In keeping with the “best tool” theme, I thought it might be a good time to discuss awareness strategies, particularly how you make potential fans “aware” of you and your music. Awareness only happens if you direct it to. Menaing, if you are posting pictures, videos, graphics, etc. to your website, social networking sites, or user forums that have nothing on them to associate who you are, what you want potential fans to do, or where to go to get additional information – you are not creating any awareness for you or your music. You are simply giving people something to look at that they may find cool or interesting or not. But if you brand your images, videos, and graphics with your name, logo, and web site you are creating awareness.

Big corporations understand awareness better than anyone. Think about the nike commercials on TV. It takes the entire commercial to figure out what the freakin thing is about. But then at the end you see the little nike logo in the bottom corner of your TV screen. They are not trying to sell anything with the commercial. They are simply trying to make you aware of the Nike brand. THey feel that when you are ready to buy another pair of shoes and think to yourself “what do I want to buy?” you will remember their brand because they made you aware of it over and over again.

Music Marketing works the same way. Think about this: how many times have you been online and run across something you though was cool enough to check out but didn’t have time to do so “right now?” IF you are like most people this happens almost on a daily basis. You think that you will go back and take a look later when you are ready. But what really happens? You either forget or you forget where you saw the thing you wanted to check out. So now, when you are ready, you can’t find it again….. unless…. you have seen it over and over again and remember the brand name, web address, logo, or some other “eye candy” that you can now recall and at minimum search for in google or yahoo.

Research has established that most fans need to see “awareness” at least 7 times before taking the next step of “clicking” to learn more. Awareness campaigns in music marketing are geared to do just that, present your brand, image, logo, video, or other attention grabbing visuals as many times as possible, in as many locations as possible, around the internet. Remember, music fans are finicky. They want to discover new music on their own. They do not like to be told what is good, what is bad, or what they should ask for as a Christmas present this year. They want to discover a hidden treasure and have the ability to share it with their friends so they have the power of saying they discovered the next big thing in music!

Awareness in music marketing is about putting your message in every location on the internet music fans gather to discover new music. But how you brand yourself and music is what will be remembered, not the music itself…. until they “discover” you. It is a hard concept to understand, but awareness is not about the music or even getting people to listen to your music, at first. Once a potential fan “discovers” your music, then you turn the page and go from awareness to marketing.

Awareness Tips:

- Always place your website address on all pictures and images
- Always place a water mark (your web address) on all videos you upload to youtube or other social networking sites
- Remember, awareness is about the brand, not the music. Do not over market or insist on “listening” to your music
- Awareness is a numbers game. Place your brand in as many spots as you can online

Social networking is about awareness. It is why it works so good. But it can also kill your chance of getting a potential fan if you are not regularly updating your social networking sites. Once a potental fan “remembers” your brand and does “click” to learn more, the last thing you want is for them to go to a social networking site that says your last visit was a month ago. Old news is just that. People will see that you don’t care enough to keep news fresh so why would they care to read about what you did a month ago. An awareness campaign is fresh, right now, and up to the minute. Remember, fans are finicky. Once you get them interested, you have to keep them engaged. This means fresh content, new blog posts, new pictures, new videos, and more.

Do not use up all your photos, videos, and blog posts during your awareness campaign. This is a huge mistake a lot of artists and labels make when first learning how to market their music. It is very important that when a fan finally “clicks” to learn more they see fresh content on the site they land on. They do not want to see the same pictures and videos they have already seen the 7 times it took to get them to actually “click.” If you put everything you have out on an awareness campaign what is the point in “clicking” to learn more?

Marketing your music, especially during the awareness phase, takes a massive amount of pictures, videos, and general content. The may be one of the biggest mistakes I see up-and-coming artists and labels make on a daily basis. One photo shoot does not produce enough content to sustain a true marketing campaign. One video shoot of a live show from three months ago will not last for an entire campaign either. You have to continuously update your media. Seriously!

Awareness Media Update Schedule:

- Photo – 20 – 35 usable pictures per week should be taken and prepared with brand and uploaded to social networking sites and website
- Video – At least two new videos – not just music videos, it can be of anything with the artist or group, recorded, branded, and uploaded per week
- flyers, graphics, banners – 2 per week
- Blog Posts – minimum one blog post per day – 80/15/5 rule – 80% about what is happening with artist/label – 15% personal about artist/label – 5% total off the wall non-music

Conslusion

Basically, an awareness campaign is about getting your name, brand, image, or video in front of as many potential fans as you can. It is about constantly updating that image to stay fresh and current. It is about being where the fans hang out and creating an image of always being there for the fan. The only way you can do this is by presenting yourself in as many locations as you can without “feeling” like you are marketing to people. Make your self available, do not push yourself or music upon anyone!

Click here for more FREE Music Marketing Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”