Last week I got a bee in my bonnet – yes, my part time job is subbing for Little Bo Peep… what of it? – about the lack of creativity in marketing music.

Rather than just whinge and whine, though, I thought I should probably make an effort to turn things around.

“Be the change that you want to see in the world” and all that motivational malarkey…

Music Marketing Matters

And it matters especially on Mondays, which is when I’ll be publishing my contributions to moving music marketing forward.

I have two simple goals for this series:

1. Provide ideas to market your music that offer something new and are practical for you to act upon,

2. Highlight examples of artists who are pushing the envelope in marketing their creations.

Today I can hopefully deliver on both of these, with a look at Amanda Palmer’s recent ~$1.2 million Kickstarter haul and what you can adopt from her methods.

Diversify Your Product

Whether or not you agree that music is a product, if you are striving to be any kind of career musician then you need to accept that it is vital to market your art according to similar principles that govern product and service marketing.

Standalone products are only sufficient if they have vast mass market appeal, which is something that rarely applies to music  (how many artists have made the big time with just one release, on one format?) So it falls upon you to offer your fans a wider variety. Not only variety in ways to experience your music, but also the live experience, the fan experience, and even varying the type of art that you make available.

Image Source: Mela Sogono

Circling back to the curious case of Amanda Palmer, this million grossing Kickstarter campaign was a tour-de-force of artistic diversity. Here are some concrete actions that you can  pull from her success:

• Format diversity - Know your audience. In many cases they will vary from pure digital downloaders to geeky speccy nerdy collectors (these are the folks that you especially need!). You need to offer a cheap and easy format for the former, a beautifully crafted limited edition vinyl for the latter, and anything in between that caters to what you know to be attractive to those purchasing your wares. Put out informal polls on social media, talk to your fans, ask in an e-mail newsletter… whatever it takes to find out what diversity people want and how you can give it to them.

• Build in real world connections - It’s all too easy to be pulled into the digital world and build relationships exclusively with fans online. Palmer offered tangible real world connections to fans in cities across the world, baked into the decision to purchase her new music. Play to the themes of your music and match as many physical events to it as you can afford to deliver. Sound expensive? Cut your cloth accordingly and tailor events to where your fans can gather. Also note, people will often pay more for a real event… and they will feel more invested in your music for having done so. This is especially true if you make a visible effort to make the event special for them personally (song dedications, personalised gifts, private meet and greets…what else would you include?)

• You are more than music - Heresy, I know, but you have a lot more to offer. What’s more, your fans know it and are more likely to part with their cash if you serve it up for them. Don’t panic, music is still at the core of what you do. But offer art work, lyrics/poetry, personal inspirations in the form of unique merchandise, video content, the work of others that you admire or with whom you have collaborated, and you start to stand out  from the crowd. You also have something to offer at higher price points, providing those who want to spend more a reason to do so. Look at Palmer’s art books as just one compelling example. For bonus points here, make some of the alternative products you offer limited edition. Those who snag them will feel an extra sense of accomplishment as your fan; those who do not will be on increased alert for the next time.

• Make it community-based - What characterizes Palmer’s online successes (and they are very much in the plural) in particular is the sense of belonging that she evokes in fans. They remain fanatical (in the positive sense), yet there exists a kinship, a degree of equality, in their relationship with her. True, she has built this up over many years, but it can and should be applied right down to the level of brand new artists building fan bases in small towns.This is also a concept that can be applied to your product diversity. How can you make your live appearances more of a communal affair, rather than limit them to artist broadcasting? Playing more intimate gigs like house parties or word-of-mouth outdoor gatherings brings you closer to your audience. Bringing in fans to help you organize such events, with special access for them and a few friends, makes your music more communal. In the short term, these tiny events placed alongside larger, more standard shows, breed a healthy symbiosis between attendance of the two. Longer term, you’re making memories for fans on a one-to-one level, and their emotional investment is far more likely to yield a financial one.

• Expand into other audiences – Less related to product offering, but nonetheless a useful action point to take from this example, is the idea of branching out into the audiences of other artists and creators. Collaboration is often a smart way to do this, as it breeds unique creations that are of interest to both sets of fans. Reciprocal offerings are another, with a contribution from one artist to your next project and you providing something for them in a similar fashion. Palmer offered books, art work, scripts, photography, and all manner of extras from fellow creators, ensuring cross over into many new networks.

Admittedly, Amanda Palmer has an established base of fans and  can already reach many more people than most independent musicians. But it was the diverse offerings and alignment of them with fan passions that helped her to move from a good Kickstarter campaign to a phenomenal one. $1 million is out of reach, but a healthy return on your investment in music is not.

Take away: Understand your fans’ desires, create a wide range of ways to cater to them at multiple price points, then deliver with passion and flexibility across as many networks as possible.

 

Over to you…

What did I miss? Are there better ways to diversify what you offer to your fans? 

Does the notion of having to go beyond the provision of music offend you as an artist? 

Let’s go at it in the comments section here. We’ll learn from one another and possibly have a good old scrap in the process! 

Despite all of this, I still see many dismissive attitudes towards Twitter from artists. Be it the simplicity or perceived echo chamber effect of the platform, a lot of creators are missing out on a channel that offers an outstanding way to connect with new fans from all walks of life. Even those that do take the plunge tend to simply feed through updates from other social networks, creating a very robotic profile with little chance of winning new fans.

So what can be done?

Photo Credit: The Paradigm Shifter

First Impressions

Get over the first impression of Twitter, for a start. Yes, indeed, it starts out a pretty lonely place. Few followers, and uncertainty of how to start conversations to build a following, both contribute to the early drop out factor that can plague the network. But persevere, get over that hurdle, and really start conversing with friends, fans, and followers will flock to you in a relatively short period.

Once you get going, you’ll be eager to amplify your tweets, spreading them farther than your own core following by connecting with other groups. Here are 7 pointers to get you sharing your messages far and wide:

1. Use hashtags: In tweets you want to emphasize & share more widely, research relevant hashtags that others are already monitoring and tailor your tweet to fit that tag.

2. Spread tweets & repeats: It’s okay (and indeed important) to repeat your key tweets at different times though the day, as people are online at different times and tweets are fleeting. Tweak wording and delivery to maintain variety, but be sure your core message gets acoss.

3. Ask for help: If something is truly important, don’t hesitate to ask for a retweet or for your followers to recommend to their own following. Don’t ask too often, but don’t be scared to ask, either.

4. Retweet others. Often: When you’re asking for help from others, it helps if you’ve already done the same for them in the past. Sharing the work of others that you enjoy not only adds variety to your Twitter stream, it builds goodwill for others to do the same for you.

5. Strategic @’ing: The @ mention has a more ‘personal inbox’ feel to it for most of us, so it can be used to get the attention of someone you’d ideally like to read and share your tweet. Use it sparingly and with subtlety for promotional tweets, though, as it’s easy to cross the line into spam. This is also 10x more true if you barely know the person to whom you’re tweeting.

6. Join communities: …or build your own! Again, hashtags tend to lend themselves to communities – #oTable, #UsGuys, #TweetDiner, to name just a few – as do chats and trending topics sometimes. Find the areas that others gather and begin to participate. If the crowd gathered there is a good fit and it feels comfortable to do so, you can begin to recommend your art or content to members of these communities. In addition, you can explore tools such as Triberr, which joins you to other like-minded content producers and their followers.  

7. Interact and influence: The first and last tenet of Twitter being that the more you tweet in, the more you’ll get out. Participate on a wide range of subjects, in a wide variety of ways, to both build your following and amplify your reach in the longer term. Join in with other established influencers in fields that interest you to boost your message still further.

Start Building

Twitter amplification is a strange beast.

In theory, it takes a slow and steady build up of relationships and reciprocation to have a significant audience sharing your messages. In practice, the serendipity of just one well placed tweet, attached to a valuable message or content, can take off like a bottle rocket and explode into all the results you desired.

Your best bet is to follow the tips above, tweet quality regularly, and enjoy the relationships that you build…all the while anticipating that one explosive tweet that shares your glorious creativity to the world!

What ways have you found to extend the reach of your tweets?