Simple Content Strategy for Musicians

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I want to thank Saron “Sean Uppercut of Detroit CYDI” Dier for the inspiration of this piece.

Music. Marketing. Social Media. Twitter. Facebook. YouTube. Blogging. RSS feeds. Viral. Insert buzzword here.

When taking the plunge into the sinkhole that is Internet, it will get overwhelming if you are not properly equipped. You need a map, a flashlight and possibly a hard hat.

This does not mean there is not an easier way to deal with the inevitable evil that is marketing your music online. You just need to learn how to simplify things, so without further ado, let’s get to the advice you came to get.

If you plan to have a music career, then you need to consider this simple content strategy for musicians when approaching your craft. Now depending on where you are in your creative process, you may be able to skip a few stages.

Note: this is more of a plan than an actual strategy. Going through these stages though will help you plot a proper strategy when it comes time to marketing the music and supplementary content that you make because of it.

Stage One – Set SMART Goals for Content Creation

That’s right. It is best to know where you want to go before you get started. This is not to say you can control what kind of music you will make, but you can control how much you would like to make and when you plan to get it done. We all believe we are just creative geniuses, but you know that if you leave it up to good old Inspiration to get working, you may not even punch-in.

Stage Two – Create Content Within SMART Timeframe

Have at it. Make all the music you can. Make sure you record the process with cameras and with journal entries. Go crazy and post occasional tweets and Facebook updates about your work as well. Your SMART goals should guide you on your bare minimum, by the way.

Stage Three – Access Content After Deadline

Time is up. What do you have? Is there an album in all the tracks you recorded? Are there multiple projects?

Use this period to figure out what you made and what you can do with it. Try not to forsake these efforts. If you thought everything was bad, why did you wait until the deadline to decide that? To avoid doing that, set periodic mini-assessment times to go over what you are making. Better yet, stop being so hard on yourself.

Stage Three point Five – Create Supplementary Content to Finish Projects

You might realize that you almost have enough for a full album or there are a few songs that need tweaking. Take this time to tackle that and also add any supplementary content that you can distribute with the main material you created. This includes music videos, remixes, photo shoots, etc.

Stage Four – Develop Marketing / Engagement Strategy

Your project is done. You now need to figure out how to market it. The best way to do this is considering who your ideal consumer (read: FAN) will be and establish how you envision reaching them. This is where you get specific on where the content will go and how you plan to deliver it.

Need help coming up with a clever strategy? I am here to help.

Stage Five – Implement Marketing / Engagement Strategy

Do what the title says.

Stage Six – Access Results of Engagement Plan

This is the part where the instructions go, “Rinse. Go Back to Stage Four and Repeat.”

Actually, you should monitor your results throughout the process to make adjustments, but when you are done, do a final review. Establish what worked and what did not. This will help you when you go back to Stage One and do it all over again.

Content Strategy Simplied – Plan, Create, Assess, Plan, Market

In short, the simple way to an effective content strategy is make your content first within a certain timeframe, then examine what you have. When you have made sense of what you made, then you can finally develop and implement a marketing strategy.

It really does not do any good to ponder creative business activity when you are trying to be creative musically. Some might say it ruins the sauce. Regardless of that, it is best to focus on doing one thing really well. That does not mean you cannot stay in touch with your fans or build new relationships, just know there should not be a major business focus to it.