Musician Marketing Mistakes – How to Fix Them

WWhen you’re trying to make it as a DJ, a grasp on marketing basics comes in a close second to having good music. If you have fantastic music, but nobody knows about it, how are you going to be successful? Be aware of the greatest marketing pitfalls, and how to divert your marketing tactics from failure to success.

No Marketing

Social media, branding, promotions, advertising — every amateur DJ who’s not marketing has an excuse. Don’t underestimate the importance of any of these. Whether you’re unsure of where to start or think you don’t have the time, it’s crucial to learn the basics and make time for marketing.

Take an online course. It’s not curing a disease — it’s mostly common sense. Schools like Pinnacle College, California offer programs in audio engineering that also provide courses in self-promotion and marketing. Read entertainment and marketing news and commit to so many hours each week for networking.

A Dead Website

Creating a URL and having a website made purely to host an online space for your portfolio isn’t enough anymore. If you rarely update your website, it will easily get lost among the millions of other pages that regularly update, promote, link and use SEO. To keep your site in a relative playing field, regularly produce unique content, practice on-page SEO and install a news feed widget that connects to your Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, SoundCloud or other social media sites. A blog is a terrific way regularly to post new content.

When you update your site, promote it via social media and email lists. By generating fresh, unique content regularly, you’ll eventually create an audience of subscribers. Remember that people want to read content that’s captivating and in some way informative or beneficial to them.

TMI

Social media strategies

If you’re already on popular social media sites, be aware that there’s a happy medium between nothing and overkill in self-promotion. When it comes to social media, follow the saying “If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything.” Social media are tools to reinforce your personal brand and essentially promote and advertise yourself and the music you play. The things you say and the way you say them will give you a reputation. By-the-hour tweets are annoying. Cut back on personal conversations and tweets about your broken nail or the hot chick at the club. Approach your social media use with balanced strategy.

Using Email

Some will argue that email marketing is dead, but it does hold value. The secret to sending emails that provide results is creating valuable segmented lists. DJs can designate fans from venues, media outlets and publicists. Use email to send press releases about new music, events and other news. Offer an incentive to joining the mailing list and create a call-to-action on your website. “For exclusive news, free downloads and new music: join my mailing list!”

When you’re out networking it doesn’t hurt to ask a person you exchange business cards with if you can add them to your mailing list. Don’t add people to lists without asking them first. Service providers like Salesforce and MailChimp are affordable and easy tools for organizing contacts and creating email templates.

Making Your Music Hard to Find

Make your music easy to find, play, download and buy. It’s as easy as that. Sites like SoundCloud are user friendly. Don’t bury your music in the website; have it available on the homepage.

Photo by Flickr user Rosaura Ochoa

A former music teacher and jazz composer, Steve Torres is thrilled that freelance writing enables him to be exposed to new forms of music, theatre and art.