Promote Yourself... or else...
Its very difficult to take musicians who don't promote themselves seriously.
The message that's sent out is that the person just isn't very serious about they what to do... or at least isn't together on the business end of things, or at best, is simply a sucker for "easy way out" promotion scams.
This leads to the question, what are the basic steps any musician serious about promoting him or her must take?
The first thing to understand that like politics, all business is "local" -- face to face interaction, and person to person is really where all business begins... Flyers and e-mail lists can be part of an effective promotional strategy, but any musician who's been in the business of promoting gigs long term will most likely tell you how consistently unreliable flyers and e-mails are when used in the form of "cold advertising". (There's a general rule of thumb that, depending upon the product being marketed and target audience, a flyer or advertising campaign can yield well less than a .01% lead return -- leads that is, not even sales.) --This does not mean that flyers and e-mails aren't important. For example, flyers and e-mails can be used to remind friends and new fans about upcoming gigs, and relay important data and details (including your social media contact addresses and web site!) -- Many musicians; however, have a mistaken tendency to overwhelmingly abuse flyers and e-mails by "cold sending" or simply printing them and giving them to just anyone. Some may very well have be inspired by a famous scene in the BLUE BROTHERS movie, which demonstrates how using cold advertising such as flyers and bull horns, this totally unknown R&B group manages to sell out a large auditorium. --A great fantasy, but not quite reality. (Note that even at train stations in Japan people who hand out flyers don't give the flyers to every single passing person, but are rather trained to only give the flyers to people from the specific demographic that the company knows that it needs to target.)
As a general rule of thumb, my own approach to print and e-mail advertising is that unless the people specifically understand that they're exchanging contact info with me for purposes of solicitation, I don't.
Which leads to the big question: beyond simply getting out, performing and making actual physical contact with people, what are the basic promotional steps any musician must be involved in?
Here they are... (There are exceptions to the rules, as well as other strategies, but in my experience, these are the basics.)
The message that's sent out is that the person just isn't very serious about they what to do... or at least isn't together on the business end of things, or at best, is simply a sucker for "easy way out" promotion scams.
This leads to the question, what are the basic steps any musician serious about promoting him or her must take?
The first thing to understand that like politics, all business is "local" -- face to face interaction, and person to person is really where all business begins... Flyers and e-mail lists can be part of an effective promotional strategy, but any musician who's been in the business of promoting gigs long term will most likely tell you how consistently unreliable flyers and e-mails are when used in the form of "cold advertising". (There's a general rule of thumb that, depending upon the product being marketed and target audience, a flyer or advertising campaign can yield well less than a .01% lead return -- leads that is, not even sales.) --This does not mean that flyers and e-mails aren't important. For example, flyers and e-mails can be used to remind friends and new fans about upcoming gigs, and relay important data and details (including your social media contact addresses and web site!) -- Many musicians; however, have a mistaken tendency to overwhelmingly abuse flyers and e-mails by "cold sending" or simply printing them and giving them to just anyone. Some may very well have be inspired by a famous scene in the BLUE BROTHERS movie, which demonstrates how using cold advertising such as flyers and bull horns, this totally unknown R&B group manages to sell out a large auditorium. --A great fantasy, but not quite reality. (Note that even at train stations in Japan people who hand out flyers don't give the flyers to every single passing person, but are rather trained to only give the flyers to people from the specific demographic that the company knows that it needs to target.)
As a general rule of thumb, my own approach to print and e-mail advertising is that unless the people specifically understand that they're exchanging contact info with me for purposes of solicitation, I don't.
Which leads to the big question: beyond simply getting out, performing and making actual physical contact with people, what are the basic promotional steps any musician must be involved in?
Here they are... (There are exceptions to the rules, as well as other strategies, but in my experience, these are the basics.)
- Data collection via exchange of business cards and organization of contacts.
- Web presence via an SEO friendly web site that serves as a multi-media portfolio of the artist's career, accomplishments and summary of services provided.
- Active social media presence, and correct strategized use of the social media services according to their strengths and purposes. (As a general rule, the basic social networking/social media services to consider include TWITTER, FACEBOOK and LinkedIn.)
- Substantive, well organized "product" that includes a resume or profile, portfolio, promotional photos, CDs, demo tracks, etc.
- Development of professional affiliations, credentials and references as appropriate, and public presentation, both directly and indirectly as tasteful and appropriate.