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10:42 pm
June 13, 2019
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QuoteHi everyone!
I know that this question is going to be a hard one, but nonetheless I feel that it is very relevant for my band and I am sure it will also be of significance to others.
The thing is that the MMM strategy works best if your music is available ONLY through your own website. No iTunes, no Spotify, no Apple Music, no Google, no YouTube. This forces the fans to buy the music from you and gets you the maximum revenue. I understand that 100%.
However. And here comes the big however 🙂 My feeling is that if you are really aiming to the very top - and by that I mean to get to mainstream level, and do it before you are too old - you simply can not afford to omit all those gateways. Especially these days, when Spotify streams have started to bring significant cash to the table (I know guys who earn thousands of USD monthly just from Spotify).
On top of that, in my view, it is very possible to get a decent living with your music through DIY - and MMM teaches just that - but getting really big (and by that I mean puling at least a few thousand people at your gigs in every big 1st world city, not mentioning growing to an arena level) is still impossible without heavy major label, press and booking support behind your back. Or at least I know of no examples, correct me if Im wrong.
That said, I think that the MMM strategy is the best way to get yourself to a level where you can actually demonstrate to the big players in the game that you are worth the investment - by showing them your actual accounting with all the sales figures etc. Well, at least this is my plan.
So the actual question I have. Because I can't afford to not have my music everywhere (because thats just an industry standard we have to comply with to be taken seriously), I am losing on quite a lot of sales down the funnel. The funnel is still profitable (strangely!!), but like 95% of the sales are coming NOT from the LTO page, they are coming sporadically when people just buy something from our webshop in the process of going through the funnel...
The bottom line is - can (and if yes - how?) we use the MMM strategy as a PART (maybe actually the most important part) of our marketing efforts, and not as the ONLY method? Essentially, can we effectively COMBINE direct-to-fan marketing with streaming and physical distribution to record stores?
One of the answers I might have off the top of my head is that (and again, this is relevant for me, might be not relevant for someone else) the majority of my sales are physical merch: CDs, T-Shirts etc. Maybe we can drive the funnel to those goods and sit there happily? Also, if the people like the music they will go to Spotify, which will pay itself in later times, and we can count that toward our ROI...
Sorry for the mess, but I hope that I have conveyed the message despite being a bit chaotic in my thoughts here 🙂
4:00 pm
June 7, 2011
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Hey Alexander,
Great questions. There was a lot here, and my response was even more involved, so I fired up the screen recorder rather than attempt to type this all out. I'm talking a mile a minute, but here are my thoughts on your concerns...
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Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
12:28 am
June 13, 2019
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Hi John and thank you very much for your personal 17-minute lesson there!! ))) Very much appreciated!!
I actually also wanted to post my initial post in video form, and so I did so with my further questions - i.e. this post.Â
However, this forum only allows a maximum of 64mb uploads and my videos are bigger so here is the GoogleDrive link, it allows for streaming the video too, hope it works fine for you:
12:29 pm
June 7, 2011
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Hey Alexander,
No problem re: the video.
Replying to your video is a little hard because I can't scan for the questions but here are my notes I wrote down while listening...
Regarding Merch: Merch is very hard to sell online in my experience. It tends to be something people buy to remember an event. You'll probably do better than most as a Metal artist, because Metal fans like their rock t-shirts more than most, but it's still very hard. I would not personally replace music with merch for your primary promotion. We need to train people to spend money on music.
I have zero problems with going with Patreon. I see some benefits to having your own platform, however Patreon is just fine. I would personally go with Patreon before merch for your LTO.
But yes, you can absolutely run a promotion for any and all products. That's all part of the long term monetization strategy you referenced.
I think your 2nd email idea is great. I may need to try something like that myself.
Your idea for lengthening your funnel is totally fine. I think it's worth trying. But you can also retarget people on your list using very small scale FB ads to increase engagement.
Hope that answers everything.
Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.
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