Digital Marketing Tips for Independent Artists

Effective marketing is a fundamental part of being an artist. Without it, you, your music and your branding can only go so far. There are a couple basics everyone should master. From budgeting to audience targeting and more, here’s everything you need to know…

Digital Marketing Tips for Independent Artists

Think About Your Goals

Before you dive into anything, it’s important to clearly define your goals for your digital campaign. Are you trying to increase engagement on socials? What is it now, and how high do you want it to be? Which socials are most important? Even deeper and considerably most importantly, you have to think about what that growth is going to leverage for you. For example, how can increasing your engagement on Instagram help push streams on Spotify.

Remember, you’re spending money here. Make every penny count!

Clearly Define Your Target Audience

Figuring out who and where your fans are is the key to choosing which platforms to focus your efforts on. This is where analytics come to play. As a Symphonic client, you get access to some very helpful analytics tools right in our SymphonicMS that track key information from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and Pandora. Under the Analytics menu, you can access pages that provide data like:

• Up-to-date streaming data from Spotify and Apple Music, with detailed breakdowns by artist, track, release, territory, and partners.
• Daily iTunes and Beatport download counts and overall download trends.
• Important Beatport statistics, such as subscriber counts and charting songs.

For example, Spotify For Artists rounds up a ton of information about your listeners like their gender, median age, geographical region, and more. You can use this information to push advertising on certain platforms, create merch for a specific audience, offer pre-saves on your most used streaming platform and so much more.

When you understand exactly who it is you’re marketing for, you can tailor the experience to yield the best results and adjust as needed.

Figure Out Your Budget

When it comes to marketing, timing is everything. It’s important to consider when the right time to pull certain triggers will be for you. For example, “Should I be focused on building an audience and a social following organically right now?” or “Is it time to invest in spreading the word more widely?” You need to consider which roads will give you the most success over time, not just for right now.

The time it’ll take to make these goals a reality will effect the amount of money you’ll need to allocate towards whatever means it’ll take to get there. Remember, each paid avenue should yield a sufficient amount of action from your audience. Some of the services you may find yourself considering range from copywriting services and release packages to video marketing, social media analysis, public relations, playlist placements, release campaigns, and more.

(P.S. We wrote an entire post that breaks down everything you need to know about figuring out your marketing budget right here.)

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Sharpen your skills even further…

Marketing Journey for the Music Industry Part 2: Understanding Your Fanbase

Marketing Journey for the Music Industry Part 3: Finding Your Niche And Using It To Your Advantage

Marketing Journey for the Music Industry Part 4: How To Develop and Share Your Story

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Master Your Online Presence

You need to make it as easy as possible for people to find you and information about you online. That includes utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) to increase visibility on these platforms and ensuring all your links go to the right place, have a handle that is universal across all platforms (or as close as you can), and having a fully fledged, information filled bio on every platform.

In addition, it’s important to invest ample time in your community online. Be authentic, participate in the conversation, engage with your fans. Nothing is worse than generic, copy and pasted responses. Your fans are real people, so treat them as such. People respect someone who has a strong brand identity, knows who they are and stands by that.

Don’t Sleep on Email Marketing

If you think email marketing is out of style, think again! It can help you reach hundreds (and even thousands) of people with the click of a button. With it, you can stay connected, alert your fans about about upcoming shows, new releases, interviews, merch drops, and so much more.

Since the average person spends less than 15 seconds reading an email, you’ll want to keep your emails short and sweet… Just make sure to include a call-to-action for your announcement, whether it’s a link to your new release, tour dates or anything else you are alerting your fans about. There are many services on the web to help you automate and streamline this process, too. Mailchimp and Gmass are two of the most popular I know of, but you can find 7 more right here.

In the meantime, if you need some help growing your list, understanding metrics and more, check out these helpful resources:

To wrap it all up…

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different marketing tactics to see what works best for you. By staying involved with your community, you’ll be able to keep your finger on the pulse of what your fans want and deliver accordingly.

Good luck!