Many artists and labels struggle with promoting their music because they lack a solid plan. This leads to stress, as the entire strategy remains in their minds, creating a chaotic mess. It’s easy to visualize success but harder to get there without clear steps. To relieve this stress and confusion, a well-thought-out promotion plan is necessary. Let’s dive into what makes or breaks a music promotion campaign and how you can avoid failure.
What is a music promotion campaign and why they fail.
A promotion campaign is a “Sales or selling” “course of action”. in layman's terms, it is a plan to sell a product over a selected timeline. They fail because of a lack of understanding of how money, resources, time, and the act of selling work in tandem with each other. Besides knowing how to sell, these are the top 4 reasons music promotions campaigns fail.
How loud - No Target Audience (Reach)
Loudness levels have to do with how large of an audience we want to reach! So we must ask these questions below.
How big is the audience size we want to reach?
How much money is it going to take to reach the audience size we want in the marketplace?
How many resources do we have to reach the audience size we want in the marketplace?
How long will it take us to reach the audience size we want in the marketplace?
How Redundant - Not enough promotional materials
In order to reach the target audience we will have to repeat our message and show our promotional materials over time. So the questions are…
How much is it going to cost us to repeat this message in the marketplace to hit our targeted reach?
How many resources do we have to repeat this message in the marketplace to hit our targeted reach?
How much time do we estimate we’ll need to repeat this message in the marketplace to hit our targeted reach?
How long - No timeline schedule set
How long has to do with a variable in the market we cannot control but only assume. We want to assume that the market will continue to accept our promotions for a set amount of time until the audience size has seen it enough and the promotions no longer work. The questions are:
How much money is available per day to spend across the estimated timeline to hit our target reach before the marketplace attention is exhausted?
How many resources do we have that will be available every day to use across the estimated timeline to hit our target reach before the marketplace attention is exhausted?
Can we use or afford any ads or influencers to collapse the timeline or hit our target reach before the marketplace attention is exhausted?
How much? - No funnel
In order to give an offer so you can receive money you need a funnel. The funnel is the back-end system that supports the offer. How much will we spend on it to get a maximum conversion?
How much money is available to spend on building the funnel?
How many resources do we need to build the funnel? What will we use?
How long will the funnel be up? Can we pull it down when we’re done? When will it be ready?
How do we avoid failure?
Make sure your funnel system works no matter how small or big it is before you launch. Always give people a call to action. Never go over budget and take advantage of every resource you have to reach the target audience. Making it to 70% of your goal is not a failure. If your goal was to reach 1,000,000 people and you made it to 700,000 you still made it work. Go back and analyze.
What if you have no money?
If you have no money then you’re going to need a lot more resources to make it happen. However, I do want to stress the promotion of art takes money so get out of the broke mentality and figure out how to get a stream of income coming in to support your music starting at $100 a month minimum.
What if you don’t have a funnel?
Smart music links combined with Linktree can work for a while and you can speed your Instagram campaign up with Manychat. However, a funnel can be built with a CTA and a Link. Don’t overcomplicate it if it’s your first time.
The business back end to help
If you're a music creative or executive looking to build your label or publishing company in 60 days or less, with a step-by-step fool proof process, Grab the 60 Day record label course and get it done today! You gain the ability to get real funding, prevent yourself from getting screwed contractually, and keep the middle man out of your pockets. Click the link below to get started right now! If you’re skeptical grab the free guide, "10 Ways to Increase Your Record Labels Profits," a free split sheet comes with the download!
If you follow these 3 steps
By following these steps, your promotions will no longer feel like an insurmountable issue. You'll gain the skills necessary to develop bigger and more successful campaigns that reach your audience effectively.
If you keep winging it
You probably will end up back at the same place you started at right down the street with little growth. You will complain that the music industry doesn’t work for small independents only sellouts and nobody will care about you because your energy is negative. Don’t let your villain mentality get the best of you.
Conclusion
If you have been struggling with promoting your music, you now have a blueprint to clear up the confusion and take the next steps forward. By setting clear targets, developing consistent promotional materials, setting a timeline, and building a funnel, you will start seeing more effective results in your promotion efforts. Remember, it’s all about the process and learning from each campaign to improve. Success in music promotion doesn’t happen overnight, but with a solid plan, your efforts will pay off.
Comments