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Listen "121 – Growth Hacking for Musicians Part 2: Strategy"
Episode Synopsis
If you’re looking to achieve anything of consequence, you need a plan. A well-defined plan can help you filter through the many distractions that exist and assist you in becoming laser focused on what you’re trying to achieve.
In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I explain the steps you need to take to put together a strategy for growth hacking as a musician.
Download the PDF Transcription
Podcast Highlights:
00:14 – How to be laser focused on growth
00:49 – The importance of a strategy and how to create it
01:00 – The problem with traditional business plans
01:31 – Your entire strategy needs to be laid out on a single page
02:02 – How to put together your one-page growth hacking plan
03:22 – Creating systems around your strategy
04:06 – Turning repetitive tasks into checklists
06:01 – Defining your target audience
08:11 – Concluding thoughts
Transcription:
As I said in part one of this series, a growth hacker is laser focused on growth.
The problem is that there are many ways to grow. In part one, I mentioned at least eight tactics you could build your strategy around.
If you’re going at this alone, you’re going to want to choose just one tactic and hammer it with everything you’ve got. Even if you’ve got a small team, you may not want to deviate too far from the central strategy.
So, at this point, you may not know what your strategy is going to be. You may want to listen to the rest of this series and then decide how you want to go about this.
Creating Your Strategy
But either way, you need a strategy, and it should be written down.
This is a key point, so I’m going to say it again:
Your strategy should be clearly documented and visible to you always.
And, I’m not talking about a business plan. There’s a huge problem with business plans – the information is laid out sequentially. The reason this is a problem is because each component of a strategy is – and should be – interconnected.
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, but with most business plans you can’t just start at page one and work your way through to the end. You end up needing to jump around. This is a terrible way to organize information you’re constantly going to be referring to. To be honest, this is an outdated way of doing things too.
Your entire strategy needs to be laid out on just one page, a whiteboard or poster board. If you need more retail space, then a whiteboard or poster board is a better option.
So, one of the first hacks you’re going to execute as a growth hacker is in creating a one-page strategy that makes it clear who your audience is, what resources you have access to, what your value proposition is, what channel you’ll be using to attract your audience, what strategic partners and alliances you could make, how you’re going to make money, and so on.
There are different ways of putting together a one-page growth hacking plan. I think it’s best to make it visually appealing, and it shouldn’t be a wall of text. I recently learned about the Strategyzer Business Model Canvas, and I think this is one tool you could use to lay out your strategy.
Now, there are a few components we’re not going to pay heed to as a growth hacker. The Business Model Canvas has a section for “Cost Structure”, and cost is not something we’re going to pay a lot of attention to. You’re either going to put in a lot of sweat equity, utilize a bit of your own money, or find another source of funding before you even get started.
To me, the most important sections to use with a Business Model Canvas are: “Key Partners”, “Key Activities”, “Value Propositions”, “Channels”, and “Revenue Streams”. You’re going to spend some time thinking about “Customer Segments” but not a lot. We want to get our targeting down to broad strokes as opposed to fine-tuned buyer personas.
As for alternatives to the Business Model Canvas, you could also take advantage of Allan Dib’s 1-Page Marketing Plan or eve...
In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I explain the steps you need to take to put together a strategy for growth hacking as a musician.
Download the PDF Transcription
Podcast Highlights:
00:14 – How to be laser focused on growth
00:49 – The importance of a strategy and how to create it
01:00 – The problem with traditional business plans
01:31 – Your entire strategy needs to be laid out on a single page
02:02 – How to put together your one-page growth hacking plan
03:22 – Creating systems around your strategy
04:06 – Turning repetitive tasks into checklists
06:01 – Defining your target audience
08:11 – Concluding thoughts
Transcription:
As I said in part one of this series, a growth hacker is laser focused on growth.
The problem is that there are many ways to grow. In part one, I mentioned at least eight tactics you could build your strategy around.
If you’re going at this alone, you’re going to want to choose just one tactic and hammer it with everything you’ve got. Even if you’ve got a small team, you may not want to deviate too far from the central strategy.
So, at this point, you may not know what your strategy is going to be. You may want to listen to the rest of this series and then decide how you want to go about this.
Creating Your Strategy
But either way, you need a strategy, and it should be written down.
This is a key point, so I’m going to say it again:
Your strategy should be clearly documented and visible to you always.
And, I’m not talking about a business plan. There’s a huge problem with business plans – the information is laid out sequentially. The reason this is a problem is because each component of a strategy is – and should be – interconnected.
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, but with most business plans you can’t just start at page one and work your way through to the end. You end up needing to jump around. This is a terrible way to organize information you’re constantly going to be referring to. To be honest, this is an outdated way of doing things too.
Your entire strategy needs to be laid out on just one page, a whiteboard or poster board. If you need more retail space, then a whiteboard or poster board is a better option.
So, one of the first hacks you’re going to execute as a growth hacker is in creating a one-page strategy that makes it clear who your audience is, what resources you have access to, what your value proposition is, what channel you’ll be using to attract your audience, what strategic partners and alliances you could make, how you’re going to make money, and so on.
There are different ways of putting together a one-page growth hacking plan. I think it’s best to make it visually appealing, and it shouldn’t be a wall of text. I recently learned about the Strategyzer Business Model Canvas, and I think this is one tool you could use to lay out your strategy.
Now, there are a few components we’re not going to pay heed to as a growth hacker. The Business Model Canvas has a section for “Cost Structure”, and cost is not something we’re going to pay a lot of attention to. You’re either going to put in a lot of sweat equity, utilize a bit of your own money, or find another source of funding before you even get started.
To me, the most important sections to use with a Business Model Canvas are: “Key Partners”, “Key Activities”, “Value Propositions”, “Channels”, and “Revenue Streams”. You’re going to spend some time thinking about “Customer Segments” but not a lot. We want to get our targeting down to broad strokes as opposed to fine-tuned buyer personas.
As for alternatives to the Business Model Canvas, you could also take advantage of Allan Dib’s 1-Page Marketing Plan or eve...
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