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9:57 pm
February 16, 2014
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Hi John,
Hope you are well! So my research and findings of new ways to market continues... In May my buddy and I opened for Bernie Sanders when he was on his Presidential Campaign trail. We opened up for him in Sacramento, Vallejo and Oakland, such an honor.
My question is, does any thing spark in your brain as far as how to use this beyond just a blog post. For instance could I target Bernie Sanders fans as potential fans of my music? I know that's fairly black and white thinking and probably a stretch, but just getting the conversation started.
Or, if you have any sparks for creative ways to present this within an existing funnel in a squeeze page, as a blog post or whatever. We're using a couple tracks from this performance in a live album, so maybe just market that or use it in an upsell? I know this would work, but I'm thinking of ways to use this on the front end as social proof, to hopefully get people feeling safer and more confident in me so they sign up or click on an ad.
Thank you John! -Bri
8:12 pm
June 7, 2011
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Hey Brian,
That's very cool. Definitely a cool piece of social proof. The pictures are impressive. This is just my quick take, but my first thoughts are that targeting Bernie Sanders fans is a bit of a stretch. I think you could have done something where you targeted his fans, in the area of the event, directly following the event. But even then it would have been a gamble. My personal feeling is that the most value here is to use this in a blog post as social proof.
This is outside of the box but you could always create a blog post about it and then target people who like Bernie Sanders and a similar artist. Get the blog post in front of them but have a call to action in it for a free track. You'd need to talk a bit about Bernie Sanders so that they could connect with it. But then you could retarget people who had been to that post, with a direct ad for a squeeze page.
That might work, but even as I type it I think to myself "This is just to complicated. Stick with honing in on your ideal fan and continue building your list in a more straight forward, and reproducible way."
But regardless, I think it;s good fodder for a blog post. Just be aware that any time you go political you will alienate some of your audience. That's a double edged sword. On the one hand it helps you connect with the people that share your values. On the other hand it pushes some people away. All of that said, I would be yourself and talk about anything that your passionate about. Alienating people is part of honing in on your audience.
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.
7:40 am
February 16, 2014
OfflineHey John,
Solid thinking as usual. First of all, thank you.
I think you're right, at this point I will continue building in a more straightforward manner, that's just where I'm at. If I had a dialed in funnel I could start getting fancy, but I agree I should stick to the basic strategy with my energy at this point.
That being said, something dawned on me... going back to Ben Harper as a targeting option... My ad was doing OK when I ran that, but I think I missed an important aspect of Ben Harper that his fans appreciate - his "power to the people" side. I was focusing solely on his "relax by the firepit and escape from life" appeal.. But honestly he's probably more known for his subversive, fight the power energy, although its masked in a pretty voice.
If I mentioned that I opened for Bernie in the squeeze page, Ben Harper fans may or may not respond well. Bernie is a very "fight for the people" kind of guy, but I don't know I'd have to test it. How would I find out what politicians Ben Harper fans support most? Common sense tells me Bernie, but is there a way audience insights can help me with that?
Other than that, I agree that a blog post is a great way to share this story. And for sure politics splits folks right down the middle, esp. these days. However, I think most people assume I'm for Bernie or Hillary just by looking at me lol
12:18 am
June 7, 2011
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You could do things like targeting people who like both Ben Harper and Bernie Sanders by selecting "narrow your audience" and then selecting "and MUST ALSO match at least ONE of the following". It's a fairly new option.
But yeah, going at all political is playing with fire in my opinion, in less you are a really device artist. And from what I've seen of your public facing persona, it seems like easy going and positive are strengths of yours.
It really just comes down to how much you want to experiment with stuff at this stage.
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.
7:56 am
February 16, 2014
OfflineHey John,
For sure. I'm usually the guy who changes the subject when folks bring up politics.
But all that aside, I'm still finding my marketing voice as an artist, and perhaps that's why I've been confused - I feel more like the president of a mini-record label rather than one single artist. I've finally started opening up to friends and bandmates about this mini-label vision too, and I've now got more of them on my side. To illustrate I made a couple of fake ads real quick - the pics are blurry and the copy was written fast, but its just for visioning, so here goes:
for the Ben Harper target, I've included my buddy Justin Farren in the ad. He's a great songwriter, I included one of mine and one of his in the theoretical free tracks. Please excuse the small ad pics, you'll have to enlarge the screen to see the copy:
And here are the theoretical free tracks, one of his and one of mine - but we recorded it ourselves and played all the instruments basically between the two of us - maybe give a listen to the first 10 seconds of each?
Thanks for listening John. So here's the story with this next genre on the "label"...
Me and Justin just played a show together last Friday, and it was in a coffee shop as a singer songwriter duo. At the show I debuted a new song, but it was a hip hop song... But people loved it, its called "I appreciate". Everyone who's heard it eats it up. So I had my buddy Matt make a quick home recording of it - his wife sang harmony on the hook and I did everything else. Maybe peep the 1st 10 seconds? Here it is:
Thanks for listening. I figure Prince EA fans might dig it with the right squeeze page. Here's a fake ad I made for fans of Prince EA. I made it real quick so please excuse any cheesiness:
The other dude in the ad is my buddy Rasar, a rising conscious rapper in Vegas and a close friend of mine. His helped give me the courage to write a bunch of songs in this genre...
Lastly, my jazz trio. It's my oldest band, we've played about 1000 gigs together (at least) since 1999, we've won awards, but maybe we never marketed it because jazz is "uncool". But here goes: I made a fake ad for it:
And here's a couple tunes, Christmas jazz tunes - "Little Drummer Boy" and "Jingle Bells", I'm on drums- please listen to the 1st 10 seconds of each?:
Thats it. Thanks again for checking this all out man, I know its a handful. Just wanted to go all in and share what I've really been thinking. I figure the label can be called "Brian Rogers Neighborhood" lol. Maybe I can turn my current FB artist page into the label page eventually, and start a different FB page for each genre... Maybe use my MMM site but make a different page for each genre for now, but eventually build individual sites for each.
Of course thats a big vision, but why not think big. I can start by just running ads from my current fb page and make a different squeeze page for each, and focus on getting each ad a high CTR, and each squeeze to convert.
Bottom line: my mind works better when I simply separate each genre out, and musically its no unsurmountable challenge for me and my friends to write, perform and record in each genre. Its just a grind. Luckily I have the best team of friends/musicians in the world, 2 recording studios and 1 mastering studio I get to go to for free, barter or very discounted.
Thoughts?
9:09 pm
June 7, 2011
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Hey Brian,
Everything looks good but I do have a couple of thoughts.
1. Interestingly, I like all of your link descriptions more than your actual text. An add that said "These two are magic together" - Grammy winning producer Joe Blow" would be far more likely to get me to click than a promise of an ice coffee. I felt that way about every single ad. It's as if what came naturally was stronger than where you went when you were trying to stick to my scripts and templates. Of course, I could be wrong about what will perform. But that was my impression.
2. My other thought was that you may be making things overly complex by thinking about multiple channels before establishing one successful one. I read a great book a while back called, "Fire, Ready, Aim". And the short of it was that no one becomes successful by focusing on the details. They become successful by making sales and refining later to maximize sales. It may be time to challenge yourself to start making sales and establish a successful funnel in the next 30 days (or some other goal you are comfortable with) rather than allowing yourself to get sidetracked by all the possibilities that are out there. What you are doing is very common for internet marketers. But it's also why few are successful. Once you start to see how it works, everything starts to look like a possible path to success. But instead of just digging in and building a business, we chase an idea and then jump ship for the next idea, before the original idea has really had a chance to succeed. I spent about a year doing that before finally falling into my first real success. But none of this is meant to be critical. I think that fact that you are taking so much action is awesome, and a sign that you might be able to do well with this. But I think it's time to buckle in and start making sales for you as an artist, and simplify a bit.
That make sense at all?
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.
5:29 am
February 16, 2014
OfflineI don't know where to start, so I'll just start.
I like how you said successful marketers focus on making sales, then refine for increased sales. Admittedly I've not been thinking in terms of sales. Sounds stupid out loud, but true. But when you said that my confidence surfaced and I thought of all the sales I make on a weekly basis: at a show, to an event planner who needs entertainment, to a person buying a CD from me live, someone who throws money in my tip basket because I've made their day, its all sales. And it made me think of what I do that makes them buy: its my charisma, my powerful singing, great drumming, funky bass playing, but more importantly stories between songs, making them laugh a little, vulnerability onstage like admitting that "I'm a dork and I love Dave Matthews Band so here's one of their tunes" or whatever ... Telling them a story about my dog and then singing them a song about her. All that personal stuff, and then throw good music on top and hey, their sold!
I don't know why the internet space has choked me up, why it feels so different, but who cares. When you said "successful people focus on making sales" I immediately pulled out my camera and made some videos for that first blog post. I made a video for the sales page, and even a silly video to use possibly on the squeeze page. The talking is all pretty dorky, kinda fast, kinda silly and pretty entertaining which is who I am when I'm onstage... And people dig it. I'll be editing those videos down soon. I think I'm fairly good on video, I should use that.
The squeeze page video is super silly so I don't really know about that one, but more seriously I wrote a headline that I kinda like:
"Spreading magic with a guitar, songs, drums, bass guitar, humor and flow, these two are arguably the most insightful and funny singer songwriters to play as a duo..."
or
"Spreading magic with a guitar, a bass guitar, drumming, humor and flow, these two are arguably the most insightful and funny singer songwriters to play as a duo..."
That's obviously a headline for my buddy and me as a songwriting duo that is "magic together". I'll put that headline on a squeeze page soon, and make an ad for it too. I like how you said make a 30 day goal to create a successful funnel: the day after I read that I basically created all the raw videos for that funnel and now its a matter of throwing it up and testing.
"Fire. Ready. Aim." I googled it and found this Huff Post blog post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....759.html
That's not it is it? I still read it and something she said kinda jumped out: "You constantly want to be testing the smallest possible product you have with as many people as possible and as quickly as possible ... When you start getting the repeatable and scalable response you’re seeking week after week, then maybe it’s time to launch"
also...
“speak to the skepticism before it speaks to you, before others criticize you for it.” He suggested saying something like, “We know there are problems with it, so we need your help to perfect it.” Admit there are flaws and ask for help to find and eliminate them."
Thank you for noting that my link text in those ads was stronger than my real text. That's funny, you're right I was just talking when I wrote that, not really thinking. I guess my brain is the enemy lol. Basically everything you said does makes sense, and I appreciate it. I'll be leaving for the next two and a half days for an out of town gig but I can still grind while I'm there - edit those videos so I can throw them on a blog page, make a funnel and get going with running some ads.
"Going to market is inherently uncomfortable — indeed being an entrepreneur is inherently uncomfortable; you’re stretching yourself. “Successful entrepreneurs need to embrace being in the uncomfortable zone, the unreasonable zone, which is where (stuff) happens, Doering said." -that's the last thing I wanted to share from that "Fire. Ready. Aim" blog post I found.
I like that.
3:36 am
June 7, 2011
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Awesome man. Glad that all connected for you and has inspired a little direction. That is not the blog post. I was referring to this book:
You're exactly right that all you do from the merch table is sales. I try to get that point across all the time. It's all Awareness, interest, desire, action. Just in a more compressed time period. It's why selling at shows works.
Let us know if you make some impact from your new approach.
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.
9:11 pm
February 16, 2014
OfflineHey John,
Thanks for that book link! Yes you are always driving that point home effectively and for me, freaggin just doing it and then refining seems to make the thing you've been saying all along, finally make sense. Things are coming along well, I have one more video to complete for blog number two, after that I'll be doing some quick research on targeting options and I'll then I'll "Fire"!
I am looking forward to sharing results with you here at that point so we can "Aim". BTW just listened back to the coaching call - awesome - I look forward to the next one.
3:29 am
June 7, 2011
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Sounds good man. keep me posted.
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.
2:44 am
February 16, 2014
OfflineHey John, things are sailing along nicely, will post soon with results.
Who are some funny or personable singer songwriters off the top of your head?
I've heard Mason Jennings is kinda funny and quirky, Dave Matthews obviously is because his fans even call his mic gibberish "Davespeak", Demitri Martin is literally a comedian who picks up an acoustic guitar from time to time, even John Mayer has been known to tell a successful joke or two before becoming kind of a douche.
Anyone else you instantly think of in this area?
1:02 am
June 7, 2011
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Glad to hear things are going well. I look forward to hearing more. I guess my mind gets split in two directions. I don't necessarily think of funny and personable as the same thing. So when I think funny I think more about artists like Flight of the Concords, Weird Al, Tenancious D, even artists like Ween and Beck. When I think personable, I think more about likable singer songwriters like Dave Mathews.
Bob Dylan was funny and personable (sort of) when he was really young, but then he turned into more of a hipster dick as he got older.
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.
7:59 pm
February 16, 2014
OfflineHey John, those are great funny songwriter suggestions. And you're right, funny is different than personable, and I love early Dylan for that reason - his personality in the "Don't Look Back" documentary is great.
Here's the "Vlogpost of a Lifetime" video I just finished so you can get the direction of my new sales funnel:
10:58 pm
June 7, 2011
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That's awesome man. I love the vibe. The only thing I might say was that it moved kind of fast through some of the points and based on the video alone, I'm not quote sure what is happening. i walked away thinking... This guy has done some big stuff, seems like a talented and devoted musician, seems really likable and personable, and I think he's got a song called Lies that he wants me to download. The jump cuts were all quite quick as well, which left me a tad anxious.
Others may totally get something different. But that is what I got. But I did really like the vibe and the last thing I want to do is send you back for more edits.
I realize that you will likely be putting this on a page with additional copy and calls to action, so coupled with that, it may all click for me.
But overall, I think you're heading in the right direction and really starting to jump off the page and make an impression.
Anyone else have an impression?
Let us know hoe it goes.
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.
11:47 am
February 16, 2014
OfflineThanks man! Yeah I have a choppy editing style going on that I left in but smoothed out with some more sweeping, slow camera pans in this next edit. I also cleared up (hopefully) the confusion with what to do with that song Lies, by adding a quick middle section displaying some fan comments and then asking them to leave one too. I also threw it up on the blog page and a quick disclaimer: the sales page is not quite done so there's no link to it yet:
12:25 am
June 7, 2011
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Cool. I think it works well in context of the page. But all you can really do is go off of results. At a glance it looks like you've got a TON of engagement. So well done!
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.
9:57 pm
February 16, 2014
OfflineThanks John! But yeah, testing - Fire, Ready, Aim
I tested a Jason Mraz audience and just threw 10 bucks at it just to get my feet wet, and I only got 1 conversion so I shut it off. On the ad that I got the conversion it cost me like 2.79 but from the campaign perspective it was a dud... I think mainly because I threw a video on the page instead of image and copy, but I'll have to test that. So I'll be checking back soon with more results but here's a few up front questions I have
1:10 am
June 7, 2011
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Brian Rogers said
-do i need to run right column ads in a separate ad set from newsfeed ads?
-when should you stop using a campaign and create a brand new one?
-when to optimize for website clicks rather than conversions?
- I think i wanna just test everyday like 10 bucks per day 6 or 7 days per week, would you advise against that and do like 20 a day just Tues- Thurs?
Thanks John!
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.
6:33 pm
February 16, 2014
OfflineGreat answers, thanks again! Here's another little nitpicky thing that I was just wondering about - I don't have the option to delete the link description from my ads.
when I'm making an ad, and I try to leave the link description blank, it just pulls the tagline from my WordPress site - For example my tagline is funky singer-songwriter so it just adds that as the link description even though I don't want it there.
Is this a common problem for people making FB ads, or is it just a glitch in my account?
2:40 am
June 7, 2011
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Hey Brian,
I've never encountered that, and have created a number of ads in the last 7 days or so in which I removed the description. Odd. What browser are you using? Might not be worth the trouble, but if you have video screen capture software I'd be curious to see what you are seeing. Yo could also try emailing Facebook through your ad dashboard.
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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