A major part of making the transition from up and coming local artist to regionally and nationally known, is your marketing and merchandise. Now that you have begun doing live shows, it is time to manufacturing some merchandise to sell at these live shows, because this will enhance your brand two fold. First, you will be able to sell this merchandise, thus creating a revenue stream for your career, and second, as a way to have your fans indirectly spread the word of who you are simply by wearing your logo. This coupled with an online marketing strategy will take you from being a local artist known by a few hundred people, to the heights of being an artist know across the state and region by thousands of people.
What is the best type of merchandise? Where can you get it? How much will it cost? What is the best way to sell the merchandise? What should you sell it for? These are all questions you need to have answers to if you are thinking about creating your own merchandise. There are so many different types of merchandise you as an artist can sell, but it is all going to boil down to your brand, your image, your target audience, and your budget.
Let’s start with what you should buy. The best place to start is T-shirts. You can find manufactures (both large and small) where you can buy bulk t-shirts for around $2-5 a shirt and print a logo on them for around $10 (the more you buy the lower the price will be). For argument sake, let’s assume it cost you $7 to fully manufacture one shirt, this includes the price of the shirt and putting your image. (what ever image you choose to put on the shirt, I would recommend your logo, however the price will vary depending on how you put the logo on the shirt, but for this example I will keep it simple, and we will just press on the logo) Now, you can reasonably sell that shirt for as low as $10 or as high as $25 depending on the style of the shirt. Be careful, setting your price to high can make it harder to sell the shirts, especially if your fan base is younger and doesn’t have the money to spend on a shirt for a local artist that are just beginning to become a fan of. Splitting the difference (for this example) you sell for $15, that means every shirt you sell you make $8, if you bought them in bulk to lower the initial purchase price you have around 25-50 shirts, this means that selling all the shirts will net you a profit of $200-400 (minus what it cost you to mass produce the shirts, and honestly the price of $7 per shirt is a little high to begin with). This profit is off of one product that can be sold, at every show, hand to hand on the street, out of your car, at any event you attend, and through your website if you have one. Next, imagine you put that profit into not only buying more shirts, but into other merchandise as well (wrist bands, hats, pants, bags, etc.). Once you begin to sell your merchandise (starting with the shirts) other non-fans will begin to see your logo and shirts on their friends. These non-fans may begin to ask, “Who’s shirt is that?” “Where can I get one?” This will lead to not only more sales, but grow your fan base, as these non-fans will both look into your merchandise, as well as listen to your music.
So where do you get this merchandise? For starters, (and for the sake of this example) shirts are the easiest, as you can literally do a quick google search and find a cheap production center that will bulk sell you shirts with logos (or possibly you already know somebody, or somebody you know knows another person that can do this for you). Or you can go to a department store (Walmart, Target, Kohl’s) where you can buy blank (and colored, as colors from producers will cost more) shirts for cheap, and send them to someone to print the logos (which could be cheaper as now you don’t have to buy the shirts from the manufacturer as well). The other merchandise (with the exception of pants, as you can also cheaply purchase them from department stores depending on the type of pants you are looking for) will have to be bought and produced by a company. These companies can be found all across the country (or internationally) for cheap depending on the product, how many you purchase, and how/what type of logo you are looking for (warning, colored logos will cost more to print and produce than black and white). Most manufacturers will want a deposit or the entire payment upfront before they start the work, and will give you varying turn around times normally somewhere between a few days to a few weeks. (not including shipping which can be anywhere from a day to 1-2 weeks depending on the size of the manufacturer, where they are located in proximity to you, and how they are shipping, as we all know the faster you want something the more it will cost to ship it)
Great, so you have music and merchandise, and your team is working to get you live shows, and promoting your music. Now it is time to create and implement a marketing strategy to increase your audience, fan base and follower base. What are some of your options? Which is the best option? How do you go about creating and implementing these strategies? For starters, I would recommend reading one of my previous articles, “The power of social media,” which explains how to utilize each social media platform for this purpose, but you and your team should also create marketing strategies not only for social media but for direct fan interaction and gorilla marketing. As combining all of these marketing strategies will be exponentially more beneficial than focusing on one. (know that of course in this day and age social media is the most important, however going out and meeting with and touching your fans is a great way to show an interpersonal side that can’t always be shown through social media)
Gorilla marketing is going out and promoting yourself directly to each person (think of a street team). Putting up posters, handing out flyers, selling your merchandise outside of at your shows, talking to people on the street, and handing out music (I suggest with a business card with a CR code that links to your streaming platforms, as almost no one is able to play CDs or flash drives anymore). Now, you could do this by yourself, but it is extremely time consuming, especially as you are focused on enhancing your social media (which we will get to next) but also creating your music. Leave this aspect up to your team. You have assembled a team for this exact purpose, to help in your promotion and marketing so you can focus on your music. Your manager should be the one heading this process (unless you have hired a marketing company and/or team to do this for you, which off the bat I wouldn’t recommend as they can be quite expensive for quality work). You as the artist should be involved in what the marketing plan is, to ensure it is on brand with how you want to portray yourself, but you as the artist don’t necessarily have to be involved directly in the gorilla marketing process (although if you are, that will only enhance your credibility, as the new fan base you are reaching will see that you the artist are actually invested in your career and doing the leg work yourself). Create flyers to post around the city (being mindful of where you can and can’t post these flyers, as you don’t want them being taken down or getting a fine) to promote your next live performance or upcoming music release. Hand out business cards with your social media handles and the CR codes spoken about earlier the link to your streaming music. Sell your merchandise on the street and promote local pop ups that can increase your visibility outside of online and at local shows. Local meet ups with fans is a great way to not only seem intertwined with the community, but can be a way to sell merchandise (or give it away, as a prize for contests or just to show fan appreciation) to enhance the spread of your likeness.
Gorilla marketing is great, and can be a fantastic way to locally increase your fan base, but let’s face it, social media is huge and is still the best way to promote yourself and your artistry. Creating a following on social media can be the fastest way to a record deal, even before anyone knows your music. Having hundreds of thousands or a million followers, will get you on a labels radar regardless of what your music sounds like. Don’t get me wrong, having good music is still the number one way to get signed, but labels will now sign an artist simply because of their following and worry about the music aspect second (which is becoming increasingly more prevalent and sad at the same time).
There are many ways to go about marketing on social media, and each platform has a different audience and different marketing strategy that will work best. As an artist you should have an account on every platform (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and TikTok). However, it is incredibly hard to maintain great content and activity on each platform by yourself. If you are doing this on your own, I would suggest choosing one or two to focus on and keeping the rest on the back burner for now. Eventually, you will need to be present on each platform to increase your fan base, but keeping the focus on one or two of the platforms to start can be beneficial too, as creating a large following on one platform can then translate to those followers following you on a different platform.
Instagram is the leading marketing platform in the world, and is driven by graphics and videos. This is where most of the world receives their information and spends most of their time for social media consumption. Instagram is great too, as it connects directly to Facebook (as they are owned by Facebook) so you can cross promote without having to post on both platforms separately. Facebook has 2 billion active monthly users, and a fan page on this platform is beneficial in keeping your fans up to date on your career and happening, and if you have created a fan base, sometime your Facebook fan page can be run by a fan. Coupling these two platforms together is essential in building your online presence. Engaging with every fan comment and direct message, going live on Instagram when you are in the studio or simply hanging out taking a break, and Instagram stories can’t only be broadcast on Facebook as well, but are all great tools to interact with your fan base easily, while giving them a glimpse into the life of the artist they are a fan of. These platforms are also a great way to create promotions for fans to win prizes, and to create dances and challenges for your songs to increase fan participation. You can also utilize countdown timers on Instagram for your next release to increase anticipation from fans as well.
Twitter is where you speak your mind. This platform doesn’t necessarily have to be directly used as promotion for your career, but is better used as a way to directly speak with fans, and have conversations about what is going on in your career, and how you feel about certain things going on in the world. Twitter is the platform everyone goes on to talk about every topic in the world. Yes, as it pertains to certain news, Instagram still leads the charge as it is easier to see, post and share videos, but Twitter is where people repost and reshare those same videos with a more personal note. Utilize this platform to engage in more personal conversations with your fans, giving them a glimpse at a different side of you as an artist.
Snapchat and TikTok are best used for short videos (usually comical) that show a different side of you as an artist. These platforms are now generally used for the purpose of personal videos that don’t always pertain to you as an artist. If you look at some of the most famous people on these platforms, they are posting the same type of videos as the everyday Joe. Most of the videos consist of them in their house, with their families doing everyday things. Or, of course, the next challenge or dance craze. Snapchat has fallen off the radar for most social media consumption (unless your a Snapchat girl behind a paywall) but TikTok has emerged as a thriving platform for the younger generation to create short videos that usually pertain to different challenges, dances and what seem like “impossible” tasks. These platforms are a great way to utilize influencers to create a challenge or dance revolving around your song to gain more attention to your song. Drake literally created a song for the sole purpose of a TikTok dance. Let that sink in for a moment. The biggest artist in the world created a song strictly so it could be a world wide dance on a social media platform. Not because he wanted the song as a single, not because it was his best work, but simply due to the fact it had a simple dance to it, and the lyrics literally told you how to do the dance.
Lastly, LinkedIn, though under utilized, is your best friend. This platform is
Facebook for business people, and every single business person (music and entertainment industry included) has a LinkedIn profile. You are able to connect with people you would never be able to get a meeting with in person. Label heads, top managers, top A&Rs, TV/Film sync personnel, label owners, and agents all have LinkedIn profiles (along with every single one of their assistants). With a simple click of the connection button, you can send your music and speak with these people through messenger (just like Facebook) and create relationships that would otherwise be unobtainable for a new up and coming artist. This platform is incredibly under utilized for what its purpose is and could be. Most people on here are simply posting content like they would on Facebook or any other social media platform, and hoping for the best. I can personally tell you that just by making a connection (with an introductory note no longer than 300 characters as this is the limit) you can create a working relationship with just about anyone. I have created connections with top industry personnel that I have sent music back and forth with, as well as spoken to about further projects, that I otherwise would have never been able to contact if it wasn’t for LinkedIn.
With the variety of social media platforms, and the mass amount of marketing techniques, there really is no wrong way to go bout using these platforms, and marketing to people directly. Use trial and error to see what works best for you, your brand, your audience and what techniques get your the results you are looking for. Not everything will work, it will take a lot of time and effort to build a sustainable following, but once you do, doors will open up for you in the industry. The right marketing strategies, both gorilla marketing and social media marketing, is the difference between staying as a local artist, or becoming the next top tier artist.
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