In this digital age where every business competes to attract their target audience’s attention, they produce all sorts of content to stay ahead of the competition. If you are one of those businesses, it’s time to consider adding podcasts to your marketing efforts.
Podcasts can serve as the perfect tool to not only promote your brand but also share your message and inspire your listeners. While this type of content is nothing new, it introduces a new way to drive engagement to your business. If you need further convincing, here are other reasons why you should start a podcast:
1. Serves as an Extra Marketing Channel
The world became even more connected online due to the pandemic, with millions of users now spending most of their time on mobile devices. Since more and more people are staying online every day, now is the perfect time to build your credibility and expand your reach with a podcast.
Don’t forget to make your episodes easily accessible by uploading them on apps and digital platforms so your listeners can easily tune in and listen on their mobile devices. You can do this by publishing your podcast across all the popular platforms like Spotify, Soundcloud, the iTunes Store and more.
2. Establishes Your Authority
While it’s true that we humans are highly visual creatures, audio remains to be a great way for getting your message across. In fact, people recall twice as much information from audio compared to other forms of media. For this reason, it’s beneficial to consider starting a podcast for your brand. As you go deep on certain subjects you are knowledgeable about, you can position yourself as a credible authority in the industry.
3. Increases Traffic to Your Website
Besides authority, familiarity is crucial when it comes to attracting your audience and keeping them engaged. Thankfully, podcasts can help you establish both of them. This is because podcasting lets you start conversations and reach out to new audiences. Your audience is likely to continue listening if you are consistent. Once you form a loyal audience, you can increase your reach and improve your website’s traffic and lead generation.
4. Build Intimate Relationships
A lasting, meaningful relationship is crucial when running a business. While you could establish a certain level of connection with your audience through written or visual content, it’s different when you build one through audio. You get to make honest conversations and open up to your listeners more. Plus, they would hear your voice regularly. All of these can help you create and nurture more personal connections with your audience.
5. Allows You to Repurpose Content
Living in a fast-paced world often means having less time to produce more content. Fortunately, you can still offer something new and meaningful to your audience without taking too much time and effort when you repurpose your existing article or video into a podcast. Audio content allows you to cover a wide range of topics while keeping your production costs low. Besides saving you time, it lets you reach new audiences.
Conclusion
Launching a podcast can help you meet your business goals in many ways. Additionally, there are different techniques to share your ideas with your listeners. Some great audio marketing strategies are inviting experts to your show and reviewing your products and services. If you don’t wanna miss on these advantages, get your recorder and start your very first episode. To promote your podcast, use a digital audio advertising platform or content promotion tool.
If you want to utilize a music promotion company for your podcast, then you’ve come to the right place. We offer Promoly, an easy-to-use tool for promoting your podcast and audio content through email and social media. Start your seven-day trial with us today!
Podcasts are some of the hottest forms of online content. It provides an easy platform to broadcast audio content with unique features. Promoting a podcast today involves different platforms and formats, from social media posts to DMs and emails. Using the email format, in particular, gives podcast promotions a few advantages.
Don’t underestimate the power of email. We will discuss some features below that make email marketing an effective promotional tool for podcasts.
Email Marketing and Its Advantages
Podcasts are similar to radio broadcasts but with many modern advantages. It can take the form of talk shows, discussions, music promotions, and other forms of exclusive audio content. There’s no limit to the type of audio content that you can offer.
There are many different advantages to the podcast format. For one, digital platforms allow total convenience for your audience. It can be streamed or downloaded anytime and listened to on various devices. Time zones do not affect your broadcasts and the tracks are playable at the convenience of your listeners, with high replay value.
Using email marketing as an audio marketing strategy for podcast promotion carries different properties than other communication formats. It gives podcast promotions an edge over other common forms of communication-based advertising, such as:
It is cost-effective.
You can send emails to a large number of recipients in one go
It saves time with mass deployment.
Subscribers can sign up for a mailing list that reaches different audiences.
You can customize emails for each subscriber.
You can send email newsletters and regular updates.
It has versatile presentation and content possibilities with HTML formatting and attachments.
The Monetization Aspects of Email Marketing
Over time, your podcasts can gain a significant number of listeners on a global scale. You can take the next step and monetize your audio content to support your overhead costs and enable you to provide regular audio content to your growing audience.
Set-up direct payment methods
Audio content creators can set up a Patreon account that allows payments to support podcast operations. You can also use a Paypal account in your newsletters and email communications using the same Paypal email for easy recall.
It’s one of the primary ways to start monetizing your content as an audio marketing strategy without a direct hard sell and as an additional option for subscribers.
Offer exclusive content
Paying subscribers can get exclusive access to other audio not available to the general public. You can offer exclusive interviews, bonus tracks, unreleased songs, unreleased episodes, and other content at a minimal price. Since this offer covers your whole mailing list, you can even keep the subscription or exclusive content prices low to get more subscribers.
Create Advertising Tie-ups
Much like the older format of the radio broadcast, you can use advertising tie-ups with brands and companies to promote their products and services. The unique properties of the podcast discussed above are additional advantages they can use. These properties also apply to public announcements, news, and press releases.
Final Thoughts
A podcast is a way to disseminate audio content through the internet. Email marketing is one of the most effective promotional tools for reaching as wide an audience as possible, with many exclusive advantages.
Elevate your audio marketing strategy with smart technology features and controls specifically designed for our platform. Check out our services with a free seven-day trial to review how its capabilities can further empower your podcasts. Get it going on an international online scale and broadcast with us. Promoly can help you reach your goals.
There are various ways to learn about how to market your music. But ultimately, the success of your release is dependent on the core community and connections you’ve established over the previous months and years.
Many musicians and record labels focus their marketing and creativity only on new releases. Their mistake is that they overlook the importance of developing and growing their internet audience. We’ll ask you: Why should people listen to you if you don’t take the time to interact with them? Remember that fans like supporting artists and interacting with them. In a nutshell, they dislike sales pitches. Read on as we discuss how to best execute a music rollout via social media.
Beginning the Journey
The finest marketing shouldn’t be overly promotional. Relationships develop organically when an audience feels really connected to an artist. They connect with the music’s tale and, over time, become your most ardent fans.
In conjunction with this, you must also identify the artist’s or team’s priority record. Artists typically select what they believe will be the best single, the one most likely to build momentum and lead into the album’s release. However, it is critical to solicit input from other team members.
Artists strive for perfection in their work, yet they might be too connected to the material to be objective. Combat this problem by seeking a second viewpoint.
Strategize The Rollout
After you’ve decided on the perfect song, you’ll need to plan its release. To capture the attention of social media users, you must clearly lay out its phases: tease, launch, and amplify.
Phase 1: Tease and Build the Hype
You want to create a sense of mystery and excitement around the music so that when it is released, fans will be eager to get their hands on it. This is what big studios do with months-ahead promotions and trailers. Music is no exception.
You want stuff that generates buzz: excerpts, behind-the-scenes footage, and videos that reveal the creative process behind the song.
Phase 2: Optimize the Launch to Have a Wider Reach
When it comes to digital music marketing, you must aim to create a splash on the internet on the big release day. The more traffic you generate, the more algorithmic love, distribution, and possible playlist positions you will obtain.
But it’s not only about having your material ready to go. Announcement postings, banner swaps, and pinned tweets, and Facebook posts will also be required. You can also highlight the music on your Spotify profile by using the Spotify Artist Pick function. You may also send emails, SMS messages, and reach out to fan groups. By utilizing all of this, you can guarantee that traffic is directed towards the release.
If you check all of these boxes, you’ll be in a terrific position, and you’ll know you’re off to a good start.
Phase 3: Ride the Momentum and Continue to Amplify after the Release
One of the first things to consider while building momentum is the creation and production of ongoing content. Share studio session excerpts as well as fan and influencer-generated material that you can repost.
Of course, you must be consistent throughout the marketing, but in a way that is not the same thing over and over. Instead, take the audience on a journey.
Conclusion
Promoting music on social media can be done via paid sponsorships or organic distribution. Either way, it’s important to take note of these phases because they’re meant to guarantee the artist exposure, reach, and eventually, success.
Are you looking for ways to promote an album? Promoly helps get artists noticed by successfully promoting their music across social media platforms and other digital features. Start your 7-day trial today!
Spotify is a powerful music platform that allows users to listen to various artists, save albums, create playlists, and more. They’ve become global sensations, bridging the gap between artists and their fans, allowing them to make their music more accessible to the public.
In recent years, Spotify released a fantastic feature that changed the music industry’s game, and this was called pre-save campaigns. Pre-save campaigns are now used to allow fans to pre-save music into their accounts leading up to the day artists release their music. It’s a great weapon that can help music rank higher, garner more streams, and measure the reach of your music.
If you’re curious to know what you get from employing a pre-save campaign in your audio marketing strategy, read on. In this article, we’ll share with you the benefits you gain from pre-save campaigns. Let’s take a look!
Benefit #1: Reminds Fans of New Music
When you’re ready to release a new single or album, you need to kickstart campaigns to gain some traction. However, tweeting or posting a photo on Instagram or making some noise on other social media platforms may not be enough, especially since you need to be mindful of your consistency as well.
With that being said, it only makes sense to employ a pre-save campaign to help trigger recall to your audience. Because after teasing your song and posting some relevant content on social media, you need another reminder for your audience to help check out your music once it goes out. And that’s what pre-save on Spotify can do.
Benefit #2: It Saves Straight to Their Library
The great thing about the pre-save feature in Spotify is that the moment a listener pre-saves your song, it goes directly to their library the moment it’s available to stream on the platform.
This feature is important because chances are not everyone will see your online marketing efforts, which could greatly affect your stream numbers. With that being said, since Spotify automatically saves your song into the user’s library, they won’t miss out on streaming your newly released song, no matter how busy they are in the day.
Benefit #3: It Builds Momentum
When creating an audio marketing strategy, you need to remember that you need to keep a constant flame in your campaign leading up to the release. But one of the best ways to build momentum is by employing the pre-save campaign option in your strategy.
The great thing about Spotify is that it can help you build momentum leading up to your release date. After you employ a pre-save campaign and users start saving your song or album, you can then create playlists to keep your audience excited for the release.
With a pre-save campaign, you’ll get to improve your marketing strategy, allowing you to increase your streams, followers and even expand your reach.
The Bottom Line: Utilize Features That Can Help Boost Your Audio Marketing Strategy
Audio marketing strategies are much different than the usual digital marketing efforts. This is because audio releases are a slow burn, and you need to be meticulous about the techniques you employ to ensure steady streams and high numbers. With that being said, pre-save campaigns can do loads to your music, allowing your audience to save your music even before it comes out and get sure plays once it’s out on the platform.
Here at Promoly, we help innovative brands promote their audio in a saturated digital landscape through email and social media. With our audio and content promotion tool, you’ll get to drive downloads, grow your audience, track recipient engagement, push sales, and more.
Learn more about our tool and boost your strategy today!
The landscape for music has drastically changed over the years with the integration of technology. There’s so much software today compared to the last two decades. With the improvements in recording devices and computers involved, it can take less than a day to create and record a song, podcast episode, or any sort of audio entertainment.
The shift isn’t limited to production, though, as promotions have changed as well. Many brands and artists are able to directly promote their content to others via social media now, which has accelerated the acclaim of the indie music scene.
Instagram is deemed as one of the most effective platforms for it.
Although it is initially a visual platform, there are still ways to utilize it in order to advertise to your audience. There are also features where you can showcase music and other related content.
Instagram used to only allow videos under a minute, which can limit the audio that you can allow IG users to hear. However, with the past introduction of IGTV, accounts can now post videos that would take up to 10 minutes. Instead of just posting pure snippets onto your profile, you could now upload a lengthier recording.
Most people do create extra music videos that are shot vertically since this does give a more user-friendly experience visually to those on the mobile app. Others provide sneak peeks into more raw performances and covers of the songs.
It doesn’t always have to be about the song, though, as showing yourself behind the scenes can also be a good way of connecting with fans. Post up short interviews with people or even just edit vlogs that would make you more relatable to future fans.
Create Instagram Posts
Dropping an Instagram post once in a while can be good. Spamming doesn’t seem to be the move, especially since it can affect the way your Instagram feed would appear. Be a little more tactical about your posts by making them personable.
Share images of how excited you are about future gigs, pictures of you wearing your merch, and photos for an upcoming album. Don’t forget to try and engage with fans in the comments when you can, too.
Put Links in Your Instagram Bio
It might be odd how a space for photos can promote something that should be heard, but placing links can be effective. If you have your audio up on Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud, or other streaming services, be sure to put up a link. It’ll be more convenient for followers to find your stuff and listen to it.
Interact Through Instagram Stories
If you want to be a little more spontaneous in communicating with your audience and sharing something about your music, Instagram Stories is a perfect way for that. Many users also view this first when logging on since posts expire after a day. Make the most of it and create, such as sharing updates on how production is going or starting a little Q&A.
Conclusion
Following these steps should be able to get you a good following. It can be overwhelming for some people to experience growth too quickly after successive promotions, especially if you’re on other platforms as well. Remember to keep track and fully utilize it for the success of your audio.
Want to keep tabs on your music marketing strategies? Promoly is an easy-to-use, affordable, and effective tool that helps in promoting your audio content through email and social media. Get a free trial now!
The great thing about running a Spotify pre-save campaign is that the artists, in turn, get to build up their fan base before each release. The more people that pre-save, the more exposure their music gets, which over time is like the snowball that keeps on growing. All the artists need to do is get their fans excited about their new track. Everyone wins. In the age of streaming, it’s still possible for everyone to win, with Spotify pre-saves.
Pre-saves are nothing new, but they were previously only on offer for significant, successful artists. Now, all independents, labels, music producers and artists can make use of the feature too.
But to make effective use of Spotify pre-saves, you first need to understand the ins and outs of them and what they mean for you.
What is a pre-save on Spotify?
Spotify pre-saves function precisely like any other kind of pre-ordering system. They allow your fans to save your upcoming release before its release date. While this traditionally involved pre-ordering and paying in advance, the subscription model of Spotify means you pre-save it rather than pre-order. Then, on release day, the album, single or EP is automatically added to the library.
This makes the process extremely easy on the part of the consumer. You deliver the pre-save campaign by posting a link to your upcoming music, and all the consumer needs to do is click the pre-save button. That’s all! The process is seamless, and we’ll discuss that in more detail below.
Engage with your fans
What Spotify pre-saves allow you to do, aside from promoting your music, is getting your fans engaged before releasing the song. This means that Spotify (in theory) will notice the traction on your new song from the moment it’s available on release day. When fans pe-save your music, it shows Spotify there’s interest in your music.
Building pre-save energy improves the Spotify algorithms. Algorithms detect music that is doing well and may promote it through their semi-automated editors’ official playlists like Discover Weekly and Release Radar.
These playlists display on other Spotify users’ homepages and automatically update once per week – the good thing is the playlists are based on listening habits and will provide music the user will enjoy. Also, once getting on these playlists means your music is more likely to reach a wider audience due to Spotify distributing to their userbase, which in the long run builds momentum over time.
Release Radar
The Release Radar is a playlist readjusted to each user on Spotify. It’s updated every Friday with new music from artists users have already listened to, along with some the algorithm thinks they’ll like. So while having lots of fans will help you get on more people’s release radar, you can also boost your chances by getting more listens as soon as your song comes out.
Discover Weekly
Discover Weekly is another playlist tailored to individual users. Spotify algorithms put music into playlists they think users will like, based on their current taste. So, along with the Release Radar playlist, Discover Weekly is where you want your music to end up. It’s a fantastic way to generate more streams and more followers. Keep hitting these playlists month over month; you’ll create a following in no time.
Generating a successful pre-save campaign and making use of these playlists involves a few key factors. However, before we get into that, let’s talk about the overall Spotify pre-save campaign setup.
How to set up a Spotify pre-save campaign?
The Spotify pre-save process is very straightforward. With just a few steps required on your part, you can have your pre-save links generated, which you can send out to your fans in no time.
With Promoly, it’s easier than ever, and we take care of all the technical bits. In addition, Promoly’s built-in pre-save tool can be used to create a campaign and distribute the campaign in record time.
Step 1 – Schedule your music for release.
To start a pre-save campaign, the first thing you need to do is set your music’s release date with the distributor. This date is the day your music will become available to stream on Spotify. When you set a release date and publish the music, the distributor will start delivering the music to the shops, like Spotify, Beatport, iTunes, Apple Music, etc. Once you set the date, you’ll need to work backwards to give you enough time to kick off and promote your campaign.
Step 2 – Get your music barcode.
Promoly can generate a pre-save campaign using your music barcode. Other services depend on the Spotify URI and many fiddly setups, but we like to automate the process by using the barcode to reduce the manual work. Promoly can also pull in metadata from the barcode, like your release details, artwork, and information.
If you’re not sure how to get the barcode, it’s usually called a UPC or EAN. Ask your record label or music distributor if you are unsure. Once you have it, create a Promoly account, log in, press ‘new campaign’, and then select ‘pre-save.’
Next, plug in your barcode; Promoly will search for your music on Spotify (and all the other stores) and create a campaign automatically.
We only need Spotify for this campaign so that the other shops can be disabled for this campaign. That’s it, and providing everything is looking correct, you won’t need to update anything else. You’ll notice that Promoly creates a Spotify pre-save link and landing page for you – you’ll need this landing page link to direct fans to your music.
Step 3 – Kick off your campaign.
The final step of the process is to kick off your Spotify pre-save campaign. This step is critical, as it’s the way you’ll get people to pre-save your music. You can start by giving fans the link so that they can pre-save your new tracks. To do this effectively, you need to know how to get people to pre-save your songs, and I’ll explore this in more detail below.
How do you get people to pre-save your songs?
Once you have your pre-save campaign ready to go, you’ll need to start building traction. For example, simply sending out emails to your followers asking them to pre-save your music might not be enough on its own. While your fans might take action with your campaign email, the open rate benchmark for media and entertainment is 21%. Therefore, 21% read emails leaves 79% unread. That’s a huge number, which means a good chunk of your fan mailing list will never see your email or hear your music.
Giving your followers an incentive to pre-save your music is essential for your pre-save campaign to be successful. You need to give your followers a reason to click your link, and the music might not be enough to build initial momentum. At first, anyway.
If you already have a massive following, you might be able to count on your followers by clicking the link straight away. But if you’re trying to grow your following, you need to be proactive and creative.
Run a competition
You want to get your fans excited about your new music. A great way to do this is to run a competition and run a pre-save campaign alongside. Ask your followers to pre-save your upcoming music, and in return, enter them into a prize draw once they show you proof of the pre-save.
This draw could be for anything, from T-shirts to exclusive content. The main point is to get the fans warmed up to pre-save your music whilst getting them to take action simultaneously.
For example, you could post your pre-save on social media and say:
“Want to win a signed T-shirt?
When you pre-save my music, post a screenshot of the tune in your library in the comments, and I’ll choose a winner at random.
The competition closes Friday!”
This post will definitely get more attention compared with a post just saying ‘pre-save my music’. Why? For starters, everyone wants to win something.
The top line is called the hook, and it’s designed to grab someone’s attention. Then you tell them how to win. In this case, it’s simple. So that someone has to pre-save and post a screenshot of their Spotify library in the comments. It’s a simple task but does you massive favour (by building your engagement) in the long term, and someone wins a T-shirt.
Artists do this with exclusive T-shirts, limited edition vinyl, and lots of other unique items. This is an excellent way to give your followers more than just the music. Try it.
Pin a Tweet and ask fans to Retweet
Twitter has a cool function where you can pin a Tweet. Or, in this scenario, pin your Spotify pre-save link. This means every person who comes by your Twitter page will see your pre-save page link pinned to the very top.
Having the Tweet at the very top of the account is great for optimal impressions. To make things even better, ask your fans to Retweet to help build traction and awareness.
You could think about running a Retweet, like, and follow competition. Give your followers a little more of what they want by requiring them to follow or like you in return for a chance to win.
A Twitter contest can be an excellent way to increase exposure and follower count. By giving people multiple ways to enter contests, it can also improve follower growth and engagement.
You could then give your followers points for Retweeting and liking, which would add up over time. These points could then be redeemable for backstage passes, merchandise or early access to other music.
You can really get creative with driving a pre-save campaign, so don’t be afraid to try something out of the box. The idea is to engage your audience and incentivise pre-saving your song.
Once you know how to run an effective pre-save campaign, you can reproduce the technique for every release.
How to get insights and learn from Promoly
Spotify pre-save link campaigns are great for boosting your presence on Spotify. But by monitoring and tracking how your fans engage with your music, you can better understand your fanbase.
Promoly can also generate shop links campaigns too, so once your pre-save campaign is over, you can log in to Promoly and enable the other stores. Promoly will automatically update your campaign without you having to do any manual edits.
When you launch your pre-save campaigns on Promoly, we don’t only provide you with an awesome campaign, but we track everything that is happening and display that you in easily digestible stats.
Once your campaign is live and running, Promoly will collect all the relevant data from your fans so that you know where your fans are pre-saving/clicking on your music.
We take care of all the complex stuff so you can focus on your music promotion — no need for difficult Google Sheets tracking here… well, unless you want to, of course!
Promoly helps you track these results; know who you’re reaching and where they’re listening. This will allow you to grow as an artist or label and become more successful in the process.
For musicians, one of the best tools for both creative self-expression and marketing is music videos, which can do wonders for exposing new audiences to your music and artistry.
For independent artists, the work of quality music video marketing doesn’t just begin and end with conceptualizing and executing the video itself. Still, it continues into promoting that video to get as many eyes on it as possible.
So if you’ve recently made a music video for yourself as a music artist, here are ten ways you can learn about music video promotion.
1. Have a Pre-Release Strategy
You probably already know that most artists can’t just pull a Beyonce and drop something with no lead-up or fanfare when it comes to releasing new music and expect it to be a success. Well, the same thing goes for videoclip marketing. Before you put out your music video, you’ll want to build up as much hype as possible among your established fanbase.
From letting your fans know that a music video is coming to releasing images and teaser clips from within the music video, you want to make sure you mention the music video release date several times to give as many people as possible the opportunity to find out it’s coming and get excited.
2. Find Your Unique Selling Point
This is a tip that applies to musicianship in general and each particular music video you release. When you go into marketing your video clip, you need to know what makes it special and sets it apart from every other music video out there. Understanding this can help you know what to use to hook in your target audience. When you start sharing and promoting, you’ll want to draw attention to this particular aspect, whether it is the video’s unique story, unexpected medium, stunning visuals, or whatever else it may be.
3. Optimize for SEO
When you post your music video on Youtube, it’s important to increases its chances of being seen and come up on search results by optimizing it for search (SEO). This includes doing several things like filling out the description, tagging with relevant keywords, categorizing your video appropriately, and choosing an eye-catching thumbnail. When it comes to tagging, consider using keywords like your music’s genre and names of similar artists in addition to just your song and artist names. The more tags, the better – as long as they’re actually relevant and accurate. When it comes to organic promotion, these tips will really help you.
4. Post on Every Platform
Naturally, just posting your music video on YouTube Music and leaving it at that isn’t going to be enough. You’ll also want to cross-promote the video on as many different platforms as you possibly can. We’re talking Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook at the very least. You can post your video on these platforms more than once, which is a huge advantage, and it also allows you to reach a different audience than you do on YouTube Music.
Share it on your personal pages as well as your artist page and ask for friends and family to share it with their networks, too. And make sure to optimize the video for each platform individually, as some of them have different preferred video formats. Doing this will significantly boost audience engagement.
Finally, know that when you post on social media, it can help engage with viewers in the comments to encourage more hype and conversation and signal to the social media networks that the content is interesting and should be boosted to a more visible place on people’s feeds.
5. Pay for Ads
Of course, there is a limit to how far organic content on social media can go, so if you want to guarantee that more people will see your music video than just your followers, you can always go the paid ad route. The process of creating ads on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram is actually very simple and straightforward, and, best of all, it allows you to target specific audiences that you believe will like your music. So instead of just having your ad sent out into the void, you’ll know it’ll be seen by the type of person who might enjoy your video and become your fan.
You can choose who you want your ad to be seen according to demographics like age, gender, income, parental status, traits (like being a college student or new parent), interests, and even life stage (like if they’re soon to be getting married). This means you can really specify who you want to see your video, even picking people who are fans of artists that are similar to you. This will highly increase the chances of the person actually becoming a fan after seeing your music video.
You probably already know this, but one of the best avenues for music to succeed these days is through @tiktok_us#musicpromotion
You probably already know this, but one of the best avenues for music to succeed these days is through TikTok. Why? Because when a dance blows up on TikTok and everybody is posting their own TikToks with them dancing to a particular song, they’re actually engaging with the music, and they have high motivation to share it with their audiences. TikTok is awesome for song promotion!
We’re not saying here that you have to invent a viral dance move to your song to have people see your music video. Rather than coming up with some kind of way for people to engage with it beyond just watching, it can help it spread.
You’ll have to get creative to figure out what you can do to encourage music fans to engage with your video. Still, anything that allows them to participate in it, like asking people to send you videos of their friends reacting to it or challenging them to recreate a certain part of it, is some of the options you can consider.
7. Get it Shared
Another way to have people beyond your already built-in audience see your music video is to have it shared with the existing audiences of others. This could be influencers, magazines, a music blog, or something else – essentially an entity that reaches people who might be interested in your music video.
So check out what magazines and blogs like to post about new music and reach out to them to see if they may be interested in posting yours. Some of them may have an established process for submitting music videos, while, for others, it may just be a matter of sending a nicely-worded email. Just make sure to check and see how it works and to be as polite, concise, and convincing as possible in your communication.
8. Share in Online Communities
While magazines and blogs absolutely still exist today, another place where large audiences of music lovers gather is online communities such as forums and subreddits. Here, people are actively looking for entertainment and something to interest them, and they’re also highly motivated and engaged. This makes online communities a perfect place to share your music video. This involves two things.
First, you have to find the right communities relevant to you, like those that are specifically related to promoting one’s own music or those about the genre you’re in. And second, you have to be wise and strategic about how you post to the communities.
The tighter-knit the community, the more they’ll frown on an absolute outsider coming in just for self-promotion. Hence, it’s a good idea to first participate and, when it comes to those types of forums, actually become a part of the community before you promote your video.
And on communities specifically made to allow musicians to promote their own music, you’ll have to find a way to stand out among everybody else, so use that unique selling point we talked about in tip number two.
Some forums that you might consider posting your music video on include:
Let’s not forget the power of real-life, in-person interactions to build excitement about a new music video. On the day of your music video release, consider putting together a viewing party in its honour. Invite family, friends, fans, and local music lovers.
Of course, make sure that there is more to draw people to the party than just watching your music videos. Different ways to make the party appealing include playing a live set, inviting other local bands to play, having an interesting theme (ideally one that will be somehow related to your music video), and bringing in exciting refreshments like a food truck or even an open bar.
10. Use Email
If you don’t already have an email mailing list for your fans, you’ll definitely want to put one together because they’re an absolutely indispensable marketing tool for musicians, useful for promoting pretty much anything you’re doing, including music videos.
Using an email marketing list, you can directly get in contact with people who have shown interest in you by signing up for your mailing list, reaching them with a personal message. You can use your email list to build up hype for your upcoming music video release by sending out teasers and reminders and sending the actual music video out to your fans on the day that it comes out.Before you send out your email, it’ll be a good idea to brush up on the basics of email marketing, like how to use your subject lines to get people to click on your email, as well as how to include calls to action within your email to get your fans to do things like click through to watch your music video.
11. Mobilize Your Fans
We’ve already covered how it’s a good idea to ask your friends and family to share your music video on their social networks to get it seen by as many people as possible, but when it comes to promoting your music video, why stop there?
In fact, you can even get your fans involved in the process of sharing your music video. Reach out to them on social media platform of choice or through your email marketing list, asking them to share your music video with their friends and networks. You can even include a draft of a pre-written message they can send out or create a hashtag they can include in their posts about your music video.
Of course, it’s ideal to also offer some other incentive to your fans to get them to share your music video other than just doing you a favour. That’s where things like contests and giveaways come in handy. Consider giving out free t-shirts or other merchandise to fans who share out your music video. In fact, this is a great idea because it even serves as a double promotion since a fan walking around with your t-shirt on is another great way to get the word out about you and your music.
12. Collaborate with Others
Our last tip is to use the power of collaborations to give your music video a boost. Even if you don’t have another artist featured in your music video, you can plan to cross-promote with somebody else by sharing their video to your fans and asking them to do the same for you. This will essentially double both of your audiences, making it an attractive arrangement for both parties. And you can do this with more than one collaborator to increase your reach even more.
If you’re planning to give this method a try, just make sure to be strategic and realistic about who you’re reaching out to, asking for collaborations. If you have 5,000 followers, it may not be too successful in asking for an artist with a million followers to share your video. If you think you can make a solid case for them to do so, there’s no reason not to give it a shot, as long as you do so professionally, politely, and don’t waste anybody’s time.
Conclusion
Being an independent music artist is a lot of work. Not only do you have to put your heart and soul into making popular music, but you also have to follow that up by putting your blood, sweat, and tears into getting it out there to reach people and maybe even have a career as a musician. Music video promotion is a lot to deal with, but when you see those comments on your music videos saying how much a person connects with your song, it all becomes worth it. So go ahead and give these ten music video promotion strategies a try. You’ll be able to expand your fan base, increase the level of engagement with your music, and maybe even make some money.
Although it’s the 21st century devil, it’s essential in this day and age that you have a strong online presence. Show people your music, how hard you’re grafting, your studio sessions, your personality. People love a behind the scenes insight into the life of an active artist. Showcase what you’re cooking up, get interesting with your content and make sure all of your socials look tidy and themed.
‘How you present yourself online is critical when marketing yourself as a new artist. It’s important to be positive, and a good contributor to the your “scene” rather than simply hard selling what YOU do as an individual all the time. Your online persona / presence is key to developing relationships and, over time, showing your value and skill set. Your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed!’ – J Fresh (International DJ and artist)
2. Network, Network, Network!
This is a top music marketing strategy but often overlooked. Go to events and socialise with artists, ravers, everyone! It’s not as snaky as it sounds. Not only is it good to meet people in a networking sense, engaging with like-minded people may spark new ideas and give you the energy you need to work hard in what can be a tiring industry. It’s also a great way to remind yourself why you became an artist in the first place, because you love the music! It’s an added bonus that the people you meet may also like the music you’re making.
3. Spread the word…
Talk about what you’re doing with people, post your music on your personal Facebook page, make it known that you’re an artist. You never know, your mother’s, boss’s, son’s girlfriend might work in the office of the label you’ve always dreamt of being signed to, so be vocal, but be humble.
4. Attend industry music conferences
These are great environments to mingle with some of the key industry players. Get yourself a pass and try connecting with a few labels, managers and agencies, or, don’t get a pass and get the intel as to where the best industry parties are being held and hope you end up waiting in the queue for the toilet next to London Elektricity with your favourite Hospital Records T-shirt on.
Here is a list of conferences useful to attend as a new artist:
ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event)
IMS (International Music Summit)
Winter Music Conference
Brighton Music Conference
BEC (Beats Evolution Conference)
IMS and ADE are two conferences which can help newcomer artists gain a greater insight into the music industry. Not only can it put you in touch with people face to face, who can help progress your career and give you invaluable advice, but these conferences can also teach you just how important it is to get a better perspective on the inner workings of the industry, as well as how to stay on top of its changes – especially within the digital age.’ – Hannah Helbert, (Freelance PR agent for Ram Records, Hatched Music, Sofa Sound, Cygnus Music)
5. Familiarise yourself with software like Adobe Photoshop/Audition so that you can create your own content
To up your music marketing strategy game, start producing professional-looking online content without spending your own money paying a graphic designer. This is perfect sorcery in leading people to believe your music career is poppin’ off enough to make you enough money to afford a designer, when really you’re a behind the scenes wiz when it comes to creating content.
6. Get on the radio!
Get yourself a show on an internet or community radio station. This is a great way of marketing what you’re about and platforming yourself as a personality. People will connect with you as a person, leaving them feeling warm and familiar about connecting with your music.
‘Becoming a presenter on a radio station, no matter the size of the station is a great way to build yourself as a presenter as well as a DJ. It’s worth mentioning at this stage that being a DJ and a presenter are individual skills to develop. Yet I’ve found that the most beneficial style is somewhere in between. Use your radio show as a way to convey your unique personality and engage with an entirely new audience. Pride yourself on your curation and show your passion to the scene. Not only will the promotion of new (and established) artists help build direct relationships, but by associating yourself with some of the larger artists you play on your show, this will help you to get noticed by potential promoters, managers and labels.’ – Gully B (Reprezent Radio Presenter)
7. Remix, remix, remix!
Be daring and smash out a monster bootleg of a well-known track to draw attention to your style. Or, if you know other up and coming artists starting out in a different genre, you could suggest remixing each other’s tracks for maximum exposure. Everyone’s a winner in this situation as your sound is exposed to a totally new audience. When your name becomes more established, you’ll be paid to remix another artist’s track. Using the technique of having your tracks remixed by artists from different genres is an industry favourite, even with the bigger artists, so it’s good to get some practice under your belt.
8. Support other artists by tagging them online when you rate/play their tracks.
As the old saying goes, what goes around comes back around and if you’re seen to be supporting other artists on their mission to get their music heard, not only does it make you a solid person, the good eggs will acknowledge and may even return the favour when the time is right. There are a lot of people grafting as hard as you are, so make good connections and be known to support the scene you work in, it won’t hinder your progression.
‘Make genuine connections, support others, share their stuff online, post a few positive words etc. because you want to, not because you expect anything back directly in return. If you like something or appreciate someone’s work, no matter how big or small, why not let them know?’ – Nausika (signed to Blu Mar Ten/Subtitles)
9. Get a job in music
Having a job in music can open up endless opportunities for a new artist. It’s a great way of learning about the industry, and a great way to show professional bodies, who may be up for checking out your artistic side, how passionate you are.
A warning with this, be careful you don’t go in on your first day with ‘I WANT TO BE A WORLD FAMOUS DJ’, written on your forehead. If a professional establishment susses out you only had one motive when applying to work in that office, and your work starts to slack, you’ll lose their respect which may hinder your reputation. Only apply for jobs you want and know you’d be good at. Be smart but be genuine, it’ll help you stand out.
10. Make sure you have your best mixes, full of your best tracks, available online
If you have good DJ mixes on your Soundcloud, make them downloadable. People are more likely to stick them on repeat and then watch out for your next upload. Electronic music listeners are attracted to accessible content, especially mixes, so if you have a good mix that’s circulating online, it will attract people to you as an artist and encourage fans to see you play live.
When your following starts to grow, this would be when you’d tone down online mixes to introduce exclusivity, but for up and coming artists, the more people can hear what you’re about, the better. Besides, who doesn’t like smashing out a good mix and sharing with the nation? Go wild and have fun!
A lot of businesses have been directly or indirectly affected by the pandemic, and the music industry is no exception. Record labels, now more than ever, have been forced into experimenting with new marketing tactics to keep their artists relevant.
In this article, we’re presenting 9 tips for record labels to stay connected with their audiences during this unprecedented time.
1. Do Live Streams (A lot)
You’ve seen those, right? Well, how can you not with so many video platform algorithms taking every chance to feature them at the top of your feed!
To be honest, no one is complaining. I mean, live streams are as close as you can get to the real deal, only from the comfort of your couch, or bed. Also, doing live streams is one of the major ways EDM artists are coping during covid 19.
Unfortunately, such gigs aren’t exactly money makers (in fact, they are rarely paid), however, they’re fantastic exposure and help so many people stay entertained in these times of distress.
2. Host Drive-in Concerts
Even in the pandemic, people in the US have figured out a way to party. It was only a matter of time until musicians and promoters saw the potential in the old school concept of drive-in theaters and made something equally awesome – drive-in concerts.
Some of the names who have joined the automotive part scene so far include Snoop Dogg (aka DJ Snoopadelic) and The Beach Boys. Just remember to check for safe spatial requirements and keep the ticket prices reasonable, fans aren’t making as much money either!
3. Tread with Empathy
As much as they love music, fans are also affected by the pandemic, so purchasing your music may not be their top priority. It’s crucial to keep this in mind when promoting new albums.
While it’s nice to keep selling, your marketing approach needs to show a lot of empathy so that people know you don’t just care about their money. Make sure your messages and narrative across any platform are more relevant and insightful.
4. Be a Part of the Community
Your record label is not the only one out there, so don’t act like it. The last thing you want to be is the ‘one’ brand that only talks about itself.
Granted, it’s important to be promotional, but it’s just as important to be social. You can toot your own horn across social media, but spend as much effort giving back to the community and engaging with the fans. Help out aspiring brands, do collabs, give shout outs – it’ll pay off to be kind.
5. Branch Out
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social platforms are excellent for staying connected with the audience, but there’s more to the internet than that. Not all music fanatics are scrolling through their social media all day, some like to play games, get creative on Pinterest, or have discussions on Reddit.
Consider branching out to different areas of the online world. A terrific example is what Travis Scott did when he, along with his team, partnered with Fortnite for an insanely popular concert.
The event drew around 12 million players into the in-game show and The concert drew 12 million fans into the in-game show and helped his new single to an explosive launch.
6. Hold a Live Charity Event
Just like a live stream, only with your label donating for charity the more fans are watching and spreading the love. Spreading hope during a pandemic is a remarkable thing to do. Just look at recording artists holding live charity events to raise funds for frontline workers and charitable organizations. Lady Gaga helped raise $128 million for health care workers through the virtual “Together at Home” concert where various artists and celebrities took part.
Record labels can also organize similar online “quarantine concerts” featuring their artists. Fans will love the opportunity to catch their favorite artist’s performance online while knowing that proceeds will go to a good cause such as COVID-19 relief efforts. Another option if you can’t organize your own online concerns is to join other online charity concerts that are being organized. Not only will record labels be able to promote their artists, but they will also be able to contribute to the community. I
7. Listen to the Fans
Listen to the fans and followers who take time out of their day to find you online and give feedback. Consider what they have to say, even if it’s not all positive things. In addition to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, internet video platforms such as YouTube, Twitch and even Instagram live sessions are great ways to interact with fans and hear what they have to say.
For example, Chris Martin sang Coldplay songs during and Instagram Live. DJ Diplo did a series of live streams on Twitch called the Corona World Tour. One added bonus of these video streams is that fans can comment during the sessions and feel connected with their favorite singers.
8. Be Generous
If possible, offer discounts, promotions, or gifts-on-purchase. It’s a good deed and a great strategy to give the fans a little something extra to be happy about. They’ll remember it.
While holding ticketed online concerts is one way of earning revenue while physical concerts are not allowed, offering virtual concerts for free is an excellent way for record labels and musicians to show not just their generosity but genuine appreciation for loyal fans who have always supported them.
9. Know Your Audience
Every social media or online platform has its own unique culture. The way you deliver your content needs to match the type of audience in that platform. Delivery is key if you want to be acknowledged.
Should you use TikTok, Instagram Live or YouTube to share content with your fans? Record labels should know the online platforms that their audience use. Once you have selected your social media platform, think about the content that you will share. To truly engage fans, you need to have content that they can connect with.
You can have artists hold regular mini talk shows via YouTube. They can also perform songs or share their personal hobbies during Instagram Live. Getting on the TikTok trend is a great way to connect with millennials or Gen Z if that’s your main audience.
Another example of how a record label understands what their audience wants is when Epic Records organized online meet-and-greet sessions for selected fans to meet Meghan Trainor before her online concert. Think of it as the virtual version of backstage concert passes where fans can meet artists!
Although there are many ways to connect with your audience these days, remember that the number of views or subscribers that you get on your online platforms is not the most important thing. What matters is making an authentic and personal connection with your audience.
If you think creating your first album or EP was a challenge, get ready for your next steps into promotion.
Carving out a spot for yourself or your band in the music industry is no small feat. The competition is thick, and standing out from the crowd takes a significant amount of effort.
Thankfully, you have a mighty tool at your fingertips. Digital promotion is huge for pitching music. In fact, streaming has become the industry’s largest source of revenue as it makes up 41.1% of it across a whopping 176 million users.
But how do you tap into that? First, you need to get noticed. Below are some essential steps for pitching music to well-read blogs covering your genre’s niche.
4 Steps To Pitch Music Features to Popular Music Blog
If you’re serious about getting your music covered by influential voices in the blogosphere, here four steps to help you make it happen.
Step One: Research Content Creators
Before submitting music to blogs, you have to do some background research. Look into what blogs are trending in the music industry. There is more out there than just Stereogum and HipHopDX.
Make a point to find online publications relevant to your genre, as well as writers relevant to your genre. Most quality blogs have multiple contributors writing for their website.
Don’t just email them right off the bat. Take the time to follow them and read their work. Get to know the publication or writer you are planning to send your pitch.
Doing this may take more time than you anticipated, but your odds of success will be greater. Establishing a personal connection goes far in increasing your odds and getting future exposure on new projects.
Step Two: Tempt The Publisher with a First Look When Pitching
There is nothing better than an exclusive in the publishing world. Any time you can offer exclusive content, such as a new, unreleased song, do it. Aim for publications with influence and tempt them with the first look.
This will create a sense of urgency as they aim to be first to publish. If you already have a strong audience for your music, this is a great piece of bait for scoring an interview while debuting a new single.
Step Three: Avoid Mentioning the Blog’s Competition
Bringing up a competitor blog is like referencing someone’s ex in the middle of an introduction. Avoid planting bad vibes by leaving out any references to features or content covered by “the other guys”.
Instead, focus on other moments of merit, such as spotlights you’ve had on other forms of media or recent awards. Remember our advice about serving up exclusives that give the blog you’re pitching to a leg-up on their competition.
Step Four: Be Clear About What You Want
Don’t beat around the bush when you pitch music. Make it a point to state what you want early and clearly. Whether that’s an interview, a feature, or a review, make sure you make your request specific.
Simply saying, “Hey, check out this music!” isn’t enough. Remember, this blog or writer probably receives an overwhelming amount of emails and requests. If you wait on them to think of a way to use the content you sent them, you’re losing leads.
Also, don’t be vague. Add whatever information you can to your music pitch, including any press kits or audio that is relevant to your request. They may not have time to schedule an interview, but if you provide everything upfront they may reward you with a quick write-up.
Those who aren’t used to reaching out and asking for press may feel rude using a no-nonsense approach. However, busy writers and blogs love it when you reach out prepared and get to the point. It makes their job easier.
How to Draft a Short and Compelling Pitch
Now that you know how to approach today’s hottest music blogs, you need to craft a compelling pitch. We’ve broken down three main tips below in order to help you put together a strong request.
A Brief Message Gets Read
Time is a commodity in the journalism or blogging industry. You are one of the numerous requests the publication or writer must sort through on a daily basis. The odds are slim they’re going to do more than skim what you have to say.
Keep your message brief. You can attach or link to more information if your pitch hooks them. However, your call-to-action and your pitch should be within the first two sentences.
Think about what it is you’re offering the publication. What’s in it for them? Why would they say “yes” to your request?
Tempt them enough to make them want to know more, then give them the means to get that information.
Be Creative in Your Approach
“Hey, how are you? We are a band with a new album…” is not a unique pitch. New albums release every single week from musicians of all stages of experience and popularity.
What sets you apart? How is your pitch unique? Use creativity to sell it in a way that tells a story worth reading.
It doesn’t have to be paragraphs of poetry, but a few lines resonating the unique flavour of your music can be enough to give the reader pause and consider what you have to say.
Keep Your Quality Top-Knotch
Creativity is great, but don’t forget to apply some good old-fashioned quality control before you hit send. Poor grammar and typos convey the message that whoever you’re emailing wasn’t worth the time to edit and craft an original message.
Check your hyperlinks and make sure nothing is broken and make sure your tone is that of someone doing business. Using slang in your email isn’t going to win you any cool points. Be creative, but keep it professional.
Are You Ready for Your Music to Be Heard?
If you’re serious about pitching music, getting exposure, and hearing what people have to say about it, then it’s time you tap into our digital promotion tools. Here at Promo.ly, we make creating and managing campaigns a breeze.
Take a look at our packages to discover how easy and affordable it is to get your music out there. Sometimes the right move is just an e-mail away.
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