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.
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.
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.
Increase your customer (fan) base.
Increase the average transaction amount that you get from each customer (fan.)
Increase the amount of times and frequency by which they purchase from you.
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!
Great article. I have been thinking about this more and mroe as we coach our musicians. It starts with finding a firm goal and setting a plan along the way to hit and exceed these goals. Internet marketers have a solid plan and establish a relationship with their followers, something that musicians lack in. There is no follow through or consistency. Hopefully some musicians will see this and start to grasp the concept that the Internet can make them money and build their career. Not everything online is free as in the case of your seat buddy at the conference.
Musicians and artists are not business people–they simply don’t have the knack for marketing. HUGE respect goes out to those who can do both, without giving up their equity to the record labels to sell them out mainstream.
My favorite story I heard from Derrick Sivers at a Harvard Entrepreneurship conference was about how Prince captured his TRUE FANS by using CDBaby, self publishing and connecting with them online. I also highly suggest Chris Andrersen’s Long Tail.
As the music business continues to change, musicians who want to earn a living “doing what they love” must figure out how to develop a sustainable career within the framework of this new environment. The internet is one of the most powerful resources we have access to!
The process of learning how to market ourselves can be overwhelming!
We must educate ourselves as to “how”, tailor a plan that we understand and that works, then implement this plan into our daily routines. Consistency is a must!!!
Cyber PR has the best set of tools and support I’ve found for both educating and fostering artist growth on the internet!!!
A very good article with some points that really hit home.
This continues to drive home the points that are layed out in your book about being builders instead of idlers as well as the “What’s in it for me?” factor for the fans of our music.
Great article. I have been thinking about this more and mroe as we coach our musicians. It starts with finding a firm goal and setting a plan along the way to hit and exceed these goals. Internet marketers have a solid plan and establish a relationship with their followers, something that musicians lack in. There is no follow through or consistency. Hopefully some musicians will see this and start to grasp the concept that the Internet can make them money and build their career. Not everything online is free as in the case of your seat buddy at the conference.
Musicians and artists are not business people–they simply don’t have the knack for marketing. HUGE respect goes out to those who can do both, without giving up their equity to the record labels to sell them out mainstream.
My favorite story I heard from Derrick Sivers at a Harvard Entrepreneurship conference was about how Prince captured his TRUE FANS by using CDBaby, self publishing and connecting with them online. I also highly suggest Chris Andrersen’s Long Tail.
Nice POST- really tells the truth. I wish there were more posts like this- THANKS
As the music business continues to change, musicians who want to earn a living “doing what they love” must figure out how to develop a sustainable career within the framework of this new environment. The internet is one of the most powerful resources we have access to!
The process of learning how to market ourselves can be overwhelming!
We must educate ourselves as to “how”, tailor a plan that we understand and that works, then implement this plan into our daily routines. Consistency is a must!!!
Cyber PR has the best set of tools and support I’ve found for both educating and fostering artist growth on the internet!!!
A very good article with some points that really hit home.
This continues to drive home the points that are layed out in your book about being builders instead of idlers as well as the “What’s in it for me?” factor for the fans of our music.
Thanks
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