Introduction
Especially in Liverpool where the pool of musicians trying to make it is so insanely overpopulated, effective marketing can make or break a musician's career. However, many artists unknowingly fall victim to common pitfalls in their marketing efforts, hindering their chances of success. In this article, we'll explore five deadly mistakes musicians make in marketing and provide actionable solutions to help improve your self-promotion strategies.
Top 5 Musician Marketing Mistakes (and what to do instead)
Mistake 1: Overwhelming Self-Promotion
While self-promotion is essential for gaining visibility and attracting fans, overdoing it can have the opposite effect and turn people off. Bombarding your audience with constant promotional messages can come across as spammy and annoying. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in self-promotion is immediately going into sales mode (Forbes). You want to cultivate a "pull" rather than a "push" (or pushy) form of self-promotion which will come off as more genuine whereas the latter just comes off as self-serving and fake.
Do This Instead: Strike a balance between self-promotion and providing value to your audience.
Share not only your music and upcoming gigs but also behind-the-scenes insights, personal stories, and engaging content that showcases your personality and creativity. Social media is not for advertising, it's for entertainment, so be entertaining! Everyone and their mother is posting videos of themselves in their bedroom singing bedroom indie pop, so do something different. Post something funny, post something informational - make people want to listen to you by offering them something whether it be entertainment or information. The song that you wrote will probably not do these things, but a video about how to produce a song, or a day in the life at the studio, or the interesting story that inspired it might. You have to give people something, then hope they stay for your music. By offering valuable content and building authentic connections with your audience, you'll earn their trust and loyalty over time.
Mistake 2: Neglecting Target Audience Identification
Identifying and understanding your target audience is essential for crafting marketing strategies that resonate with the right people. Neglecting this crucial step can result in wasted resources and ineffective campaigns (Becks Marketer).
Do This Instead: Take the time to research and define your target audience's demographics, interests, and preferences.
First, you've got to consider who your music appeals to. Do you suit more of a younger and spunkier crowd, or do middle-aged women swoon over your "old soul" vocals? Once you figure out your audience (and if it matches who you want your audience to be), you're in business. Use analytics tools and social media insights to gather data on your existing fanbase and tailor your marketing messages accordingly. By knowing your audience, you can create content and campaigns that speak directly to their needs and interests, increasing engagement and loyalty. This might look like switching the social media cite you use i.e. reaching an older audience on Facebook or a younger one on Instagram or TikTok.
Mistake 3: Inconsistent Online Presence
Maintaining a consistent and cohesive online presence is key to building brand recognition and trust. However, many musicians make the mistake of neglecting the cohesiveness of their digital footprint or having an inconsistent presence across different platforms. Think about it with any brands with a strong brand identity: Apple, Red Bull, IKEA Coca-cola, and so many more (Attest). All of these brands have such strong and engrained brand identities, that you know these items almost as well as the back of your hand. Inevitably as a musician either your band or you yourself are becoming a "brand". Having a consistent brand in any industry helps to build trust, set expectations, and offer familiarity with customers, while also building recognition and recall (Upward, Forbes). This not only helps mega-corporations like Apple but can do a lot of good at a small Indie Artist level too!
Do This Instead: Create a comprehensive Brand
Now this does not mean you have to go all Steve Jobs and wear the same thing every day for the rest of your life, but there are lots of ways you can implement branding. This can of course be in what you wear, unique features such as your hair, a logo you design and use on everything, a color palate you use in posts, certain font types you use, a style of photography - just basically anything unique. Consistency in your online presence will help you stay top-of-mind with your audience and strengthen your brand image. The one caveat to this sort of thing is it can definitely be overdone and audiences can often tell if you're not being genuine. So if you're a jeans and tee-shirt kinda gal then go for that. If you're a sparkle to the max full glam makeup, then make that your thing! Don't force yourself into something for the sake of branding, just like clothes are meant to fit you (not the other way around), your brand should suit you, rather than you suiting the brand!
Mistake 4: Focusing Solely on Followers Instead of Engagement
Many musicians fall into the trap of prioritizing the quantity of followers over the quality of engagement. While having a large following can be appealing, it's ultimately meaningless if those followers are not actively engaged with your content or invested in your music (LinkedIn). We need to look no further than our own web series for proof. The YouTube channel for the Red Shutter Club has only 175 subscribers as of the writing of this article, but our view count well outperforms this figure with nearly 45k views. That means our views are nearly 26 thousand times the size of our subscribers. The average YouTube channel performance has about 1 subscriber per 100-200 views (15k% views per subscriber), and our web series outperforms in this metric. This is why it is so important to focus on engagement rather than followers!
Do This Instead: Shift your focus from accumulating followers to fostering meaningful engagement with your existing audience.
Instead of solely chasing numbers, prioritize building a loyal fanbase who actively interact with your music and support your endeavors. Engage with your followers on social media by responding to comments, asking for feedback, and initiating conversations. Create interactive experiences such as Q&A sessions, polls, and live streams to deepen your connection with your audience and make them feel valued. By prioritizing engagement over follower count, you'll cultivate a dedicated community of fans who are more likely to support you in the long run.
Mistake 5: Overselling Yourself
In the age of social media and micro-influencers, shiny follower counts and lots of likes might appeal to those you're working with, but they don't mean what they used to. Just as we discussed before, it isn't about your followers it's about your engagement and this follows into real life as well. If part of your sales pitch to a bar, venue, festival, or whatever you're trying to be a part of is your "following on TikTok" or the fact that everyone says you're talented, that doesn't mean much to them. Just because you can sing or you had a TikTok go viral doesn't mean anything when it comes to getting people in the door. Can it help? Of course, it can! But you've got to be careful not to oversell yourself. While there certainly is something to the ethos of "faking it til you Make it" in the early stages overpromising and underdelivering can seriously hurt your credibility (entreprenuer.com). If you promise nothing and bring nothing, expectations have been met, but if you promise the whole circus and bring only peanuts, expectations, you have grossly under-delivered. In other areas where there are fewer musicians running around you may be able to get away with this but in places like Liverpool with a surplus of musicians, there is always someone who will do it cheaper, bring more people, or at least be honest about their aptitude to being people to gigs.
Do This Instead: Focus on building genuine connections and providing value to your audience rather than constantly selling yourself.
Strike a balance between promotion and providing valuable content that entertains, educates, or inspires your audience. You might not get as many bites, but the ones you do have a far more solid foundation. By taking a more authentic and balanced approach to self-promotion, you'll build trust and loyalty with your network, and attract more genuine supporters in the long run.
Conclusion: Avoiding these deadly mistakes in musician marketing can significantly improve your chances of success in the competitive music industry. By identifying your target audience, maintaining a consistent online presence, leveraging digital marketing channels, nurturing relationships, and striking a balance in self-promotion, you can elevate your marketing efforts and stand out in a crowded marketplace. Remember, effective marketing is not just about promoting your music—it's about building meaningful connections with your audience and fostering a community around your music...and to build and keep an audience, you have to offer them something in return, something they want.
Happy Marketing!
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