So many musicians that read our site or go through some of our training go back to the same problems.
They are musicians, not marketers or internet superstars. This post is not meant to be an argument for the musician / businessman, but rather for those that want to get some things off their plate.
We have been experimenting with outsourcing firms, VA's and local workers (college students/super fans) to see what we can dish off a musician's plate so they can focus on the bigger picture items.
Here are 5 things that can be outsourced and give you a sigh of relief:
1. Blog research.
You can spend a good amount of time looking through blogs to find relevant sites looking for authors who accept your kind of music and have enough traffic to warrant some effort. Having a team member do this research will give you the upper hand in this equation. Be sure to collect the site name, URL, contact info, Twitter handle, Compete traffic data and Google PR so you can sort both their relevance and the priority you give each site.
2. Tour and venue research.
Similar to the blog research, when looking for venues, bars and clubs to perform at live, have your new VA or super fan look through sites like SoudClick, ReverbNation, similar bands tour history and physical outlets like the Musician's Atlas to find the venues and some minor research like how they like to be approached, open dates that fit your schedule and other bands in the area that you may be able to open for/play with.
3. Stats and analytics.
As a musician you more than likely will look at
Google Analytics or a music based data company like
BandMetrics and just see a bunch of lines and colors. Have someone with some backgorund in these programs look at them weekly for you and track some of the important stats like unique visitors, traffic sources and conversion rates. This will save you some Advil.
4. Video editing.
This is my favorite because I shoot a lot of video and I don't have the time to wait for things to render or mess with them to make shiny transitions or cuts. Video editors are all over the net looking to work on your project. Hattip - look for college students in video programs that need portfolio or class work.
5. Copywriting.
Just because you can write a song doesn't mean you know how to write for the web and write powerful sales copy. A copywriter can write SEO and visitor friendly bios, sales pages, email copy and more to help fans find you online, tell them who you are and more importantly buy stuff when they get engaged with your music.
There are countless other things that can be outsourced.
Think about the recording process. You outsource to get your tracks mixed and mastered. You outsource for duplication.
Now just apply those same principles to your marketing. But remember, the more hands on you are the more you are going to understand the business and more importantly understand your business.
This post was written by Greg Rollett from the music marketing company, Gen-Y Rock Stars. He has some free resources for musicians on outsourcing and can answer any followup questions on Twitter or in the comments below.
