Self-promotion according to Wikipedia is the purposeful act of presenting oneself to others in a favorable way, often viewed by others negatively, forceful, exaggerated, or self-indulgent. It all depends on the approach employed and the aim/aims of such self-promotion. People self-promote themselves for various reasons which varies from person to person. For music artist, the major aim of self-promotion is to gain more awareness for their music and to grow their fan base. This method of promotion is mostly predominant amongst unsigned artist who are sometimes referred to as DIY (Do It Yourself) or Indie (Independent) artist.
When you choose to self-promote your music locally, you need to understand that it often takes time and a lot of effort. You would have to be patient, persistent and real in your approach. As an artist, promoting your music locally is very important for building strong audience, gaining exposure and most of all achieving success. Self-promotion can seem tasking, but with the right approach, you can reach your target audience and take your music career to the next level. Here are some important factors to go with while you’re on the path to promoting your music locally;
1. Networking
2. Performing live
3. Engaging your fans
4. Utilizing local media
5. Building a strong online presence
6. Utilizing local music platforms
7. Budget friendly advertisement
8. Tracking your progress
9. Stay consistent
Networking
One way to promote your music locally is by connecting with other musicians, by attending local music events, shows to connect with industry professionals, promoters, and fellow musicians. Collaborate with local artists, producers, or DJs to expand your network and create new music. Join music groups, associations or bands. By doing this you get to constantly show up and build a reoccurring image of yourself to people that matter in the industry and target audience. As it is popularly said, “out of sight, out of mind”. The more you show up the more you get seen and gradually you build a followership of local fans. As you get good at what you do, they also get to tell their friends and family about you and share your work with them. Some of such people would be outside your geographical area and gives you a wider fan base.
Performing Live
Another good way to promote your music locally is by booking shows at local venues, clubs, birthdays etc. This provides you with opportunities to meet your fans and prospective fans in person. They get to experience you beyond just your voice and you get to see firsthand how the react to your music. It also gives you opportunity to develop your performance skills. Apart from booking shows, you can also organize your own shows and create memorable live experiences for your fans. You can also participate in competitions and open mic as a means to promote yourself too. You can reach a wider audience through this and as you continue people will get to know you more.
Engaging Your Fans
To promote your music locally you would need to host meet and greets that way you can connect with fans on a personal level. Like with being available for live performance gigs, hosting meet and greets provide and even more engaging way to connect with your fans. You can host such meet and greet events at the venue you are performing live, this can be done before or after your performance. If its not your event, you can make arrangements with the venue owners ahead of time. Another way to go about engaging with your fans is to offer exclusive content and gifts (giveaways). This will go a long way to show you care about them and boost your conversation rate. Some artist ten to ignore to respond to messages and comments in a bid to show they are busy and unavailable. On like before, fans this days love to be close to their artist and feel appreciated anytime they respond to them. Its highly advisable to respond to your fans, through this you can also encourage fans to share your music with friends and family. Do note that they more the conversation about you as an artist, the more reach for you especially on social media sites. A lot of artists who were not known went viral due to ongoing conversations about them online.
Utilizing local media
Reaching out to local magazines, or blogs for features or reviews is also a good way to promote your music locally. Most times they are also looking for new content to cover, so reaching out will always be a good idea. Some may require you to pay and others may not, whichever the case if you have the budget is advisable to do so. You can never tell who will stumble on your content and get to discover your music. Submit your music to local radio stations or podcasts. Lil Wayne discovered Drake on the radio when he went for a haircut at a local saloon and the rest is history today. Learn to build relationship with local bloggers, OAP (On Air Personalities), Journalist, etc. They are your gateway to the wider world as an upcoming indie artist who wants to self-promote his/her music.
Building a Strong Online Presence
The world is now a digital village and staying offline is detrimental for any person or brand that wants to be seen, heard and taken seriously. Anybody can get online and the good part is you don’t need to break the bank to do it. The coming of the internet and the advent of social media services have really given a lot of people opportunity to go beyond their local area. To go viral online you have to start from somewhere and that somewhere is your local area. The people in your locality will be the ones to create the buzz about you that will draw the attention of others to you. You can start by creating a website or a community where you can showcase your music, videos, contact information and biography online. Use relevant tags, and also have a very active social media presence like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., to compliment your website. Social media is the one place to boost your music career online. Remember to always post regularly and respond to your fans when they message or leave a comment on your post.
Utilizing Local Music Platforms
To gain more audience you need to upload your music to local music platforms e.g., apple music, audiomack, groups and local music blogs. Also, some On Air Personalities, DJ’s and radio stations, also do create playlist on streaming platforms for their local audience. Ensure to connect with them and request to get your music on such playlist. To self-promote your music on local music platforms, you can participate in local music compilations or mixtapes. You can gain exposure through reviews from your fans and other music lovers.
Budget Friendly Advertisement
When promoting your music locally you need to create and distribute physical promotional materials such as flyers and posters to local venues, shops, record stores, and other locations frequented by music enthusiasts. This will help put a face to the name and get more people familiar with you. You can also partner with local business for sponsored events and promotions. This will also complement your online efforts as others get to see your work offline too. Running online Ads too on social media is another budget friendly way to promote your music. Compared to other traditional methods of advertisement, running Ads online can be more budget friendly. Another advantage of this is that you can specifically target your audience from your geographical location. This helps make sure you spend less and what you spend is on the right people.
Track Your Progress
Tracking your progress is one sure way to know exactly how effective all your promotion strategy has been. Monitor your social media engagement, track your email and newsletter subscriptions and also keep a calendar of upcoming events and concerts. Take note of reviews both online and offline and make necessary adjustment where need be. Focus more on whatever method of self-promotion works better for you. But don’t fail to explore other alternative options that might present itself.
Stay consistent
Self-promotion is an ongoing process so you have to be very consistent and also focus on building relationships, creating and engaging content, and providing your audience with good music always. If you want people to notice you and take you seriously, then you have to always show up even when they are not cheering. Remember you are not the only music artist out there trying to promote themselves. Work harder than yesterday and make sure you improve your craft where necessary.
Conclusion
Self-promoting your music locally needs a whole lot of dedication, creativity, and persistence. And by establishing an online presence, networking, and staying consistent you can build a loyal fan base and set yourself up for success in the music industry. Don’t forget to build a team around you, this will help you move faster and provide you enough time to work on your craft.
