6 Digital Marketing Tips for Musicians & Bands

There’s absolutely no doubt that digital marketing is the key to success in the music industry. If you’re keen to make the most of each and every ounce of exposure you receive, if you are set on becoming the next big thing, if you are striving to live life as a full-time musician or band member, then you must embrace digital marketing and acknowledge all the concepts and trends currently relevant to your industry.

How do I get fans? Is it about quality or quantity?

The 1000 True Fans concept is the idea that as long as you have 1000 ‘true fans’, you are never going to have a problem selling your music and your merchandize online. These true fans will help create a fanbase and market for your music and products that will help you drive further sales and success. The point of digital marketing is to make the most of the exposure you receive when you perform and find those magical 1000 true fans who will give you a musical career for life. In some ways, true fans are similar to the marketing concept of brand advocacy. Encourage loyalty, reward loyalty, and give freely.

Make the most of Facebook pages

Digital marketing goes hand-in-hand with social media. If you’re wondering how to get fans, you must build a platform that allows them to express themselves, to engage with you or your band, and to learn more about you. Begin with a Facebook page. Facebook provides plenty of tools to assist you in keeping track of who is engaging with your posts, as well as allowing you to measure how successful your reach has been. Make your page super engaging with a ton of live video, music, photoshoots, and quirky outtakes from life ‘on the road’. Don’t forget to sync up your Facebook page with offline activities like gigs and fan meetups.

Embrace Twitter & Instagram & share your story

No matter how good your music is, your fans will want to know you or your band personally. Facebook is good for finding out information about gigs and news. Twitter, on the other hand, is good for little bits of communication and for emphasizing your personality. You can also personally thank a fan for coming to see you, as well as share articles, images and updates that you find exciting. Many people use Twitter to tell others what they’re up to. If you’re writing a new song, you can share this in a couple of words with an appropriate hashtag. Instagram is very similar to Twitter, but favors images rather than words. You can share pictures and videos of you or your band travelling to a gig, images of the audience from your gig, shots with collaborators, or pics of your latest merchandize.   Having an engaged social account is a great confidence booster, as well as a commercial asset. Nurture the community you’re building — and think twice before purchasing fans.

Get your stuff out on YouTube

Many gig organizers will use YouTube to check out your music before hiring you. YouTube isn’t always an easy platform for new bands and musicians, so don’t worry if you don’t get many views at the beginning. Instead, focus on releasing some of your tracks in high quality for gig organizers and potential fans. Be sure to add tags and keywords to your video to increase the likelihood of someone finding your video or even stumbling across it through YouTube’s autoplay feature. The good thing about YouTube is that your true fans will happily do the necessary advertising for you. They will share your latest releases through their social media networks and their friendship groups. They will also add their comments and likes to your videos. This interaction between fans encourages a fan base to emerge, which will develop its own personality as it grows.

Create a killer website

Still trying to figure out how to promote your music independently? A strong website can make your music enterprise look professional and serious. If you truly want to commit to a musical career, ensure that you invest in a website that has intuitive navigation, accessible contact information, and ecommerce facilities that allow you to sell your albums and merchandize yourself.   Your fans will want to be able to make purchases easily and securely, so make sure that this is possible. If you’re looking to set up your record shop, you can sell music through your own store and get up and running in a matter of hours. Setting up an ecommerce site independently is a sure-fire way to take matters into your own hands, and get your music business on the right track! In order for your digital marketing efforts to be successful, be prepared to fully engage with these tips. Going into marketing half-hearted is simply not good enough. Just like an instrument, grasping digital marketing can take time and practise.    

Author Bio:

Victoria Greene: Brand Marketing Consultant & Freelance Writer. I work with online businesses and entrepreneurs to create valuable content and marketing strategies that yield big results. I am always happy to share my knowledge and love discovering new opportunities for collaboration. I’m also a keen singer and guitar player, but that’s strictly for pleasure!