Thanks, John.

I make a lot of mistakes, dude...rookie stuff. I tend to get excited, try something, goof it up, and try to clean up my mistakes and find out I can't!!

Anyway, I think I have stumbled through it. I think I have some fundamental message-to-audience mismatch going on because my relevance scores are terrible. Highest has been a 5. Also, I initially tried worldwide / conversions and that was so goofy. Bad idea. I did get 6 signups from Indonesia and the Phillipines. Anyway, I cloned and restarted on just US-Canada 'Traffic', and used the best performing search so far: Jason Mraz. (My James Taylor didn't work as well in comparison). Now I'm at a relevance of 3 and $1.22 per link click.

Bottom line, something is wrong, and I think it's my ad copy / landing page. Not sure. 

I had also asked if there was a way to get individualized help, but I recognize that you probably can't handle that in this format.

That was all.

Hopefully as I learn more in the next course, things will look better. (As long as the core problem isn't that my music sucks!)

Thanks.

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply. Yeah...I am not going in the right direction at the moment. I will need to reconsider all of the elements you've highlighted. Here is what I tried this first time, with poor results:

• Targeting (1): On my squeeze page, I likened my music to 'James Taylor', 'Jason Mraz' and 'Jimmy Cliff'. These sounded good at first, but I'm not so sure these are such good choices anymore. Anyway, in the Facebook ad manager, the 'Jason Mraz' audience had the best of the three responses. James Taylor was next, btw. But, after running for a few days, I was still at a very low relevancy score.
• Targeting (2): With Jason Mraz, I initially targeted 'Worldwide' and got most of my traffic from the Phillipines and Indonesia. Not ideal. I then tried the US-Canada market and got very few responses. I then tried to niche down to a couple of cities here in my local area. Again, not much of a response. I therefore began to believe what you observed, that there is something fundamentally wrong with my message to market match. 
• Message/Market Match: Here is the ad. I used the following 3 images. It seems that the one with the arms raised up and the blue with the guitar were the best. The dark one didn't work as well.
• Could there be a fundamental Music-to-Message match as well? As a refresher, here is my music on reverbnation:

Wow, John,

Dude, you're incredible. This is a masterclass in marketing right here. THANK YOU so much for this feedback!

FYI, I will run an ad to try the suggestion you gave me and see what the numbers show...however, I think there is something else going on here. I think that beyond a mere message to market mismatch, there might be a music to message mismatch as well. And frankly, an overall career question to be answered. Am I a motivational speaker, or a musician, or a marketer, or a trainer, or all of them? Can I be all of them? Or is that unrealistic? As you've said, only the market can decide, so I'm going to go ask the market next.

Frankly, I think that one of the great things the old record companies did was artist development. It may have been brutal to get thrown out if the first record didn't 'blow up', but how different is that, really, from putting out an ad and having it bomb? You pull the ad and try again! 

I think I need to seriously go back and rethink WHO I am before I come out again. My leaning as of this moment is NOT to try to be a 'black' James Taylor or Jason Mraz, or a 'pop' Jimmy Cliff. I think I need to be Dr. Pelè, and I have to DEVELOP that brand.

I think that there is a market for the 'motivational musician', and I just have to go find it. If I go that route, it will be age-appropriate, and it will also reflect more fully what I do...the books, the motivational style songs etc. What I think I need to do is ask myself, "what are people willing to PAY for?" (You know, as they say, "health, wealth, relationships and hobbies?")

Personally, I think there is a market out there looking for motivation, that is equally appreciative of the music that might accompany it. Look at the Church model...it's been done before. And if you look at all the hurricanes, the threats of war, the pain people are feeling in their lives, today, there is a need for healing. Why not call Dr. Pelè? What if someone showed some empathy to THOSE people and developed a market that involved not only the traditional music approach, but also the speaker etc. I have seen a few examples of that, but I haven't seen huge success. It's worth a try. At least, it'll be better to be a pretty good Dr. Pelè, than a terrible James Taylor!

Thanks again for this great feedback. This is an INCREDIBLE class, and you're a great coach.

All the best,

Dr. Pelè

John,

You really have a knack and a talent for seeing things clearly and helping others do so as well. Thank you for this advice. I think it's right on, and my next steps are going to benefit directly from the things you've taught. 

My layers of confusion need to be dealt with in separate areas before I can truly come out swinging. One of my challenges for example, is the need to earn money. I have a personal mind-block about the ability for musicians (who are 'only' musicians), to actually make any money. In as much as I want to believe it, I am so much more attracted to other ways of making money, such as speaking, coaching, training etc....even though my first and greatest love is music. I guess the problem I have is that making music that sits in my basement hurts me more than I can bear, hence it kills the love I have for music int he first place...hence the need to go get good at marketing!!!! 🙂

Anyway, long story short, I am currently learning a ton from you and other gurus, and I'm working on ways to do it all...be a musician, teach marketing, write my next book, all of it. At 52, I have this sneaky feeling lately that I won't live forever, so I'm going to do all I can and be all I can be to help others using the tools and knowledge I have (and hopefully make some money in the process).

Ok. I will stop here. I don't want to take up your time ranting. Please know, (per what you said above), that there is in fact, ONE area of work that you do, which you left out above...you are a:

1. Musician
2. Beer Writer
3. Music Marketing Consultant to musicians and bands
4. Music Marketing Coach to OTHER upcoming music marketing coaches.

You left out #4, (perhaps you don't like to market that), but I know personally that in our learning and development industry, we are (always) not only teaching our end clients, we are also training other trainers. In fact, one of the best way to know a good leader is if he/she develops OTHER leaders. I think it is good to accept this reality, (that there are leaders-in-training amongst your fanbase), and not have it be a surprise that many of one's students will in fact end up as future coaches and trainers...NOT by copying your I.P., but by being your apprentice and paying for learning from you in time and wages. I probably fall in that category as well. I see you as an EXCELLENT teacher, with a very measured tone, easy to learn from, and easy to want to 'hang out with'. You're kind of like a friend one has, but has never met. Very interesting.

So I mean all that as a compliment, but also as a way of letting you know, in all disclosure, that I've been on this journey for a long time, from my PHD, to attending Jeff Walker's stuff, to buying all of Kern's stuff, and Taki Moore's stuff, heck, I was even an Action Coach back in the day with Brad Sugars! So, my new book and other things I'm working on will all benefit from their teaching, and your teaching, and I want to thank you for what you bring as I focus more on my music career.

In fact, someday, I'm going to hit you up to be a guest in a podcast, and / or a reviewer of an upcoming book. And I hope I will have earned the right at that time to do so.

All the best,

Dr. Pelè

Thank you. I appreciate your response very much.

FYI ... This is the ad I want to run...which uses the advice you gave earlier.

https://www.facebook.com/drpel.....219609393/

Not sure if this is being shared, but it's basically my video on my LinkedIn Page:

https://www.facebook.com/drpelemusic

Ok...that makes sense. However, I'm starting to feel like I do need to add some 'African-ness' to my sound, which might mean different songs, mixes etc.

I should mention... the video features African dancers...hence the copy...

Anyway, I know these are outside of the scope of our discussion in your class, but these exercises also seem to have the benefit of really making one question one's core offering...

Still noodling just which direction to take...THANKS!!