What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is marketing on digital platforms, such as social media, Emailing and website content. It is a way of connecting to people and businesses in a more efficient and easier way for both businesses and customers. Digital marketing saves time and money.
What has digital marketing got to do with musicians?
When you create music you’re creating a product, most independent musicians don’t think of their art as a product or what they do as a business because for years we have been told that art isn’t a “real” job.
However a lot of time and creativity goes into creating music as well as learning sound engineering which is not easy. Once the creating and editing process is done now you need to market your music to people, and you’re most likely going to do that on social media, this is indeed digitally marketing your music.
Why you’re most likely doing it wrong!
I’ve fallen into this trap too! That wasn’t until I started taking up an interest in digital marketing. Here are some mistakes you might be making
Social media spamming
- The moment someone follows you you immediately DM them with a copy and paste text with a link to your youtube or simply asking for comments and shares.
- This might seem harmless but it is annoying for a potential suporter to constantly have to make sure they’re engaging and sharing your content. Instead be human and relatable, spamming someone’s DM is an equivalent to Email bots.
You’re using soundcloud
- If you’re still using soundcloud this is just another reason you should learn digital marketing. Keep track of what’s trending right now, soundcloud was big back in 2016 but has died out ever since however you tube and tik tok has become the best platforms for music artists.
You’re making the same old videos of yourself sitting behind a mic with a guitar
- There’s nothing wrong with these types of posts but only posting these kinds of videos makes you seem boring and not really creative which is the opposite of what you want to be perceived as. I recommend tik tok simply because tik tok is not that focused on specific niches which allows you to have more fun and give your audience what they actually want to see.
Lastly, it’s okay to be normal.
- I know a lot of us have a kind of persona when we’re online and when we are online it’s always about the music 24/7 but it doesn’t have to be. It’s okay to just do something random or film yourself making an ice coffee. It allows your audience to be comfortable and they’ll engage better this way.
In conclusion
Digital marketing goes hand in hand with being a musician, they fit like puzzle pieces. You don’t need to be extremely talented these days, you just need to learn good digital marketing skills.