Promoting yourself as an artist and your music requires
branding your product in a professional manner.
An article from Green Buzz Agency has some great information on
marketing in the music industry. While
having a dedicated Facebook and MySpace is common practice, creating a website
will help build your brand’s image. Wix
is a free tool that is becoming widely used by artists and other professionals
to have control over their content and build an impressive website without the
need for a web designer.
Building a brand also requires constant communication and
interaction with your fans. It can be a
tremendous workload at times, but it will be well worth it in the long
run. Don’t just promote your material
without saying anything else; engage with your audience. If a person decides to post on your Facebook
wall with a comment or question, promptly respond to their posts. This shows that the business is run by actual
human beings and is not just sending automated messages and posts.
Another way to engage with your audience is to gather email
addresses whenever possible. There are
services to use, like FanBridge and MailChimp, which can be used to create
professional looking newsletters to send to mailing lists. Learning to segment your lists will also
prove beneficial; follow the behaviors of your audience by keeping track of
click-throughs to landing pages or conducting surveys. Customizing email content would be more
effective than mass-producing the same message.
An article from Music Think Tank has some marketing tips that all
musicians should know.
When starting out, you are not going to have very many followers. The only way to gain a following is to play
your music often and people will begin to know your craft. Once you’re able to gain a large following,
using crowdsourcing campaigns can help you produce your next record if you are deciding on managing yourself; however,
this will only work when you have many backers willing to contribute to your
cause.
