What's the Deal? You've got Squares in your Circle
Many of you want to create a fanbase but you tend to skip the most important part of gaining fans and that is building your fanbase physically instead of digitally.
The listeners are not supportive. Too many listeners are coming and going and none are sticking around for what's next. Now the worry is setting in because you feel that you’re going to lose everybody that's coming your way! Your power is fluctuating and every artist and record label should understand how to harness the power of the people.
I understand this not only because of my past and current experiences but also because of everybody who books a call with me. I’m watching this problem play out on a daily basis and I see that building a fanbase is one of the main problems you all are facing. I’ve done this with a major artist that's out now and I repeated the same process with myself and the show and I’m taking another artist through the same process as well. I’m going to give you a simple framework that you can use to build your fanbase. After that, you can use it to fill in the blanks and make it your own.
Neighborhood (Zip Code) - Discover and tell a friend to listen
Putting your neighborhood on your back is the easiest method. Because it allows you to build your fanbase on a really microscopic level. This is where you can test your theories about advertising and not break the bank. You can also decide if being in the limelight is for you before you waste too much money because you need to see what fame and notoriety feels like when it is close to home.
You want the people in your local neighborhood or zip code if your city is small enough to discover you and then tell friends what they discovered. You do this by creating awareness about you and then you give them a place to sample your product. All of this has to happen at once so planning is needed.
You can physically advertise with bandit signs, stickers, message boards, and small billboards. Additionally, you can still run social media ads but if you do run them in the specific zip code you live in, you will really increase your awareness super fast locally and save on your budget.
Lastly, you have to have a place where you can call your home. A place where you can showcase your skills physically.
That’s it
Convert 1% of your local zip code
Deploy your Your advertising method
Find and make use of your physical performance stage.
City - Tell a friend to tell a friend, listen, we’re doing XYZ
Once the neighborhood is talking about you it won’t take long for the city, depending on how big it is to start talking about you. This also depends on if your presentation from the local neighborhood was good enough for them to hop on your back. If you run your campaign (physically and digitally) across 30 Days you should be making some noise in a city of 150,000 people quickly! Smaller cities will win this battle much easier than a metro area like Atlanta, New York, Miami, or LA.
Once you’re at this level you must begin to give your fans something to do or else your efforts will start to fall apart fast. Your fans will want to experience you but not only that, support you WITH MONEY!
This is the time to throw a show and offer something for sale that makes the fan feel like they were an early adopter and they are a part of a crew. If you can do that then they will tell another friend about their experience with you as long as it was a good one.
The early adopter tells a friend about your dope music and provocative social media presentation
That friend sees that it's true.
They listen together.
The early adopter tells the friend lets go see this person live.
There is only one thing missing… an upsell!
Region - Tell a friend to tell a friend, to listen, and we’re doing xyz, so buy now!
When the region is on your back the fanbase will start to show signs of it supporting itself through fan groups (i.e. groupies) and digital user-generated content online. Now it has the momentum to take off on its own as long as you keep feeding it.
The next step in the region is to give them something beyond a show ticket to purchase like merch. I’ll leave it up to you as to what type of merch but now you’re in the game!
Advertise the product (You and your music)
make sure the sample is good (Music/social media presence)
Give them something to do (Show/ Fan Experience)
So they can create UGC and create their Fan groups (content you reshare to create engagement)
So they can buy! (Merchandise)
Nation - I’m doing XYZ catch on and buy now!
A nation without a neighborhood is an umbrella without a pole, it's unsupported and that is why starting with a national approach first is counterproductive. TikTok and Instagram are great tools but unless your fanbase and your business will live entirely online and never leave the internet, it's not a good idea to rely on those tools alone to build.
At this point, your live show is in demand and you must not only sell tickets to it but you must sell a better experience of yourself outside of shows like community functions and things of the sort to show that you are indeed for the people. Once your humanitarian side begins to show people will buy more and more from you in other forms like supporting your other ventures whether it be movies, clothing lines, or video games, they will show up for you in droves.
On a national scale
always be doing something
always be Closing
Yeah but what about this…
This all seems so basic, I thought there were going to be more frills. Really you need to figure out what you going to do personally but these factions will always be the same.
I can really do more on TikTok and go viral! What’s a viral moment without physical support? A flash in the pan moment.
All of this can be done with ads right? Wong! It cannot be done with ads alone because without the most prized form of leverage, word of mouth, your ads will always be expensive!
Let’s get to work!
Think of some creative ways that you can convert 1% of the people who live in your zip code to your fanbase. If you can do this you have your neighborhood.
From there start working on methods to bring your neighborhood out to see you in the city and take off from there.
Book a call if you need any assistance.
At the end of the day
You will have a support base instead of a listener base. This will allow you to sell more of anything involving you as an artist so you can further fund your career. If you chose to stay on social media alone you will fail at galvanizing your fans because they will be too spread out!
All in all
You may have been confused about how to start building your fanbase, but now you have a more clear example of how to do it and you can become the artist that everybody talks about because they see you as being real! You’ll have a back story to tell!
If you make music, you should make money!
I'll see you next time.
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Video Copyright © 2023 Casey Graham (www.musicmoneymakeover.com)
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I am mobile. So. How to pick a zip code. Because the world is my onion.