The First 5 Steps to Marketing (and Profiting) Your Music (II)

Continuing from last week’s article;

3) Create and use a Brand Identity Statement (BIS)

Think of your band or music business as the steel tip of a dart. Now visualise that the people of the world are spread out across a giant wall filled with thousands of dartboards. Each dartboards represents a specific demographic group. For instance, one might be teenagers who like hard rock music while another symbolises adults who enjoy the blues. Other dartboards might include fans of folk, bluegrass, acid jazz, punk, smooth R&B, and so on.

Key: When you market your music, it’s your job to aim the tip of your dart directly at the bull’s-eye of the dartboards that represent your ideal fans. You do this by sending targeted messages to the newspapers, magazines, radio stations, websites, blogs, podcasts, and e-zines used by potential fans.

That’s the whole point of all this soul-searching research. Once you know who your ideal fans are, you can determine what forms of media they patronise. Then send focused messages through channels.

But what kind of messages do you send? Most people who market independent music make one of two mistakes. They either:

1) Throw their dart randomly all over the wall and accomplish little or nothing, or…

2) Aim their dart at the proper boards, but the message is so weak, the dart doesn’t stick to any of them

The solution: Create a Brand Identity Statement (BIS) about your music. A BIS is a simple but powerful sentence of no more than 15 words (10 words or less is even better) that describes the specific vision of your songs, image, band or record label. If you could take every feature and beneficial aspect associated with your music and run them through a grinder, only to be left with the pure, concentrated essence of you and your music.. that would be your BIS.

You should craft your BIS to include a benefit statement to your fans. Two well-known BISs from the traditional business world are Domino’s “Fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed” (13 words) and M&M’s “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands)” (eight words).

The BIS I use to promote my musicmatters website is “Music business fundamentals made simple.” For my South African House music blog, I use “showcasing the South African underground House music scene since 2018”

Examples: Here are a few possible Brand Identity Statements for bands:

1. “Old-school funk for people who like to dance”

2. “Green Day meets Sinatra at a rodeo”

3. “Erotic techno grooves for sensuous souls”

Other BISs might include the following:

1. A recording studio could use “High-quality demos for bands on a budget.”

2. A solo artist targeting bar owners might use “Riveting acoustic folk music to help you sell more beer.”

3. A small ticket agency’s BIS could be “Convenient access to the great shows the big promoters miss.”

4. You can use your Brand Identity Statement in two ways. One is internal; the other external.

5. Internal – Having a BIS keeps you focused on your marketing message.

Therefore, every time you write a news release, set up a photo session, do a radio interview, or design an album cover, you make certain your vision stays focused on your core identity. You wouldn’t want your album cover to convey humor while the faces in your band photo look grim and serious.

Also, using a BIS keeps your marketing message tight and consistent. You don’t want to send out a news release about your band’s new online resource for ska fans, then do a radio interview and end up talking only about the night you met Pat Sajak. By constantly referring to your BIS, make sure the messages you send stay focused on the most potent aspects of your music.

- External – You can also use your BIS as a public slogan that appears on all of your web pages, fliers, news releases, banners, posters, T-shirts, stickers, and more. That way, whenever people hear your name, they will be reminded of your musical identity and what’s in it for them.

Here are some real-life examples of Brand Identity Statements in use:

1. Canada’s Helios Design and Communications uses “Hard-hitting design, done right the first time.”

2. H&B catalog of Jazz CDs claims to be “A mail order service for people who know jazz.”

3. Chicago’s Smart Studios promotes itself with “Great sounds. Cool people. Killer studio.”

4. The band Buck O Nine describes its music as “Rock-steady ska-core from southern California.”

Find your own BIS. Then use it to stay focused and hammer home your primary marketing message to the masses.

Affirm your commitment to step 3:

“I will never again “wing it” when it comes to marketing my music. I now use a powerful Brand Identity Statement to promote my music. I use my BIS to develop a consistent, needle-sharp vision and focused public image of my unique niche in the world of music.”