Street promo vs Internet promo...what would you do?

Da Youngsta

Member
Our team just come off a 7 month promo run for our artist. The project was a 7 song EP. We released the project with as much professionalism as possible.


We passed out 25,000 copies of the EP in our local market (75 mile radius). We own a duplication company so we were able to press CD's pretty cheaply.


Throughout the promo run, we got pretty good feedback, built up a few fans/supporters & got people reaching out through social media. Although this was cool, we realized that we spent a lot of money just on street promo.


We shot 3 high quality videos to support the project. On 2 of those videos, we implemented a really good promo campaign through social media/internet that got really great engagement & results. These campaigns cost 1/10 of the price that it cost for the street campaigns and were able to reach more people. Great thing about this is, we only paid for results whereas we were paying on the street level whether there was a result or not.


Our artist is about to release a single & shoot a video. We are planning on making this campaign more focused on social media/internet than street promo.


I'd like to hear your opinions. Should we still implement street promo or should we abandon it 100% in favor of the new aged digital promo?
 
I think it comes down to quality/quantity.

I find that music online is more "throwaway" than music I have heard live, or a musician who has approached me and sold their vision to me.

Online there are so many people posting on forums, Twitter, FB, paying for banner ads, etc...all asking to check out their music. Sure, some of their music is good and I do occasionally buy some of their music, but I don't really feel a connection to the artist.

But if I'm in a bar with local talent performing and a singer/rapper is really good, I will ALWAYS buy their music and keep checking for their future releases, because they are more than just a name on a screen and a song/album to me.

Online has the potential to reach a lot more people and to make a lot more money. But potential isn't always reality in a flooded market. Realistically, the local market is probably a lot less saturated than the world wide web.

I hope this makes sense...and it's just my opinion, it's not necessarily right.
 
I think it comes down to quality/quantity.

I find that music online is more "throwaway" than music I have heard live, or a musician who has approached me and sold their vision to me.

Online there are so many people posting on forums, Twitter, FB, paying for banner ads, etc...all asking to check out their music. Sure, some of their music is good and I do occasionally buy some of their music, but I don't really feel a connection to the artist.

But if I'm in a bar with local talent performing and a singer/rapper is really good, I will ALWAYS buy their music and keep checking for their future releases, because they are more than just a name on a screen and a song/album to me.

Online has the potential to reach a lot more people and to make a lot more money. But potential isn't always reality in a flooded market. Realistically, the local market is probably a lot less saturated than the world wide web.

I hope this makes sense...and it's just my opinion, it's not necessarily right.

You make really good points. We're setting up these promo campaigns to generate buzz so that the artist will start getting booked for shows. That's our goal: paid shows.

We enjoy street promo but we realized that it was limited reach. We passed out all those CDs and barely scratched the surface and that was just in the local market let alone the whole country.

Many people saw us out and said that had the CD or saw it somewhere but they never listened or checked it out. The EP had a really dope cover. Also, we had a problem with rude people throwing the CDs on the ground right after it being handed to them which was wasted money.

I'm just asking around to generate ideas that will allow us to market/promoted more effectively that will save us time & money.
 
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Our team just come off a 7 month promo run for our artist. The project was a 7 song EP. We released the project with as much professionalism as possible.


We passed out 25,000 copies of the EP in our local market (75 mile radius). We own a duplication company so we were able to press CD's pretty cheaply.


Throughout the promo run, we got pretty good feedback, built up a few fans/supporters & got people reaching out through social media. Although this was cool, we realized that we spent a lot of money just on street promo.


We shot 3 high quality videos to support the project. On 2 of those videos, we implemented a really good promo campaign through social media/internet that got really great engagement & results. These campaigns cost 1/10 of the price that it cost for the street campaigns and were able to reach more people. Great thing about this is, we only paid for results whereas we were paying on the street level whether there was a result or not.


Our artist is about to release a single & shoot a video. We are planning on making this campaign more focused on social media/internet than street promo.


I'd like to hear your opinions. Should we still implement street promo or should we abandon it 100% in favor of the new aged digital promo?
'

i'd go to the studio with the artist and come up with a new sound... it's not hard to break an artist and it sounds like you're breaking you're back in.. you just need a hit record... fi not.. save money and get features from known artists..
 
Hustlin in public and tourist areas (from what ive seen) rarely get you the results you seek. An effective way to promote is to target venues that have a similar niche following and branch out from there.
 
Urban clothing stores, malls, high schools, clubs, hot wing & bbq spots, the local hood corner stores, etc. We were pretty much everywhere our ideal audience would be.

Hmm....

Well, from what you say it seems like your targeting the right places...

IMO 'out the trunk' helps, but online has a larger reach.

On a side note, a well known [rap] artist that I know actually told me that he typically presses out 5k 'just to pass out for promo' even though most sales come from the web...
 
The Internet is the streets these days. Everything that is exciting or entertaining will end up on the Internet anyways, so just record everything you do and upload it so people can consume it.
 
TagYourBeats hit the nail on the head. It's all about quality vs. quantity.

BUT, that doesn't mean you can't build that quality on the internet. You can give genuine value anytime and anywhere...

I'd advise, if the offline efforts aren't as effective, concentrating on the online elements to your campaign and just push harder there. Build a website, build a blog... BUILD VALUE.

Cheers,
Jordan
 
Have any of y'all checked out Fiverr? What about using some of those as promotional tools?

What promotions are users on there offering? Or do you mean the graphic designers that sell on there?

At the end of the day, you're not going to get good, effective, ethical marketing/promotional strategies from someone selling them for $5.

Either way, $5 is $5 it's not going to get you the best service you can get, BUT it's cheap.

Cheers,
Jordan
 
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What promotions are users on there offering? Or do you mean the graphic designers that sell on there?

At the end of the day, you're not going to get good, effective, ethical marketing/promotional strategies from someone selling them for $5.

Either way, $5 is $5 it's not going to get you the best service you can get, BUT it's cheap.

Cheers,
Jordan

I understand your point but for a $5 twitter blast and a $5-20 email blast wouldn't you at the least say its a good cheap way to get the ball rolling as a little extra push along with your other serious marketing plans?
 
I understand your point but for a $5 twitter blast and a $5-20 email blast wouldn't you at the least say its a good cheap way to get the ball rolling as a little extra push along with your other serious marketing plans?

Honestly, no. I'd never do that.

The reason why: Twitter and email blasts are spammy and are NOT very effective. If I wanted the same results, I'd just a generic tweet or email everyone I could find who had similar interests to me, for free. At least that way I could guarantee that I thought the people receiving my tweets and emails would have some interest in what I had to say. (But that's spammy too btw)

I think I replied to another forum reply of yours earlier, and the same point applies here. These sort of tactics will cheapen your brand. Another point I'd like to make which is invaluable...

Look at what your competition are doing, and then go the other way. Don't apply that to everything, but in this case most producers do these cheap techniques thinking it's the right way to go. They put out automated tweets of "Buy my beats", etc.

Do the opposite and don't post links to your beats... Instead, tweet a valuable bit of information relevant to your audience/customers.

It all boils down to this: give value. That's the key to good marketing.

Look at me, I'm replying to posts on here... Sometimes I include a link to a post of mine on Internal Affairs if it's relevant. Why? Because I want to give value and be as helpful as possible to my market (musicians wanting to learn how to market)...

Hopefully, some people will return the value and they'll check out my link in my signature and then later, subscribe to my mailing list to receive more value... "But hey, Jordan... How do you receive value?"

Some might return the value by emailing me, commenting on my blogs... Down the line, when I have a product, a few might buy it.

Just to give you some context about the return value:

About 60% of my blogs mailing list email me on sign up, only 1 guy comments on my blog posts (he represents between .4 and .5%) and a few people have asked if I have any educational products (like an e-book) in the works, I've revealed to some what I do have in the works and let's say between 20 and 25% of my mailing list have shown interest in buying a product of mine/supporting me.

Long reply, but I hope you and others find it useful.

Cheers,
Jordan
 
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I've revealed to some what I do have in the works and let's say between 20 and 25% of my mailing list have shown interest in buying a product of mine/supporting me.

Just checked out the website and signed up for the list! Kind of a noob question but email marketing is new to me. How do you know/figure out that 20-25% showed interest?
 
Well, thank you. It's appreciated.

It's not really to do with the email marketing analytics itself... BUT, people literally asked me "Hey, do you have an ebook I could buy?" After a few emails back and forth. (So it's just a tally I've written down every time someone mentions a question like that)

I use the automated emails on sign up to try and encourage them to start a conversation with me (as you probably noticed with the welcome emails).

Cheers,
Jordan
 
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Well, thank you. It's appreciated.

It's not really to do with the email marketing analytics itself... BUT, people literally asked me "Hey, do you have an ebook I could buy?" After a few emails back and forth. (So it's just a tally I've written down every time someone mentions a question like that)

I use the automated emails on sign up to try and encourage them to start a conversation with me (as you probably noticed with the welcome emails).

Cheers,
Jordan

Funny thing was I was like that was a genius idea :cool: I'm going to keep reading up on your website and be on the look out for the ebook to educate myself more before asking anymore questions. See you in a few
 
Funny thing was I was like that was a genius idea :cool: I'm going to keep reading up on your website and be on the look out for the ebook to educate myself more before asking anymore questions. See you in a few

Thanks. There's another product I'm going to bring out first, where I'll be more involved throughout the learning process. I'll probably release information next month.



As for that Facebook post... It was a good campaign, clearly. I don't know all the details, but how many are in his street team? You can get the exact same effect from an online campaign (for $0-200) following the same basic principles of marketing, with just one person behind a screen. Depends who your market are and who you are.

Work to your strengths and work for your market.

Cheers,
Jordan
 
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