Proven Marketing Methods NOT Being Used In Music

Posted: February 6th, 2009 | Author: Chance Barnett | Filed under: Marketing Strategy, Music | Tags: Offer Building, Permission Marketing, Risk Reversal | View Comments

Who’s doing great permission marketing and direct marketing in music, and having real success? What are they doing?

And what are the big things that most people in music marketing are NOT doing that could quickly create better results for them in building fan bases, community, and selling music and tickets?

Well… glad you asked.

There’s a collection of tested methods marketers have found over the years that remove what I’ll call “Risk” in the customer experience. These can help anyone who has a goal of getting more people subscribing, downloading, “Adding”, and buying.

But what’s fascinating to me is that while most of the products and services sold online have incorporated most of these tested advertising and marketing methods… some of the biggies still aren’t being tested or used by people involved in marketing music.

It seems like a lot of the music set are late to the game. (I won’t get into Why this is here. But it’s fascinating topic of it’s own.)

Given all this… I’ve been thinking a lot about Risk in the music-related customer experience lately, and seeing that some of the people I meet who are involved in marketing around music haven’t really thought through Risk from the user/customer perspective, and applied some of the tested principles of removing/reducing Risk from the experience.

Let me tell you why Risk is so important, and why it’s so useful to know about in marketing music, or anything for that matter.

I’ll start by showing you what I mean when I say “Risk”…

Whether you’ve thought about it or not, it’s a Risky behavior when a user simply clicks on a link to go somewhere. Seriously.

Why? Because in the few seconds or split seconds a user spends deciding to click on a link or not, a lot of thoughts come up in their head.

Some of these thoughts are…

Where will this link really lead me?

Is clicking a good investment of my time?

Can I trust the source that linked to this?

Will I get what I had hoped or imagined from following this link?

All these and more questions are wrapped unconsciously into the short split-second decision to click, or not click. (*Hint- great marketers and copywriters and designers know how to help the readers mind turn off some of this unconscious Risk-processing machinery and allow the less rational mind to take over and push a user into a specific action)

Now… knowing that a site visitors can experience a level of anxiety and resistance simply from the process of deciding whether or not to click on a link even before they arrive at your site, then imagine this…

Imagine how much more Risky (and anxiety-provoking) it becomes when a visitor to a site is presented with much more significant personal requests from a site such as…

1. Enter Your Email Here
2. Add Sarah Palin As A Friend (no thanks!)
3. Or the granddaddy of them all- Buy Now

So you know, “Buy Now” actually translates in Risk terms to…

“Pull out your credit card, enter your card number into the computer in front of you… and allow me, a website and someone you don’t know, to get access to your money.”

Ever thought of it that way?

Seeing how important and significant Risk is with your visitors, users or customers… how much time have you spent thinking about what “Buy Now” or “Download” really means to your audience? And what you can do about it?

I’m am constantly amazed at how little amount of time many people who are involved in any kind of online business actually consider what the user experiences at the moment they are presented with entering their personal info, and in buying something.

I’ve been in online marketing doing Permission and direct marketing for a while and have tried and testing lots of things to see what helps lower this Risk and anxiety.

I’m just now starting to see some of the tried and true marketing methods to remove Risk be applied to music.

Some of these tried and true marketing methods are:

Free Trial
Try it now free for [x] days simply by entering your credit card info. If you don’t like it or want to keep it, let us know and we won’t charge you. (Yes, some potential sticking points around DRM here)

Payment Installments
Pay in [x] installments monthly

100% Return Policy
Try it now and we’ll bill you. If you’re ever unhappy, let us know and we’ll refund you. Or… you have 30 days to return.

Free Line Giveaway
Take this part of my product free. Buy this other part if you want it. Being done more the last few years in music.

Relative Pricing Options
Pricing 2 or more offers so that they position each other in specific ways and direct users to a single more desired choice (Often a high price option used to position middle or low price offering as more of a “deal”)

Bonuses and Bundling
Adding more value on top of what user is already framed to pay for, for free.

And of course, last but not least, the old workhorse of marketing-

Great Copywriting that really connects with the reader, and calls them to action.

Yes, some of these things are being done in music. Some, not so much.

The point is… I see lots of points of leverage and optimization all over the web in the way marketers are trying to help artists sell music and tickets. And sure, it all needs to be done in a way that works for the Artists, Labels, and most importantly with the Fans.

I’m working to build these kinds of methods and tools into our system in my startup at GiG.FM. (Beta coming soon) We’re focusing on the live music side of things, and the live music experience, with all it’s underserved touchpoints. We’ll be helping Bands and Venues, and I’m excited for what’s ahead.

Last night I had a short talk with Shamal Ranasinghe from Topspin and he mentioned that MusicMatch was doing some interesting marketing and offers/testing way back in the day, but he didn’t elaborate. Crowds and cocktails cut the conversation short. But it certaintly looks like Topspin and Ian Rogers seem to get a lot of this stuff.

Trent Reznor has certainly been a first mover that I know of with some of this stuff, and did things years back.

Candidly, I’m not the guy who knows everyone in the biz yet, so I could be a bit out of touch with who’s doing great marketing in music with Permission and Direct Marketing principles.

But I do see a clear opportunity for improvement, and for great systems to compound the benefits.

Who else do you know of who’s doing good stuff and really creating great offers, executing on list building and follow up, and providing ongoing value outside the narrow window of the “Download Now” Paradigm?

Let me know.

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