Product announcements don't have to be boring

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If I had a dollar for every time I’ve said the word remarkable on the podcast or in TEM class at Shenandoah Conservatory I would be a rich man!

This is a promo video for a book by Adam Grant, a professor at Wharton and a magician. This is certainly unlike any other book announcement I’ve ever seen.

So frequently, artists (musicians, painters, authors, lots of different disciplines) put a ton of creativity into their art and close to none into how they go about telling people about their art. This is a problem.

While I’m not going to go out and learn any card tricks any time soon, I can learn a lot from this video. And that goes for both the concept and the execution.

Wharton professor Adam Grant gives an overview of his new book, Give and Take (on sale 4/9/13), using an entire deck of playing cards. For more info: http://...

TEM169: Thinking of hiring a PR Firm? Listen to this first

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TEM169: Thinking of hiring a PR firm? Listen to this first!

Why so many PR firms are a complete waste of money for musicians.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Why you should never subscribe someone to an email list without their permission

  • How many PR firms boast about how many people will receive your pitch when those numbers frequently include people who literally have no use for your product and never possibly could

  • While cold emailing LinkedIn contacts is technically allowed it still isn’t a good idea that will get you any real results

  • How doing literally five minutes of research can be the difference between a great pitch email and a terrible one (and how few PR firms even bother to do it!)

Links:

Want to help the show? Here's a couple of ways you can do that!

1. Help me get to my next goal of $100 per episode on Patreon by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. My next iTunes goal is 150 ratings and 75 reviews. Take just a minute to leave a rating and review on iTunes to help me get there. Thank you!

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

If you feel a little squeamish about your marketing...

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...you should probably trust your gut. This means you're doing it wrong.

This short article is a good reminder that there's two kinds of marketing:

  1. The pushy car salesperson who is trying to get you to drive off of the lot that day in one of their cars no matter what they have to say to you

  2. The complete opposite of that

Always trust your gut when it comes to marketing. The bad kind of marketing is like pornography. It can be a little hard define. But you always know it when you see it.

Oh, you're a marketer alright

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As Seth Godin points out in Unleashing the Ideavirus, there isn’t a single market place that isn’t more crowded than it was a decade ago. So getting attention is harder than ever. Embrace marketing as an entrepreneurial musician today or fail.

The name of the game today is getting noticed which means every single one of us is a marketer.

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TEM90: Networking the wrong way

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TEM90: Networking the wrong way

Why it's vitally important to never pitch someone the wrong way and the one thing you have to keep in mind to make sure you're not.

Topics Covered:

3:49 - Signing people up for your newsletter without their permission (and why it is so wrong on so many levels)
8:50 - The emails (including a response to my request to unsubscribe that was nothing short of priceless) I received from someone in the business last week that inspired this episode
13:51 - How to successfully pitch me to be a guest on TEM and why I haven't interviewed a ton of podcasters
16:20 - Why the odds of sending a form letter to someone to pitch them will obviously have an incredibly slim chance of really lining up with that person's needs and a rather special email pitch that Seth Godin once shared about
18:27 - The way to network the wrong way on social media like Instagram and Twitter
23:10 - Why it's vitally important to never pitch anyone the wrong way and the one thing you have to keep in mind to make sure you're not

Links:

The Mockingbird Foundation
Garrett Hope: Episode 57
Jason Heath: Episode 62
Hugh Sung: Episode 54
@TEMPodcast on Instagram and Twitter
@Pray4Jens on Instagram and Twitter

There are two ways you can support TEM!

You can help me reach two specific goals I've set for TEM:

1. Help me get to $25 per episode on Patreon by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show:  https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

2. Help me get to my goal of 50 ratings at iTunes by leaving a rating and review.

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Joey Santillo

TEM50: Monetizing a cocktail party (TEM Short)

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TEM50: Monetizing a cocktail party (TEM Short)

This TEM Short features thoughts about my conversation with Ariel Hyatt, founder of Cyber PR and social media rockstar, from Episode 49.

Links:

Want to help "keep the lights on" and make future episodes of TEM possible? Please visit our Patreon page to see how you can help:

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM49: Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR

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TEM49: Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR

Ariel Hyatt is the founder of Cyber PR. She is an entrepreneur, author and speaker who focuses on the intersection of social media, PR and online marketing.

The day I dreamed up TEM, Ariel was on my immediate short list for guests I had to interview for the podcast. Listen and you'll hear why.

Topics Covered:

  • An example of a perfect email pitching someone

  • The value of networking through social media

  • Why the days of the formal press release are over

  • Why you always need to worry about what the other person is getting out of any interaction

  • The new "paradigm of millions"

  • The pitfall of dehumanizing your social media engagements

  • How many social media channels you should be on and how to choose which ones

  • The pitfalls on social media for artists in particular

  • The problem with viewing social media through the lens of ROI

  • How Ariel has had to shift her business model over the years and the parallels with today's musician

  • Why Facebook is the dominant platform and why it works so well as a marketing tool

  • How Facebook is now "pay to play" and the minimum amount you should be paying each month on Facebook to get noticed

  • Why you need a Facebook page and not just a personal profile

  • Her latest completely free resource for artists, Social Media House

  • What Cyber PR offers for musicians and entrepreneurs

Links:

Favorite Quote:

  • "The thing that will hurt you the most in your quest to stand out is not caring about other people...there is nothing in it for them if you pay no attention to them but you expect the attention be paid to you."

  • Bonus Quote: "When was the last time you went to a cocktail party and were pissed off that you didn't make money. That's how you have to think of social, like a big cocktail party."

TEM47: Mike Robinson, VP of Marketing for KHS America

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TEM47: Mike Robinson, VP of Marketing for KHS America

Mike Robinson is the VP of Marketing for KHS America, the parent company behind Jupiter Band Instruments, XO Professional Brass, Mapex Drums, Hohner Harmonicas and many other brands. I have had the privilege of getting to know Mike since he came on board with the company a little over five years ago.

It was great to get to sit down with someone like Mike who is at the absolute top of their field. He helped shed some light on exactly what branding is and the many different aspects of marketing. This interview was intentionally light on the mechanics of marketing (which Mike pointed out are constantly changing and widely available around the internet) and focused on a more philosophical level which I found both fascinating and really, really helpful.

He had my brain churning (and it still is!)

Topics Covered:

  • How a family connection and a lifelong love of playing music eventually led him into music products as a profession

  • How his first job in the business was on the production line making drum heads along with 35 Dominican women and how his knowledge of drums and hard work led him within six months to a job as the research and development coordinator

  • Why reasearch and development/product development is a part of marketing

  • Why it takes more than just a great product to market it well

  • The value of taking a subject you're not too familiar with and over time through experience and sometimes tough love developing some level of mastery of the subject

  • How the tough lessons never stop during your career and the importance of embracing that

  • How rolling with the punches as a parent is similar to being an entrepreneur

  • That branding done well is a company or person communicating who they are not just what they sell

  • How he went about rebranding Jupiter Band Instruments

  • How the number of musicians in the United States has plateaued and the effect that has had on the music industry

  • The detailed research Jupiter has done to learn more about their different customer bases in an effort to reach them more effectively

  • Why your personal brand is heavily influenced by your behavior

  • How you never know who you are talking to (and how much influence they may have in your field)

  • The potential problem with reading books on marketing mechanics

  • The importance of examining the bigger questions before digging into marketing mechanics

Links:

Books:

Favorite Quote:

  • "It's those challenges and tough lessons that make you who you are. The illusion that at some point you'll acheive a level of life where those tough lessons stop is really just that, it's an illusion. For anyone who is even remotely self-aware, those lessons can and should continue."

Want to help "keep the lights on" and make future episodes of TEM possible? Please visit our Patreon page to see how you can help: 

https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM35: Are you with the 99%? (TEM Short)

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TEM35: Are you with the 99%? (TEM Short)

In Episode 34, Lance LaDuke talked about how 99% of the world goes in the same direction when marketing their product or event. Are you with the 99% or is your marketing remarkable?

Links:

You can help offset the ongoing costs of producing the show by making a small donation at http://www.pedalnotemedia.com/support-the-entrepreneurial-musician. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Produced by Austin Boyer of FredBrass

TEM34: A Conversation with Lance LaDuke on marketing

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TEM34: A Conversation with Lance LaDuke on marketing

For Episode 34 I welcome back my partner at Pedal Note Media, Lance LaDuke.

Lance is fresh off of an appearance as a Thought Leader at "Marketing Chamber Music: A Savvy Strategy for Success", an event arranged by David Cutler as a part of the Chamber Music America Conference in New York City.

Lance has some really great ideas about marketing and shares with us a bunch of groups that he thinks are really doing the arts marketing thing well. It's a list that really made me think!

Topics Covered:

  • Using a business model canvas to hone your product and determine exactly what problem you are going to solve for whom

  • If 99% of people are going in one direction with their marketing that you should be going in the other direction

  • How marketing is everything (and everything is marketing)

  • Why you or your product need to be remarkable in the literal sense

  • Why you must be incredible before you ramp up your marketing

  • Why only competing on price to make a name for yourself is a losing game

  • Why how you are perceived is reality

  • Why you shouldn’t assume that anyone cares that you can do something better than it has already been done

  • The importance of finding someone who is having success in your corner of the music business and figure out how they’re doing everything they’re doing

Links:

Books:

Favorite Quote from the Interview:

  • "Marketing is everything and everything is marketing. Everything you do should be with an eye towards it."

You can help offset the ongoing costs of producing the show by making a small donation at http://www.pedalnotemedia.com/support-the-entrepreneurial-musician. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Produced by Austin Boyer and Buddy Deshler of FredBrass

The danger of great marketing

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"If you're great at marketing and your product is $#&@ it actually exposes you quicker because they have more awareness of how sucky you are."

—Gary Vaynerchuck from The Ask Gary Vee Show: Startup Grind LA

I harp over and over again in speeches, on the podcast and on this blog that getting noticed is the number one obstacle in 2016 for any artist "making it" in the music business. This point can't be made too many times.

But Gary Vaynerchuck makes a really great point in that quote above.

If you spend a lot of time mastering your marketing and engaging your potential customers where they are hanging out you need to make sure that one thing is true: that your product isn't sucky (as Gary colorfully puts it.)

You need to be sure that what you are doing is worth getting noticed by a large number of people before you attempt to get their attention. Because with all of the options available to human beings in 2016, none of us are going to give you attention again if our first taste was terrible.

(Note: If you want to get fired up and don't mind some profanity, click the link above to hear Gary Vaynerchuck address Startup Grind LA. It is a two hour talk that flies by. It's crazy how much information and passion that guy can pack into one speech.)

Article: 10 Skills Online Marketing Teams Must Have to Succeed

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Whether your marketing "team" is a dozen people or like most musicians, just you, this is a good, quick read from Entrepreneur Magazine of things to be thinking about on the digital marketing front moving forward.

And as I've said on the podcast over and over again, getting noticed is by far the most difficult thing in the music business in 2016. By far the most difficult thing!

The good news: The gate keepers of the music business are gone!

The bad news: Those gate keepers are gone for everyone else, too!

So if you don't consider yourself a marketer, you better get started today.

Article: 10 Skills Online Marketing Teams Must Have to Succeed

(I'm especially fond of #10.) 

Don't follow the leader

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"The reason it's so hard to follow the leader is this: The leader is the leader because he did something remarkable. And that remarkable thing is now taken. It's no longer remarkable when you do it."

—Seth Godin from The Purple Cow

I would say a full 95% of all musicians I speak with who are struggling to gain traction within their corner of the music business are following the leader. This is a fool's errand.

The brilliant Seth Godin talks about marketing aspirin in his book The Purple Cow. (Bear with me...it couldn't be any more relevant.)

He asks the reader to imagine how easy it must have been to be the first person to market aspirin. It's cheap, easy to try, and solves a problem for just about every person alive. That copy writes itself.

Next he points out there over 100 kinds of aspirin in some form or other currently being sold. He then asks "Do you think it's still fun to be a marketer of aspirin?"

The answer is of course it isn't. That's a nightmare. Where do you even begin?

So the question you have to ask yourself is this:

Is what I am offering the music business (and therefor the world in general) the first aspirin or the 93rd aspirin?

It is also important to note that the manufacturer of each of those 100+ versions of aspirin can easily articulate how their version is different than the rest. Doo you know why that doesn't matter? If I had never taken aspirin in my life and was looking for a brand, do you think I would take the time to listen to 100 different manufacturers explain to me how each one is unique?

The answer is no. None of us would ever do that.

So if your woodwind quintet or your resume for a college teaching position are not obviously unique to your target audience with no explanation (since you won't have the opportunity to give that explanation anyways), you are most likely on a fool's errand.

So don't follow the leader. Be remarkable and lead yourself.

Article: 8 Effective Email Marketing Strategies Backed by Research

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Here is an article from the blog at Buffer on email marketing strategies. Some of the conclusions were surprising to me:

  • Between 8:00 pm and midnight is the best time to send a marketing email

  • Mobile accounts for almost 50% of all email opens

  • Sending email campaigns on weekends is a good idea

Email marketing, yes, good old-fashioned email, is still a vital tool in engaging customers and in converting sales. There is lots of data to back this up. This article lays out a lot of the strategies you should be employing.

8 Effective Email Marketing Strategies Backed by Research