Indie Musicians: How to Brand Yourself Like A Pro [And Why Not Doing So = Fail]

oliverb (58)in #marketing • 8 years ago (edited)

Let me say right up front that I’m purely interested in strategies of music promotion that work, plain and simple. It’s not my intention to fill your heads with loads of ‘essential’ things which will take up a ton of your time for little return (and are, in fact, not essential).

On first glance, this might seem like a tip that is mostly hot air… but that’s far from the truth. So, what do I mean by Know Your Brand And Make A Stand?

I mean, you must become fully conscious of what you as an artist or band are communicating… or what you stand for. This communication includes your:

Lyrics
Genre/sound of music
Story
Look and visual branding (logo, CD artwork, photos etc)
Personal manner on video and radio interviews
Online conversations (social media, newsletters etc)

OK... but what’s real the tip here? What do we do?

Decide on the core things that you/your band stand for and align all the above to those things. Then stand up and be counted.

This doesn’t have to be a contrived thing. Most artists naturally come from a certain point of view and have certain communications to make to the world. However, if you don’t know what those basic communications are, if you’re just 'doing your thing’, then you’re at a disadvantage branding wise.

How it can go wrong…

Let’s say, for example, that your core messages are:

Live your life your own way. Live and let live.
You understand that love can hurt and you empathise with your fans for this.

Your fans are going to be people who hold similar ideals to these. So, you make your stand by 'chatting’ away through your posts about ideas, issues and world events that align with your ideals. Great work. People start to believe in you.

If you then post about how silly a celebrity looks with their new haircut or that someone should just 'get over’ a hurtful relationship breakdown etc… you’re going against your core communications and your fans will lose faith in you. But…

If you make a stand with conviction… people will follow you.

I hope you can see why I’m making this point. Consistency of message is vital to building a strong and loyal fanbase. If you don’t know your core messages you can inadvertently 'stab your fans in the back’.

When all your communications are consistent though, you have a brand. This can be a dirty word for some because they think it means you're being fake… but in fact it just means that you know what you stand for and have aligned everything to that.

Examples please…

Your core messages could be anything. Here are some common ones:

I’m cool, it’s cool to be cool, you’re cool if you like me.
Screw authority.
Fame is awesome.
Life hurts.
We must fight back!

(and some common, slightly more 'happy’ ones)

Being in love is wonderful.
Live for the moment and enjoy it.
Be inspired! Go, do it.

(you get the gist)

Some great, real life examples of this are:

1. Edward Sharpe & The Magentic Zeros, on Twitter:https://twitter.com/EdwardSharpe

Their communications are to do with freedom, love, people looking after each other and anti-capitalism. They also use a kind of 'alternative intelligentsia’ (i.e. smart hippies) angle. Now, I’m sure this is just Edward’s natural personality by the way, but it’s good to be able to identify his position as a way to practice identifying our own. Read through their posts and you’ll see that everything is consistent with those core values.

2. Paul McCartney on Google+:https://plus.google.com/+PaulMcCartney/posts

This one is not so obvious. Paul’s moved beyond needing to push a certain message… on his account they are mostly reminding everyone of what a legend he is. They do this using old photos and anecdotes mixed in with his current music and performances.

Having said that you still see occasional references to what he stands for which are things like peace, vegetarianism, love etc. Still, most of the stuff on his social page screams 'I am a legend and I’m still cool.’ Of course he is, so it’s an easy one to market… but nevertheless, those are some of the core communications I pick up when reading his page. I’m sure you’ll see others when you look.

Application?

To do this for yourself or your band is not as easy as it might seem. Personally, I had to sit down and really think about my lyrics and what fires me up, what’s dear to me… what’s coming through (honestly). I wrote down all the core messages I could see. Then I aligned everything to those and found my 'brand’.

I hope this helps you to do the same and I know that, if you do, your online promotion will become a powerful, efficient and far reaching extension to your music. You’ll also find that people will follow you.