4 Great Ideas for Any Indie Musician to Use in Their Marketing
Whether you’re an indie musician or signed to a label–branding is more than just a pretty picture on the Instagram or any other social media platform.
Music branding is a system which is used to reach a target audience, hoping potential fans will engage with you as an artist, and eventually buy your product.
Though anything you post is part of your brand–the more successful one are intentional in what they do when marketing.
The speed of the internet and technology has enabled us to produce and distribute content with a matter of seconds!
It’s a more competitive world. There is more music and content available than 10-15 years ago. This is why it’s important to think of more about strategy and be more intentional in your approach to branding yourself.
Here are four tactics that you can use to build your music brand:
1. Use Digital Content to Build Your Narrative For the Indie Musician
Pictures, videos, music, text, and audio are the media that musicians have always used to tell their stories.
From magazines spreads to music videos, it has always been integral to an artist’s overall success in the past century.
Nevertheless, the demand and distribution of storytelling have changed dramatically. Technology has made it easier for fans to access media. We now live in an on-demand world.
With just a smartphone–taking a picture or video and uploading it to social media can potentially reach hundreds or thousands of people for the average musician.
Whether you choose to start a vlog, create short dance clips on TikTok or use Instagram to document your daily existence through pictures, content is going to drive engagement to spark interest to your brand.
Do not forget digital content is everything on the internet. Your favorite app or website would be nothing without it–you would probably leave and never come back.
It is no different for a musician. Use social media and mobile apps to your advantage. Post regularly and consistently to keep your audience in tune with your brand.
Otherwise, fans will go to the next musician who can keep them entertained.
(Click here to check out my four tips on how I got started in video content production)
2. Build Your Text Lists
A like or comment on social media is great to have. However, having an email, name, and phone number is even better.
Social media changes frequently. Organic reach on many popular platforms is almost zero (for example, organic reach on Facebook is usually between 2%-5%).
They can be fickle–a hot trending platform today can be replaced by another in a couple of months.
However, text hardly ever changes and can be a great marketing tool for the indie musician. You at least have the chance of your message delivered directly into the inboxes of everybody in your list.
Furthermore, the average open rate of text messaging marketing is over 90%–which is a far cry from social media platforms.
3. Engage With Your Audience On Social Media
Once you create a post and upload it to the world of the internet–it is no longer about you but rather your fans! They get to make the judgment on whether if your content is entertaining or not.
One powerful advantage with social is that we can engage with our fans directly. You get to see who they are, where live, what interests they have, and what their names are.
This is a perfect set up to create a conversation with them. Not only does one get feedback from them, but you also get to build brand equity and relationships with them.
4. Collaborate with Other Musicians And Brands
Collaboration with other musicians and various brands can be another impactful way to grow your music trademark.
Through collaboration, you can expand your brand exposure and cross-market to new audiences.
Collaboration can come in many forms. It could be two artists deciding to make a song together, working with a particular brand through sponsorship, or partnering with a social media influencer.
For example, a collaboration that has recently caught my attention was between Malibu (rum) and platinum producer Dillion Francis with the remix of The Coconut Nut song.
The brand launched a campaign called the Coconut Challenge. It enlisted world-famed dance choreographer Matt Steffanina to make a choreograph to the remix.
Malibus campaign calls for regular people to submit their version of Steffanina’s choreograph for a chance to be featured in a music video.
This collaboration features a well-known rum brand, a world-class EDM producer, and one of the most famous dancers on the internet.
Malibu has intentionally put themselves in a position to be cross-branded with millions of people through Francis’ and Steffania’s brand–and vice versa.
Furthermore, the record is on several music platforms. Thus, creating back-end royalties for the master and original copyright holders.
Be creative in your approach when collaborating and have fun. Just like the Coconut Challenge campaign, there is always money for a good idea.
Check This Video Out
Check out my this Check out my interview from my podcast “Music Biz Club” with Indie artist C-Tru about music branding and his experience as a full-time musician.
