Posted: Mar 31, 2014
Category: Online Presence
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**Guest post written by Brandon Swift, musician and creator of Yovigo.com.
When marketing a band online, a musician should create a website that lets the band accept countless payment methods, establish numerous pages on the social media networks, encourage people to write positive reviews about the group and consistently post ads for the band in local directories.
Creating a pay-per-click campaign by using the services of Google AdWords can allow a musician to customize the amount of money that the band pays for each click and select the geographical regions from which the group's website will receive traffic; however, every click will have a price that is between 20 cents and 10 dollars on average.
If you can get a voucher from Google Adwords you should use it. Many websites like Vistaprint will give you one with your first order. Otherwise, to get started with the campaign, you can call Google and express interest in pay-per-click marketing, and if you agree to deposit $25 in an account with Google AdWords, the representative will usually offer a free voucher with a unique code that provides $100 that can be used to pay for clicks.
If you market through a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) service, you should choose keyword phrases that contain the type of music that your band plays and the names of geographical regions in which the group frequently performs. Local keyword phrases receive far less queries in Google and have much less competition from advertisers than phrases that are used nationally. This means that, since you’ll be paying for individual clicks, they will cost significantly less.
Several studies have indicated that a website for a band that has a background photograph of the group that was taken while the band was performing is 32 percent more likely to encourage first-time visitors to return to the website within one week. This is just one example of how to increase positive response to your site. Overall, you want your site to reflect the band’s image and attitude. Make it easy for fans to tell what kind of music you play by looking at your website. For instance, if you play acoustic folk music, you may not want to use gothic lettering in your site headings or people may think you play Death Metal and not listen to your music at all. There are services like Yovigo.com that let you set up a website for free for your band and help you design it without any programming skills.
+Building Your Website: A Step-By-Step Guide for Bands and Musicians
One free way to catapult your band's site to the top of the search results is to establish backlinks, or incoming links, on webpages that have content that is related to the band's niche. This could be links to your site from other bands, venues or anyone else you know, really. The most valuable backlinks are those from well known sites, so if you could get a link to your site from Rolling Stone, take it - it will not only boost your traffic, but also your search engine rankings.
Another method of quickly establishing free backlinks is to post comments underneath articles on blogs that are related to music, and by filling out the box that requests the URL of the poster's website. Be careful, though, doing this too much or on articles not related to your band’s music may be considered spam and could end up giving your band a bad reputation.
You should create profiles on numerous social media networks for your band, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Each time the band records a new song, you should add a sound clip of the song to all of the profiles.
When users post questions about the band on the social media pages, you should provide a response for the inquiry within one hour and also offer a link to a post on the band's website that has the answer. This is important. Fans love to connect with bands.
+Social Media: The Best Friend A Musician Never Wanted
The band can create an RSS feed that will allow visitors to receive links to the group's new posts as soon as they are released. Additionally, the musician should allow guests to post comments under every article on the band's website, and the designer can let visitors link their social media accounts directly to their accounts on the site.
If you have a music video, post it on YouTube. You can and should also create videos in which each of the members provides a short autobiography and explains the deeper meanings of the group's many songs. Interviews like this drive the connection that fans feel toward the band and will keep them coming back to your site and social profiles regularly. Make sure whenever you post a new video that you update all your profiles and your website. Some people may not follow you on all your channels.
+YouTube Marketing for Bands and Musicians
The group can offer one free ticket to every fan who posts a positive review of the band on an independent site. Additionally, several studies have indicated that bands that aren't well-known will substantially increase their level of popularity by holding a contest that encourages fans to provide their email addresses and basic information in order to receive a chance to hang out with the members of the band for one day.
After the contest, the band can send promotional emails to the thousands of email addresses that the group has received.
+The Tools of Music Fan Engagement [Part 2]: Newsletters
A musician should contact a different band that plays the same type of music and offer to put a link to the other group's website on one of the pages of the performer's site in exchange for a reciprocal link. Just like gig-swapping, this can be a great way to grow your network and for the two bands to share fans, passing them back and forth.
You can create threads that provide information about the band's shows and events, and the group should add a link to their site in the signature of the profile and frequently post comments in other threads that are related to the group's genre of music.
Related Blog Posts:
+Inbound Marketing and SEO for Bands and Musicians
+More Promotional Tools & Advice
+10 Things Artists Often Overlook
About:
Yovigo.com is a social e-commerce platform with a fully integrated suite of professional social marketing tools. They are looking for bands who want a free website, blog, and online store. While the site as a whole isn't only for musicians, Brandon created it to meet many of the needs that he saw as a musician trying to market himself online.