Due to Covid, artists no longer have the luxury of performing in cafes, restaurants, social clubs, and other live venues that were once available to them. It’s 2021 and artists are figuring out new ways to engage their audience from streaming platforms to showcase their talents and take more control of their craft and the distribution of it. In return, platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, and Youtube have all seen an increase in their monthly subscription. Any independent artist interested in advancing their career would see this as an opportunity to get into one of these platforms. The thing is you need a digital marketing campaign to compete with the plethora of music being created today. Most artists don’t know this.
Before you start, you first need to know what digital marketing is and how it can work for you. Investopedia defines digital marketing as “the use of the internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other channels to reach consumers”. How can this work for you? If 2020 taught us anything, it was that the consumers are no longer in one place. In the digital world, they are no longer sticking to one platform, and getting their attention needs more of a plan than just an upload. We are not all Queen B. Serious artists look at this as an extra cost they can’t afford at the moment. Artistically, morally for some, or just not an avenue to explore. Don’t think that way. In most cases, it will cost you more to promote your music if you didn’t have a digital campaign plan.
CREATE YOUR WEBSITE.
Let’s start with creating a website. The first thing you need is great music and a good reason for someone to visit your website. Great music will bring you fans that your campaign doesn’t reach. The second thing, build a great website. Dittomusic.com says “ creating a slick, professional website as a base for your online presence is vital”. Your website should showcase your music and give your audience easy access to multiple platforms. Things like a mailing list, your bio, events, openings. tour dates, images, and videos are also important on your website. A good looking website shows that you are serious about your music and ready to take it to the professional level. They are 4.4 billion internet users and a website is also a great digital footprint to start with. You can visit www.gator.com or www.wix.com for assistance in creating your own website.
SOCIAL MEDIA FOOTPRINT
Now that your website is up let’s start creating a social media footprint. Platforms like, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok are some great social media platforms to enroll in. Artists have questioned the reasoning of having a website and then creating a social media account. Think of it this way. Your website is your performance hall and your social media accounts are promoters. Social media platforms like Instagram have over 1 billion subscribers. Twitter has 330million, TikTok has 800million, Facebook has over 2.7billion, Snapchat with 331.4 million. These are already established platforms with a huge following, and some with paid subscribers that your website does not yet have. Don’t try to recreate the wheel; modify it to work in your interest. The good thing about using these platforms is that they have a tutorial for musicians that want to create a music page. And they will give you a step by step guide to creating your music page.
ESTABLISH CAMPAIGN GOALS
Continuing on, now that your website and social media account are created and we understand the benefits of it, it’s time to start thinking about your Digital Marketing Campaign. A good Digital Marketing campaign should have tangible goals. No matter where you read about the digital market campaign, the first thing anyone mentions is having a goal. A goal that you know you can achieve. Whether you are trying to sell your music or just want people to listen to it. Whether you want to generate a new fan mailing list or promote a new show or event. Knowing your goals will greatly improve the result of your campaign. It will also assist you in choosing which platform would best work for whatever campaign you are planning. Also, what type of content to create for that particular platform. No two platforms are the same so it’s always good to understand the dos and don’ts of the particular social media platform you want to engage with.
HOW ANALYTIC CAN WORK FOR YOU
In addition to knowing the dos and don’t of a platform, you need to understand google analytics and how vital it is to your marketing campaign. Google Analytics is crucial because it enables a user to track how well their website accomplishes its goals. Hostgator.com mentions five important data found in google analytics
- How many people visit your website
- Number of visitors
- Number of times they visited
- If you have multiple pages, how many visit by page.
- The date they visited
- How long they stay on your page.
- How people found your website,?
If they found you by searching your name on google or directly typed your website name. If they found you from a social media link you posted or they found it from another website your link is on.
Search traffic
- Direct traffic
- Social traffic
- Referral website.
- Who is visiting your website
- Visitors Demography
- Visitors demographic data
- Their Interest
- The device and browser they use to reach you
- Their behavior once on your site. It will show you your bounce rate if they visited your website and exited without doing anything. The average session duration, and pages per session.
- How many new fans joined your mailing list, bought show tickets, listened to your music or video, and how many people are buying your music and merchandise on your website.
CREATING CONTENT
After establishing your goals and understanding how to use your data it’s now time to start creating your content. Websites like Canva, Design Wizard which also integrates with HubSpot, Marketo, and Buffer & Intercom are a good platform to help you start your content creation at little to no cost. You need to decide what kind of content you want to create for each social media channel. Keep in mind that all your channels will lead back to you (your website). In some channels, a video would be more variable than just a picture. Others you might have to write a blog or do a v-blog. When creating your content it’s also good to create a content calendar for the day/week/month. Heyorca.com and Canva have calendars that will help you track your content and the day to submit it for posting. As you are creating your content keep in mind that your content should represent your brand. Yellow pages for business has a good article for branding and the importance of it.
BUDGETING FOR YOUR CAMPAIGN
Furthermore, establish a budget for the type of campaign you want to run. Most social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter all have paid campaigns running on them daily. And it can be easy to get lost in the crowd or even finish your budget without reaching your campaign goal. If we are looking to generate a number of paid subscribers by the end of the year. Our focus would be on a yearly campaign that can be broken down into quarters and months. The good thing is your google analytics data can break this down for you. Using your data from your digital marketing campaign channels you can now focus on where you want to spend more or less money.
A Good Platform to Start.
Reverbnation is another good source for musicians in the US to use to promote their music on different platforms at the same time. The cost is cheap but the audience is limited. The site has 80milion active US subscribers. Reverbnation gives you the tools to generate and fan reach, digital distribution, press kits, crowd reviews, and gig Finder. You can track things like fan states, play stats, traffic stats, and earnings. You can use the app to test your music before publication, get it mastered by professionals, a direct link to labels. Its marketing tools give you additional tools for your digital marketing campaign. Most music artists in the US start with ReverbNation and continue from there. Apple Music will charge you $9.99 for a single and 29.99 for an entire album. While Spotify and other digital music social media will pay a percentage of your earnings from your music plays and free upload to their platform. With ReverbNation, you can post a single to over 70 music sites for $9.99 and an album for $29.99. Their market place also has additional tools that can run a paid campaign for you. A basic plan will cost you $12.95 and the premium service comes with 50% of a one-time setup fee of $50, and 5 free writers accounts included. Something to think about when looking at social media platforms to release your music.
CONCLUSION
Now that you understand it, 2021 and the music world is changing, there is no need to fraught. You now have some tools to keep you above the pack.
- You understand your situation and where your marketing is going
- You know the type of platforms that is readily available to you
- You know the type of content you want to create
- You have a budget and goal for your digital marketing campaign.
- You understand your data and how to use it effectively.
You can now run your campaign with the knowledge that you are reaching the right audience and a piece of mind that you won’t go above your budget. To properly understand digital marketing and how to run a successful digital marketing campaign visit https://thedigitalmarketinginstitute.org They have a plethora of online courses that will benefit you. Now go and start your goals for your digital marketing campaign.
Sources
https://www.timeout.com/newyork/music
https://www.reverbnation.com/control_room/artist/41140/opportunities_list
https://businesscentre.yp.ca/-/4-steps-to-building-a-successful-brand
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/digital-marketing.asp
https://www.dittomusic.com/blog/how-to-promote-your-music-independently
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