Not Myself Anymore released Sept. 13, 2011

I’ve learned a lot about marketing strategy by following the launch of music artist Jessa Anderson’s new CD, Not Myself Anymore. Mostly what I’ve learned is that every market requires unique tactics that cannot be ignored.

Let me start by disclosing that Jessa is my daughter and has been a performing artist for about four years. Thus, I’ve had a front-row seat to the marketing and PR efforts used to launch her career and CDs. I even helped provide some marketing assistance early on. It pains me to admit that I achieved only modest success. Here’s why:

*I focused on traditional PR news releases. I wrote press releases and sent them to regional newspapers where Jessa would be playing or had a connection. While a few of these were published, the effort was largely ignored and produced few results. Newspapers, for the most part, were the wrong platform to promote a new artist.

*I sent promotional emails to selected radio stations. From what I can tell, these were treated like SPAM and also ignored. While radio stations were the right platform, email PR was the wrong tactic.

*I helped create traditional press kits. These were successful when we sent them in response to an inquiry, but were largely unsuccessful when used in any type of cold calling/prospecting.

Bottom line is that my traditional marketing/PR largely fell short. Jessa and her husband Jordan succeeded anyway, thank goodness, but it was attributable to their talent and personal relationships, not old style marketing. The early marketing that did work well was their own use of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (early, not so much now), fan email, blogs, and Websites.

Fast forward to 2011. After Jessa was signed by record label BEC Recordings, I saw an entirely new marketing dynamic. As insiders, the BEC marketing team used tactics that clicked within the music field. For one, they released and promoted one song at a time and made those focal points in their marketing. They created “song release events” that met the needs of the radio industry. Then they peppered radio stations with emails, phone calls, and interview requests.

BEC also focused on timing. They looked closely at release dates of similar artists and seasonal radio trends and timed Jessa’s song and CD releases to maximize potential pick up/air play. Specifically, they released the song Fireflies a month before releasing the new CD, thus doubling marketing buzz.  They then targeted radio station hosts by bundling convenient interview tours, both in person and by phone, for each release.

In addition, BEC created strong CD and artist “packaging” and partnered with a national radio broadcaster for the CD release. Overall, they leveraged their relationships and savvy marketing insights to provide what radio stations want.

Watching all this unfold has been illuminating. Here are my lessons learned:
*Make sure you use marketing strategies that are highly valued by your targets. Every market is unique. Don’t rely on past successful tactics as they may completely miss the mark.
*Timing is essential. Look at seasonality and competitive marketing. Get to know your targets’ schedules and time your marketing content to fill any voids.
*Create convenience for your targets. Supply marketing content that makes the job of the recipient easier, faster, simpler or more effective. You will become a valued source and your future marketing efforts will be given higher priority.