Online music marketing strategies can be difficult, but sometimes the best way to get ahead is to help others. The best relationships, especially when it comes to business, are win-win relationships.
I have done a lot of business over the years and have used the internet to generate most of it. To get sales and repeat sales, I started looking at groups and individual organizations and asked myself “how can I use my music to improve your business?”
I won’t lie, thinking like that was hard at first, but after thinking about it over and over again, I thought to myself: Why not use the internet and find bands that don’t have any music or commercials?
Years ago, simply sitting in front of a computer and networking did not go hand in hand. Now I have more business than I can handle and I love it.
Online is a very important tool when it comes to marketing.
Before the Internet, you would have to cold call places in the phone book and go outside in any weather to get new perspectives. Or even send mass amounts of postcards to get your brand in front of the masses.
Now that we have the ability to reach online, a flyer posted on a social media website like Facebook or Instagram can reach the population of a city. This makes networking much easier than it ever was before.
Because?
Well, you have the opportunity to learn about organizations that you may never have learned about. There are so many clubs and groups that, for example, a small Tennessee bowling team could be found and contacted.
The reason I emphasize this fact is because I see opportunities where others don’t. Like many independent artists and bands, there is no unlimited cash flow that we can spend on anything. We save money by building our own studios, but that $1,000 mic is still a long way off, so we settled for a more affordable mic.
My point is that everyone is trying to save money, even when it comes to their organizations.
Creativity and brainstorming are the keys to success
Do you think a Girl Scout camp looking to create a commercial can afford to hire Maroon 5 to write a custom song? What about just licensing the song? The answer is most likely No!!
They have to work with whatever budget they have and spending most of it on music just isn’t going to work. This applies to local businesses as well.
The thing with all of this is, when it comes to advertising, I find that most places don’t even know how to get music, whether it’s background music or a theme song.
This is where you come in, my friend. You have to learn not only how to create music, but also how to take that music and make an income from your music. In this case, you will know who to turn to and how to make sure that both of you are satisfied with the result.
What do you get out of this? Good question…
Now an example of this in action. We’ll say there’s a college in town and they have some pretty popular fraternities. You discover it in the digital brochures that are placed on Facebook and Instagram. They are always doing something for the community and this helps the school earn capital.
You can find out by visiting their website. The more members they have, the better for fraternities. You get an idea and decide to create a song about these groups to help spread the word about them. You include important information about each fraternity, after doing your research, and make it as catchy as possible.
Once you get the song to the best of your ability, talk to the music director about creating sheet music so the band can play the tune. It becomes the unofficial frat song at school! They decide to create a video to spread the word about how great their college fraternities are.
All of this just to find an organization and find your way. Best of all, every school has budgets for certain things and music is one of them. This means that you should enjoy a nice check for your efforts and back-end royalties if they decide to broadcast the video on the networks. It is the gift that will keep on giving.
There’s no need to spend huge amounts of money on a marketing company when you could become your own. The important thing for us independent artists is to think outside the box.
With ads everywhere urging you to spend more and more, we sometimes forget how powerful online music marketing strategies can be. Always remember that every dollar starts with a thought.
Thank you for reading!!