent Baxter. We discuss the business of songwriting and of course, we talk about marketing music for singers, songwriters, and artists. You can download this podcast for free on iTunes or by clicking through.

 

Music Marketing Reason Feature

The music industry is SUFFERING because consumers don’t need more ways to connect with artists and purchase products, they need more reasons. Creating reasons consumers want to buy is what music marketing is all about.Music Marketing Bkstg Logo

Why does the music industry keep creating new WAYS for fans to purchase music/merch/tickets, etc.?

You’ve heard of “Murphy’s Law”? Well, Murphy completely underestimated the problem here.

 

A new startup called Bkstg just raised $20 million to create a new social network geared towards artists and music sales. Of course, fans and artists alike will have to adopt the new app, new platform, care about the artist and artist’s product, and there’s your proverbial trouble.

If a cool, easy to use distribution platform was all that was needed to sell more music, indie artists and Music Marketing Barrel Moneymajor label artists alike would be in high cotton selling like crazy on iTunes, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Bandzoogle, Reverbnation, CD Baby, blah, blah, blah. The trouble is when you put your music on any digital distribution platform nobody cares unless you make them aware that you are there and then make them care about YOU.

 

Get it?

Consumers need a reason.

 

A good reason makes the purchase worth it.

 

Your music has to be worth it to the consumer not just you, so if you’re thinking “my music is amazing and that’s why they will buy” you are seriously delusional.

Music Marketing WHY Ksayer1 License

Photo: Ksayer1
License: http://bit.ly/1jxQJMa

 

 

 

Your delusions, in my point here, have nothing to do with your music (although that is often part of the problem…but I digress as that issue is not germane to this article).

 

 

 

If we all understand the difference between music distribution (which is where consumers go to Music Marketing Distribution Equalspurchase) and music marketing (which is why consumers will purchase) then it should be obvious to y’all that a new distribution method is a waste of time.

 

There are many BIG investors behind this new Bkstg platform that frankly, seems to be reinventing the wheel.

 

 

 

This is where I see opportunity for all you indie artists.

 

Focus on the “why” right now. Focus on music marketing and marketing yourself.Music Marketing Magnifying WHY

 

 

Ask yourself, “What reasons do consumers have to purchase my music?”

 

 

 

What are your gifts?

Can you sing?

Can you play?

Can you write?

Can you rap?

Can you dance?

Music Marketing Gifts ElfAre you funny?

Are you a big personality?

Share these gifts with the world on social media.

Let them get to know YOU.

 

 

If you own the “why” it really won’t matter what the “where” is because real fans will find a way to get it…just like drugs, or Christmas, or Black Friday, or Valentine’s Day, etc.Music Marketing Why Collage

 

In plain English, any and all distributors (of the consumer’s preference) will be utilized to purchase music from an artist people are genuinely interested in.

 

 

The biggest reasons consumers will purchase anything from an indie artist these days is a relationship with the artist. Period.

 

 

If you’re not thinking about this then you are an idiot.

This is what new music marketing is all about, people.

 

Music Marketing 1 MIllion. Morgan Williams License

Photo: Morgan Williams
License: http://bit.ly/1jxQJMa

 

 

Jason Aldean had lots of promotion, lots of radio spins, and barely sold 1 million units. This number along with almost all the other record sales scares the crap out of industry executives.

 

Aldean had the #1 selling country music record of 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

Taylor Swift had lots of promotion, lots of radio spins (albeit NO SPINS on country radio where all her previous releases were promoted) and a relationship with her fans via social media.

Music Marketing 7 Million Jana Zills License

Photo: Jana Zills
License: http://bit.ly/1jxQJMa

 

 

Taylor sold 7 million units.

Her fan’s reasons for purchasing the whole record vs a single were founded in the relationship they felt they had with Taylor.

 

 

So what are you doing with your music marketing?

What are you doing to create reasons for people to buy your music?

To expose people to your music?

 

Why do so many of you wait until you finish recording before you begin thinking about creating the relationships with your fans online?

Music Marketing Music Don't Talk MEME

This tactic suggests that the music will do the talking. The trouble is if consumers are not aware of you, if they are aware of you but are unfamiliar with you, or don’t like you, they won’t give the music a chance.

Get them interested in your talent, in you as an artist, and they will be curious to hear your music when you release it.

THEN the music will do the talking because the consumer will be open to receiving the communication you want to send. (At that point your music and recordings better be good!)

 

Get it?

Overlooking and under-funding the music marketing for your project is akin to choosing not to put oil in your car because you don’t have “the budget”.Music Marketing Junkyard

You wouldn’t be shocked when your engine freezes up without oil, why would you expect the world to purchase a product they aren’t aware of or familiar with?

 

Look, you’re not sure you know what you’re doing, I get it.

 

It’s foreign.

 

Get over it. FAST.

 

You must learn.

Music Marketing Bailey James MEMEWith Bailey James we have been marketing her on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook since January.

All this activity creating relationships with fans, getting them connected with her as an artist and her talent was consistently happening while we were still developing the project artistically.

 

As of now, we have created a decent fan base that now know her, are familiar with her (they regularly watch her YouTube videos), they interact with her on social media, and they adore her.

8 fan created Instagram accounts have been started so far.

Her EP is loosely scheduled for release mid-September.

 

Listen, YOU’RE the reason get it?

Music Marketing YOU MEME Gabe Austin License

Photo: Gabe Austin
License: http://bit.ly/1jxQJMa

 

Don’t make the mistake of thinking the music is the reason.

 

In today’s indie online market, you come before the music.

 

The more “reasons” you can give, aka the more of yourself that you put out there, the more fans you will get, the more music, merch, and tix you will sell.

 

Get to work now on creating more reasons.

 

Focus inventively on why a consumer will buy your music, not where, and you’ll be one step ahead of the whole damn industry.

 

Stay

In

Tune

Music Marketing Laser  Find Your Audience

Mistake Twitter

 

PS: If you haven’t already downloaded my free Music Marketing On Twitter book, please enjoy it on me. Go to GiftFromJohnny.com put  in your name and tell us where to send it. It’ll teach you how to get 1,000 new targeted followers every month for just 15 minutes per day.

 

 

If you like this post, please SHARE it and/or LEAVE A COMMENT thank you!

[ois skin=”Bottom Post”]

 

 

Wrong Marketing Feature Image

Your marketing strategy, you’ve got it all wrong.

Wrong Marketing Unplug Rennett Stowe

Photo by Rennett Stowe http://bit.ly/1ryPA8o

 

Don’t worry it’s fixable, but you are going to have to unplug from what you think you know and consider some alternative, foreign ideas to win this one.

 

Let me explain.

 

 

 

 

Most artists don’t even think about marketing their music. Most artists think iTunes, Pandora, and Spotify is marketing and that’s where their future fans, who are currently unaware of said artist, are going to find this artist’s music.Wrong Marketing Why Meme

Yes, they can find the artist’s music at these digital distributors, but why would they do it?

Artist: “Because my music is epic!”

How do these consumers know that?

Artist: “Because I created it and I’m awesome!”

Yes, but how do they know?

 

Doing it Wrong Adam Swank image

Photo by Adam Swank http://bit.ly/1ryPA8o

 

Because most artists don’t think about marketing, their budgets always reflect this oversight. When you get the coveted major label deal, the MAJORITY of the budget will be allocated to the marketing of the artist, not the creation of the art.

 

Think about that.

 

 

 

How many projects have you recorded?

Each project had a budget.

How many of those budgets had any kind of money allocated to marketing?

Wrong Marketing Monopoly Money SEO credit

Photo by SEO http://bit.ly/1ryPA8o

 

Record labels are not developing artists anymore, rather they’re buying small businesses. This means you have to become a small profitable business to get any real attention.

To become a small profitable business it is mission critical to implement an effective marketing plan.

 

It’s that simple.

 

 

What about the artists who ARE thinking about marketing?

 

Wrong Marketing No Copy image

This subject is doubly heartbreaking for me.

 

If you have a brain in your head and your thinking about marketing, the LOGICAL idea would be to recreate some marketing strategies that were effective in making you aware of some of your favorite artists, right?

 

 

Strategies like touring with a killer headliner for exposure, radio promo, Letterman, The Tonight Show, SNL, press interviews, etc.Wrong Marketing Damn the Torpedoes MEME

Of course I’m generalizing but the major labels are essentially doing it wrong now too, so you if your plan is to copy (what you believe to be working) you are wasting your time with an outdated marketing plan that is probably cost prohibitive.

 

Think about these facts for hot second.

  • Tom Petty’s “Damn the Torpedoes” came out in 1978 and cost $8.00. 8 bucks in 1978 is worth $28.80 in 2015. That’s called an inflationary adjusted price
  • Tom Petty’s new record “Hypnotic Eye” is available on iTunes for $10.99 which is 38% of the $28.80 he used to get per record.
  • The bestselling country record of 2004 sold 11 million and the bestselling country record of 2014 barely sold 1 million that means record sales are down 90% from 10 years agoWrong Marketing Hypnotic Eye Tom Petty MEME
  • CONCLUSION: the price of a record has plummeted 62% and still overall sales are down roughly 90%

 

See how the game has changed?

 

 

The days of terrestrial radio as a super effective promo mechanism are over. 51% of GM automobiles in 2016 will be equipped with 4G LTE Wrong Marketing Apple Carplay imagecapability and some form of Apple Carplay or Android Auto streaming music service.

You don’t need (and may not even want) terrestrial radio in your car.

 

Game over.

What will the major labels do?

 

 

Their main mechanism for delivering the drug we call music is becoming exponentially less effective. The system is broken.Wrong Marketing Broken Needle

 

Proof is in the pudding, record sales are down.

 

 

 

When you heard your now favorite artist on the radio back on the day you were first exposed to them, there was a majesty to it.

Wrong Marketing Impressed theJbird credit

Photo: theJbird http://bit.ly/1ryPA8o

 

You were intoxicated with the music.

 

You were like, “Who is THAT?”

There was an implied power you gave that artist. They were already put on a pedestal of sorts by consumers because they were getting massive exposure on the radio.

 

 

This dynamic helped to create the long lost heyday of the coveted “rock star”.

 

But those days are gone.Wrong Marketing Rock Star

 

Now every artist is going to have to find their audience on their own.

 

Now every artist is going to have to connect with their audience on their own.

Wrong Marketing Connect

 

 

That means y’all are going to have to actually be social on social media.

Just sayin…Wrong Marketing Antisocial 2

 

 

Once you connect, you will need to market your music to consumers. That is to say that you need to begin to influence their buying decisions.

 

HINT: “Buy our single on iTunes” or “I’m freakin’ awesome check me out” is NOT marketing. That’s digital “door knocking” or straight up panhandling.

It doesn’t work.

It’s also a major turnoff to consumers.

Listen, consumers will buy ANYTHING if you serve it up right. Remember the Pet Rock?

Wrong Marketing Pet Rock

 

Are y’all aware that you spend twice the price of gasoline to purchase bottled tap water which you can obtain for free?

How about specialty vodkas for $50 per bottle?

Get it?

 

 

 

The trick to marketing your music online is that you need to understand it’s not about the music.

It’s about you.Wrong Marketing YOU finger 2

 

But you have to make consumers feel it’s about them.

 

Confusing?

Every “Swiftie” feels that Taylor Swift is their BFF in a certain special way. 7 million of them felt so strongly about that relationship they purchased her record.

 

Read Taylor’s Instagram posts and tweets.  Have you EVER seen her say “BUY MY RECORD ON iTunes”?

Wrong Marketing Taylor Swift

 

No, you see a lot of social proof with different milestones she’s reaching on Billboard, VEVO, etc.

 

You see a ton of fan pics.

Taylor Swift’s social media strategy is this: it’s about them.

 

 

If you’re not Taylor Swift you will need to set up an infrastructure for converting attention into contacts, and contacts into cash.

Wrong Marketing Contacts = Cash Meme

If you market correctly, the consumers will line up behind you.

 

 

 

 

Here’s a pic of Bailey James an artist that we have been working with since January.  She went from Zero to 19k followers. But look at the engagement. She has over 700 likes and 120 comments. The social proof was Bailey singing at a contest.

Wrong Marketing Bailey Instagram image

 

She’s amazing.

 

Now these consumers are AWARE of her.

 

They are lining up behind her and by the time we record and release her first EP, they will feel close enough to her to purchase either the $4.99 mp3 download, $7.47 HD download, or some bundle TBD that will cost $40 more.

 

Oh yeah, she just turned 12 years old in January.

 

 

I’m hoping this example of Bailey, who is an independent artist like you, is proof positive that you can change your strategy and get measurable results in just a few months.

So yes, whether you’re ignoring the idea of marketing all together or you are trying to fashion a strategy based off of your favorite major label artists, you’ve probably got it all wrong.Wrong Marketing Fix It

 

If you’re ignoring marketing that’s your fault.

 

You can fix that.

 

If you’re trying to market or thinking about marketing in the way you have been marketed to, that’s not your fault but the fact remains that it isn’t working. I’ll bet you feel like you don’t have enough money to make it happen this way as well.

It’s less expensive than you think.

 

Wrong Marketing Expensive

 

Marketing doesn’t have to require a $500,000 radio promo budget to connect you with fans who are willing to purchase your music.

 

You can fix this.

 

 

So what will you do to fix it?

 

Stay

In

Tune.

 

If you like this post, please SHARE it and/or LEAVE A COMMENT thank you!

[ois skin=”Bottom Post”]

Iceberg Feature Meme

Most of you are only scratching the surface.  You are only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to marketing your music.Iceberg Keyboard Meme

All the fans you’re ever going to need are right there, literally at your fingertips on the keyboard of your computer.

You can find them and target them.

You can connect with them.

You can create relationships with them.

You can deepen relationships with them.

You can monetize those relationships.

 

 

Iceberg TwitterTwitter is important but it’s not the only thing.

 

Instagram is important but it’s not the only thing.

 

YouTube is super important and most of you aren’t doing anything to really work that platform to its potential.

Iceberg YouTube Logo

 

Almost all of you haven’t set up your web stores. If you have, I guarantee they’re being ignored and need tweaking. There is probably ZERO bundles on these few websites that actually have web stores.

If you understand the difference between digital distribution and marketing then why on earth would you send people anywhere else but your own store on purpose?Iceberg Record Store Banner

 

30% is a TON of money!

 

Of course, you have to have a presence on all the digital distribution sites, but adding products and bundles to your web store that cannot be found anywhere else and purposefully sending people to the store will result in about 45%-55% of consumers purchasing directly from you.

 

Iceberg $1,393

 

Here’s how much: If you sold 1,000 records ($9.99 each) only on iTunes, your take would be $6,893.10.  If you set up your own web store and 55% of your fans purchased from iTunes, meaning 45% purchased directly from you (not including bundles!!) your take is $8,286.70. That’s a difference of $1,393.60.

 

 

Most of you aren’t collecting (or effectively collecting) contact data. This is akin to playing a signature lick almost correctly but with a few wrong notes. If you changed one note on The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction” lick is that ok?

CASE STUDY #1:  I want to share some real world examples and real data with you, as always.Iceberg Bailey James

We are currently working with a 12-year old artist named Bailey James. We started our working relationship with Bailey on January 2nd, 2015.

Since then we have gone from:

  • 0 – 14K targeted Twitter followers
  • 0 – 16K targeted Instagram followers
  • A few hundred to over 18k views on her YouTube Channel
  • 0 – 600+ subscribers on her YouTube Channel
  • 4 independent fan created Instagram accountsIceberg Bailey James Contact Capture
  • 1 independent fan created website
  • (in less than one month) over 160 cell phone numbers (via text capture, WATCH videos)
  • (1 month) over 800 email addresses

 

FYI, we are still in pre-production of her first EP which won’t be released at the earliest until late July early August.

 

 

Here is how important contact information is.

Iceberg Case Study 2

CASE STUDY #2:  We have run a series of autographed guitar giveaways on Facebook (designed to create massive interactivity) with several multi-platinum artists. Tell me what marketing numbers you would intelligently predict on the last artist.

 

 

 

  1. Collin Raye: 118k likes 12/5/2013 – received 100k comments in 1 hour.
  2. Jamie O’Neal: 13K likes 10/4/2014 – received 14k comments in 1 hour
  3. Andy Griggs: 43K likes 10/4/2014 – received 48k comments in 1 hour
  4. Ty Herndon: 67K likes 10/4/2014 – received 69k comments in 1 hour
  5. Tracy Lawrence: 1.1 MILLION LIKES 2/4/2015

 

How many comments would you expect?Iceberg Blind

 

We expected damn close to 1 million comments but received only 50K comments in 1 hour simply because Tracy’s Facebook fan base DIDN’T SEE THE POST. They didn’t see the post because Facebook changed the rules again. We were going to have to pay dearly to reach all those fans his team worked so hard to obtain.

 

 

Do you see how dreadfully important contact/customer lists are now? We can expect all social media platforms to behave the same way once they begin monetizing or once they go public.

 

Iceberg Data Collection Meme

 

 

If we would’ve had contact information we could’ve DRASTICALLY manipulated this number.

Most of you haven’t really thought about your messaging, imaging, and content to determine if it makes sense as a whole.Iceberg Celine Dion

If your music sounds slick and super polished (Pop ish) with more universal pop like lyrics then your look should reflect that with a super polished look. It’s confusing to see a ragged looking artist with a slick sounding record…it doesn’t make sense. For example, Celine Dion wouldn’t work with torn jeans, tattoos, and a beat up biker jacket; nobody would believe her. Rather Celine needs to look glamorous. If you do leather with glamorous she can’t look like a drug addict.

Get it?

Iceberg Celine Dion Old

 

Btw, look at the early picture of Celine vs. the latter, can you see the transformation?

 

 

 

 

 

Conversely, a record loaded with rough edges, very personal edgy lyrics, a raw, more edgy sound, maybe even dark content, wouldn’t sell with a glamorous front-man. The image needs to fit the lyrics and the music.

I see far too many artists sending me songs where the lyrics don’t fit the music. Light music requires light lyrics and visa-versa.

This doesn’t mean you can’t cleverly switch it up but you have to be mindful of the chord changes, melody, and lyric content.Iceberg Breaking the Rules

It’s ok to break the rules as long as you know WHAT rules you’re breaking, HOW exactly you’re breaking them, and WHY you’re breaking them.

 

 

For instance, let’s study 2 songs with extremely dark lyric content: Shooting heroin.

 

Iceberg Mr. BrownstoneFirst look at Guns & Roses “Mr. Brownstone” from their debut record Appetite for Destruction. We all know and get the real gritty image of the band. Look at the lyrics and how literal and matter-of-fact they are. “I used to do a little, then a little wouldn’t do, so the little got more and more. I just keep trying to get a little better, said a little better than before”. Then at the end of the track W. Axl Rose says “Stuck it in the middle and I shot it in the middle and it, it drove me outta my mind, I wish I’d known better said I wish I never met her, said I’d leave it all behind.”

This is not a pop record. This is not slick. This is not glamorous.

 

Now let’s look at The La’s Lee Mavers’ pop masterpiece “There She Goes”. Despite politicking in the press, this is definitely an ode to heroin.  Iceberg the La'sNotice the song structure, the chords, and the melodies. Undoubtedly pure, saccharine, indie pop music.  These lyrics are NOT literal but quite metaphorical. It sounds like he’s talking about a girl so much that they get tons of placements on movie soundtracks sonically supporting the girl imagery, and a Christian band Six Pence None the Richer even covered and released it.

So the lyrics WORK with the chord changes and the melodies.

 

Are you picking up what I’m putting down?

 

Iceberg Sixpence

 

Side note: The La’s recorded 2 versions of this song. The first didn’t chart and the second barely broke the top 50. Six Pence None the Richer covered it and took it to #7. Look at the images. Coincidence?

 

 

 

Iceberg eye roll

 

Now, as I type I can actually FEEL some of you rolling your eyes at this whole post. Some of you think this happens “organically” or “naturally” or you think “Everyone should just love the music, man, peace, love, and groovy-ness.”

 

 

Don’t be naïve.

Iceberg Naive Computer

This is the music BUSINESS.

 

The BUSINESS part of that phrase is about commerce, which requires sales.

 

 

Makes sense right? If you want to make a living at your dream, YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO SELL SOMETHING.Iceberg Commerce Shopping Cart

 

 

Sorry for the wounded artist souls on that one, but it’s a fact. Somebody, somewhere, somehow, has to pay money for something in order for you to make a living.

So making a living requires sales and sales requires marketing.

 

It goes deep, y’all, marketing goes REAL deep.  If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got!

 

Iceberg Titanic

 

Understand the whole iceberg and you won’t go down like the Titanic, people.

 

 

 

 

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

If you like this post, please SHARE it and/or LEAVE A COMMENT thank you!

[ois skin=”Bottom Post”]

 

 

Traffic Feature 1

If you read my last post, hopefully you understand the concept of marketing (and how it’s commonly confused with digital distribution), customer list building, and the monetization of that customer list. If online sales are mathematically predictable, then once the sales funnel is optimized, you need only worry about average revenue per contact (bundles, other widgets, etc.) and traffic.

How do you create traffic?Traffic Predictable

How do you drive traffic to your squeeze page or get a live audience to text a keyword both of which will put consumers into the sales funnel?

There are endless possibilities, here are a few:

  • Live shows
  • Social Media
  • YouTube Channel
  • Blogging
  • Article Writing
  • PR
    • TV Exposure
    • Print Ad Exposure
    • Blog interviews
    • Magazine interviews
  • List Sharing
  • PPC Campaigns
  • Advertising (YouTube, Online Blogs, etc.)

 

 

Traffic Bang for your Buck

 

With this new mindset of capturing contact information, one can really get the most “Bang for your buck” with every form of exposure.

Live Shows

Google IS an advertising company, so why on earth would they buy Motorola for a bazillion dollars and purchase an 80 million dollar ad campaign from another ad agency?Traffic Google Motorola

Because Google knows it needs to be in your smart phone.

This is real.

You need to internalize this.

 

Text Capture is a killer way for an artist to take advantage of the implied power they have when they’re onstage to create real traffic to their sales funnel.

 

 

Whether you’re up in front of 100 people or 10,000 people there is an implied power given to you by the audience.

 

 

file0002005996090Sometimes we refer to this power as the artist “Having audience in the palm of their hand”. The crowd will mostly do what you tell them to do.

 

Imagine THANKING everyone for attending the show from your stage and offering up a free gift for the audience’s effort.

 

You say, “I’m so happy y’all are here tonight.  I want to and I’m GOING to return the gesture because y’all are important to me. I’m going to give you a free track for coming out! Everyone get your cell phones up in the air right now! I want you to text the keyword _______ to this number and get your free song.  Thanks again, I love and support you too.”Traffic Thank you

 

 

Boom, just like that you could have tons of opt-ins to your sales funnel.

 

 

FYI, the conversion rates on traffic from a live show are astounding.

Those of you who regularly find yourselves on the county fair or festival circuits are wasting this amazing opportunity to connect with the THOUSANDS of consumers that have experienced you live for the purposes of driving traffic to your sales funnel.

Traffic Get Over It

 

Btw, if you’re rolling your eyes at the idea of sales get over it.

 

You going to have to get over it.

 

 

 

 

I have seen even the most “hippiest” of hippies who followed the Grateful Dead selling spaghetti to afford the trip to the next venue.

Commerce has to happen if you want to make a living.

DSC07870-Sat Color Boost

Those of you with a regular draw are wasting the ability to connect directly with your audience to ensure consistent growing attendance. Btw, that “regular draw” will have an insane conversion rate.

 

Google “Text Capture” to find all the companies that will compete for your business in this technology.  Most will seamlessly connect to your CRMs like aWeber, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, etc.

Social Media

 

 

Traffic Social MediaSocial media is a major component although it is not everything.

Social media is an awesome tool to target the traffic that will most likely connect with your art.

 

Once the potential traffic is targeted you simply need to serve up the effective language to direct them to your squeeze page (AKA top of the sales funnel) to turn them into real traffic.

Traffic Craig Gerdes

 

 

EXAMPLE: We worked with a super talented artist named Craig Gerdes who wrote a song called “Haggard Fan”. At the time we started working with Craig he had a Twitter account but hadn’t paid too much attention to it (like many artists).

We cut “Haggard Fan” and targeted…well, Merle Haggard fans on Twitter.

 

 

It was literally like shooting fish in a barrel.  We had a killer song, a killer track, and if you think about it, an audience that was prepared to love it.

In a couple months we grew Gerdes’ Twitter account from 27 followers to over 5,000.

 

How did we drive traffic you ask?Traffic Auto DM's

 

We simply set up a revolving automated DM for everyone that followed Craig.

 

Some will tell you automated automated DM’s are a nuisance.

I will tell you if the content is good and served up correctly, the content is welcome.

 

The DM said something like, “Wow, TY 4 the follow! I am so grateful. I want you 2 have a free track 4 giving me a shot. Go2 HaggardFan.com today”

 

This garnered us 2,000 downloads of the single in just a couple months and, if there was a CD to sell (which there wasn’t), we would’ve mathematically sold at least 100 CD’s + the upsell revenue from any bundles that were on his web store.

 

That was JUST using Twitter.

How would you feel about your artist career if you could add $2,000-$4,000 of online sales in the next couple months?

DSC03525-B

For many of you that would be a huge improvement.

Let’s be honest for many of you that would the difference between $0.00 and whatever revenue the traffic created.

 

That would easily pay for 5 years of subscriptions to premium social media tools, huh?

 

Get it?

 

Now implement Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and boom, you have a real network going on.

 

Btw, Instagram is, by far, the most engaging of the largest social media platforms.

 

 

Traffic Crack The Code

Learn to crack the Instagram code.

 

HINT: it’s the same code as Twitter.

 

 

 

Next week I am going to turn y’all on to the 10 fundamentals of creating a successful YouTube Channel that will drive traffic to your sales funnel.

Until then…Traffic YouTube Strategy

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

 

If you like this post, please SHARE it and/or LEAVE A COMMENT thank you!

[ois skin=”Bottom Post”]

 

Social Media and Momentum

We recently had an opportunity to pitch an indie artist on Daredevil Production’s online marketing expertise. This artist (who shall remain nameless) has generated some serious momentum and attention from a key song placement in an Oscar winning movie. This momentum has garnered them over 30,000 downloads of the placed song; not bad.

Check this out, their social media company has taken this momentum and worked it into just

  • 3,900 Facebook Likes
  • 943 Twitter followers
  • NO EMAIL addresses to speak of

W…T…F

They are smart enough to know what they don’t know

Here’s the snafu. Indie bands like this are quality artists because they are very smart. When you have an indie act that is this intelligent, they are smart enough to know what they don’t know, like social media, accounting, booking, legal matters, etc., and they surround themselves with a team of professionals who are hopefully experts in their respective fields. Of course, the artists build a relationship with these professionals and they (have to) choose to trust their professional opinions; after all these purported experts are part of their team.

This tactic makes absolute sense as long as the professionals are doing their job. I understand how social media is somewhat of a mystery to many people, but many artists are not “inspecting what they expect” with regards to their social media team members.

If the job description is to expand your Twitter influence then you should see measurable daily gains.

If the job description is to expand Facebook likes then you should see measurable daily gains.

If the job description is to monetize the social media you should see money rolling in every day/week/month.

You have to remember that “Social Media”, “Social Marketing/Content Marketing”, and “Monetization” of the social media assets are 3 completely separate processes that are easily confused.

Artists, I implore you to ensure that whoever you are paying your hard-earned money too is taking care of business and earning their paycheck. I have had meetings now with several indie artists, even a few multi-platinum artists who used to have big record deals, and their trusted advisors on social media are completely inept. The artists understandably aren’t aware of all the details regarding social media and therefore remain unaware of any methods to measure the effectiveness of these companies and rely too heavily on the opinion of their chosen experts to determine if they are doing a good job.

This is akin to leaving the fox in charge of the chickens and then accepting the fox’s professional opinion on exactly how many chickens are left in the coop.1-IMG_9155

If you don’t stick your head inside the coop, you will never really know what the hell is going on.

Btw, in every one of these meetings the social media contact person for the company the artist was using was present or on the call. ALL of them condescendingly responded to our strategies with,

“Oh yeah, we are familiar with email lists.”

“We are familiar with squeeze pages”

“We are familiar with all these technologies”

…as if to dismiss our silly age old ideas. You know what?? I am familiar with open heart surgery but I won’t be performing any operations today because I DON’T KNOW HOW TO FREAKING DO IT AND THE LIVES OF THE PATIENTS ARE DEPENDING ON THE EXPERIENCE OF THE DOCTOR!

The process of targeting, finding, contacting, engaging, and maintaining a core audience online is comprised of very common technologies mixed with, a consistent work ethic, and very common sense…which is not so common.

In an effort to ensure this isn’t happening or won’t happen to you, I have attached a report we regularly present to artists so they can more effectively measure the performance of their social media company against some successes we have had with our clientele (if we have real conversations on the phone with their social media experts online, it ends in confrontational disaster). Think of it as a sort of social media report card. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

I hope this helps you.

DDP EMAIL LOGO social media image

What We Do Different

Gents, you asked me a question during our conference call that I felt was better answered with visuals rather than just words. The proof is always in the pudding. You asked regarding your current social media strategy, “What will you do differently than what we are doing right now?”

Here is a good look at what we are doing DIFFERENTLY than what your social media company is currently doing with you.

Twitter

We will actively expand your social media accounts. Take a look at daily/weekly numbers that Daredevil Production gets on Twitter.

DDP_Twitter_numbers Social Media image

Take a look at another Twitter account we are working for a Facebook magazine called Real Country Music Fans. Again notice the daily/weekly gains in followers and unsolicited fans.

CountryMusicFB_Twitter_numbers Social Media image

These are the kind of monthly gains you SHOULD be experiencing. With both Twitter accounts you can see that we average a solid 1500 to 1800 new followers per month with 12 to 14 per day being unsolicited followers.

Twitter_Monthly_Totals social media image

Facebook

Take a look at the Facebook LIKES for Real Country Music Fans. I should point out that this is our magazine and we haven’t even been pushing it or trying to expand it, yet you can see through clever activity we experience regular gains on LIKES.

�Real_Country_Music_Fans_FB_LIKES social media image

 

Social Media ENGAGEMENT

This particular case study was with an artist named Collin Raye. Check out the results from a Facebook contest we put together. With this contest we were able to create much needed activity on the artist’s Facebook account. We generated over 70,000 comments in just 40 minutes.

NOTE: there are over 100,000 comments because people kept playing well after we ended the contest.

Collin Guitar Contest 100k comments Social Media image

Additionally, this contest created 5,000 new Facebook LIKES for Collin.

Lead Capture

Collin Raye Email List Growth

The image above shows that we added 1,268 emails in 13 days.

MONETIZATION

Of course, getting the emails through consistent online and live show disciplines is one thing. Turning those social media follows and LIKES into email addresses, and the email addresses into revenue is something else completely.

Take a look at this 4-day sale we did for Collin Raye. Note the different product columns and the fact that most of sales happened during the sale days which are highlighted.

NOTE: these numbers reflect the sales that came from the web store we set up for the artist. There was an additional $1,750 of revenue generated from Tunecore as well.

Collin_Raye_4-Day_Sales_social media image

Red arrows below show there are 5 pages of receipts. 172 receipts to be exact

Collin_Raye_Email social media image

Here is a look at what one of the receipts look like. I show you this to support the data shown in the excel spreadsheet.

Collin_Raye_Reciept social media image

Hopefully this will demonstrate exactly what we are doing differently. In my humble opinion, after all the attention you have received from “Insert Oscar Winning Movie Here”, your social media numbers should be much higher. They’re abysmal at less than 1,000 Twitter followers, less than 3,900 Facebook Likes, and no email addresses to speak of.

Again, the technology is nothing new. In fact, the solutions you are looking for to grow your business are about 10% common technology and 90% language and experience. Compare these numbers here to your current numbers and I think you will find the differences compelling. My father always taught me “The numbers don’t lie because the numbers can’t talk.”

Some points to consider:

  • If you or your current social media company is aware of all this technology why isn’t it being implemented?
  • How do you have 30,000 downloads and hardly any followers on Twitter, Facebook, and hardly any email addresses?
  • How have you been using your YouTube activity to drive traffic to your website?
  • Why are your social media numbers so low?
  • What social media strategy, exactly, has your current company been using?
  • What are your financial goals with this project?
  • Are you certain you have the right team around you?

 

If you like this post, please SHARE it and/or LEAVE A COMMENT thank you!

[ois skin=”Bottom Post”]