Manning Your Virtual Merch Table: Translating the 4 Ps to Music Marketing

Marketing Mix Sign Post

We can put all of these together and get your music to its correct destination.

Undertake any marketing-related course and you’ll come across the infamous 4 Ps of the marketing mix. It is to business degrees as drummers are to rock bands, ever-present yet disconcertingly easy to lose track of.

These four elements – product, price, place and promotion – are as crucial to music marketing as they are to any other product or service. 

Though the words are easy to understand, the difficulty for artists often lies in translating the underlying concepts to your own creations. You may get one or two right but overlook the remainder. Even factoring all of these elements into your interactions with fans, if they’re not pulling in the same direction then your efforts are diluted at best, pulling each other apart at worst.

This is why I want you to visualize the marketing mix in more familiar terms, by framing them as manning your virtual merch table.

 

Translating the 4 Ps to Your Music Marketing Mix

Picture a merch table at a live music event.

Broadly-speaking, the following three elements are are in play:

  • Concert attendees flooding in and out of the venue. More often than not they will have to pass by the merch table as they do so, providing a place for fans to gather. So this is a place where people gather… ideally your people. Your fans.
  • The merch table itself is the physical attraction, providing a reason to linger and items to consider. There are other distractions around, but the table content is a constant representing both the product and price elements of the marketing mix. Both can be directly translated to what is available for purchase and how much it costs.
  • Finally, there are those manning the merch table. This could be anyone from a disinterested venue employee to a hardcore fan of yours or, even better, you yourself. In this way, those who man the merch table represent the promotion aspect (or lack thereof). Without this element, no one is pushing your products and no sales will result (although some light thievery is may replace them).

There are several fundamentals of marketing that sticks in the memory, and specifically if any of these elements above are missing or not paid sufficient attention, either the fan experience suffers or sales do. In many cases, both will take a hit.

Fail to position the table in the correct place and you could miss a large portion of your potential audience. Offer insufficient product diversity or excessive pricing and you can miss or alienate those whom you do manage to attract. And without a passionate advocate to engage those with an interest, potential fans could easily wander off, never to be heard from again.

Your online marketing is like a virtual merch table, affected by many of the same dynamics and negatively impacting your relationships with fans if a particular area is neglected.

But how to set up and man a successful virtual merch table?

 

Music Fans Concert Celebration

Image Credit: Denise (Flickr)

The Month Ahead…

Each Monday in February I will be elaborating on each one of the three elements mentioned above, offering a deeper explanation of how it translates to your online music marketing and practical steps that you can take to develop that area of your web presence.

The goal is to provide a clear analogy and a variety of takeaways from each article in the series, some quick wins that you can apply immediately, others exercises that you can roll out over several months. As such, there will be companion content, further reading, and insider extras available via the e-mail newsletter, which you can sign up for here.

I intend to commit plenty of time to the conversation and follow up that I hope this series will generate, so comment below,  join me on Facebook or say hi on Twitter with anything you have to . You can also track the #ManYourMerch hashtag on Twitter for daily tips & updates on the subjects we cover here.

So there you have it… all that remains is to get involved!

February 4, 2013 by 4 Comments
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Manning Your Virtual Merch Table

Last week we touched on the subject of switching perspective from short term music sales to long term fans.

This week, I want to set the ball rolling for a series of posts that will drive at the heart of that idea: Manning your virtual merch table.

Music Merch Table

Image Credit: Nick Sherman

I Have a Virtual Merch Table?!

Yes, yes you do!

And, as with the real thing at a live show, how you approach it makes a big difference as to how you’re perceived by everyone, from new listeners to ardent fans.

Broadly speaking, the ideas that we’ll look at in the upcoming series are applicable across the range of creative arts and will serve anyone seeking to build relationships with those showing an interest in your work. Again, the focus will be on those relationships lasting for years (ideally the duration of your career) rather than just the brief amount of time it takes to make a sale.

“Manning Your Virtual Merch Table” will focus on musicians, though, for clarity (not to mention the ease of extended metaphor). It covers 3 core elements that are crucial to developing a growing base of life long fans:

  • The spectrum of people you’re catering to, including key differences in how they’ll react to your approach,
  • How variety of price and product are crucial to attracting the attention of those you connect with,
  • How (and who) you choose to promote not only what’s on your merch table but also your future with a potential fan.

 

The Beat Start Here…

Let’s begin by making sure that you get the inside track on this important series…

Enter your e-mail address below to receive an in-depth monthly newsletter that will dissect each element and give you specific action checklists to work on.

(Note that some of this content won’t be available in the blog posts… consider it my special thank you for the privilege of entering you inner e-mail sanctum!)



If you prefer to stick to the articles here on the blog, I’d love to have your input as to the major challenges you face building a fan base as a musician. This is your chance to shape the discussion for the series, as I’ll tweak the content to answer specific questions or concerns.

So please, ask away! What one thing most baffles you about how to market your music to new listeners or seasoned fans?

I’m excited to get this series underway and add some structured learning that you can build upon with every read. Watch for the start next Monday and thank you, as ever, for spending time on the site. I greatly appreciate your time and input.

 

January 28, 2013 by 1 Comment
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Think Lifelong To Kick Start Your Career In Music

Frank Turner & Fans LiveI’d always been a fan of Frank Turner, but it was a series of social media-centric events in 2009 that turned me into a fan for life.

The English singer-songwriter (“skinny, half-arsed English country singer”, by his own admission) tweeted some enigmatic request for Brooklyn-area followers to get in touch with him, as plans were afoot. Naturally I complied, feeling the urge to hear a familiar song sung  in a familiar accent, after several months away from the Motherland.

It turned out to be a show on a date that I would be out of town, yet the simple one-on-one connection with a musician whom I admired drew me into Frank’s blog and Twitter feed still further. This, in turn, resulted in another e-mail exchange on his way back through the tri-state area, through which I learned of a secret show in a tiny Hoboken pub (think pool table in the middle of the “dance floor”) and was able to attend an intimate gig that lingers long in my memory.

Through just a few personal touches, Frank had gained a life long fan.

A Lifetime Customer.

 

The Value of a Lifetime Customer

Lifetime Customer Value (LCV) is a somewhat inelegant marketing measurement that is, nonetheless, a huge boon to any artist serious about pursuing a long lasting career in music. If you’re in it for the long haul, you’re going to need a dedicated core of fans in it with you, no?

LCV is calculated based on the average spend over a set period of time, multiplied by the expected duration of the relationship. We can work in factors such as losing fans and the cost of keeping them around, but for simplicity the main areas to focus on here are these:

  1. What your average fan spends in a year, and
  2. How long you expect a given project to last.

The concepts are more important than the actual measurement, for the moment, as they get you thinking about where you make money on your music (and, more importantly, how you may be able to increase that average spend).

You also gain perspective on the differing contributions that your various musical projects are making to your income…

Which of your projects  have potential to expand into crucial income streams?

Which are more ‘for fun’ and should be prioritized accordingly, at least in terms of marketing time?

Understanding where your effort and time is best spent, along with seeing what the spend will be in return, allows you to contrast the value of a simple album sale or song download with the broader context of a fan that knows you, loves your music, and wants to support you for the long haul.

Turning Listeners Into Lifelong Fans

What success looks likeAs there is more and more competition for listener attention, so the distinction between a listener and a fan becomes increasingly important for you and your career in music.

You may begin to attract substantially more listens, be they monetized spins on Spotify or  indicative ‘views’ on YouTube, but without converting a good proportion of these folks to fans, then lifelong fans, making a living from your music will be all the more difficult.

I have a full series of articles planned for February and March that will dissect every inch of moving your listeners along this spectrum, from passive listener to passionate fan for life.

The truth is that it’s a slow burn for 99.9% of musicians.

Very few of you will soar from a tightly knit group of fans to superstar status on the basis of one amusing YouTube video or turning your cat into the next big internet meme (this is a valid strategy, should you wish to explore it… but, please remember, that a cat is for life, not just viral marketing). Relationship building, boosted by new media connections, and incremental nudges are at the core of what I believe is the key to succeeding as an independent in the music industry, now that the old models are falling away.

Starting next Monday, we’ll be looking in more depth at the concepts that relate to building a long term fan base and calculating LCV to understand your income from music. To avoid missing this journey, sign up for the e-mail updates over there in the top right hand corner.

I’m excited to start a discussion around these ideas and eager to hear what you want to read about in more depth. So come on, overload me with posts to write by telling me what you need here in the comments!

Life is too short to just sing the one song,

So we’ll burn like a beacon, and then we’ll be gone.

~Frank Turner – ‘Poetry of the Deed’

January 24, 2013 by 2 Comments
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The Fine Line Between Listeners Spamming Or Spinning Your Music

No Soliciting Sign

Music?

I had another piece of writing in mind for this evening, until I made the pleasurable mistake of opening up the latest Lefsetz Letter before writing. Rather than staying my course, I thought I’d change tack, fulfill one of my three words for 2013, and ‘react’.

You might not like what Bob Lefsetz has to say, but you’ll defend to the death his right to say it when the passion bleeds through in his every missive. To wit…

SPAM: No one is going to listen to your music because you sent them an e-mail, tweet or Facebook link. Hope this effort makes you feel good, because it’s worthless.

Spinning Music vs. Spamming Music

Not all spam is created equal.

In fact, any honest marketer – not an oxymoron, for any smart arses reading – knows the pain of seeing just one ‘Marked as spam’ check in in their campaign report numbers. A painstakingly developed opt-in e-mail list, combined with a true desire to update people on something in which they’ve previously shown an interest, is still one of the most important tools in your music marketing kit, no matter what sweeping statements you read to the contrary.

Beyond that, there are certainly many ways of communicating on Facebook and Twitter that will grate on many people’s last nerve. But to extend that to all tweets and Facebook links being spam is to point to Mitt Romney and call him Mr President… not of this reality.

A personally crafted message to a listener espousing tastes similar to your style of music is far more a caring act than a callous one. Describing your lovingly crafted, finely honed new track to your Facebook community and asking them to share, if it moves them to do so, is opening a doorway and gently ushering new listeners into your home, not jamming a foot in the door of their home and feverishly waving a set of headphones about their face.

The spectrum runs from unwelcome to warmly welcomed, infuriating to ingratiating. People know spam, meaning they also know what it isn’t and will not summarily dismiss everything unexpected as such. That is, apart from those frustrating few in the aforementioned marketing reports… is it so hard to use the ‘unsubscribe’ option, really?

I digress.

 

Know Your Audience Know You

The key here is familiarity. Your prospective listener needs to know you, or at least understand that you are attempting to personally know them, in order to elevate your approach from spam to a spin of your song. 

How do you achieve this?

Only practice opt-in e-mail marketing, preferably segmented for relevance to specific sets of your audience.

Set up listening stations to spot fans of similar styles, explore their web presence to see what they’re listening to or subjects that they’re interested in, then recommend the most suitable song you have for them with a brief explanation.

Become a part of online communities that fit with your music and subject matter,

Write your own self-hosted content, attracting readers and comments to your website where you can build a closer relationship with them.

Or one hundred other steps that involve a personal connection and an open the door for willing new listeners to check out your music. Recent examples for me include Twitter conversations with Brooklyn’s Sojourn Society and Nashville’s Red Measure, both unsolicited but neither of which felt like an intrusion, due to the nature of the approach.

Honest. Personal. Spam factor zero.

Spamalot?

My feeling is that the original point is more nuanced than the spam conclusion asserts, but it raises the valid question that all artists should ask ahead of that next e-mail update or Twitter DM: Are you spamming or connecting?

How can you change the way you approach potential fans this year to make the desire to listen to your music more of a personal thank you than an obligation?

January 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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