Are you wasting your money on PR? – You won’t believe these stats pt. 2
from www.marketingsherpa.com
This is the second part in a series of posts that will convince you that the world is moving its marketing not just online, but into online social media.
Read Part 1 here
The data in this post was pulled from a report by an excellent resource for marketing insight – Marketing Sherpa. Thanks to all their hard work it is possible for me to share this data with you as well as tell you what it means for you and the music biz. Marketing Sherpa, please don’t crucify me for sharing two charts!
This first chart here is saying that 80% of companies and marketing firms surveyed believe that Social Media is changing the way they communicate.
That right there should blow your mind because at the end of the day, you’re in the marketing game just like these people surveyed and if they change the marketing game, your marketing game is getting changed as well, like it or not.
If you were in charge of marketing for one of these companies and this was your belief, wouldn’t you do something about where you put your marketing, PR and ad dollars?
Yep, and that is exactly what is happening. Check this out:
from marketingsherpa.com
The big money in advertising is cutting back spending on traditional sources and increasing their spend on online ads and Social Media marketing. Look at the hit Radio and TV ads is taking!! 83% cut?! and a 60% cut on print. Only 4% of the companies and marketing pros that were surveyed are going to increase their spend on print ads. I’m not sure if that includes PR that focuses on print but one can infer.
Ok, so that may answer the question posed by this article, but not so fast. I bet that if you have tried social media marketing or you are about to try it out….it’s no silver bullet skip to the header “I’m convinced” below.
If you’re saying, but wait? If big marketing companies change the marketing game, how does that affect my marketing?
Convince me more:
If you are not convinced that you might want to reconsider spending your efforts on print and radio read this first:
If you are still spending money on full page ads in mags, in the hopes of getting a magazine review…you should survey your audience and make sure they are still reading that mag. Are you now getting that fix online?
Have you started listening to music on Pandora? If you are hoping for college or mainstream radio to have an impact on sales you should survey your audience to see if people are still listening to that station or if they’re all now just playing whatever they want on demand via their iPhone’s You Tube software. Or listening to Pandora, or blip.fm or last.fm or..or ….or
Even if you or your audience is still listening to the radio and reading mags, what do you think about this idea?
The fun follows the money. If advertisers want to spend money somewhere, then creative people can produce content for that somewhere making it more fun to be at that somewhere meaning that somewhere is where the people go. Sorry for the abstraction – but to put it plain and simple:
When advertisers stop spending money on radio and print, those companies lay off their writers, animators and the people who made TV, Radio and Print cool. Those people then get jobs working projects that now will live on the internet and will be part of social media sites like facebook, blogs etc.
More garbage will flow to the internet sure, but also more of the quality ideas and content that used to draw people to watching the TV or reading a mag is now going to be found online. Like the video or hate it, I saw Dick in the Box on Youtube, not on TV. What about you?
College radio is not ad supported, but the format of radio in general will take a hit as more people go online and discover they like other options better than any radio, college or mainstream.
I’m convinced so now what?
Before you become the next “social media is all that matters” regurgitator spouting off this data, here is a reality check:
If more people are spending more time online, that means they are also spending more time on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, email, Google and so forth. See Part 1 for that data. If they are online, your cost of reaching them can be far less than paying for a full page ad in Urb because you can just friend them, @reply to them, let the stream your album instantly online and even close the sale.
Of course you have to put in the time to make this happen, but time is usually easier to come by than hard dollars to spend.
To be sure, it would be faster to put an ad up and get 5 thousand actual impressions (meaning people actually read your ad, not just glanced over it). But that could cost you $5,000 bucks or more if the magazine has good circulation. I pull that number slightly out of the air, as I remember several years ago that was the going rate for a one-off ad in Urb magazine.
To put that in perspective and to also show you social media is good, but no magic bullet, consider this:
Let’s say that you have 500 followers on Twitter — not bad for most people but pretty small for a successful band. But these are Awesome fans that you got one at a time so 100 retweet.
500 impressions to start off with.
Let’s say that of the 100 re-tweeters 20 of their followers actually see the retweet, so you get 2,000 more impressions – now your total is 2,500 views – but at least 100 of them were really good views as they shared your content.
Ok, so of the 2,000 people 5% or 100 people decide they’ll retweet it too: 100 more people see it – now we’ve got 2,600 total views.
Now it’s getting old, so maybe only 5 or 10 more people retweet and so on until nobody retweets anymore.
Long story short you could get a couple of thousand impressions done for no hard cost BUT I think getting even 1/3 or 1/5 the amount of impressions online are better than offline. Because online people can act on the impulse to share, to listen, or to buy.
Off line, they have to put down the mag and then fire up the computer or get to the store (probably just fire up the compu though).
The catch-22:
Reaching people online is going to be harder because people are also on Facebook, Twitter, email, blogs and so on. We’ve all got shorter attention spans these days. Maybe you can share a chart for this one, but intuitively we all know that in many cases you’ll only spend a few minutes on a website then “channel surf” your browser to something else.
So you can’t just have more money and get the awareness. You have to be better at engaging your fans than the next band in your scene. You also have to be better at engaging your fans than their other friend’s updates. You have to be better than catnipped out cats batting their paws at the TV videos on Youtube.
The Upside:
But that’s the upside. Talent matters more than money. Develop the talent of engaging your fans online and your band can make money from your fans. Or hire on a friend, or a PR company (or me shameless plug) to do it for you or to coach you (better option) so you are self sufficient.
Hey, if things don’t work out 100% with your band but you master the art of connecting with people using email, tweets, Facebook pokes, blog posts and so forth you are going to be really valuable to some company out there who is struggling to learn how to right click.
The wrap up:
If you are spending a lot of money on hiring PR that only focuses on getting you written up in print, see “Convince me more” above. You’d better double check that spend dollar spent on traditional PR if you have limited means. If you don’t hell yes get onto college radio and get written up in mags. It will only help you. But if you’re on a tight budget you may want to consider focusing your strategy of directly engaging people online.
Call me out! Did I just insult you or your favorite PR firm? Let me know or make me eat my shoe. Leave a comment or re-tweet. Thanks!
You won’t believe these stats on social media pt 1
You may not believe it, but you can definitely take advantage of it. Watch this video, then sign up for email updates or RSS this blog to get the next post in this series.
I believe Social Media Marketing and Direct to Fan sales are one and the same thing. Good news for those of you reading this blog who are endeavoring to set up your direct to fan sales and marketing strategy!
Does your band need better emails?
Email Success: Best Practices VS. Fail
The other week, I (finally) got an email from a band that I like these days- The Temper Trap.
The little chart on the left from Marketing Sherpa shows that back in 2001 you could pretty much send a crappy email out and it would work – meaning people would click on your links and buy stuff. That’s the red line. Crap emails are becoming less and less effective and every year the gap widens because sending a good email is still working.
Below is the email The Temper Trap sent out. Now is it me, or does it sound like this was either written by the marketing team, or that the band thinks it should sound like a marketing guy when they write it?
This email doesn’t fall into best practices – it’s not quite spam but to me it’s worse than not following best practices because it is pretending to be a best practice email when all it is doing is pushing the band’s needs over what’s in it for the fans.
Exhibit A – Email Fail:
Hey guys!
Wow what a couple of weeks! Just got back from Japan where we played the Summer Sonic festival. It was truly amazing. Thank you to all those who have been coming down to our shows and festivals this summer. Been one of the best summers of our lives!
So as some of you will have seen we released Conditions in the UK on Monday 10th August. It looks like alot of you have already brought it – thanks! We really appreciate your support. For those of who haven’t it would be really cool if you guys could check it out, then drop by our forum and tell us what you think.
We’re hitting the road in September on a pretty cool headline tour, so looking forward to seeing you all down there! Dates and ticket info is up on our site and our myspace.
Peas TTT
Here is what I think may have been going on in their marketing head(s).
1. Use plain text because if the email has graphics and stuff people will KNOW this didn’t come from the band.
2. We’ll say something cool at the beginning like “hey guys” and “wow.”
3. We’ll use a really passive voice to push the album “it would be really cool if you guys could check it out”
4. Peas ?
Please. Don’t let your band send an email like this and don’t do this to your band if you are their marketing team.
This email totally lacks a convincing voice. Throwing in a few words like wow, cool and totally does not make me feel like this came from the band or came from a band that actually cares about me or their fans.
Here is what I would do to make this email sing:
1. Get Multi-media – or at least give some juicy details in that first paragraph.
Why is there no video to that amazing show in Japan? How bout a link? How about some details? Did the bass player eat sushi for the first time? Did the audience sing along with a Japanese accent? I’m sure it was a cool for the band but saying it was cool doesn’t convince me at all.
Thank you for coming to the shows eh? Why because it is keeping you on the road? Good for you then. I’m working my ass off, you all are having fun on tour. Your life rules, and ours don’t.
But that’s totally not true! Your fans had a BLAST at your shows! I know because I went to one and it was one of the best shows I’ve seen this year at Spaceland in LA.
Here is where your Flickr account comes in handy. Why not invite everyone who had fun at your show to post a photo to your Flickr pool–and then tweet about it? Start the conversation by posting your own photos and put a link to the page/post on your site (your site does have wordpress right?) that has the Flickr gallery widget. That way fans can also leave comments or re-tweet the link.
2. Be honest and just push the album but think about WIIFM (What’s In It For Me, your audience)
“Then – as some of you will have seen”
??? My god band! If that’s not one of the world’s worst attempts at trying to sound like you are not pushing an album when you totally are pushing the album.
It would be so much better to just be honest:
We put our album out in August. We worked so hard on it – spent every penny of our life savings on it and even ate beans for three months. Because as artists that is what we do. We are humbled that people like it. That you signed up to get emails from us. It makes us want to make another album! We made one song free — if you are a fan then spread this link to your friends so they can get the free song too.
If you are a huge fan then buy the record. We have special surprises for the people that are supporting us. The more people that support us, the better the surprises will be as we’ll have more money to do fun things for you for free. Deal?
3. Bring on the community!
They try and sneak in a call to action/link to the forum is another blatant push with no WIIFM.
“then drop by our forum and tell us what you think.”
Why should I post in the forum and spend my time telling you what I think? Is there any one in there? Does posting in your forum just make you feel cool? A place for you to receive worship from us the fans?
Here is how you could have made that invitation exciting:
We opened a forum and it’s just getting started. If you are one of the brave people out there and post first we just might ask to camp out in your house when we come to town. Ok maybe not, but we really do care what you have to say if you want to say anything. The forum is the one place we promise to check all the time and be active in.
The myspace, facebook and twitter are geared up to keep everyone up to date with information, but the forum is sacred, moderated by us and we do talk to whoever wants to talk to us there. I bet you can also find a friend and maybe even a free ride to a show in the forums. We’ll see you there!
4. Now the dead horse is beaten. Push your tour with…WIIFM.
OK – last paragraph. The band is on tour and headlining. Cool? for the band yes. For us? Why is that cool for us? I think the band wants us to check out the tour dates so we can make sure their booking agent doesn’t lose her job when the band headlines in less than full venues.
Temper Trap!! You guys totally rule and I know I’m being overly harsh on your email here.
I am actually stoked to see you’ve made it this far and are going to the headlining spot. Here is my take on that last one:
You beautiful fans! Singing along with you, partying with you and a solid slog by the band has finally paid off! You can now show up a little later and get your disco nap on. We’re going to be headlining this time around- we could not have done it without you, and we promise to rock you even harder as we headline a tour for the first time. No flashpots and Stonehendge flying in from the ceiling (yet) but we promise a few new songs for you to hear and you know we’ll play all the ones we love to sing with you. We’ve also set up info on the tour dates page with venue info – ticket info and stuff to make your night awesome like parking secrets, good places to get your pre-show beer and so on.
When time permits we also TWEET UP and have exclusive SOUND CHECK sessions – you need to follow us on TWITTER to catch one though.
That would be a long email no?
I’ve hammed up my examples to illustrate the point. But adding in even toned down WIIFM would have made a longer email than what was sent. I’d say this email could have been two different emails, or even one email and a few blog posts to the Temper Trap’s site/forum/Facebook and Myspace.
OK? OK!
But honestly even a really long email from the band (or from the marketing team being honest that it is the marketing team writing) would be OK to me because I’m a fan.
What is not OK is an email like this that tries to pretend to care about me but totally does not communicate it. Instead this email is a thinly veiled attempt to push the record and tour dates.
The Temper Trap – you are a great band live and on record. Your marketing could be as good as your music if you took the time to care about your fans the way they care about you.
Sorry to be so blunt but my job is to help bands market better.
Can music be helpful?
Social Media guru Chris Brogan says the best way to build a community is to BE HELPFUL. How can music be helpful?
It can start by listening to your fans. Start by searching your band’s (or brand’s) name on Twitter, Google Blog Search and just plain old Google. What are people saying?
Next, broaden your search out to the kinds of people that listen to your music. I think people end up liking music because they can relate to it. Something about your performance and or lyrics. Can you go beyond producing art when trying to connect with your fans?
How about simple things like recommending good restaurants near a venue? Does the bar make one particular drink better than others? If so, let your audience know.
Do you think that a big percentage of your audience listens to your music while having a party? What do you do when you invite friends over? Share any tips you have, perhaps even share some pictures or videos of how you get ready.
How about fashion advice? Where do you get the inspiration to look like a rock star? Where do you go to save money if you are a band on a budget?
If possible, why not also get in the habit of throwing secret pre / post get togethers or shows? Check out how being scarce (nobody knows where and when you will turn up) as actually made some food cart vendors rabidly followed on twitter:
Tweetable Eats article from Mashable
Thanks again to Chris Brogan for the ideas for the blog post and to Marketing Profs for hiring Chris for the social media seminars. Good stuff!
How can a band tweet as one entity?
Hey – pass me the phone let me tweet this! Probably isn’t going to work for long. I just saw this app which a nice idea:
http://www.tweetfunnel.com/
It lets multiple people “tweet” but then it holds all the tweets in a staging area and let’s someone (hopefully your band’s manager or marketing team) pull the trigger on them so you have a nice steady stream of tweets and there is also a filter on drunk-tweeting.
Though Tweet filtering by your team is a whole topic of discussion isn’t it? Should a band be unfiltered? If they say something regrettable under the influence is it better to then issue an apology tweet later? After all this creates some drama and I doubt Twitter would survive without drama.
Can your band survive the drama that could be created? Hard to say. Add your comments here or Tweet them with “Save me From Myself” = #smfm