What is Marketing?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, marketing is defined as “the business activity that involves finding out what customers want, using that information to design products and services, and selling them effectively.” This is a strong definition. Forbes.com further defines marketing as “encompassing every part of a plan to turn a prospective consumer into a happy and satisfied customer. It includes everything from market research to advertising. The goal of marketing is to convince a person that your product is worth investing in, establish brand loyalty, and increase overall sales.”
As you can see, marketing is a detailed subject that many bands overlook. It focuses primarily on understanding what customers want and ensuring they are motivated to purchase or listen to the product. This process includes elements such as image, branding, market research, and paid advertisements on social media and in print. Although marketing may seem overwhelming at first, by focusing on the basics, you can cut through the complexity and succeed.
Marketing: The First Step
The first step in marketing is identifying your target audience. For a band, this means determining your genre, identifying other bands that play similar music, and discovering where their fans are. In this post, we’ll go over each step.
What Genre Do You Play?
Genre can be a tricky subject for many bands, but the best way to figure it out is to ask fans and friends. Ask them which bands you sound like and check Metal Archives to see how those bands are categorized. It’s important to accurately label your genre to avoid misrepresentation. For example, some deathcore bands mistakenly market themselves as death metal, which leads to confusion.
Which Bands Play This Style of Music?
Once you’ve identified your genre, the next step is to find out which bands play the same style. Again, you can use Metal Archives or simply Google your genre. Another option is to visit popular websites and check for tags related to your genre. Many sites categorize their articles with terms like “death metal” or “power metal.”
Where Are the Fans of the Genre and Bands?
This involves finding where your target audience is both physically and online.
To discover where fans are located, use resources like Soundcharts to see where fans of top bands in your genre are based. This will help you understand where your potential audience is. Additionally, review your social media analytics to see where your current followers are from.
Online, look at which social media platforms your audience is active on. Check other bands in your genre and observe where they get the most engagement. Traction, or how much interaction their posts receive, is more important than the total number of followers.
There you have it! The first step to take in marketing-Knowing who you are and what your audience is. This is a key step that many people miss, so I hope you found this informative!
If you need help on this, just email us and we’ll do our best.