The ABC's Of Music Marketing

This Music Marketing blog post is brought to you by the letter's A. B. and C
The are three fundamentals for Marketing Music in Today's Music Biz. What are they?  Stick around and keep reading for today's answer. You can jump ahead of the class by watching this video.




What is Music Marketing?

"Music Marketing is the science of selling more music, to more of your fans -  more often".  

That quote isn't entirely mine.  I learned it from Sergio Zyman.  Mr. Zymans' book, 'The End of Marketing As We Know It', was revolutionary.  In that book Mr. Zyman shattered a lot of the Marketing missteps and helped me to focus on what was important for my clients; selling more of whatever they marketed.

The ABC's Of  Music Marketing.

As the title of today's post suggest there are three components to marketing music to gain more sales. The ABC's of Music Marketing are:

• Audience
• Benefit
• Conversons

In fact, there is an easy to remember formula to use when marketing your music to Fans:

"Audience + Benefits = Conversions"

Audience:

Who is your audience?  In marketing terms, what 'Demographic(s)' are you trying to sell to?  Here are some good questions to ask:

• What age range are your fan's? Are they Women 18 - 24 or are they Men 35-54?
  
• What are they into?  
• Where do your fans shop? 
• What life-style do they lead?
• How do your fan's vote?

Once you have a grasp of the Demographic Segments ("Demo) you're trying reach you'll save a lot of time formulating your marketing plans.

One thing that frustrates me is when an Artist asks me for help but they don't have a clue as to whom the Artist is trying to reach.  If I had a dollar for every time a talented Indie Artist said, "I'm trying to reach everybody", I would have retired long ago with a fortune.

 The sad fact is, every song won't sell to every one.  For that reason, it's important to pick your Target (Market / Demo) carefully.

Benefit's:

Benefits include what's in it for the 'Buyer'.  Benefit's should not be confused with features.  For example, if you've got some great graphics as Cover Art, those graphics are features.  On the other-hand if those graphics can make the buyer relax, that is a benefit.

OK, let's take another example.  Say you go to buy some speaker wire and you're on a budget?  You find all kinds of colors, lengths and price ranges.  Since you're on a budget, the higher priced wires are features, prevent you from buying.  Whereas the speaker wires that fit your budget will provide you a benefit.

Now let's say the sales person at the store is trying to sell you on the various colors of the wires (but at a much higher price).  How will that benefit you? It won't. Unless you find a benefit in color coordinating your sound system you'll buy any speaker wire that fits your budget. Fan's buy based on benefits - not features.

Conversions:

A "Conversion" is any action that your fan takes, based on your call to action. Marketing Professionals have a saying that, "nothing matters until after the conversion". Nothing could be more accurate in Today's Music Biz.

For example, Jay-Z has a new website (Rock4Life.com).  This website allows visitors the opportunity to convert and follow all of "Rock Nation's" artist.  How does he do this? By allowing visitors to make their own profile page on the site.

Every Music Marketer should have a feature that allows for small conversions to turn into big conversions later.

So there you have it, the ABC's of Marketing.  Do you have anything to add?  Maybe you have some questions?  If so, feel free to comment below.
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