Digital marketing – another fancy word in this rapidly developing world, which is being blessed and glorified by individuals who deal with online business growth. But many people do not know the exact meaning of this fuzzword. Here is what the term digital marketing exactly it means in a brief description.
Digital marketing includes all marketing channels and methods you can use to promote products or services on the Internet, and also on electronic devices such as TVs, mobile phones, and electronic billboards.
The difference between digital marketing and traditional marketing is that digital marketing campaigns are executed only through digital channels and this gives marketers more control and tools to access data to analyze the effectiveness of their strategy.
MusicPromoToday will tell you about the importance of digital marketing for promoting your music, engaging with fans, and expanding your fan base. We will guide you through and explain how to establish a social media presence, make all of your digital assets available in one place, build an email list, pitch your music to digital outlets, and more.
1.YOUR DIGITAL PRESENCE
Too many musicians underestimate the power of social media and the importance of their social media presence. But this is directly related to the success of a music PR campaign. You need one tidy, organized place where everything about you will live online. In case a music publicist, record label, or a booking agent wants to know more about you that won’t be a wild goose chase with empty profiles and potentially wrong links. They will have strong, detailed information about you as an artist.
ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT
A press kit, also known as a media kit, is a page on your website that contains resources and information for editors, bloggers, radio program directors, venue talent buyers, etc.
It should include the following:
Your Bio
It doesn’t have to be an epic high fantasy novel but it must be a one-page intriguing story about you. Write an original story, and even better, hire a professional bio writer.
Your Photo(s)
Create a photo that is clear and well-shot. Provide a link (Google Drive or Dropbox) to hi-res photos for editors and bloggers to use and Include photo credit info if necessary.
Press Quotes
If you’ve ever been featured somewhere online or in print, include in your press kit any positive quotes.
Links to Your Music
Take into account the simple fact that everyone has different preferred platforms which is why you should include major streaming channels like Spotify and Apple Music in addition to Soundcloud.
Links to Your Social Media Profiles/Website
Social channels have a way of keeping members of the media up to speed with
what’s happening in your world. Members of the media want to be able to share links when covering your music.
2. YOUR WEBSITE
Social media channels provide a variety of ways to engage with the artists and a lot of people that have a website may feel somewhat antiquated. Nonetheless, by creating a website, you are building a hub for all the information being conveyed across these social channels to exist in one place.
While both, the website and the press kit may carry the same information, think of them in the following way: the website as a fan-facing and the press kit as a business-facing platform.
It’s up to you, the artist, and what you want to achieve with your website. Maybe your goal is to promote tour dates, or it is to get more email addresses from fans – once you determine what the main purpose of your website is, so you can make it the centerpiece of your site.
3.SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES
Nowadays, music fans are at least somewhat active on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. As you continue to build your music career, you’ll find that social media is a great tool to connect (and remain connected) with your fanbase. Once you’ve begun to establish your social media presence, you’ll begin to find the kind of content sharing that works for you best. A lot of that has to do with finding your ‘social voice,’ a pure experimentation – so you have to try out some random ways here.
4. MAILING LIST
Email is deemed to be an old school revelation of the rapidly evolving digital age environment. However, email lists are extremely impactful for musicians.
Direct messages on social platforms are considered the easiest of the ways of communication, as you can have a direct conversation with your fans, but music fans just like anyone else, are checking their inboxes too. Furthermore, email has the highest engagement rates per post, as fans are more likely to read an email rather than a Facebook post or tweet.
Email lists support an easy, broad-spectrum communication option when it comes to spreading information about your upcoming concerts, music or video releases, radio, or TV appearance. Moreover, email lists can be used if you just want to keep the engagement with your fanbase constant, by saying hello to them from time to time, which means you are still thinking about and value your community. The most important thing here is not to abuse these email lists or make the messages you send too redundant as music fans are just like you: they don’t want to be spammed.
5. YOUR MUSIC NEEDS TO BE PITCHED
In the cruel world of the music industry, it is not easy to gain public recognition and achieve success immediately. So, just because you released a great single or a smashing EP, it doesn’t mean that a mass audience is going to know all about it.
Even if you did a great job by sending your emails, posted on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram about it, made the release available on your website, and you’ve shared links to streaming platforms your digital marketing efforts are not over with all of these. If you wish to be as successful as your favorite artists are, and see your music being featured on playlists and blogs, it’s going to need to be pitched!
6. PLAYLISTS
Music streaming continues to involve more and more music fans and the good thing is streaming platforms like Apple Music and Spotify are offering ways to offer these fans curated playlists of music that listeners might love. This is a strong foundation for a new level of music discovery and uprising, where independent artists are not being left out. Thus, it is important for you, as an artist or band just starting out, to promote your streaming platform links – on socials, on your site, in emails – in order to remind people where they can find you and add you to their personal playlists.
7. BLOGS & OTHER DIGITAL OUTLETS
Even if you are making music, it’s not unlikely that you are also a fan who has favorite online resources for new music. Blogs and online magazines are a great way of promoting your music. At the early stages of your music career, you can succeed without paying for a publicist, though it will take some time and effort.
First of all, you have to do a lot of research. You have to dive into the deep ocean of the internet and search for blogs and other sites that like to cover the kind of music you like. Your next step must be looking for general contact information – or, in some cases, specific “Submission Guidelines” – somewhere on the site.
Create yourself a media list, and where you can, try to find specific writers who seem to be fans of your genre and send them the press kit you learned about above which will help them learn more about you.
We hope you didn’t get bored with this article and learned some new tips and tricks that can now work for you. If you want us to cover a specific topic or trend just hit the Contact us button, tweet, or DM on Instagram and we will reply to you in less than 24 hours!