Category: Music Marketing

How to Use TikTok for Small Business Marketing

Posted on by Thomas Ferriere
How to Use TikTok for Small Business Marketing

How to Use TikTok for Small Business Marketing

TikTok is one of the latest social media platforms to take off. However, before using it to promote your business, you should learn more about TikTok and its demographics. Social media marketing is only successful if users enjoy your content.

Use the following guide to make the most out of your TikTok marketing efforts:

  1. Make Sure That Your Target Audience Uses TikTok

The first step is to ensure your potential customers use the new social media platform. TikTok has over 500 million monthly active users. 60 million of those users are in the United States.

TikTok has also released stats on the demographics of its users. About 60% of the US audience is female. 60% are aged 16 to 24. 80% are between the ages of 16 and 30.

TikTok is incredibly popular among Generation Z and younger millennials. If you try to market to older adults, you may want to stick with Facebook or Twitter. However, Generation Z includes today’s trendsetters. Marketing to a younger generation may help you promote your brand to a larger audience.

  1. Learn How TikTok Works

To create effective marketing campaigns, you need to understand how TikTok works. TikTok is a video-sharing social media platform.

Users share short video clips lasting between three and fifteen seconds. You may also create looping videos that last between three and sixty seconds.

Most user-uploaded content includes videos of people lip-synching to their favorite songs. However, as the platform’s user base has grown, the variety of video content has increased. People share everything from dance videos to funny video clips.

The platform includes basic video editing features. Before uploading a video, you can add background music or adjust the speed of the video. You also have a few filters to play with.

After uploading a video, other users can react to your short clip with their own video clips. The reactions appear in a small window that you can move around the screen.

TikTok also allows you to add hashtags to your shared videos. Hashtags help people discover content and provide a useful marketing strategy, which you will learn how to use later in this guide.

  1. Generate Fun and Creative Content

As with most types of marketing, you need to generate quality content for TikTok marketing. The content should not be promotional. Focus on creating authentic content that the typical TikTok user may enjoy.

Most of the videos uploaded on the platform are funny or creative. However, you do not need to try to create the next funny viral video. Many small businesses upload video demonstrations of their products. The key is to keep the content light-hearted.

For example, you could film a demonstration of your product and add an unexpected song for background music. Choose something that highlights a feature of your product comically or the lyrics of the song.

  1. Curate Content From Other TikTok Users

You do not need to generate all the content that you share. A common marketing strategy for any social media platform is to curate relevant content from other users.

User-generated content (UGC) provides a content stream of videos for you to share with followers. It can also help you pick up followers who find shared content entertaining.

If possible, look for videos related to your products or services. Unfortunately, small businesses are less likely to find UGC that showcase their specific offerings.

Another option is finding relevant videos you think your followers may enjoy. Search for hashtags and trending topics that you connect to your products or services indirectly.

  1. Advertise Your Content on TikTok

Paid advertising is usually one of the fastest ways to reach a large audience. TikTok gives businesses four different ways to advertise on the social platform:

  • Native ads
  • Brand takeovers
  • Sponsored hashtag challenges
  • Branded filters

Native ads appear between user-generated content. Users can skip or scroll through the ads but it still provides a way to connect with potential customers. The videos need to last between nine and fifteen seconds.

You can include links to landing pages or app downloads in the video. After releasing the ad, TikTok provides metrics such as the click-through rate, number of clicks, impressions, and play duration.

Brand takeovers cost more compared to native ads but generate more exposure. The ads appear at the top of the user feeds before other videos load.

The videos are exclusive to different business categories. Only one video can appear in the slot for a specific category each day.

Sponsored hashtags challenges work differently compared to video ads. With this option, you promote a hashtag and create a page for the challenge. Users upload videos or comment on other videos. However, a custom banner promoting your brand remains visible.

Branded lenses are the fourth advertising option. Businesses can create filters that users can add to their videos. This is useful for wearable products. You could create a filter with a shirt, hat, or other marketing material.

The filter is available in 2D or 3D and lasts for ten days. TikTok also plans to create an augmented reality (AR) version of branded lenses, making this advertisement option more interactive.

  1. Work with TikTok Influencers to Increase Exposure

TikTok is a growing platform and already has influencers with massive followings. TikTok even makes it easy to discover influencers in your niche market.

With the TikTok Creator Marketplace, you can search for the top-trending users and videos. You can also view insights on audience demographics and growth trends to optimize your TikTok marketing campaign.

  1. Monitor Your Results and Tweak Your Efforts

Using Google Analytics or other analytical software, you can monitor referral traffic from TikTok. Pay attention to the traffic you receive from TikTok, conversion rates, and other important metrics.

As you analyze your progress, look for ways to improve your marketing efforts. You may need to post content more frequently or increase your advertising spending.

With these steps, you should build a stronger presence on TikTok.

Why You Should Start an Online Music Business in 2020

Posted on by Thomas Ferriere
start a music business online

Why You Should Start an Online Music Business 

Breaking into the music industry is a challenge, whether you are a musician or a producer. Instead of trying to land a job in the music biz, you can start your own business.

Here are a few reasons why now is the ideal year to launch your online music business.

There Is a Growing Demand for Original Music

The music industry continues to grow uniquely, including increased demand for original music. A variety of industries require musical scores and original songs. However, many businesses cannot afford the expensive licensing fees for songs from the Billboard Top 40 chart.

From background music for commercials or independent films to music for marketing material and training videos, businesses need affordable music for various reasons. Your online music business can help address this need.

The Latest Software Makes It Easier to Produce Music

If you run your own record studio as a side hustle, ensure your artists have the latest plugins and gears in their home studio. Investing in equipment for them is better than waiting for a studio session. This is way cheaper, and the quality provided by these home recording solutions is good enough for “released ready” music. You will be able to put these investments in the artist contract and deduct all these investments.

When I signed my first album, the label provided me with a better sound card, a midi controller, a Neumann microphone, and a bunch of plugins for Logic Pro. I could produce my first album at home and save a lot of money for the label. From my side, I enhanced my home studio without paying a dime.

Anyone Can Build a Website for an Online Business

Along with music software, you can access a wide range of options for setting up an online business. WordPress, Drupal, Wix, and other platforms allow anyone to build a website without previous web design experience.

Setting up a website is essential to start a music business online. Your website acts as an online headquarters for your business and connects to your various social media profiles, marketing campaigns, and music distribution sites.

People Constantly Want to Discover Something New

If you are a musician or work with musicians, selling music online is much easier today. People no longer limit themselves to the songs on the radio. The younger generations are constantly searching for something new, allowing them to be the first to discover an innovative indie artist.

You no longer need a massive music studio to market your music. You can use online resources to bring your music directly to the fans without involving music executives or distribution companies.

You Have a Variety of Options for Selling Music

Compared to the past few years, musicians and producers have more ways to sell music in 2020. You can sell instrumental music for use on podcasts or video productions. You can also post music on YouTube or your own website to generate ad revenue from Google AdSense.

Amazon, Google Play, and Apple Music allow independent artists to sell tracks on their online platforms via music distribution services like Distrokid. Distrokid started at only 19$ a year, and you can upload as many albums as you want. They pay you 100% of your royalties and no other costs than a 2 pro version. One option which you can have 2 bands’ names and another one for labels. It is very easy to upload your tracks to online retailers (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Google Play, Rdio, Shazam, Deezer, and more).

The bottom line is that you have access to various technologies in 2020 to help you build a successful music business online. Even with no musical ability, you can start selling music and making money.

start a record label-online

How To Promote Your Music Online With Twitter

Posted on by Thomas Ferriere
Music marketing on twitter

How To Promote Your Music Online With Twitter

All You Need On Twitter Is Human Interaction #MusicMarketing @tferriere

YES! You don’t need to be a marketing guru to succeed at  Twitter. Ok, it is complicated if you just get started and that’s why many bands and artists are missing the key elements that bring success on Twitter.

Once you understand the essentials, You’ll find that Twitter is easy and powerful.

In this post, I will cover the basic things you can do to engage and grow your followers.

1. Setting Up Your Brand

Branding yourself is essential. This is what will make you memorable to your followers. With a strong brand, you can create a synergy between all your assets on the net. All your social media accounts and websites should have similar graphics and branding elements. (logo, headlines, design, band name,…)

You should also have your Twitter handle on your site and social sharing buttons. You can also embed your Twitter feed if possible.

2. What To Post On Twitter

  • Always try to bring value
  • Be yourself
  • Do some special discount
  • Retweet news in your music niche
  • Tweet sometimes about your personal life
  • Comment on the news in the music industry, use appropriate hashtags
  • What happens during the rehearsal
  • After your last show
  • In the van going to your next performance
  • About your writing process
  • Post a demo
  • Post a link to Youtube
  • Your Blog posts
  • Other blogs you like
  • A bit of self-promotion (Use The 80/20 Rule)
  • Other bands you like (Local and national)

3. Automating your task to save time

  • Buffer – for scheduling tweets on all your social media profiles
  •  Hootsuite  – the gold product of social media automation (HootSuite Pro – Free 30 day trial)
  • Bitly – shorten URLs and get stats (perfect to see which link is getting traction)
  • BuzzSumo – Find trending articles and content to share
  • Unfollospy – help you accelerate your marketing duties and see who is not following you

4. Be Social and Network

  1. Your goal is to get retweeted by successful Twitter users. This is a great way to get new followers fast. Unless you have a personal connection with famous users, you must first interact with them. Comment on their post, retweet, ask questions first and post good content.
  2. Follow people and retweet. With Twitter analytics, you can find which of your followers are influential. Retweet their post, and leave comments. If you are good to them, they will help you in return.

5. Twitter Marketing Plan

Any tips you would like to share are welcome in the comments,

How To Use SoundCloud As A Lead Generator

Posted on by Thomas Ferriere
How To Use SoundCloud As A Lead Generator

How To Use SoundCloud As A Lead Generator

You can use Soundcloud to get people to your website or other online retailers. I use Bandcamp because Soundcloud seems to like Bandcamp users.

A marketing trick to catch the attention from your visitors is to offer something free. In our case, you can offer some of your tracks for free and gain more exposure.

Soundcloud allows you to make your tracks downloadable. They limit you to a certain number of downloads. (To 100 for a free account and 1000 for a pro account, the Pro Unlimited has unlimited downloads)

Email Gate :

The best option is email gating because you will grow your email list. If you just need to gain more exposure on social media, the like-to-download option may be the best option.

You have 2 ways to put a in place gate. the first one is to link the description to a gating page. You may want to use services like Noisetrade.com to create your dating page.

The other way is to use the buy button on the player itself (the best is to use both).

You can also use Bandcamp as an email gate for free download. People will have to enter their email to download and give a tip at any price if they want to. Bandcamp will collect emails for you and you can download a CSV file.

Free Download Strategy

soundcloud 3 

Use the most played tracks and make them downloadable for free on Noisetrade.com.

People can share on social media and even leave a tip. You can also embed their beautiful widget on your website.

Noisetrade1

Noisetrade 2

Noisetrade3

Noisetrade is not synchronized with autoresponders, you’ll have to export the data in a CSV file.

Once your page is live, grab the link and paste it in the « buy link » field of your track in Soundcloud. (You can customize the call to action into « support me »)

Supportme

Build Your Own Squeeze Page And Supercharge Your Email Marketing

sample

You can also send them to your own squeeze page. This unique page will feature your best work, including a call to action with an incentive. (offer some tracks for an email with an opt-in form)

This special page must be simple, a home page (Funnel), contact, about me, policy&privacy. It is not a traditional artist website but a squeeze page with an autoresponder system. This is the ultimate marketing strategy to sell your music.

Find Your Superfans With Facebook Audience

Posted on by Thomas Ferriere
Find Your Superfans With Facebook Audience

Find Your Superfans With Facebook Audience

audience-868074_1280 For an online marketing strategy to be effective, you’ll need to find your superfans.

It can be daunting to search the perfect fan but there are tools to help you in this task. The last thing you want is to expose your music to the wrong people.

You will spend time researching where your fans are hanging out, who they are and their age. Try to figure out where they look for music news online. Find out if they spend a lot on music and where they buy it, all this will help you decide how to build your plan.

1. Find out what is your niche?

It’s essential to find where you belong too in order to find highly targeted fans. You can’t just be a Hip-hop artist for example, there are millions of hip-hop artists on earth! But if you narrow down to a more specific genre like then you will be able to find venues and outlets for your bands. Pick your niche, build a following, then when your fan base is big enough you can expand your niche.

musical-genre

http://g.recordit.co/8pU7MJWmBc.gif

2. What about other bands like mine?

[[File:DJ DOC @ Cyworld Dream Music Festival 싸이월드 드림 뮤직 페스티벌 36.jpg|DJ DOC @ Cyworld Dream Music Festival 싸이월드 드림 뮤직 페스티벌 36]]DJ DOC @ Cyworld Dream Music Festival

This is usual for any marketing agency to analyze the competition. Go online and google similar but successful bands in your genre. Look where is their audience and how they brand themselves. You should also look at what type of marketing techniques they use on their website.

Look at their Twitter profile, their Facebook page, and website. Note the number of followers, the venues they played before, how old are their fans, male, female. The more you know the easiest it will be to find your own fans.

 

3. TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC MARKET:

Woodstock 2013 metal music fansYour demographic target will determine where you will concentrate your efforts. To determine what types of fans you are trying to reach, you should be asking the following questions

  • Male or female?
  • What age is your ideal fan?
  • What other music they are listening to?
  • Do they have kids?
  • Any other specifications that you can think of?

 

4. GEOGRAPHIC MARKETS:

Homedepotstoremap

  • Where your targeted fans live?
  • Where do they go online? Twitter? Facebook? Pinterest?
  • Were the bands in your niche are successful?

Find your demographic with Facebook Audience Insights

FB2

LOOK AT THIS SCREEN CAPTURE

Facebook provides a great tool to help you in your researches. Facebook Audience Insights is a tool designed to help you learn more about your target audience. It aggregates information about geography, demographics, buying behavior and much more.

Case Study With Facebook Audience Insights

DeCetia

Demographic and Psychographic Traits Of De Cetia

To find my demographic target, I used Facebook Audience Insights and studied Taylor Deupree. Taylor is popular in my niche. He built a faithful following as well as for his record label 12K.Contents:

  1. Age and Gender
  2. Relationship status and education level
  3. Job Title
  4. What they like on Facebook
  5. Best Cities
  6. Best Countries
  7. Device Users
  8. Household Income
  9. Potential Targets

Age and Gender

age&gender 

Well, this first capture is very interesting because I always thought people listening to ambient music where older. Taylor’s fans are mostly between 25 to 35 years old.

85% Mostly male from 25 to 44

15% Women from 25 to 44

Relationship status and education level

ucation 

This capture is also interesting. Most of my demographic target is not single. 60% leave with someone. Also, I can see that they all have at least a college education level (72%)

Job Title

job titel 

Here is maybe the most interesting capture.

Most of the people work in the arts and entertainment industry 24%, IT and technology and education. (15% each)

I can use this information for my future content creations or find an audience on social networks.

What they like on Facebook

  • Brian Eno
  • Minimal Music
  • the label Warp Records
  • the director David Lynch
  • the author Haruki Murakami
  • the director Stanley Kubric
  • modern art
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto
  • Yellow Magic Orchestra
  • Steve Reich
  • Philip Glass
  • Joe Hisaishi
  • Kraftwerk
  • Pitchfork
  • AIR/MOBY/Massive Attack
  • Beatport
  • Soundcloud
  • Boiler Room
  • Trainspotting (movie)

It seems that ambient and new age is what comes up the most, I definitively found my demographic target.

Best Cities

The fans are mostly in Paris France, London, Berlin, and Roma. This will be very important information for a record label or a tour manager.

Best Countries

countries 

In order: United States > the United Kingdom >Italy >Japan

Device Users

My demographic is very active on mobile, this information is very useful for my marketing plan. I know that I need my website to be more mobile-friendly.

  • Computer 35%
  • iPhone/Ipad 20%
  • Android 10%
  • Web Mobile apps 20%

Household Income

Well, my demographic is in the average household income in the USA.

  • 14% between 40k$ to 50k$
  • 31% between than 50k$ to 75k$
  • 15% from 75k$ to 100k$

Potential Targets

When you know what type of fans you’re targeting you can meet their needs so that you grab their attention. My demographic is present on a mobile device, they like Soundcloud, Twitter, and Youtube. They like to stream services like Tidal, Soundcloud and Spotify. They also like Beatport, arts, and can buy good deluxe products (Vinyl, t-shirt, Bundle…).

The Facebook audience is an awesome tool to help you find your super-specific fans. The information provided by Facebook is your secret weapon. Think about it when you’ll create your CD artwork or when you’ll write content for your blog.

You’ll also be able to design a website that is the most appealing to these fans.

Save your audience and run an ad campaign to redirect visitors to your website and capture emails. This ad will be delivered to hight targeted people, the people who are more willing to buy your music. If you want to learn more about how to use email to sell music, just click HERE and you’ll see the power of email marketing.

Become a Profitable Musician

Please post your demographic target in the comment section.

Cheers, Thomas Ferriere

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