I’m a self-help & business book junkie and as you well know, Music Success In Nine Weeks is a self-help book for musicians. If you read my newsletters and dig my philosophies, this probably comes as no surprise. So, as I’m nearing a birthday in June, I decided to treat myself to a weekend with New York Times best selling author Michael Port.
I read Michael’s amazing Book Yourself Solid about a year ago, and I think all musicians who are struggling to make money with live shows should read it. I adore his teachings. So, when he e-mailed me and offered a private seminar for just eight lucky people, I took him up on it and had a phenomenal experience.
Here’s one of the golden nuggets I took away:
Marketing = Relevancy.
Social intelligence is an enormous part of being relevant and if people like you, they will naturally follow your marketing because you’re relevant to those people. Now, when you’re a musician this is difficult because your music may not at first occur as relevant to them (because they may not have heard it yet). This is where social media can become your best friend and your most useful tool for connecting to more fans because you can show what is relevant to you and therefore, relevant to them. Because social media is a fabulous, “keep in touch” tool.
I’m not saying your music is not relevant but connecting people to your music requires the fostering of an emotional connection. Sadly most people aren’t actively looking for more great music, but, they may be looking for a way to feed their finicky children more healthy food, or maybe they’re looking for a solution for non-chipping nail polish because they can’t stand getting a manicure and having it chip in 2 days. Or maybe, they want a great organic cat litter that keeps their cats’ lung health, or a fantastic dog toy that’s indestructible.
Or maybe they just want a fabulous dessert recipe: My greatest hit is panettone egg nog bread pudding.
See, how hard was that? I didn’t give away any super personal information about me. I didn’t compromise my integrity or over-share the depths of my soul and I didn’t bore you with endless marketing messages about myself, or scream: come check me out!
I just provided you with something relevant that has nothing to do with marketing music, social media, or music. But it all has something to do with what’s relevant to me. And, maybe because you were looking for a perfect manicure one day, or you wanted to wow your guests with an easy dessert recipe and you stumbled across my blog, you might think of me the next time an artist asks you for an online music marketing company.
So, here are your action steps: To Marketing Relevancy
(remember: First think about social media as a “keep in touch” tool)
Write down five things that you like:
Your kids
Travel
Your pets
Books
Recipes you like to cook
Shopping
Movies or cartoons you like
Charities you support
Fun videos
Politics
I don’t care what it is- but use these five things to help keep you relevant and help keep you on track with diversifying your marketing strategy. Keep in mind that social intelligence is an enormous part of being relevant.
And now ask yourself how relevant are you? All of sudden, you’re marketing.