I was reading a Vice article earlier this week about Will Lenney (aka WillNE) a professional YouTuber with over 1 million subscribers.  One part of the interview really resonated with me:

Above the desk in Will’s bedroom in London there is a whiteboard listing all of the ambitions he had for 2017, with a huge black tick pasted across it…right at the top of the list, written in red marker pen, is “1 million subscribers”.

WillNE a YouTuber with over 1 million subscribers.

Having goals is important, writing them down so they are tangible and explicit is even more important.  Every DIY musician should have their short, medium and long term music marketing/career goals written down along with an action plan as to how they are going to execute them.

Here’s an example of a short term (12 month) marketing/growth plan for a musician:

1) Release 3 singles: March, June, Sept (inc videos) with DIY marketing campaign to increase awareness.
2) Grow social media audience by 25%.
3) Play 6-10 out of town shows.
4) Play two medium sized festivals.

and those would be successfully executed by actioning the following

1) To action campaign – research blogs/stations etc who will play/review new music then submit. Create lyric and full music promos.
2) Create sharable content & use paid traffic budget to promote content to new audience on socials.
3) Use Facebook ads to increase awareness to new audience. Research promoters & gig swaps in out of town locations.
4) Research every small/med festival, follow on social networks and wait for their application process to be announced (then apply).

Small steps, all actionable.  Most DIY musicians don’t have growth ambitions that are articulated and as a result…they never grow their audience!

Takeaway Tip

Take a small about of time this week to list the things you would like to see happen over the next twelve months then write down ways you can execute them…then start doing them!  

Got any questions about this post or how you can better market yourself?

Twitter: @60secondmm

Facebook: www.facebook.com/60secondmusicmarketing