THE POWER AND IMPORTANCE OF EFFECTIVE MARKETING
by Kevin Joiner
 
So, you have your band or solo act ready for the stage and a set of stellar tracks that really capture the sound you’ve been hearing in your head. What now? It all depends on where you plan to take your music and your vision. If you’re a hobbyist, then it’s probably time to simply share the product of your heart with friends and family. Maybe you’ll plan a party at which you’ll perform the tunes. Maybe you’ll get right to writing your next album. But if you have any aspirations of taking things to a professional or semi-professional level, your hard work has only just begun. Whether you’re hoping for a handful of decently-paying, weekend gigs each month or dreaming of sold-out stadiums and top-ten singles, the most important factor toward that end, next to the quality of your music, is the quality of your marketing. The amount of thought and effort you put into your marketing presentation and strategy will largely determine the success or failure of the goals you set for your act. Which is why it’s absolutely inexplicable why most artists drop the ball at this point.
            With the rapidly expanding media capabilities of the internet and the nearly international ubiquity of its users, marketing has never been easier. More than any other time in history, artists can bring their art to the marketplace by utilizing the same creativity with which that art was produced. The introduction of such novel media concepts as virals, flash-mobs, blogs, and status updates, combined with media outlets like Twitter™, Reddit™, MySpace™, and Facebook™ (which is quickly supplanting MySpace as the goto place for fans) gives an artist a wealth of digital palettes and canvases with which to create a marketing campaign that is customizable to any demographic or business opportunity. However, there is one essential element common to every effective, artist marketing package – IMAGE! And this element is comprised of two main components – the visual and the conceptual.
            In the corporate world, image has a different concept than what we mean here; it has more to do with public relations and the way in which a company’s cultural importance or the ethics of its procedural policies and actions are perceived by the marketplace. For an artist, image is more akin to branding – that peculiar function of marketing by which a logo, mascot, jingle, slogan, etc. evokes a prescribed emotional or intellectual response in an individual, as a member of the targeted demographic. Sounds a bit like art, doesn’t it? That’s because that is precisely what a good image or branding is. So, there is every reason to approach your image in the exact same way you approach your music.
            One strange but exciting (often discomforting) aspect about being a professional artist is that you are both the producer and the product. For this reason, when your audience hears your music, you want them to think of you immediately. Likewise, when they see your picture, watch your video, or look at your album art, it should be an experience which draws their mind to your music. When consulting with clients, particularly those with limited recording experience, Crystal Blue founder and owner, Nick Pages, usually tells them that a song is a “4 minute film for the blind.” In other words, a recording should embody the same emotional content as a film of similar theme and quality, but without the aid of visuals. The converse is equally true of publicity photos and doubly true for videos, whether of a live performance or a music video. The visual imagery you project should be just as compelling as your music.
            Naturally, marketing of this level and effectiveness entails a fair bit of monetary investment, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a successful business venture that didn’t. When considering the potential cost of your marketing package, a good rule of thumb is that photos and a live video or a music video of equal quality to your recordings will cost roughly the same price as it did to produce, mix, master, and duplicate your album. However, you’d be surprised at how quickly this price can drop through effective networking and bartering of services. For instance, if there is a venue you really want to use for your photo or video shoot, you might offer, in lieu of rental fees, a free performance at that venue, perhaps to coincide with a fundraiser or charity event. And local colleges often have talented film-students willing to provide equipment, crews, and editing in exchange for using your video in their portfolio. If you’re as creative in your networking and business practices as you are with your music, you’ll find many such mutually beneficial arrangements can be made often and easily.
            Of course, all of this effort will be wasted if all involved do not have a clear grasp of your image. Several years ago, while brainstorming over what location to use as background for our band’s next photo-shoot, the lead/rhythm guitarist said something I remember to this day: “If your band doesn’t look interesting enough to be filmed against a blank wall, you’re doing something wrong.” He was absolutely right! When it comes to promotional photos and videos, the thing to keep in mind is that you’re trying to sell the act, not the location. This is not to say that the background or foreground is unimportant; while the Manuel-designed suits The Beatles wore for “Sergeant Pepper’s” were compelling in their own right, the addition of all those historical-figure cutouts and the floral arrangement were equally so. But this extra content was so effective precisely because it did its job of framing and enhancing the focus onto the “Fab Four”. It was also a perfect fit – indeed, a visual preview – of the album’s musical content. For another example, consider how the West Coast country-rock sound and imagery of the band Eagles were perfectly captured with the “Dalton Gang” cover of the album “Desperado”. Or how the stark, desert-openness of U2’s “The Joshua Tree” was mirrored in Anton Corbijn’s famous black-and-white photos of the band, taken in Joshua Tree National Park. Looking at today’s most intriguing artists, one can find the same attention to detail and image-consciousness. Think of Lady Gaga’s outrageous campiness, the retro-coolness of Gnarls Barkley, the dark oddness of Radiohead, or the way The White Stripes employ the colors white, red, and black in a quasi-fascist propaganda technique. Also think of the immediate recognition achieved when you see The Rolling Stone’s Andy Warhol-designed lips or the Dancing Bears and various skulls and skeletons now synonymous with Grateful Dead.
            Now, you may be thinking, “Yeah, but they have huge budgets!” True enough, but they didn’t always. Yet, throughout their careers, from the early days of struggle to the heady days of international acclaim, you can bet they either dreamt up compelling visual imagery that maximized their budgets or they found talented, hungry visual artists to do it for them. Since music is not the only media in which you’ll find undiscovered genius looking for its big break, it is not too hard to locate talent willing to collaborate or simply ride on the coattails of those on a clear path to success. A great place to start your search is at local art galleries, community theaters, clothing boutiques, or in the art departments of local colleges. There, you’re bound to find plenty of budding photographers, filmmakers, graphic artists, or costume/fashion designers who can help transform your image from ordinary to extraordinary – just be sure to look at their portfolios with a discerning eye, so that you choose people whose quality of work matches your own. As for cost, payment can often be as simple as playing a party or art exhibit, providing a song for a student-film, or exclusively wearing a designer’s fashion onstage and on-camera. Guaranteeing credit for an artist’s contribution in all related products and press materials is a strong bartering tool as well. The bottom line is this: the incentives for which you are willing to work are often shared by your artistic peers, regardless of the media in which they create.
            Once you have an exciting visual image with which to draw the interest of a potential fan – and to keep them coming back – it’s time to think about the conceptual side of your image. This is embodied in the copy – the text accompanying all your audial and visual materials, such as press releases, biographical information, and most importantly, the description of your act, i.e. the answer to the question “What do you sound like?”
For those who’ve not yet seen you play or listened to your recording, the most powerful way to grab their attention is the presentation of one sentence which accurately describes your sound. Here is where a lot of artists develop an understandable but unnecessary fear of being pigeonholed. So, it is useful to think of this sentence – your slogan, if you will – as a representation of your current sound or even just your current project. Don’t think of it as a box in which you may be trapping yourself, but rather, as a door through which a potential listener is invited into the large, many-chambered mansion that contains your influences, who you are as an artist, and all the possibilities you will explore throughout your career. There exists an unspoken understanding between an artist and a true fan – that the artist and the art will change over time. As long as the artist stays true to this shifting vision, the fan will stick around for the ride. Your slogan is the initial invitation to that ride.
When constructing your slogan, keep in mind that it should be brief and should combine just a few concepts that, taken together, encapsulate your sound. These could be musical genres, influential artists, or even cultural references. For instance, “classic country meets early punk”, “Otis Redding meets The Black Keys”, or even “spaghetti western meets electro” all give a general idea without locking things in too tightly. The above descriptors would probably interest a wide range of listeners. As long as the description is accurate for a fair portion of your repertoire, new listeners are more likely to seek out or stay and listen to more of your music – even those songs that do not fall within your slogan’s parameters. But in your search for an accurate description, don’t be so vague that your concept is muddy or meaningless.
Another good way to create an effective slogan, especially if you find you’re having trouble defining your sound, is to ask your fans directly. The obvious benefit of asking others is that their concept for your image is always going to be more objective than your own. If you’ve ever had a show where you didn’t think you played well but the audience seemed to be blown away (or the unfortunate converse of this experience), then you’ve seen this idea in action. I’ve built much of my solo career on a diverse and eclectic mix of originals and interpretive covers, with influences both old and new. While this has worked out well at my shows, it’s led to some difficulty in classification. So, a few years ago, while performing at one of my regular venues, I passed out a questionnaire geared toward finding out my typical demographic and their own opinions of my music and who I was as an artist. For maximum effectiveness, I chose a venue and night where the spectrums of ages, backgrounds, and tastes of the represented fan-base would be at their most extreme. From the many answers I received, I was able to cull together a collection of quotes and information which formed the basis of my subsequent press materials. I also built the following slogan, which was direct paraphrase of one long-time fan: “Prince to Johnny Cash in 60 seconds.”
That slogan said it all: modern and progressive meets classic and roots-based, wildly diverse but with a taste for quality music, and a wide range in musicianship. Armed with this new, audience-based information, plus a strong demo and visual package, I soon found myself playing 15-20 shows of mainly original material each month, in a small Midwest market of mostly cover bands. Much of this work came via word of mouth, without the need to cold-call venue managers or booking agents. Such is the power of effective marketing.
That covers the basics of conceptual and visual imagery, as applied to effective marketing. As for what to do with your marketing materials once you’ve created them, that is for another blog. In the meantime, there are plenty of books, articles, blogs, websites, and businesses geared toward providing the tools and information to get your art to those who want to hear it. If there is any information or service you’ve come across that has been particularly helpful in marketing your act, I’d love to hear about it. Drop me an e-mail: Kevin@crystalbluestudios.com
 
Cheers,
Kev