The Lowdown on Music Marketing Manifesto 4.0
With the Music Marketing Manifesto 4.0 launch only a few days away (Wednesday, July 26th), I’ve been receiving a LOT of emails and messages about the program. I thought I’d make a short video to answer the most common questions people seem to have, and really just lay out the whole what/when/where/why of the program…
Click here to Register for Music Marketing Manifesto 4.0
If you have any additional questions about MMM 4.0, or the strategy covered in the course, please leave below in the comments. I’ll be sure to come back through and answer everything.
Hopefully I’ll see you in the members area this Wednesday!
Hi John,
I guess I’m on the fence about if this would really work for me. I’ve been listening to your podcast recently and your recent one with Kevin really gave me a different outlook on MMM, but I have questions.
I have a Squarespace website that I’m really satisfied with and can’t really afford to operate another website, so I wanted to know would MMM also work with a Squarespace website or is the course created for a particular website format?
I’ve been talking about joining, but I’m not sure just yet.
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for getting in touch.
In the course I show artists how to create your online sales funnel using the WordPress platform, installed onto your own hosting server. The reason for this is because WordPress sites rely on customizable theme templates and that allowed me to create a theme template that includes all of the various page types you need to execute the strategy.
There are other reasons why I don’t recommend site-builder platforms, in favor of self-hosted sites, but there is certainly no reason why an artist couldn’t use a site-builder and have success with this program. However you would need to model your own pages, to match the examples I give you in the course for each page type needed.
Let me know if I can ever help with anything else.
Hi John,
Thank you so much for getting back to me in such a timely fashion. I really do appreciate your time and your help.
I have another question and hopefully you can direct me in this. Let’s say I do move forward with MMM 4.0 and want to run everything through WordPress would the Personal or Premium options work for the plugins you’ve created?
I only ask because on the WordPress website it states “Install plugins and extend functionality” wouldn’t be available with these two plans and I wasn’t sure if this would cause an issue for the MMM 4.0 plugins.
My goal is to keep the website I have now, but if I can use WordPress for MMM 4.0 alone then I believe this could work for me moving forward.
Hi Daniel,
In the course I recommend that artists actually get web hosting and self-host an installation of WordPress.org, rather than using WordPress.com.
Just to clarify, I haven’t created plugins for you to use with WordPress, rather I’ve created a website theme template, that contains the page types you need to execute the strategy. That said, you can use both paid and free plugins with self-hosting your WordPress site.
You CAN keep the site you have now, but you still might consider creating the MMM funnel on a second site. This would allow you to dedicate a domain to following the course, without interfering with your current site and vice versa.
Let me know if I can ever help with anything else.
Hello! This is kind of off topic but I need some help from an established blog.
Is itt har to set up your own blog? I’m not vefy techincal but I
can figure things out pretty quick. I’m thinking about sdtting upp my owwn but I’m not ssure where to begin. Do you
have any ideas or suggestions? Cheers
Hi John!
I’m an MMM 3.0 member and recently found out that my “Contact/ Booking” section of my MMM web site is accepting messages and showing that they are being sent (I sent a test message), but I am not receiving them. How can I tell where these messages are going. It’s been 2 years since I set all of this up and I remember almost nothing:) Sorry!
-Jon
Hi Jon,
Sorry to hear about the difficulties. Are you using the contact page template, or a different method?
Please write into support@mmmanifesto.com and give us the details. We’ll be happy to take it from there.
Thanks!
I’m using everything as shown in MMM 3.0, so I believe it’s the standard Word Press contact page…
John,
Curious on your input on subscription based campaigns like Patreon, and if that method plays a role in the new mmm?
Hi Brett,
Thanks for getting in touch. While Patreon is something I’ve covered in my Insider circle monthly mebership program, it’s not a key feature of the MMM strategy.
That said, I view Patreon much like any other growd-funding platform in the sense that it’s really just a sales platform. You’re essentially pre-selling and having people pledge to see things made. It’s certainly a very viable way to keep a continuous income, while providing your supporters with exclusive content, month after month.
Let me know if I can ever help with anything else.
Hey I’ve been dabbling in every genre and looking for the best way to market this music at once..since it is demographically so spread out in flavor..done correctly I can be billboard in a lot of different areas for awhile.. PLEASE HELP
Hi Fros,
Thanks for your interest and for getting in touch.
There are likely many ways you could apply the MMM strategy. However due to the different styles you are playing, in each scenario, you still might be building your audience in pieces, based off of those variations.
One the one hand, you could market yourself as an eclectic artist, but for the purpose of targeting an audience, this might leave you improperly targeting audiences and having less effective ad campaigns.
So what you might have to do is target several varying audiences, based on one genre or another, building different list segments, and eventually starting to merge them as those subscribers become familiar with the variations in your musical styles. This would mean using different squeeze pages, that reflect the specific genres you separately target.
Keep in mind that it’s completely acceptable and expected to have different squeeze pages for different audiences.
Let me know if I can ever help with anything else.
John.
Two things for you:
how customisable is the squeeze page? i am guessing that the design has been optimised over a number of years to give best results but the generic look of it wouldn’t work for us. there are great heartfelt recommendations on your testimonials page but quite a few links are dead / non functioning – or the band page they lead to has not been updated in a long while. I know bands and artists come and go but this doesn’t give the best feel for longevity in the process!
Hi Anna,
Thanks for your interest. There is actually a lot of custom flexibility in the new theme template. You’ll able to match it to your brand and your market.
I unfortunately cannot comment on the status of some of the pages linked in testimonials. They are provided and maintained by their owners. Keep in mind that MMM has been in business for almost a decade now. Sites change, bands break up, and any number of things may be the cause of a link going dead. At a quick glance most of them seem to be working, but I’ll look into them and see if I can update those that don’t. The fact remains that people sent in these testimonials because the strategy was working for them.
Let me know if I can ever help with anything else.
hi John
I am keen to purchase MMM4 after hearing the podcast, brilliant.
It says above to ‘click here and sign up for the $50 discount’ but clicking the link takes me to a page without the discount?
am missing something?
cheers
Stephen
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your interest and sorry for the confusion. That was a link to sign up for the early bird list, prior to the course being released. The MMM 4.0 course has now been open for over the past week and the early bird list and discount have since expired unfortunately. I’ve edit the text to avoid any further confusion.
Please let me know if I can ever help with anything else.
Hi John
Just wondering is Aweber still used in MMM 4.0 I remember one vid in MMM 3.0 you were thinking of in bedding an auto responder in future MMM upgrades.
Rocking like an exited child in a candy shop.
Mick
Hi Mick,
Thanks for your interest. Yes, I’m still recommending Aweber for email management.
Let me know if I can ever help with anything else.
John,
Big picture question in regards to the email list and squeeze page.
I realize your system is designed for WordPress. But what are the options, if any, on integrating this system into other platforms like Squarespace etc? For those of us with existing non-websites…
Hi Brett,
Thanks for reaching out. While you can execute the strategy using site-builder platforms, I typically don’t recommend them, mostly due to the lack of access you have to the server. This can limit the types of content you post to a site. You most certainly cannot install WordPress, which means you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the custom theme template, which contains all of the various page types you need.
Instead you’d have to model pages after the examples you see in the course videos.
Let me know if I can ever help with anything else.
Hi John, I’m an MMM 3.0 member and this is a combo of a question and a somewhat belated request for a new feature.
Having gone through most of the course I have a lot of good things to say about it and do plan on ‘upgrading’ to MMM 4.0. But one of the things that really bugs me about your system is the fact that the download links to the albums we sell are not unique. I did some digging around and I actually found a great script I could install that would automatically create unique download links. This was quite low cost as well ($15, lifetime) and runs entirely on my server. It is triggered by Paypal and both redirects the customer to a download page with the unique link and sends them an email with the link if something goes wrong. It can also be customized in various ways to allow for one download, unlimited downloads for 48 hrs, and numerous other options.
I thought this was great, until I realized what it was lacking. The genius of your approach is that you very sneakily get the customer to opt in to the ‘customer’ list before they get their download. Without this – at least if I am understanding Aweber correctly – they would need to opt in through a separate process just to be taken off one list and moved to another. Which obviously is WAY less effective.
So my question is – does the new course give us a way to have our cake and eat it too? Can we get unique download links, *and* seamless list management? If you’ve solved this problem in the new course I’d be genuinely excited about this.
Thanks!
Hi Ian,
Thanks for getting in touch.
That’s great that you’ve found a solution for unique download links that you are happy with. However to my mind, I’ve never seen it as being an issue.
I typically deliver the download links via email to discourage any unauthorized public sharing. It’s true that a person could take that link from within their email and share that link with a friend… but they could just as easily hit upload within an email and send the track they just downloaded via email or upload to Dropbox, Google Drive, or a dozen other platforms that they are already using.
Seamless integration of Aweber and Paypal has been a part of MMM for years. Meaning that you can easily add new customers to the appropriate list, while using Aweber automation rules to remove them from the previous list.
So to answer your question, I don’t currently have a tutorial on creating expiring links because I don’t use it, nor do I feel it’s an issue that will impact anything at all. However, there are solutions out there and if you feel like adding your own custom addition to the system then I see no issue with that at all.
Let me know if I can ever help with anything else.
Just as an aside, there is actually an argument to made that unauthorized sharing helps independent artists more than it hurts, in many cases. Because most indie bands don’t have massive followings, the demand is localized to their fan list. The chances of their being a tremendous amount of communication (and unauthorized sharing) between people on your list is minimal. As such, any unauthorized sharing that took place would more than likely happen with people who would not have otherwise been exposed to you and you might actually gain fans and future revenue. Moreover, real fans are not that likely to steal from you because they are supporters and your price point is so low.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t still keep an eye on things and take steps to avoid unauthorized sharing. Because we should still take precautions on that front. But it’s an interesting argument to be made and is further reason that I just don’t really sweat it.
Hey John – thanks for the replies.
To be clear – while the script I found to generate unique download links does work well, because it is triggered by the Paypal button it messes with your ‘funnel’ system, because it prevents it from doing that seamless change from ‘prospect’ to ‘customer’ list. That’s the issue. So it works but screws up one of the nice aspects of your funnel design. I’ll probably abandon it to keep your funnel 😉
Also – while I know that piracy can and will happen anyways (my debut record was available on sketchy Russian sites within a week of its release – and this was with no label or marketing gurus helping me) … my desire for expiring download urls is more to do with the fact that they’re the industry standard for digital product delivery, so not having them feels a bit ‘hack’ and not proper e-commerce, if you know what I mean. Finding a way to implement them in your funnel might be something to look at.
Anyways – this is probably a better discussion for the members area, so see you there. (If you want any info about the script I mentioned feel free to email)
thanks!
Ian
I totally follow what you mean. There are solutions out there that would allow you to create an expiring link generator that could be delivered in Aweber. I haven’t explored this in years but it shouldn’t be too hard to find.
I understand what you mean about something seeming “hack” when it is not the industry standard, but much of MMM flies in the face of what is normal in favor of what is productive.
Most major companies use those standards because they would be liable for intellectual property that was stolen due to their negligence. As such they create expensive proprietary solutions. We simply don’t need to.
Those Russian sites just scrape websites for content and throw it all up on auto-pilot, for the most part. But the reality is that no one who is going to buy your (or at least most indie artists) music is going to see it there, nor is it going to affect anything at all. That’s a generalization, and it’s better NOT to have your music pirated on those sites, but whether you use an expiring link in your welcome emails or not, just really won’t effect much of anything on the indie level. That’s my two cents at any rate.
Hi John. Question regarding the Facebook Ad workshop. I can’t seem to register. Is it still open? Also, excited to dive into 4.0.
Thanks Brett,
I’m excited to get it out there as well. It;s long overdue 🙂
Music Ads Workshop is still available. What issue were you having registering? Everything is working on my end.
You can sign up here: http://www.musicadsworkshop.com/
Let me know if you are still having trouble.
I’m assuming if you are already a MMM 3.0 member that I don’t have to have a new password or anything?
Thanks,
Patrick
Hi Patrick,
MMM 4.0 is a completely new product and as such there will be a separate registration fee. However, there will be a $50 launch discount for MMM subscribers.
Keep in mind that MMM 3.0 is still an active members area, the strategy is still valid and effective, and I will offer ongoing support.
That said, the courses will be different as will some of the nuances, methodology, and tools offered in each respective product.
If you do sign up for MMM 4.0 you will be able to keep the same account and login info you used when you created MMM 3.0, so long as you use the same email address. Once you have created the account for MMM 4.0 your accounts will be merged and you will access to both members areas.
Thanks for your interest in MMM.
Hi John,
Quick question about the above. Was that the discount that expired recently? I did email you some about it before the deadline but never got anything back. I have MMM 3.0 and would love to upgrade 🙂
Thanks
Josh
Hi Josh,
Thanks for your interest. Yes, this is the discount that expired recently. I see you did make an inquiry to my support team on August 1st. My support manager, Steve sent you a reply that same day. Please check your inbox for a message from support@mmmanifesto.com
Let me know if I can ever help with anything else.
Hey John,
Thanks for getting back to me. That’s strange! I just had a look… I didn’t get anything 🙁
All good though. Will just need to make the upgrade at a later date.
Josh
Is the music ads workshop material covered in this program too?
or is it a completely separate set of information?
thanks 🙂
J
Hi Joanna,
Music Marketing Manifesto and Music Ads Workshop are completely different products. Each one focuses on different aspects of music marketing. Music Marketing Manifesto teaches a fundamental marketing model and the Music Ads Workshop is specifically focused on teaching you how to use Facebook Advertising to promote your music. While Music Marketing Manifesto absolutely contains Facebook ad training, the focus of the course curriculum is more on creating and managing the funnel. There is some crossover within the two courses but Music Ads Workshop goes into much more depth on the topic of advertising, whereas MMM teaches you the important aspects of advertising that you need to know in order to drive traffic to your funnel and keep those fans within it engaged.
Thanks and let me know if you have any other questions.
Hi John,
I look forward to the course. My question is two-fold; 1. On your website shown in the video, where did you get the graphics with the CD showing the 3D CD with the Disc itself on the left of the page to use on the websit? Is there software for that or is it stock graphics you found? 2. In making your video I just watched, what did you use to make it?
Hi Mariea,
I had a designer create that for me. I don’t remember how much I paid. i think it was about $20. You could do it for much less on Fiverr.com. There is software out there that can help you create graphics like that as well. You can just Google phrases like 3D Cover creator. Usually the products out there offer a CD option. But I’d try Fiverr first and just message people showing them what you are looking for and asking if they can do that for you. Shouldn’t cost you much at all.
I used Camtasia and powerpoint to make the video.
All the best.
Thank you very much!
I don’t have a WordPress website. Can this still work for me?
Hi Jennifer,
You definitely do not need WordPress to apply the MMM strategy. However the training videos in this course are based around WordPress and so if you didn’t use WordPress you would be on your own to create similar web pages and find similar tools to accomplish the same things. However the funnel strategies, the copywriting, email marketing, branding, and traffic generation strategies would all still apply. And the Website template I offer in the course is WordPress based.
What I usually recommend for musicians who already have a website that they are happy with, is to create a second website for their direct to fan marketing efforts and keep their existing site for the time being. It doesn’t cost much at all to set up a second site, and this way you can get a feel for the process without undoing any work you have already done. In time, once you have a feel for things, you might consider merging them, or abandoning one for the other.
Let me know if I can help with anything else.
Hey John..so the squeeze page is embedded on a website template? Do you provide a web template? Do we present the squeeze page first which has a link to a website or vice versa? Does the squeeze page use my domain name? Do you show us how to upload to our hosting site ie music to download and sell(I’m assuming using Paypal) also the auto responder and how to personalise each email??
Hi Rick,
The squeeze page is not embedded, rather it is a “page template option” that comes with the MMM theme. The part that is embedded is the actual opt in form. That comes with your autoresponder. I recommend Aweber. But yes, I do provide a template that includes all of the page types you would need.
You could host the squeeze page on your existing site, a sub directory of that site, or on a new domain that you dedicate to your marketing efforts.
You drive traffic to the squeeze page. Once people sign up for your mailing list your autoresponder takes over and send your subscribers to various pages on your website, over time.
And yes, I show you how to do all of it.
For a better understanding of the process I would watch my free Music Marketing Blueprint video which I link to in the nav bar above.
All the best.
So will this work in the Blues /roots genre? We have a large on line presence , website, etc….
Will this help us get festivals?
I’ve heard all this before…how does it beat touring/ playing CD baby/ Reverbnation?
As a family man its hard for me to tour..
Hi James,
This strategy can be effective for essentially any genre of music. In fact one Blue artist, Janiva Magness, was nominated for a Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy this year, using the MMM strategy.
The way that I believe the MMM strategy beats a touring based strategy is that it is infinitely more scalable and allows you to grow your fanbase and continue to generate income when you are not interested, or unable, to be on the road.
Thanks for the comment.
Hi John… What about gospel or contemporary Christian? Have you helped artists in those genres as well?
Hi Yvette,
While I haven’t personally worked a Gospel or Contemporary Christian campaign, I have seen a good number of Gospel/Christian artists come through MMM over the years. The more niche specific you are, the better this kind of strategy should work, and I feel that Gospel/Christian is pretty niche specific.
Let me know if I can help with anything else.
ThanksJohn.
I hope one doesn’t
need to change its entire word press website, right?
Hi Corina,
Nope 🙂
That’s the beauty of WordPress. You just add the new theme and everything else on your site stays the same. You would lose any customization you made to your old theme, but all of the existing content would carry over. The only other changes you may want to make (but don’t need to) would be to change out some of your old plugins for new ones mentioned in MMM 4.0.
All the best.
Thanks Jason.
I hope that one doesn’t need to change their entire wordpress website right?
Hi Corina. Nope, definitely not 🙂 I included more detail in my answer to your other post above. Thanks.
Hi John,
Will I be able to study the course at my own pace? What about from my phone? Is it something I can download to my phone or will I need wifi since I like to listen to this kind of thing on my way to work?
Hi Josh,
You can absolutely access the course material on desktop or mobile, and you can go through the course at your own pace. I guarantee access and support for at least one year, but in reality you will likely have access to both for much longer. And yes, download links will be provided for those that want to go through the content off line.
Let me know if I can help with anything else.
would this work for sound healing music
Hi Orline,
The MMM strategy can work for any genre of music so long as there is a market for the kind of music you make. That would be true of nearly all genres. I have definitely had quite a few healing/meditation/relaxation artists go through MMM and report success with the strategy.
John- very interested in the new template – will those of us using the MMM 3 template be able to easily switch our entire WordPress sites over to the new one without having to start from scratch or losing years of fan interactions in our blogs??
Hey Xerxes,
Absolutely. That’s the beauty of WordPress. You just add the new theme and everything else on your site stays the same. You would lose any customization you made to your old theme, but all of the existing content would carry over and you should be able to redo any customization very quickly and painlessly. The only other changes you may want to make (but don’t need to) would be to change out some of your old plugins for new ones mentioned in MMM 4.0. But otherwise, all of your content, comments and likes/shares would remain the same.
Hope you’re doing well and all the best.
Will 3.0 still work after 4.0 have been launched?
Hi Reginald,
All of this is covered in the video. But the short answer is that the strategy covered in MMM 3.0 is absolutely still valid and you will have continued access to the course material and support. However MMM 4.0 offers strategies and tools that have evolved and been updated for 2017 and beyond.
Thanks for the reply, I looking forward to MMM4.0
My pleasure Reg. All the best.
Hi John and team, I’m a member of MMM 3.0 is there an upgrade available and what would be the cost?
Hi Eddie,
MMM 4.0 is a completely new product and as such there will be a separate registration fee. However, there will be a $50 launch discount for MMM subscribers. Keep in mind that MMM 3.0 is still an active members area, the strategy is still valid and effective, and I will offer ongoing support. That said, the courses will be different as will some of the nuances, methodology, and tools offered in each respective product.
Thanks for your interest in MMM.
Thanks John. This actually cleared a few things up for me. I’m excited to sign up on Wednesday!
Thanks Jason! I really appreciate your interest in MMM 4.0. See you in the members area!