often-overlooked promotion strategies you should be using to market your music (V)

Continuing from last week’s article…

Use eight stamps instead of one

As you know, people are bombarded with snail mail. Music editors, program directors, managers, distributors – they all receive an avalanche of unsolicited mail. One creative, low-cost way to make your package stand out is to use more stamps than anyone else is using.

Instead of sending your letter with a single first-class stamp, why not stick on several stamps that all add up to 39 cents (or whatever the current postage rate is)? Who would fail to open a letter with eight stamps on it? You might even write a funny phrase like “We’re hoping for your stamp of approval” on the outside of the envelope.

Don’t ask fans to join a mailing list – ask them to become a member of your club

Based on the headline above, I’m sure you can already see the difference between being added to a list and becoming a member of a special club. Signing up on a list is cold and impersonal. Joining a club is warm and cozy.

Advice: Put together an inexpensive package that might include a membership certificate with the person’s name on it, a fan club card, an autographed photo, free sampler CD, button, any other fun trinkets you can find at discount stores.

If people join the club while at one of your shows, you can either give them all of this cool stuff then or let them know you’ll mail a package to them soon afterward. Then make sure and send it as soon as possible, and follow up with regular newsletters and updates. Note: You can also offer many of these fan club extras as free downloads from your website – which would be a lot less expensive.

Research has shown that when you give free things to people, they are much more receptive and likely to spend money on you in the near future. The rule here is simple: to reap the rewards of your labor on the back end, you have to give something away and keep your customers’ needs foremost in mind on the front end. You have to give to receive!

Arrange for positive picketers to demonstrate

The idea here is to gather a group of your supporters to demonstrate outside of an establishment. But instead of protesting, these people would carry signs that praise your music or new release. Each sign would have a different review quote, ringing endorsement, or photo.

Key: This marketing tactic is so fresh and unexpected, it just might generate a lot of favorable publicity in the area. You’d be wise to get the blessings of the club manager or storeowner before proceeding with this one. But with the potential exposure it could generate, you should have no problem finding at least one establishment to actively participate in the mock picket.

Embrace your customers for a lifelong relationship

Most music marketers don’t see the ongoing value of a single customer. They sell a new fan a $12 CD and take pride in making a $9 or $10 profit. But the guerrilla music marketer sees it differently.

He or she knows that with proper care and attention, a single new fan can be worth far more over the course of many years. Not only will that fan buy future releases and attend numerous shows, but this person will also tell others about this great artist that treats him or her so well.

These new, referred fans will also buy a lot of CDs and pay the cover at many live concerts. A single CD sale (with a $10 profit) has the potential to be worth 10 to 20 times that over several years. That is, if you caress and pamper your fans (figuratively, of course) and show them you really care.

Next step: use the often-overlooked ideas in this series to promote your music more effectively.