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For the first six steps of your complete musician marketing plan, check out part one and part two of this series!
If you've been following this three-part series on the complete marketing plan for musicians, you've already realized that marketing isn't just something you do after your music is recorded and you want to get it out to the world. Marketing starts with the inception of an idea and continues all the way through to the execution of that idea. This requires researching and goal-setting, which was discussed earlier. Now, I'll briefly discuss everything from choosing the right strategies to achieve your goals to continuing to learn more about marketing. If you're looking to go more in depth with these concepts, they're all covered in my book, Music Marketing for the DIY Musician.
7. Choose a blend of marketing strategies to achieve your goals
Now that you've got your marketing plan goals set (see part two), the next step in the process involves choosing the right mix of strategies to help you achieve your goals. These strategies, appropriately called "marketing mix strategies," include the "four Ps" of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) as well as three other important building blocks (band branding, product branding, and measuring).
This step is where you might decide on specific logo ideas and artwork, whether to produce flash drives or CDs, how much you intend to charge for your music, who will distribute your music online and offline, whether you plan to "outsource" to a publicist or do the work in-house, how you will measure the success of your marketing, and so much more.
To be sure, it's not the individual strategies alone that must be planned, but rather how all of these ideas will work cohesively to create one integrated marketing campaign. In other words, everything you do to achieve your goals must be well thought out and fully coordinated.
[The 7 Core Aspects of a Marketing Mix Every Band Needs]
8. Organize your ideas in a written plan of attack
Compile all of the information you gathered in your research and planning (discussed in parts one and two), and put it into a standard marketing plan format. As I heard someone say once, "If it's not on paper, then it's only vapor."
Traditionally, a marketing plan is a written document that serves as a road map for your business idea and marketing campaign, a communicative tool to keep all the members of your organization on track, and even a sales document to attract potential investors, distributors, and others. While marketing plans come in all shapes, sizes, and lengths, they usually consist of an attractive cover, one page summary, table of contents, research findings, goals, strategies to achieve your goals, budgets, and schedules. In your case, your band is your business, your fans are your customers, and your potential investors could be labels, publishing companies, managers, etc.
Keep in mind that a marketing plan is a living, breathing document. It's not something you assemble once and use unchanged for the next year, but, rather, it's a fluid tool that's continually revised as you evaluate its performance and observe new marketplace developments on your path to success.
9. Execute your marketing plan effectively
If doing all of the aforementioned work was not enough, now you must execute your strategies successfully within the framework of your budget and timeline to give them some real worth. While many people look at this "work" as a four-letter word (profane, daunting, something to avoid), look at it this way: your overall strategy should be to grab the attention of those who can help you by first helping yourself! Light as many small fires as you can 'til people see the smoke and take notice. Create some momentum in your career and get the managers, producers, publishers, and investors to come to you. This is going to take time and hard work to make happen, but if you're a true "lifer," sweat and time shouldn't mean a thang! Right? Right!
10. Keep learning about marketing
And finally, the last step in the marketing process deals with your commitment to learning and staying alert to new techniques and methods that can sharpen your skills. New developments of established tools and theories happen regularly, and you don't want to get left behind.
Read the latest marketing and business news via popular sites and blogs such as Sonicbids, Hypebot, DIY Musician, and Billboard. These are all very great reads. You can also take an online course in music business and marketing from a renowned school such as Berklee College of Music or UCLA Extension. Last, but certainly not least, you can also check out my book Music Marketing for the DIY Musician: Creating and Executing a Plan of Attack on a Low Budget.
Go even more in depth with your band's marketing plan:
- How Artists Can Use Data to Improve Their Songs and Marketing
- 4 Out-of-the-Box Marketing Ideas That Will Get Your Band Noticed
- How to Measure Your Marketing Increasing Promotion Effectiveness by 100 Percent
Bobby Borg is the author of Music Marketing for the DIY Musician: Creating and Executing a Plan of Attack on a Low Budget (September 2014). Find the book on Hal Leonard's website under "Trade Books" or on Amazon. Signed copies with a special offer are also available at bobbyborg.com.
