ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.
Listen "136 – How to Create Your Music Career Strategy for 2019"
Episode Synopsis
Do you know what your goals are? Are you aware of what steps you need to take to achieve your goals? What’s your plan? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share some ideas on how to create or revamp your music career strategy for 2019.
Download the PDF Transcription
Podcast Highlights:
00:34 – The focus of this episode
01:12 – The Music Entrepreneur HQ strategy
03:24 – Crafting your music career strategy
03:59 – Determining what tactics to fit around your strategy
04:25 – Tip #1: Keep doing what’s working
05:36 – Tip #2: Study everything you can find on relevant topics
07:06 – Tip #3: Take a break and let ideas come to you
07:59 – Tip #4: Keep it lean and high impact
09:24 – Tip #5: Keep the winners, cut the losers
10:27 – Make your strategy with full confidence
Transcription:
Originally, when I began working on this podcast episode, I was planning to talk about strategy from a high level.
But then I realized that we could be here all day. There’s so much that could be said about strategy, whether it’s the definition of strategy or the exact tactics to use to get your music or product out there.
And, as I’ve expressed on the podcast before, I don’t think business plans or marketing plans should be sequentially ordered, multi-page documents organized by category.
When and where possible, we should collate and organize a single-page document where every element is interconnected and purposeful.
So, that’s the goal to strive for but getting there can be problematic.
After my conversation with Brent Vaartstra – he was on episode 126 and 127 of the podcast in case you missed it – I had some important realizations around strategy. This had led to the creation of a new strategy for The Music Entrepreneur HQ from the ground up.
The strategy I’m developing isn’t complete by any means. But the foundation of it is clearer than ever.
What I started to see was that there are only three components to my strategy.
The first is content. Whether it’s blog posts, podcast episodes or videos, content is designed to do two things - to drive traffic to the website and to capture email addresses.
Now, some people will come to the website and buy products too. Obviously, that’s a desired outcome but I’m not counting on it. What I’m hoping people will do is take the next step in the relationship and want to follow along over the long haul. That means greater Customer Lifetime Value.
Now, CLV is a little technical, but this is basically what it means. It means the average amount of money you make from every customer.
The second component is email. The importance of an email list simply cannot be denied, and I think most marketers would agree that it’s more important and effective than social media.
My email campaigns are designed to do two things – to nurture those who aren’t ready to buy yet and to make people aware of the products that are available, and by extension, sell those products.
The third and final component is products. That term isn’t used as much in the music industry. Maybe “merch” is a better term.
But the creation and delivery of products is what’s going to make this business viable. No sales equals zero viability. I may as well spend my time doing something else if money is all I care about.
Fortunately, I do have sales and money isn’t all I care about. Fulfillment and impact matter to me far more than money. But because I have certain financial goals, I’m going to be aggressive with the creation and delivery of products. But that’s another aspect of strategy entirely.
First and foremost, the products educate my customers. Second, they offer next steps for my customers, whether that’s buying another book, getting on a coaching call, purchasing a course, joining the community or otherwise.
So, from a high-level view, that’s all there is to my strategy. Simple, right?
Download the PDF Transcription
Podcast Highlights:
00:34 – The focus of this episode
01:12 – The Music Entrepreneur HQ strategy
03:24 – Crafting your music career strategy
03:59 – Determining what tactics to fit around your strategy
04:25 – Tip #1: Keep doing what’s working
05:36 – Tip #2: Study everything you can find on relevant topics
07:06 – Tip #3: Take a break and let ideas come to you
07:59 – Tip #4: Keep it lean and high impact
09:24 – Tip #5: Keep the winners, cut the losers
10:27 – Make your strategy with full confidence
Transcription:
Originally, when I began working on this podcast episode, I was planning to talk about strategy from a high level.
But then I realized that we could be here all day. There’s so much that could be said about strategy, whether it’s the definition of strategy or the exact tactics to use to get your music or product out there.
And, as I’ve expressed on the podcast before, I don’t think business plans or marketing plans should be sequentially ordered, multi-page documents organized by category.
When and where possible, we should collate and organize a single-page document where every element is interconnected and purposeful.
So, that’s the goal to strive for but getting there can be problematic.
After my conversation with Brent Vaartstra – he was on episode 126 and 127 of the podcast in case you missed it – I had some important realizations around strategy. This had led to the creation of a new strategy for The Music Entrepreneur HQ from the ground up.
The strategy I’m developing isn’t complete by any means. But the foundation of it is clearer than ever.
What I started to see was that there are only three components to my strategy.
The first is content. Whether it’s blog posts, podcast episodes or videos, content is designed to do two things - to drive traffic to the website and to capture email addresses.
Now, some people will come to the website and buy products too. Obviously, that’s a desired outcome but I’m not counting on it. What I’m hoping people will do is take the next step in the relationship and want to follow along over the long haul. That means greater Customer Lifetime Value.
Now, CLV is a little technical, but this is basically what it means. It means the average amount of money you make from every customer.
The second component is email. The importance of an email list simply cannot be denied, and I think most marketers would agree that it’s more important and effective than social media.
My email campaigns are designed to do two things – to nurture those who aren’t ready to buy yet and to make people aware of the products that are available, and by extension, sell those products.
The third and final component is products. That term isn’t used as much in the music industry. Maybe “merch” is a better term.
But the creation and delivery of products is what’s going to make this business viable. No sales equals zero viability. I may as well spend my time doing something else if money is all I care about.
Fortunately, I do have sales and money isn’t all I care about. Fulfillment and impact matter to me far more than money. But because I have certain financial goals, I’m going to be aggressive with the creation and delivery of products. But that’s another aspect of strategy entirely.
First and foremost, the products educate my customers. Second, they offer next steps for my customers, whether that’s buying another book, getting on a coaching call, purchasing a course, joining the community or otherwise.
So, from a high-level view, that’s all there is to my strategy. Simple, right?
In God we trust