With the state of today’s music industry, most fledgling bands have to achieve a much higher level of success than before for labels to even consider signing them. They need to show proven sales and a loyal fan-base, not to mention a certain amount of drive and initiative. This means a great deal of promotion is necessary to get the word out and get people interested in the music.
Because the majority of them do not have the cash necessary to hire publicists or PR agents, most bands are forced to take a DIY (do it yourself) approach to marketing the brand that is their band. One avenue that bands should definitely pursue is online marketing, as it has minimal overhead, and almost unlimited potential. However, while it may be rather easy to set up a band page on Facebook, successfully marketing your band online involves many more moving parts that must effectively come together as part of an all-encompassing marketing push. You must be able to stay consistently on top of every aspect of this push, or the chances of seeing any palpable traction from your efforts will be minimal. Think of it like a house of cards: if one falls they all fall. So here are areas in which you should focus your energy at first, in order to establish a solid foundation:
Social Media
Social media is a big buzzword right now. Sites like Facebook and Twitter have amassed a stranglehold our time as well as our pupils. Hundreds of millions of people login to these sites everyday. This means that the potential audience for your band to reach out to is almost unlimited. So if you haven’t yet, it’s time to get your feet wet (and post a status update announcing that you’ve gotten your feet wet). Learn these sites and what kind of marketing opportunities each offer. A good place to start is Facebook. Create a Facebook band page, and invite your existing personal friends to like it and share it with others. The key to successful marketing on social media is equal parts of consistent output and consistent quality. Offer a plethora of band related content that potential fans will find useful and entertaining, and they will return the favor with engagement and loyalty.
Music Blogs
Music Blogs are a great way to get your music heard by people who can utilize their followers to increase your brand’s visibility. This could mean a full song/album review, or just a shout-out on twitter. Either way it can be extremely beneficial. Send your uploads into as many mp3 databases as you can. After that, do a little research, send your songs as well as a preferably personalized letter to specific music bloggers that you find have clout within your genre/scene. If you really want to go hard in the paint, take time to first establish a rapport with the blogger through comments on his posts that do not make mention of your band at all, and are of valuable content to him and his readers. After you have gained his respect as a follower of his blog, hit him with the pitch. Odds are he will be much more susceptible to throw someone he knows a bone than just another random band.
Viral Videos
One of the most utilized platforms in online marketing today is video content generation. Think about your marketing campaign as one big propaganda machine. You’re trying to reach a certain goal, and all the propaganda you put out should in some way further that cause. Video content is the most effective propaganda you have, as it mixes image and sound to form an experience that can have enormous impact on a persons emotions, and therefore their buying decisions as well. There are tons of articles out there on how to make a great promotional video, so do your homework and come up with something that conveys a sense of who you are as a band, and gives people reason to give you their ears, and maybe even their hearts.
That’s all for now. I hope this gives you a good starting point from which to work off. Remember to always be on the lookout for new means of reaching fans and getting heard, and rock on.
Brendan Sevack is a social enthusiast and a blogger for
Wazala.com - an easy to use
music artist shopping cart. Brendan specialize in social commerce solutions and social media marketing. Studied audio engineering, but soon after realized he prefers to share with words rather than sound.