Guerrilla Marketing DIY/Indie Artists Best Music Resource
by No. 1 Best Selling Author, Jaci Rae
http://www.jacirae.com
What is Guerilla Marketing and how can you, as an indie or DIY artists use it? Guerilla Marketing is the use of avant-garde marketing techniques intended to get greatest results from minimal resources, which let's face it; most indie musicians have minimal resources. Today, guerrilla marketing is a non-traditional, low-cost, and highly effective marketing endeavor, which when used properly can reap many rewards for the diligent user.
To further your music career, it is imperative that you market in ways that are new and unique in order to catch someone's eye and get ahead of your competition. The first step into the guerilla marketing zone is to think outside the box. What does that mean? Don't do what everyone else is doing. Here area few ideas to get you started:
- The use of podcasts has become very popular in the past years, so why not use them to broadcast your music, helping to expose your music to a lot of people who may have never heard it before. Make sure that you plug your website and where they can purchase your products.
- Check out your library system! Why not go to your local library and see if can do a free concert there in exchange for a percentage of your sales of product after your show. Libraries are in dire need of funds.
- A very easy and free way (free is for me!) to get your name out there and seen is to write reviews on every product your own, have used, read or heard. Then post the reviews on places like amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Make sure to put a small two or three sentence bio at the end of each review that has the name of any CD projects you have done. You can't post your URL there; they will delete your bio. When you post your reviews, put your vanity email address inside your "real name." While those sites won't allow you to post your URL, if your URL is part of your "real name, " they don't say a word. Check out amazon.com and look for one of my reviews. This is what you will see: "Jaci Rae . raeofhope@jacirae.com." (Don't use a real email address or you will end up with a lot of spam. That is my website, but the email address if fake.) Why is this an important step? Because people will read your reviews and you get your name out there. Most consumers are Internet savvy and if they are interested in you, will check you out.
With a few ideas of your own and a little leg work you will be surprised at what your efforts will yield. A very important part of the guerilla marketing process is the business side. In order for all of the ideas you come up with to benefit you, you have to be registered with the correct places so that when your hard work begins to paying off, other people know it as well. Here is a list of some of the places you must register:
Broadcast Data Systems
attn: (find out who is in charge at that time)
Los Angeles
6255 Sunset Blvd., 19th Fl
Hollywood, CA 90028
323-817-1506
323-817-1511
http://www.bdsonline.com
and
SoundScan
http://www.soundscan.com
Retail 914-684-5505
retail@soundscan.com
Venue 914-684-5506
Fax 914-686-1556
venue@soundscan.com
As I said before, I am sure you can come up with a lot more Guerrilla Marketing techniques on your own. If you want different results and what you have been trying in the past always turns out the same, then you must do something different! Guerrilla marketing is what you need to do differently. Go after your audience with fervor and diligence, but think outside the box to get the results you desire and the exposure for your music that you need.
Copyright Jaci Rae
