Being a successful musician today means so much more than being a great artist; it requires mastering a broad range of skills ranging from songwriting to recording to public relations. Self-promotion doesn’t always come easy to musicians, but marketing is key to pushing your career to the next level.

More than 125 San Francisco Bay Area music makers convened at The Chapel nightclub for the second installment of the San Francisco Chapter’s Music Business Night School series: “Crafting Your Music Marketing Plan.” The session, hosted by Chapter board member and education co-chair Gino Robair and the Blueprint Group’s Bryan Calhoun, focused on the essentials: outlining the components of an ideal marketing plan, managing your tools and resources, and assessing your plan’s performance for maximum results.

Take It From The Top

Robair kicked things off by getting straight to the point: Why do musicians need a marketing plan? Calhoun’s answer was frank: “If you don’t plan it, you plan to fail.”

To craft a successful strategy, create a detailed list of action items at the outset. “Drill down to specifics about what you have capacity to execute, in terms of your ability and in terms of your budget,” Calhoun said, adding the caveat that no marketing budget should ever be contingent on anticipated sales revenue.

Every effective marketing plan should start with a realistic budget, which requires thinking hard about each task. Robair and Calhoun spent the evening working from slides that detailed specific tasks outlined in sample marketing plans and budget templates included in Calhoun’sMusic Business Toolbox electronic guide.

No single plan will fit all artists in all genres, but working through line items is an exercise in evaluating the actual costs associated with them. The great news is, “you and the biggest bands in the world have access to the same tools,” said Calhoun, articulating one of the evening’s most important takeaways: Digital technology has been democratized; learn how to tailor common resources for your situation.

Calhoun identified seven major marketing budget elements—website/digital media, publicity, radio, advertising, retail support, street promo, and public appearances—and offered pointers in a few key areas.

PR

As someone who’s represented blockbuster artists like Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, and T.I., Calhoun offered surprisingly practical insight: Indie musicians don’t have to shell out big bucks for high-end publicists to get help shaping their PR strategy. “Even if you bring someone on for a short period of time, or someone who has interned with a PR firm … and is now trying to start their own thing, that’s something to consider.”

Seek out PR experts who understand your genre and your stage in your career and can work with you in that capacity. “If you can afford to get Beyoncé’s publicist, that’s awesome, but I don’t know if it would make sense to bring that person on to try to pitch you for an appearance on Ellen,” Calhoun joked.

Radio: The way consumers interact with music is continually evolving; artists must navigate beyond traditional radio to digital outlets such as Live 365, Pandora, music blogs, etc. “If you bring on a radio consultant, he or she should know the players in your format, know the programmers, what they like, know how they like to receive music,” said Calhoun. Great radio incentives include contests, call-ins, drops, downloads, and autographed merchandise.

Advertising: Options range from billboards and print outlets to website, social media, radio, and video campaigns. Digital channels give artists better opportunities than ever to focus on their core audience through highly segmented target markets.

Calhoun stressed that everything an artist does should have a digital component. “If you’re going on tour, you are marketing that tour, selling tickets, selling merch. You’ve got a record release coming up; how are you marketing it? It’s your social media strategy, it’s the on-demand streaming services, it’s digital streaming services, it’s what advertising is going to go online, it’s your website.”

How much money should musicians on tight budgets allocate to marketing? “I think it should at least be 50/50,”offered Calhoun. “It pains me when I talk to artists and they have spent their last dime in the mastering process. And they’re like, ‘I have this awesome record; I need to let everybody know about it,’ and they have no money left. And they’ve got like 100 likes on Facebook. How is anybody going to hear that stuff?”

Social media, done right, can be an effective free tool; Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram are free. Spend a little money on Facebook or Twitter, and you have access to extended reach, geo-targeting, and other enhancements.

Touring musicians have additional resources at their disposal: Songkick, Bandsintown, and Eventful serve as hubs for fans seeking concert information. CrowdAlbum aggregates social images from shows: “We’ll get a list of all people who tweeted and posted on Instagram at a show, we’ll take that data, upload it to Twitter, do a promoted tweet,” says Calhoun.

YouTube offers a variety of promotional tools for artists, including the ability to link websites to YouTube channels, and embed hyperlinks (such as links to music and merchandise) inside videos. Take advantage of indie artist programs and emerging artist playlists offered by streaming services.

Artists must work with all digital service providers, because those platforms may be the only way that fans interact with them. It’s crucial, however, to collect fan email addresses in order to be able to connect independently of social media platforms.

Robair closed the evening by asking Calhoun to identify the three key people artists need on their team. “Certainly, someone to help you with your digital strategy,” said Calhoun. “It’s probably the area where you have the greatest ability to have real impact. It’s a way to cost-effectively reach a niche, especially if you are niche artist. And then probably publicity, and—while this isn’t necessarily a straight marketing expense—your digital label aggregator.” Aggregators, such as CD Baby, Tunecore, InGrooves, and The Orchard, deliver content to download and on-demand streaming services, and can often assist with marketing efforts through those portals.

Goals, Milestones And Taking Stock

Executing your successful marketing plan means managing expectations. For a reality check on your goals, observe artists in comparable situations: What size rooms are they playing? What kind of PR buzz are they generating?

Your marketing plan and budget should both be flexible, and allow for unexpected opportunities.

When you hire partners, hold them accountable for their work; ask for reports on a regular basis. Analyze your data; learn what drives traffic to places where you are able to generate revenue.

Above all, recognize that the time to start planning is now. “If you are just now in the recording process, you should be starting to think about how you are going to market your project,” said Calhoun. “You should not be thinking, ‘Oh, my record is going to come out Saturday; how should I be marketing it? By then, it’s too late.”

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