Buy Me Some Peanuts & Marketing

I always say this:

“Hope is not a plan”.

What I mean is this:

“Your ass better have a bona fide plan, with strategic, realistic, and actionable steps towards growing your fan base, or you can kiss your lagging music career goodbye in a few years. Don’t have a plan? Ask for help before it’s too late.”

Just trying to share some insight from hindsight. My apologies for beating your head over a dead horse. But you think this doesn’t apply to you? Then show me your plan. :-)

Here’s why this is so important:

There are more than EIGHT MILLION artists/bands on MySpace.

This is who you’re competing against for your fans’ attention.

To comprehend the sheer magnitude of people stealing your spotlight, let’s visualize. Let’s say each member of each band is represented by a fan sitting at a ballpark. We’ll estimate that there’s an average of 3.25 people per artist or group. This means that you’re competing with a group the size of the crowd at every single Angels home game from the last ten years (www.baseball-almanac.com). And just like at the ballpark, everyone’s shouting & making noise. How does your music get heard over the roar of the crowd? How do you stand out?

One choice solution is Ariel Hyatt’s company Cyber PR.

I spent some time hangin’ with Ariel on her turf in New York this past week. She's an intelligent, driven, knowledgeable, finger-on-the-pulse, bundle of maroon-topped spunk. For over a year now, I have been observing Cyber PR’s operation. The verdict? It’s the best bang for your marketing dollar money can buy. And Ariel is the real deal.

There are many companies that claim to grow your brand. What attracts me to Cyber PR is RESULTS and ACCOUNTABILITY. I could talk for pages & pages about all the value Ariel has crammed into the Publicity Packages. Instead check ‘em out here.

One “secret” to music success is spending more money on marketing than on gear. Or beer. Not fun. But it’s not rocket surgery. Or brain science. You simply MUST let the world know what you’ve got! Think I’m not talking directly to you? If you have more guitars hanging on the wall than gold records, then I’m talking to you. GO HERE NOW. (If you have more beer bottles in the fridge than guitars on the wall…invite me over.)

Cyber PR will put your face on the hypothetical ballpark’s hypothetical Jumbotron…and blast your music over the hypothetical P.A. system, for all the journalists, bloggers, podcasters, etc. to see & hear. That’s how you stand out.

But Cyber PR is oh so much more.

I’ve barely scratched the iceberg.

Stay tuned. :-)

Cyber PR Publicity Packages are now available for all ArtiSans Label artists.

Why an advocate program makes sense…

When I was asked to join the ArtiSans Label and manage the R.A.D.A.R. program I asked myself a lot of questions. Why not just use traditional means of advertising? Why do we want advocates marketing for us? Why does an advocate program make sense?

Americans are bombarded by thousands of advertisements a day. Advertising is a 130 Billion dollar a year industry and advertisements are no longer limited to newspapers or the commercials between television shows. We now experience advertisements everywhere we look: on restaurant menus, at the check-out stand at the grocery store, in bathroom stalls, on every inch of sports arenas, on buses and taxis, on the sides of buildings, built into the news, television shows and movies via product placement, in our email inbox, on every webpage we visit, and in thousands of other ways.

The more ads we are bombarded with, the more we become immune to their messages. The truth is that traditional marketing methods are beginning to be replaced by new marketing approaches, and companies - especially small businesses, need to adjust accordingly. The message is no longer controlled by the business or the ad agencies, but by the customers and how they experienced a product or service. Websites, such as consumerist.com, are designed to help the consumer by reporting about companies who have gone above and beyond to satisfy their consumers and those who have failed to live up to their promises, exposing scams and defective products, and advising the consumer on how to go about getting the customer service outcomes they desire and how to deal more effectively with companies. CNET.com reviews everything technological. Tripadvisor.com allows you to leave and read reviews for hotels, and other travel destinations. Most shopping websites allow you to leave feedback on the items you purchased for potential buyers to see. Hundreds of websites exist so that consumers can leave reviews (on shopping websites, service companies, restaurants, hotels, etc.) so that future customers can make better informed decisions on where to spend their money. Personally, I use all of the above sites, and more, to be sure I know what I am purchasing and that I am spending my money wisely.

Word –of-mouth marketing has become a valuable resource for any business and ArtiSans Label knows that the use of advocates to market our business is the best way to attract new clients. With the R.A.D.A.R. program and the advocates who are participating, we can directly target the correct audience for ArtiSans. Rather than launch a pricey ad campaign, which would likely blend into the thousands of ad’s consumers already ignore, we reward our advocates for finding us new customers. Advocates find new bands and artists, tell them about ArtiSans Label, refer them, follow up with them - and when the time comes, pass them over to a artist coordinator to sign them to the label. By using advocates to market our business, ArtiSans Label can concentrate on the artists, their needs, and providing knowledgeable, friendly and reliable customer service.

To me, that just makes sense.