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Most Internet marketers make money online, most musician marketers don’t.
The Backstory – The Big Seminar
My journey into the world of Internet marketing, began when I attended an Internet marketing conference and saw one of the keynote speakers. Armand is a bubbly and enthusiastic man who makes a fortune in the world of internet marketing, and he not only markets things that help him make money, he teaches people how to do it themselves.
Armand is also a musician and his alter ego is Micheal Lee Austin. When I saw him speak, he walked us through how he took took himself to the top of the Billboard charts using his own online marketing strategy. He sold thousands of CD’s using his own techniques. I was so intrigued I wanted to learn how he did it, so I signed up to study with him via a series of online courses and they came with a ticket to his “Big seminar” in Atlanta.
The big seminar completely shifted my reality. I went to Atlanta not knowing what to expect, I came home with my world rocked. At lunch on the first day, I struck sat next to an unassuming man, and we struck up a non-memorable conversation. Two guys approached him and began slapping him on the back and congratulated him on breaking the $1M mark so far that year, (and there were still many months left in that year.) I was amazed. How was this marketer making millions while most of my clients were making what seemed like less every year?
The answer is effectively applying marketing strategies. In this new age of blasting messages out on Myspace and Facebook, we have completely taken our energy away from traditional marketing.
Our focus has been diluted with a new online service that seem to crop up everyday to help musicians with everything from cross-posting show dates, to tuning your guitar with your cell phone. Many of these developments, are wonderful, but all of them take time and energy to learn and implement, and they take us away from focusing on traditional Internet marketing.
Selling Music is Not Like Selling A Diet Product
The act of selling music is not at all like selling goods or services which is where Internet Marketers have a leg up on musicians. You are ostensibly selling a feeling. People connect to music in a very different way than they connect to any old product, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t take the same basic principles and apply them. Here are the ones that I highly suggest.
What’s In The Internet Marketers Arsenal
1. EMAIL LIST MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:
Internet Marketer’s Strategy: Build a mailing list and communicate regularly adding value.
Goal: Get your list to interact with you and trust you, track how effective you are being by looking at open rates.
Product: e-mail list manager. You need an email list manager that measures results. There are many available I suggest Reverb Nation’s free system or BandLetter.
www.ReverbNation.com
www.BandLetter.com
2. AN EFFECTIVE WEBSITE W. A SQUEEZE PAGE
Internet Marketer’s Strategy: A website that captures leads by making an offer that people want – a free ebook, MP3, a special report, a video, etc.
Wth this system, a potential fan will sign up to your mailing list because he sees value in the offer (it is called a squeeze page because the email address is “squeezed” out of the fan).
I know what you are thinking! It is very easy to unsubscribe once signed up and so it’s not a ploy at all. You are providing a quality offer and you are askig for their email address in exchange for it.
Goal: Get as many people onto your list as possible.
Product: A website that has a backend that stores email addresses and instantly delivers visitors the requested offer (An MP3 is what I would suggest to all musicians).
I suggest talking to your webs designer to implement this. aweber and 1 Shopping Cart are two systems that can be integrated into your site to deliver these results.
www.aweber.com
www.1ShoppigCart.com
Internet Marketer’s Strategy: A system and plan that offers multiple products potential fans in many price categories
Internet Marketers know that these are the three main ways to increase income.
Goal: Earn more money! The thinking here is: it takes ten times more effort to make a totally new fan than it does to keep offering fans that already love you multiple items over time.
Product: There are plenty of mind mapping products and fancy software programs for planning out your strategy but good old pen and paper and a few brain storming sessions should get you off o the right path.
Final Goal: long-term success.
Strategy: An overall marketing plan laid out with goals, vision, and measurable results.
Product: A line of offerings to sell to your fans: not only CDs and MP3s but also private gigs, merch and special events.
I would love to hear some of your strategies and what products and ideas are working for you.
If you are thinking like an Internet marketer I want to know about it!
Please post what you do that gets you results!
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Internet Radio Magazine reports on trends happening online in the Internet Radio space. They feature an artist every week.
http://www.internetradiomagazine.com
http://www.joelgaineshow.com
http://twitter.com/joelgaines
Q: How long have you been broadcasting/blogging?
A: I was a political blogger for 8 years before I became a broadcaster. We’ve been broadcasting The Joel Gaines Show for just over a year. Because of our experience with Ariel Publicity and the artists we’ve interacted with, we have decided to revitalize Internet Radio Magazine dot com as a more music-based property.
Q: In your opinion, what does a good song need to consist of?
A: For me to gravitate to a specific song, I have to feel it. I’m not saying I have to be able to relate to the song topic, but I do have to feel like it’s not contrived. Artists who are investing more than time into a track tend to come across more passionately. That’s what I look for.
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Q: What is your favorite band or favorite genre of music and why?
A: I have to admit my favorite genre is 70′s funk and my favorite band is Journey. Having travelled to nearly 30 countries, I have picked up an appreciation for just about everything. Shuffling my music player might find Hazel O’Connor, Crossfade, G Tom Mac, and George Straight played one after the other.
Q: What changes in content laws, broadcasting rights, etc. have affected you most?
A: I have broadcast under a station license and as an individual internet broadcaster. Trying to stay in license compliance and keeping your music fresh can be price prohibitive for the little guys. I really enjoy the podsafe offering from the fantastic artists Ariel Publicity promotes.
Q: A recent study found blogs to be more effective than MySpace in generating album sales, do you feel that that is a true statement?
A: I think it is true. A blogger has more specific opportunities to attract traffic and it is easier to be a big fish in a niche pond. On Myspace, no matter what you are trying to promote, you are faced with being just another fish in the ocean. I’ve seen social media work for people when they use it as a means to bring traffic to their blog, but it needs to be looked at more as just another tool in the kit.
I just returned from the National Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis, TN and it was an extraordinary 4 days. I saw so many wonderful artists perform and my soul is saturated great with music.
This conference was totally unlike any I have ever been to before for many reasons – It’s intimate and it all takes place in one hotel & adjoining convention center so there is no running up and down trying to see bands on opposite ends of town, and best of all each artist plays more than one time so I never had a scheduling issue. If I fell in love with an artist and wanted to see them a second or third time this was always possible.
My new favorite artists list includes Meg Hutchinson, Twilight Hotel, Amy Speace, Michelle Citrin, Lindsay Mac, divine MAGGees, Diana Jones, Susan Marshall, Rose Cousins, Colin Spring, Emilia Dahlin, Emily Herring, and The Carolina Chocolate Drops.
If you are an artist and you play folk, roots, blues, AAA, Americana or even world music I can’t recommend this conference enough.
As I was enjoying myself at this intimate conference and in the folkie / politically conscious spirit I got to thinking about the messages artists convey and how we all like to give back and the new initiative we have taken here at Ariel Publicity which is called helping others – when you sign up for Cyber PR we provide a list of charities and some different ways you can become involved to help each one.
STEP ONE: Start At Home base (Your Homepage)
Start with your branding – create a homepage using that consistent look & feelQ: Should your own website be your home base?
A: YES! And, it should ALWAYS have an exclusive bribe to get people to go there AND give you their email addresses
TIP: Resist the temptation of FLASH on your homepage – it may look good but it is a terrible user experience and Google cannot index Flash pages (in other words you won’t be findable on Google)
Google’s research says that people leave if the load time takes more than 3 seconds people move onto the next site so get rid of your flash intro — it’s very 1997!
TIP: When moving around the Social Networks use a consistent handle on all of these sites so you are easily recognizable all over the place – Choose a username and stick with it at every site!
Most bands and artists have to reckon with the moneymaking part of making music for a living. I have had countless conversations with musicians who are struggling to earn a living from making music exclusively and with the “new” music business it’s everybody’s guess how exactly to earn money with CD sales at record lows. Last May, a friend turned me on to an extraordinary book called Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind which has dramatically altered the way I think about and earn money. This book discusses strategies to increase your Income and change your way of thinking about money and your money “blueprint.”
Since all bands and artists are entrepreneurs just like I am, I want to share this wonderful book with you. If you are interested in receiving this book, please send me your mailing address, and I will send you a free copy (first 5 people that respond to my email).
This book led me to a seminar that the author puts on called Guerilla Business School and in February I spent 5 days in Orlando getting a crash course in business fundamentals.
Spend 40% of Your Time on Marketing & Sales
The most important thing that they drove home (which really struck me as a great tip for musicians) is in order to be successful in ANY business you need to spend 40% of your energy on sales and marketing, 30% on product, and 30% on operations. And the ONLY time you ever get paid is as a direct result of sales and marketing (think about it) I know all musicians want to do is spend time practicing and writing music BUT the reality is you have to spend real time on marketing and sales. In summation: rich people spend their time on sales and poor people spend their time on operations.
So a great exercise I suggest for you to do is visualize how much time you are really spending on sales and marketing, and if it’s less than 40% of your energy make a list of 5 things you can do right now to beef up your sales and marketing time!
Some notes compiled from panel discussions at PODCAMP NYC, and The Folk Alliance:
A wonderful panel called “Getting the Most Out of the Internet” took place at The Folk Alliance conference and here are the highlights that struck me:
Put Your Music in Many Formats All Over the ‘Net
People want their music their way. As technology gets faster and faster more options are available to listeners each day. Within the next 2 years it will be commonplace to hear MP3s on all cell phones, web streams will greatly improve, and Podcasts will become more commonplace, and you need to be in charge of how you get your music out there and getting out to as many outlets as possible.
Internet Radio – Internet radio is still in its very early stages and there will be more extensions for local devices developing every year. In the future, there will be much more reach for Internet radio and the Internet will roll out over wireless networks and Internet radio will be available in places we never thought possible.
Amazon.com – A lot of artists are annoyed that Amazon takes too much of a percentage, but please know that many, many people exclusively buy music on Amazon and no where else so make it your business to have some product available at Amazon.com
So, have your music in as many different places as possible. Unless you have name recognition, no one is going to visit your website. So, you need to get out there onto other music websites and make it available for purchase in as many places as possible.
Music on Your Website
You should definitely have your music on your website, on your home page where it is easy to find it (If you don’t have a link to a player put a link to your MySpace page where people can get at it from the home page). If you are going to put a player on your site, I suggest putting a button that says “listen to my music” with a player. This way that when visitors press it they can play your music as they choose. Never, ever have your music play when people land on your page because they could be checking out your site from work and it won’t be good for them.
Build a Cell Phone E-Mail List
This tip was a great nugget! – At your gigs, before you start playing ask your audience to shut off their cell phones, but before they do this have them text your cell phone their SMS / Mobile # and information.
After the gig, you can capture their cell phone numbers and create a list for each market, and the next time you’re coming through an area, you can e-mail them your upcoming show directly to their cell phones.
Start a Blog
It’s a great way to engage your fans, get linked up to the net and keep yourself FRESH in everyone’s eyes. Go Here:
http://www.wordpress.com
Consider Recording Podcasts
You already have a home studio and you know how to record – this is half your battle! Create interesting fresh content (even if it’s only a few minutes per week) and distribute your podcast around the net. Interview other bands that you play with and like or include interviews with friends, mentors, other artists and let them help you promote your podcast to their fan lists (it’s like a built-in endorsement). Link your podcasts to your blog and RSS feed them to the World!
If you have no idea what in the heck I’m talking about a GREAT place to educate yourself is on my friend Jason Van Orden’s fab website: http://www.jasonvanorden.com/
Learn how to podcast and blog to establish thought leadership, extend your brand and engage your target market from podcasting consultant and author, and Jason was in a touring band for years – so he understands your needs and explains everything in English. He explained Podcasting to my mother at Podcamp NYC, and she actually understood him perfectly. Trust me, that was no mean feat!
The Indie Maximum Exposure List is Ariel Hyatt’s manifesto on how indie musicians can realistically profit from Web 2.0 & social media. 
