While promoting your music may have gotten easier, doing so successfully has only gotten harder. In this piece Joan Selby illustrates how artists can flip their YouTube video marketing strategy to break through the noise and hit potential fans.
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Guest post by Joan Selby of The Symphonic Blog
Promoting music is harder than ever. Do you agree? Most musicians and wanna-be-musicians will put their hands in the fire to prove this statement. Do you want to know the reason why?
There isn’t just one reason. There could be hundreds of reasons for which music promotion may seem like a daunting task. I will list just a few:
- People today don’t appreciate art “like they once did”
- There is too much competition and the “big stars” take all the credits
- The expenses are high
- No knowledge
- No skills
- No concise marketing, advertising, branding, and selling strategy
- No out-of-the-box-thinking
- No consistency
You see, we have already identified some of the most important reasons for which people fail. Therefore, if we know what to avoid, we can start focusing on the solutions.
In today’s post, I’m presenting several powerful tips for your YouTube video marketing strategy. You should use them according to your own needs, standards and expectations.
Provide True Value
The No. 1 rule in business is to provide value to your customers. If you become a millionaire musician, it means that a lot of people are appreciating your work. If you were selling life-saving products, it would mean that a lot of people trust you.
Your job is to develop music that connects with your customers on a deeper level. Good songs will get stuck in your listeners’ heads, and then they’ll share, recommend, and praise.
Post Consistently
If you run a blog, you should consistently post new information to ensure its success. If you run a YouTube music channel, you’d better upload videos on a consistent basis too. Of course, you can’t come up with a new song every week, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to compose something random each month while you’re taking care of your “bigger projects.”
If YouTube recognizes you as a frequent poster, it will boost your music in the ‘Suggested Videos’ section and you’ll benefit from a nice traffic boost.
Leverage Non-Competitive Influencers
Leveraging non-competitive influencers means to establish ‘win-win relationships,’ which means that both peers win after a contract. Niche influencers are usually individuals who own big YouTube channels, or they have a lot of social media followers (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on). Simply put, an online platform/blog/channel and any individual who has widespread influence in a niche/market will be useful to your music promotion purpose.
Start Your Videos with Interesting Hooks
The success of videos and music videos, in general, is influenced by the success of the first few seconds. If the video has an interesting catch, the user will decide that trading his or her time and attention for a little while is worth it.
It works the same with your headlines. If you promote your music through content, use out-of-the-box headlines and stand out from the crowd.
Develop a Personal Brand, Not Just a YouTube Channel
If you want to have success with music, you must think long-term. When you fight a war, you fight more battles and you have to think of your strategy in advance. In today’s international music environment, the field is actually a battlefield.
As Mark Finnis, Marketing Specialist at Edu Geeks Club notes, “To improve your chances of thriving long-term, you should consider developing a personal brand more than simply a YouTube channel. You have to make your name, voice, and mindset known, and you can only do that if you assume the responsibility for your image.”
Start a personal website that is named as you are (or your brand’s name) and promote your art through digital marketing strategies. Do it for a while and you’ll surely collect the necessary feedback to gather the necessary clues to know what must be done next.
Takeaways
Every musician should quickly remind themselves of one important fact: a talented artist is not necessarily a talented entrepreneur. To be successful in music promotion, you need to focus on improving your knowledge and skills on a consistent basis, otherwise, you won’t be able to keep up. Take our tips into consideration and start improving your YouTube channel in a matter of days, weeks, or months – it all depends on you.