Are you a music artiste looking to promote your personal brand and win the heart of fans? If YES, here are 50 best viral marketing strategies for music artistes.
Anyone who has ever been in show business understands that making a success out of entertaining people can be very difficult. Doing this as a musical artiste is even more difficult due to the millions of musical hopefuls that find their way into the industry every year. Out of all these, only a handful gets noticed and even fewer actually earn a living from their craft.
So just like any other business, getting the word out there about your craft is paramount if you want to become successful. Usually the artiste does not go into the music industry by him or herself. There is a large company of people that work with the artiste to make sure they can be heard by people.
Anyone wanting to go into music professionally must understand the systems that make for musical success. Simply doing the music by yourself and wanting to make your craft a success without engaging the necessary industry players would be impossible. If your dream is to go beyond having just your family and friends as your fans, then there is more to think about than just your talent and sound. Here are unique strategies that would help you sell yourself.
50 Best Viral Marketing Strategies for Music Artistes
- Collaborate with other artistes
Most times when we see musical acts featuring other artistes, we imagine that they just like themselves and decided to work together. The truth is that most of the collaborations that take place in the music industry are marketing strategies in themselves. More like brand associations or borrowed influence, one artist who is looking for more exposure, works with another bigger artiste that already has the crowd.
- Internet Viral Videos
The internet has become a great platform for people to get their message out there for the world to see. It’s definitely cheaper than the conventional media options, so it would be smart to create engaging videos. The interesting thing is that the videos do not have to be of high definition quality, but it has to be engaging enough for your fans to love it and attract more awareness to your work.
- Use Bulk Email Marketing
This is still one of the most effective ways to market anything really, including your music. Develop engaging content in your emails that would further emphasize your brand and make those emails spread to mail boxes across the world.
- Do some free shows
This can be a very good way to create the impression that you are not simply into the big shows were they pay you lots of money. Through this, you can win the hearts of the organizers of the shows, who will definitely become part of your fan base for life.
- Promote your Facebook page on your website: Facebook has become one of the most formidable platforms to advertise. Knowing that many potential fans are out there, and linking up with them on Facebook is one of the ways to get your songs to the public.
- Do Facebook promotions: Once again, this works wonders in making sure your target audience gets to see and hear your work.
- Promote your videos on YouTube: Both your viral videos and music videos can be promoted on your YouTube channel. Your fans can get to relate with you and your content there.
- Promote on Instagram: There’s no doubt instagram is becoming the go to place for both businesses and personal brands to create awareness for their craft.
- Engage fans on your twitter handle: Nowadays if you are looking to be seen, you have to participate on all the social media platforms and twitter is one of the most effective for short, engaging messages.
- Use Search Engine Optimization to your advantage
As you engage with fans on all your internet platforms, including your website, social media platforms and so on, many would search for your content from time to time, you want them to find you easily, plus, when you optimize your search engine performance, you can get more people into your internet and digital platforms.
- Get your songs on music sites online: People are constantly looking for where they can enjoy good music online. Especially where they can download popular music, you should ensure that your tracks are ono of the many they can find at such a site.
- Perform with other known musicians in your location: Being on stage with other strong musical artistes can be strong for your image and brand. The musician can help enhance how you are perceived by the audience or general public.
- Act in a Movie: If you have acting skills as well, you can further strengthen your presence by appearing in popular movies.
- Promote your Shows: If you can effectively promote the various places you would be performing, it will get as many people as possible to know about your shows. It definitely helps your marketing objective.
- Feature your Song as Soundtrack for Popular Movies: One way to market your brand is to have our tracks played as the sound track of a popular movie.
- Hotel’s Do not Disturb Tags: You can print advertisement on the do not disturb tags at hotels all around your location.
- Print Flyers and Distribute: Design eye catching flyers to advertise your newest tracks, with information on how to get these songs both online and at stores. Then distribute the flyers around the location of your target audience.
- Complimentary Cards: Good old complimentary cards are still effective today, so get a complimentary card about your music work and have it handy for when you meet prominent people that can make a positive difference in your career.
- Stamps and Stickers: People can stick them in their homes, offices, cars and so on. It would definitely attract attention over time.
- Advertise your brand on branded shirts
Clothes are very powerful ways of advertising a brand as they would be worn to various places. So print your musical information on shirts or other types of clothes, make these available for people to purchase and wear. That way, they advertise your brand wherever they go.
- Print your Brand information on Caps, Hats, Watches and other accessories: Clothes are not the only piece of item that can receive printed adverts. Hats, watches and other accessories can also carry information about your music and create awareness, especially if you get other popular artistes to wear them.
- Get Businesses to play your music
Depending on the type of music you do, you can ensure that certain businesses and offices play your music in their reception as clients wait. Restaurants, bars and other socially oriented businesses would definitely need good music to maintain a live atmosphere.
- Do a Press Conference
People still read the newspapers; get magazines, newspapers and the likes to feature your story on their pages. You could use the means to pass across an important message to your fans, but really the idea is to gain more media coverage.
- Do a Radio Tour: Begin to establish radio appearances from one radio station to another. Try and focus on radio stations with your desired demographic so you can get a robust response.
- Do a professional Music Video: A music video is like doing video commercial for your song. The music video if done rightly will make all your other marketing moves more effective, because people love to see the face behind the voice.
- Utilize Specialized Bloggers: There are people who have generated great influence over the years on the internet. Talking with the best of them and having them publicize your music would also help in marketing your music.
- Participate in charity work: This is a great way to show the more human side of your brand, it touches hearts and makes people more interested in your work.
- Give out your Promotional CD’s for free: Everybody loves a freebie, especially when it is something of great quality. Making your promotional CDs available at schools or any other place where you find your target audience will help market your music.
- Advertise in Movie Theatres: Right before the movie is played, clips from your music video could come up, with engaging graphics advertising your new music to viewers. This will definitely stir up interest in the music or further emphasize your brand’s presence in those who see this.
- Advertise on various consumer products
There are loads of consumer products out there that can carry the information about your music on them. Consumers can get to see the new single you have out there as they enjoy that delicious beverage or some other product.
- Get endorsement deals from big brands: This is not just another way to make money for yourself; it is also a way to make public your brand.
- Advertise on Billboards: Billboards are seen by thousands every day, most of them are so large that it would be impossible for passersby to miss if they were placed at a position of great traffic.
- Sponsor a radio or tv program: Your record label or personal entertainment company can invest in sponsoring a radio or tv program, where details of your ongoing musical activities can conveniently be advertised.
- Present a radio or TV program: You may be the one sponsoring the program or not, but you can present a TV or radio program. That way, thousands of people will see you and you can announce your musical activities there.
- Do A Television Tour: Look for shows on television that your target demographic love to watch, and appear there or get an interview with the host.
36. Get Dj’s to Play your Songs: There are celebrity deejays out there that can create more buzz about your music by playing them at their shows, events and mixing sessions.
- Talk with friends and family members to spread the word: Get people you know to spread the word about your music at their jobs if they can or in their general sphere of influence.
- Attend shows of other artistes: When you attend shows of other artistes, you are showing that you are part of the fan base of that artiste, that way, his/her fans begin to get interested in your music as well.
39. Do a Club Tour: Music and clubs go together, establish with the management of various influential clubs to perform your songs there.
- Use Wikipedia
A page can be created on Wikipedia for your musical brand. That way, if people want to have some type of background about you and your music they have a place to go, it also helps when people are searching for your music online.
- Crowd source ideas: Communicate with your fans and find out what they would want to see you do and so forth.
- Attend Events that help your brand: Apart from attending other artiste’s shows, you can also make it a point of duty to attend other events like award nights, comedy shows, movie premiere and so on.
- Host Events Also: When you host a popular event, you stand a chance of having all the people who follow that event to begin picking interest in your music.
- Do some shows in secret
One may think that getting out there is the main aim of marketing, but when word gets out that you organize secret shows from time to time, it would keep people interested in knowing when the next one is coming up and which town it is going to be. This is one way to create some type of word of mouth about your music.
- Engage your fans by Social media Competitions: Create engaging competitions for your fans that follow you on social media, have them win prices and giveaways.
- Put Stickers and Posters in Restrooms
This may sound weird but usually when people go to use the restrooms, they normally have about one to two minutes of doing nothing in their hands. That could be a time for them to take in some information about your music.
- Use backstage access
You could offer back stage access to some of your loyal fans, have them document the experience on their phones and you can post them on your official wall for the world to see. This will help create a buzz about how interested you are in carrying your fans along, the videos can further sell your brand.
- Do a Campus tour: The energy of young people is an excellent tool for rapidly spreading your music, take advantage of this by establishing a campus tour.