Time and again, I get clients who feel that they need to have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Further, they explain, they need viral marketing in order to be successful.
What amazes me, continually, is that these same clients tell me they need something that they simply don’t understand. Yet, they’re convinced that they need it. I should also mention that I work primarily with musicians who feel that the big, bad economy/record labels/government/illegal downloaders have come between them and their god-given right to earn gobs of money.
I begin to explain to them that marketing is, in every instance, designed to scintillate, to excite, and to compel someone to believe that your product is an absolute must-have. Whether or not it actually is — well, that’s not important right now.
The key point made above does NOT (I repeat) does NOT include the actual sale or purchase of said product. That’s the role of your sales team. We humble marketers make you want it. Sales people sell it. They’re in the ABC (Always Be Closing) business. The giveaway should be in the corresponding names and terms: Marketers market. Salespeople sell.
Musicians are, in all reality, salespeople. Their presence on stage is superficially to entertain but ultimately to sell you on a feeling, and an emotion, that makes you buy their product, and feel that they understand your broken heart.
Read that a couple times over if it’s at all confusing to you. Because I’m guaranteeing you, 90% of the musicians who demand SMO and viral marketing don’t understand. Then, somewhere down the road, the marketing guy hears things like, “we don’t see how your actions have made us money.”
In the music business, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and the various SMO platforms out there don’t make you a nickel. In fact, when MySpace Music launched, everyone thought it’d knock iTunes for a loop. Didn’t happen. In fact, SnoCap, the music sales component of MySpace, ended up sold in a virtual firesale. And now, Facebook generates more pageviews than MySpace. To make this perfectly clear, the SMO platform du jour (MySpace) did not translate into $ales for musicians.
So what good is SMO? How much Tweeting do I need to do? Why are there so many so-called SMO/Social Networking experts getting obscene salaries if they don’t translate into cold, hard cash? Easy. You need them.
Huh!? That’s right, bunky! You need SMO to remind the general public that you exist. In this era of on demand everything, you’re an occasional and fleeting memory if you don’t stake your claim in cyberspace. Find your space on the various sites, create the profiles, update them, and engage your fans. Engaged fans stay connected. They buy your product, they come to your shows, and they make you money when you’re onstage selling your songs note by glorious note. But if the best you can do is show up yearly, and communicate minimally between shows, there’s someone else ready and willing to take your place.
But the SMO platforms , which marketing provides, are also performance stages for YOU, the artist. And you, Monsieur Artist, are in fact the salesman. Your banter with the fans, your engagement, is what sells the public on you. They feel like they have a stake in your success. If you ignore them, they can just as easily go talk to someone else who listens.
Years ago, this wasn’t necessary. And the current trend is particularly damning for older artists who haven’t fully grasped (or grocked!) the new business model. These artists, and I’ve worked with quite a few of ’em, see money out not equating to money in. To which my consistent reply is “well, who’s selling the product?”
Your new mantra: Marketing creates unique opportunities for musicians to sell the moment.
Om. Shanti shanti shanti …
