Cory Wolff

PUTTING IN WORK: 4 simple content marketing tips for musicians

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You might have heard the term “content marketing” used often when it comes to marketing and promotion. It’s also known as “inbound marketing,” and sometimes you’ll hear people call it “permission marketing.” At its core, content marketing is where you attract people to you or your music by creating or sharing content other than your music. It’s an excellent way to increase your engagement on social networks and grow your fan base. You post about other topics besides your music – topics that your target audience would be interested in.

Here are four things to keep in mind with content marketing:

1. Social media is not for promotion.

Crazy right? This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t promote your music there, but the biggest asset of social media is the ability to gain new fans. If someone has never heard of you before, why would they want to listen to your new track if they don’t you? Use social media to entertain and engage new fans.

2. Follow the 80/20 rule.

80 percent of your content should not involve you directly. You can post about something interesting that happened in the music industry or something hobby-related. I always use the sneaker example. If your target fan loves sneakers and keeps up with that industry, post about some new sneakers like the new Nike MAGs – the “Back to the Future Part II” Marty McFly shoes!

Use the other 20 percent to promote your music and inform the fans about what’s going on with you – new tours, albums, and shows.

3. Find content that is interesting to your fans.

So where do we find content to share? I use Feedly to find new content. Feedly is an RSS feed reader that allows you to bring relevant content from around the web into one easy-to-read interface. Using Feedly will make it easier for you to create content for your social networks, find inspiration, and stay up-to-date on industry news. It’s like a digital newspaper where you get to be the editor and pick what topics are shown! Feedly is also a good for staying up-to-date with industry news. I read it every morning to see what’s going on in the industry.

I also like to use Alltop for content. You can search and filter through results in a number of different categories and topics.

4. Create a content calendar.

Content marketing can a be time-consuming process without a calendar. When I’m managing social media for clients, I plan out the content for the week every Monday. There’s a number of ways to do this, but the easiest is with Google Calendar. Take some time to find your content and schedule it in your calendar. This will ensure that you’re consistent with your posts, which is extremely important!

Check out this article for help with using Google Calendar for your content.

So let’s break down the process of content marketing:

  • Curate content (with Feedly, Alltop, or a similar way).
  • Plan it with your content calendar.
  • Schedule it on Facebook or using Buffer.
  • Monitor your results. Is your content increasing your engagement? Did anyone comment or like it? Adjust the topics and interests until you find that sweet spot!

When used correctly, content marketing is an excellent way to attract new followers and fans. This was just a simple breakdown of what it is and how to do it. I highly suggest you read a little more on it from HubSpot here.

Putting in Work: The Beauty of Music & Business is a bi-weekly column filled with thoughts, inspirations, and experiences from a music marketer born and raised in Scranton. Let’s step our game up together.