Sure, social media is the most efficient and cost-effective way to build, reach, and keep your fan base engaged. If you are a musician and constantly keep releasing albums, playing shows, touring, etc. you just have to get yourself a place where people who like your music can go to follow you. These are for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. However, If you focus only on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, your music is more likely to get lost in a sea of various content. The best way to keep fans focused on you is through your own custom musician’s website.
It’s easy to build a musician’s website, but how do you know if you did it right? In this article, MusicPromoToday is going to tell you about the most common ways bands win and lose with their website.
Dos
If you have ever asked yourself the question “Isn’t my IG account enough for my music?” then the answer is always NO. We can’t ignore the importance of how great social media is for promoting your music, but you have to realize that it doesn’t have the same power your own website has. Social media can’t just replace your personal musician’s website which is your personal place on the internet.
Study and logic show that the most visited page on any website is the Homepage. That is why it is so important to have a properly built Homepage so it encourages visitors to click around to other pages. You can place there your best songs, some updates on upcoming shows, and the latest news about your band.
Your main photo on your website must be taken by a professional photographer or at least must be a high-res photo. You have to resist the temptation to use a shot from your phone or choose one from your multiple selfies with your hamster. Besides, the photos that may look good on your phone aren’t necessarily optimized and will be displayed on the desktop version blurred, resized, and of bad quality. Bad photos can create a negative impression on your music. In case you have professional photos, not only can you use them for your band web design, but also for social media accounts and your electronic press kit.
A call-to-action is the first thing you’d like visitors to do once they checked out your website. Some examples are: buy my album! Or watch our new video! In case you don’t want to sound too persistent you can invite them to sign up to the mailing list!
That last one, mailing list, is the most important one. Sure, getting someone to buy your track is ideal, but if they aren’t on your list it’s only a one-time sale. Make sure you get fans on your list so that you can notify them of your new music and tours. This creates a steady connection for fans to buy from you in the long run.
Do add songs to your site! As strange as it may seem, there are many band websites without any music on them. Even if you have snippets or rough tracks, add them to your website. Fans love all the small behind-the-scenes updates of a musician they like. You can add music to any page on your site and after you can set any track to free, free with email, fixed price, or pay-what-you-want.
Include somewhere on your website your EPK (electronic press kit). Since most people spend more time online, having the EPK accessible is the way to go.
This is a one-page layout that includes the most essential parts of who you are as a musician or band. Make sure that you put your best music, videos, and photos on this page as it may be the only page that a professional from the music industry will check out.
Don’ts
Try to keep your website simple and your navigation menu to eight tabs or less. One-page scroll sites are now growing in popularity so consider this option as you wouldn’t need a navigation bar at all, and the UX quality would increase.
You want your website to look fun but also professional, so you have to resist the temptation of choosing any color that comes to your mind. Stick to three or four colors: a primary ‘brand’ color, a secondary color, an accent color. After you decide which one you like the most and which one of them reflects your band’s/music’s nature best.
You can find multiple websites that have a guestbook on their website. But that is not a good idea. Here comes the help of social media as it is better to get fans to engage in blog comments and share your music/events on social media instead.Starting your website setup is always easy. That’s a totally different story then getting people to your site. This is where updates and promotion go hand in hand. Keep your website updated with your new music, photos from different photoshoots, event updates and blog posts. Let people know about updates so they’ll continue coming back to your website for new updates. If you don’t keep your website updated, your fans may think that your band broke up and there’s nothing going on with your music. This will surely stop them from coming back.
Make sure to read our other articles where we expose methods, strategies, insiders, and tips on how to run your music pr / music marketing campaign. If you need guidance just contact us through our form and we’ll get back to you in no time!
