The Final Four Key Steps to Creating a Killer Internet Marketing Strategy
Certified Internet marketer and music business blogger Ronald Grant returns this week for the conclusion of his Internet marketing strategy series for new and growing entrepreneurs.
He covered the first four steps in Part 2 last week. Have you been taking notes so far? If not, be sure to read Part 1 and Part 2 to find out what you missed.
Community is more vital than ever…build it as best you can!
Social networking has infiltrated just about everything we do, and in terms of the music and entertainment industries, it’s probably one of the greatest phenomena to happen in a long time (if not the greatest.)
Why?
It creates a community: a space where people with common tastes can get together and go to town. As an Internet marketer or promoter, you’ve got to be able to use this to your best advantage. Creating a sense of community with music is a long-standing ideal, but it’s been magnified now that we have so many tools for Internet marketing and social networking.
Fans can become closer to the artists they look up to, as well as becoming engaged with them on a level not seen before.
So creating that sense of community must be included in your online promo practices. You can:
- Create viral videos and encourage people to share and comment.
- Tweet back and forth with fans regularly.
- Form localized teams of followers for your artists and events through Meetup.com, for example.
- Create your own social network through Ning or SocialGO.
- Heck, start a hangout on Google+.
The bottom line? Involve and BE involved! You can gain clout if you do it and do it right.
Be willing to do things you may not want to do, or don’t think you should have to do.
Effective Internet marketing, and promotion period, isn’t about you. It’s about your customers, fans, followers, or family. It’s about spreading the word about something in the best and easiest way possible for these folks to get the information they want and need.
Unfortunately, that’s something easily forgotten when you’re in the throws of creating and executing your strategy. That means you have to do things that you may not be comfortable doing, at first, but get used to it.
Haven’t used a certain kind of platform or device before? Get over it. Not familiar with how, for example, the Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 works? Too bad. Not an expert at using software like Final Cut Pro, BeeDocs, Maya, Sibelius, Garageband and others? Learn them if your audience demands that expertise.
Again: it’s not about you. It’s about presenting what you have in the best, most professional and polished light possible, and giving it to your supporters without hesitation. After all, that’s what they’re expecting, anyway.
Always stay informed!
No excuses here. Again, information is at your fingertips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year in just about any form you can think of.
Now more than ever, education doesn’t just happen in the classroom, it happens on the job, in the creative process, on the street, with the boss AND at home on your own free time.
Know this and take full advantage by taking classes, attending seminars, learning software, reading magazines and books, subscribing to newsletters, traveling, networking, having mentors, and keeping a positive and open mind.
Don’t just read about it, DO IT.
As with any subject, there’s tons of information on creating the right Internet marketing strategy, and it will be your job to wade through that information to begin with if you want to accomplish this goal, be they books, websites, blogs, or podcasts, you have to be informed.
Some resources I would recommend to begin with include the books Marketing in the Moment by Michael Tasner and Guerilla Social Media Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson and Shane Gibson.
But keep going! Any great and useful information you receive you will eventually have to put into action. Did you find a useful technique for getting people to view your podcasts? Then learn and use it.
Did you come across a tool that will increase traffic to your website? Then use it.
Is there a new type of software that will make it easier to make effective web content? Learn about it and use it.
Remember: knowledge is NOT power. The effective application of the knowledge that you receive is.
In the End
In the end, nothing here is guaranteed. These are pointers for you to put into action to create a better promotional space for yourself on the continuously evolving Internet.
Things are only going to get more complex, so you have to use whatever tools you have at your disposal to create and build a powerful, engaging, sustainable and long-standing message.
I hope this information (Parts 1, 2, and this article) will get you started and have you well on your way to succeeding.
Your homework: revisit your Internet marketing strategy. Does it include any of the things I mentioned here or in Part 2? If not, get on it and let me know the results in a comment below.
All the best!
About the Author: Certified Internet marketer, freelance writer, and blogger Ronald Grant lives and breathes the music industry, practicing the Internet marketing principles he preaches with his three blogs: Muzik Issues Today (Blogger), The Music Business Revisionist (WordPress), and Greezy the Great! (Tumblr). You can also find his contributed articles in online Hip Hop magazine HipHopDX.com. Follow him for the latest music industry news on Twitter at @RonGreezy. Flickr image by Lumaxart.
