Guest blog post by Leonard Patterson, Indie Band Coach

Here’s the truth: No one knows when the pandemic will end, or what the word “end” even means. Anything published or announced is an estimated guess at best. And that’s not just effecting performers like musicians, DJ’s, and bands.

According to a survey conducted by the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), a recently established advocacy group for music venue owners and promoters: “90 percent of independent venue owners, promoters and bookers say that they will have to close permanently within the next few months, if they can’t get an infusion of targeted government funding.” (npr.org)

But even if you can’t plan your calendar, book gigs, or plan tours, there are still solid marketing ideas you can be implementing right now to grow your fanbase. I believe it was Tony Robbins that said “energy flows where attention goes”, and if we continue to focus on what we don’t have — gigs, control, stages, normalcy — that’s where our energy will start and end.

So let’s focus on what we do have control over and put plans in place that don’t depend on being face to face. Here are a few marketing ideas to help you accomplish that.

1. Deliver Recurring Content

Create a recurring series to stay connected with your non-local fans. Seriously, we have an opportunity to “become the content not the commercial”. How can you show up and provide value to your fans? Whether it’s a consistent concert series, weekly hangout, trivia post, etc. 

Also, consider this: you don’t have to be everywhere. Not only do you have access to all of the tools you need to connect with fans, but any one of the social platforms has enough of your target audience to fuel and fund your passion.

Want tips on how to create the best recurring content – download the free checklist here and check out the blog post: ++ How to Get More Fans Tuned Into Your Band

2. Connect Via Email

Start or revive your email list. I know it seems like extra work, but having an email list gives you an opportunity to connect with your fanbase. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy, elaborate, polished newsletter either. In fact, it’s probably better if it isn’t. 

Send a weekly email to say “hey”, share a recent story, and link to your most recent social media post. The truth is sharing through social media is “one to many” dynamic where email is “one to one”. Plus you actually own your email list. If Facebook decides to change their algorithm or if

Instagram crashes, you can still communicate with your audience via the email address by which they opted in to your list.

I’ve used several email providers over the years but always seem to end up back at Mailchimp. I would encourage you to sign up for a free trial or two and see which platform works best for you.

3. Launch a Facebook Group 

Consider launching or revitalizing a Facebook Group around your music/band or even you as a brand. It definitely takes work to maintain, but is a free way for you to start a community geared around you and your art. 

Plus, if you haven’t seen an ad or even a commercial, Facebook is all-in on groups. They’re rolling out new features to enable people to communicate more easily, including the ability to connect via Zoom style rooms right from within groups.

This could be a really painless way to stay connected with fans inside your group without the need for streaming software or cumbersome sign ups. Both group admins and members will be able to create dedicated group Rooms from the Groups composer, and be able to host video chats of up to 50 people at a time.

These are just a few marketing ideas you can start today that are essentially “virus-proof” in that you can implement them regardless of that the current #StayAtHome orders are at the time.

What things have you started since “lockdown” that you plan to continue? Let us know in the comments and stay safe out there!

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Leonard Patterson is a former front-man for a 6-figure party band, a booking agent with 1000’s of shows under his belt, and a certified digital marketer. He launched Indie Band Coach with a mission to help indie bands create, curate, and automate their social media to share their music and get better gigs. Subscribe to the Indie Band Coach YouTube Channel and get more tools, tips, and training to help you on your journey. 

Guest post by Leonard Patterson, Indie Band Coach

5 TYPES OF CONTENT YOU CAN SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND EXAMPLES OF ACCOUNTS THAT USE THEM

Question for you! I know it may have been a while considering the whole stay at home season we’re in, but think back to when was the last time you invited someone over to your place?

Chances are you probably cleaned up a bit before they got there because you wanted to make a good impression — swept the floor, washed the dishes, cleaned the bathroom… you know, the usual.

Now, let’s look at your social media as your online place. How many people are visiting you on social media and what impression are they getting? Right?

So before you randomly spend more money on Facebook ads (i.e. inviting people over), let’s take time to make a plan regarding what they’ll see when they get there! Trust me, I’m just as guilty as the next Facebook Page admin, but it all goes into that initial first impression and will help you build your brand!

Here are FIVE types of content you can share on social media! Use this guide to find your ideal “social mix” online and be sure to follow the accounts that do them well.

ENTERTAINING CONTENT

Your audience wants to feel something — anything. Especially with everything going on right now. So depending on your personality, this could take on humor, action, performances, etc. It’s all up to you but this is one of the best ways to keep your fans tuned in!

Entertaining Examples

• Behind the scenes pics and videos
• Tik Tok videos and challenges
• Music videos and livestreams

This Life. We Lead. is an example of a fun, entertaining artist with great content AND great music. He’s a teacher by day and hip hop artist by night and often uses both as a backdrop for his Instagram / Tik Tok skits. I could have also easily placed him in the inspiring category as well for his recent release of “Black Lives”.

++ Turn Your Audio Into Visuals with the Wavve App

Gigmor Live on Twitch Another example of entertaining content is of course Gigmor. The team has taken an obviously non-ideal situation (lack of booking live shows) and turned it into a weekly series for artists to share their talents. Not only do they host Gigmor artists every week, but host other channel’s videos when they’re not live on air themselves. 

INSPIRING CONTENT

Of course, you can randomly post interesting quotes for #MondayMotivation, but is that really enhancing your message? If you take some time to curate content that means something to you and you can add your own value, maybe it is?

Inspiring Examples

Think about all types of inspiring content your audience might enjoy, like:

• Your music
• Resources to help your audience
• Motivational passages or videos
• Links to uplifting stories

Rock/Star Advocate I’m so happy to have gone to the DIY Musician Conference a couple of years ago. I had a chance to attend a session with Suzi Paulinski, owner of the Rock/Star Advocate and one of the truly inspiring accounts on the interwebs. Her whole focus is sharing tips and easy-to-apply resources to help artists focus on their career.

EDUCATIONAL

There are some great accounts sharing educational content for musicians, but what kinds of things can you share as a musician that would help educate your fans?

++ June’s Virtual Courses: Classes & Lessons to Power Up Your Musicianship

Educational Examples

• How-to videos on your side hustle
• Local and/or social causes
• Music industry news
• Top 10 Lists on interesting topics
• Informational posts about a passion of yours — cooking, sports, day job, etc.

Ellen Allard is an award-winning children’s composer who also happens to be passionate about health and gluten-free living. When she’s not composing, chances are she’s cooking which she turns into educational recipes and resources for her fans!

✅ Content Tip: Think of it like this – how would you answer the following question: “What’s a topic you could talk about for 30 minutes with absolutely no prep time?”

If you have a couple of topics that pop in your head that get you excited, they just might be great contenders for content your audience might enjoy!

Cherries On Top: One of the educational resources for musicians that you should definitely visit is Cherries On Top! Amy shares amazing tips on growing your fanbase, creating content and branding your band!

Other musician resources you should check out…

• @artistcollect – one of the best educational resources for musicians to help you with marketing, management, and of course, your music
• @indepreneur – these guys & gals are serious about helping you grow and monetize your fanbase
• @popofcolouragency – Clarence helps artists every day with great content and offers services like awesome artist bios

ENGAGING CONTENT

When it comes to engaging type of posts, what we’re really talking about is the structure. So, an engaging post is any type of post that encourages fans to interact. One thing to be careful of here though, is the difference between “engagement” and “engagement baiting.” Social platforms are cracking down more and more on posts that ask viewers to comment a specific word or phrase or ask for specific responses.

✅  Content Tip: Think about engagement as conversation. What are some questions you might ask someone in real life? What are some genuine things you might like to know from your audience? Is there a way to weave it into a story or anecdote?

Engagement Examples

• Open/closed topical questions (see below)
• Opinion polls — most if not all social channels have built-in poll features
• Caption this type posts
• Choose between two options (“this or that”)
• Instagram Stories stickers – polls, questions, challenge, swipe, ask me anything, etc.

Sharon Lia Band uses a great example of a combo type post. 

You can see the “topic” is actually about Pat Benatar, but it’s also talking about inspiration while also encouraging interaction. This post was a decent success for the band as it generated approximately 20 comments from fans.

PROMOTIONAL CONTENT

Over the years, as I’ve helped 100s of bands book shows, the promotional content seems to be the go-to, fallback type post — “come to my gig”, or “tune in to my gig” might be more appropriate at the moment. 

“A closed mouth never gets fed.” — Unknown

While you don’t want to bombard your audience with straight promo posts, you also can’t be so shy that you never ask them to buy anything or support you. Instead, use a mix of the content we’ve shared here and mix up the type of promotions you’re doing so it doesn’t get to be redundant.

Promotional Examples

Don’t be afraid to give direct calls to action to encourage your audience to:

• attend shows
• viewing livestreams
• buying merch
• joining email list
• following you on social
• Buy. your. music!!!

Dee Rivers Heminway does a Radio Show where she interviews talented musicians and artists. She’s always got great guests and promotes her livestreams on her channels. 

Something to note is that these are tools, not rules. You may or may not have content that fits nicely into one of these categories, and that’s perfectly fine. This is all about finding your “social mix” and “cleaning up” before your fans come over!

Other blog posts that might be helpful…

++ How to Succeed on Social Media with Consistency

++ How to Start Streaming

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Leonard Patterson is a former front-man for a 6-figure party band, a booking agent with 1000’s of shows under his belt, and a certified digital marketer. He launched Indie Band Coach with a mission to help indie bands create, curate, and automate their social media to share their music and get better gigs. Subscribe to the Indie Band Coach YouTube Channel and get more tools, tips, and training to help you on your journey. 

Guest post by Leonard Patterson, originally published on IndieBandCoach.com

If there’s one thing that’s needed right now, it’s for artists to be able to express themselves. If we’re going to turn this “mess” into a “message”, it’s going to involve music. One of the ways I like to repurpose content is with the Wavve app, so I wanted to introduce it to you. I wrote a blog post about it in 2019 and updated it earlier this year.

So whether you are writing a protest song, sharing your message on a podcast, or starting a new YouTube series to express your opinion, I encourage you to get creative and get your message out there. A lot of musicians are out of work and there’s no telling when (if ever) things will get back to normal.

++ Help Gigmor Find Musicians Paying Gigs

WAVVE MAKES IT EASY FOR INDIE ARTISTS TO SHARE THEIR MUSIC AND THEIR MESSAGE BY TURNING SONGS INTO SOCIAL VIDEOS FOR INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE, & MORE.

This post contains affiliate links for any paid plans on Wavve. Indie Band Coach may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Video: It’s No Longer Just “Nice to Have”…

As an Indie band or musician, promoting yourself and your music on social media can feel like an uphill battle. Social media is becoming an ever increasing noisy place and it takes great content to stand out.

One of the best ways to connect with your fans on social media is with video. All of the major social media platforms are turning their algorithms to promote video content because that’s what your fans are watching. In fact, Facebook alone generates 8 billion video views on average per day (Social Media Today) and native videos on the platform have 10 times higher reach compared to YouTube links (SocialBakers.com). 

Unfortunately, most indie bands are on a budget which means things like professional music videos and promo videos seem too far out of reach. But having videos as part of your music marketing is no longer something that’s just “nice to have”, it’s a must.

Even if you’re an iMovie pro, uploading video files, overlaying your music, and editing it all together can be a time-consuming task. That’s why I’m always looking for innovative ways to help you promote and share your music and livestreams online.

And the good news? We came across an awesome online platform called Wavve which will help you quickly ‘up’ your video content game and is a great tool for livestreaming for musicians.

Social media graphics, video, and promotional content just got easier. If you are an indie musician trying to grow your fanbase and promote your music, this tool can help you make it look like a million bucks.

What’s Wavve?

Wavve is a web application that helps you easily combine a clip of your favorite track with an image to create animated videos formatted for social media. Wavve offers a library of waveform animations to choose from when designing your video that “move” with the audio so fans will know it’s a video that has sound.

Check out how DTOWN used his album artwork and new single to create an Instagram video with Wavve.

Are you not on Instagram yet? No worries, your Wavve account comes with options designed for all social media.

++ How to Succeed on Social Media with Consistency

Within Wavve you’ll upload your content into “card templates” which determine exactly what your video will look like. You can save these templates to your account and update/edit them anytime you want:

• Horizontal: This video size is perfect for Youtube & Twitter. 
• Square: Great for Instagram & Facebook
• Vertical: Perfect for Instagram Stories & Snapchat

Once you select a size, all you need to do is upload an image and add the animated sound wave (8 styles to choose from). You can adjust the size and shape of the sound wave, change its color and place it anywhere on the image you’d like. Wavve also allows you to add additional text directly on the image.

Here’s a quick video on setting up your first Wavve social video…

Get started and setup your account here. 

Once your template is set up how you want it you simply upload your track, trim it down, and Wavve generates the .mp4 video. You’re only about 5 minutes from a promo video for your next single that you can share with your fans!

++ HOW TO GET MORE FANS TUNED IN TO YOUR BAND

Here’s just a little design inspiration from music makers using Wavve:

	Country artist Stoney LaRue used Wavve to help promote some of his Summer tour dates. Including a soundwave graphic on the post helped his fanbase know they could also hear his track. Even if you have a blank image, you can still add text and even captions within Wavve.
	Toronto-based DJ/Producers Funk X Rish used Wavve to premiere their new mix on Instagram. Adding the animation on top of your album art would be a great way to keep your branding while also introducing clips from your release.
	LitSounds is a group of music creators in the NYC area. They used one of the new soundwave animations to highlight their latest drum loops. Take advantage of the new features in Wavve to create quote graphics or even string several videos together to make a short lyric video.

If there’s any doubt that your fanbase is listening and watching, consider this: More video content is uploaded in 30 days than the major U.S. television networks have created in 30 years (Source: WordStream).

Some of the newer features included in your Wavve.co account include full customizable progress animations. Check out this video from the Wavve.co YouTube channel that shows you the various uses and styles of progress animations.

Get Wavve

In my role as a booking agent and band manager, one of the most frustrating things I notice is that a lot of really great, hard-working musicians have very little music on their social sites. 

Pictures are great and stories are awesome. But whether it’s your next single, an upcoming tour, or your new Spotify playlist, your fans are begging for you to make video and livestreaming a consistent part of your music marketing.

Wavve is free to try by signing up here. You’ll be able to upgrade when you want to start creating longer videos and posting more content per month.

More from the Gigmor Blog:

++ How To Start Streaming

++ Product Update: Gig Booking Calendar

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Leonard Patterson is a former front-man for a 6-figure party band, a booking agent with 1000’s of shows under his belt, and a certified digital marketer. He launched Indie Band Coach with a mission to help indie bands create, curate, and automate their social media to share their music and get better gigs. Subscribe to the Indie Band Coach YouTube Channel and get more tools, tips, and training to help you on your journey.