Among the many blogs I visit on a daily basis, John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing (see my links) is one of my favorites. I’ve quoted him multiple times because I find his advice to small business owners to be perfect for musicians because, well, you’re a small business owner.
Guy Kawasaki (another terrific author and business expert) asked John for a summary of his methods that you should print off and keep with your business plans and ideas (you do have a business plan, right?). Here’s a quick overview with some “musician” tweeks of my own:
- Narrow the market focus
You can’t be everything to everyone. Know what you are and for who.
- Differentiate
- Think about strategy first
This is about focus. You now know what you are and for who, and you know it’s different enough to cut through the clutter. Your strategy is how you will communicate that at all times.
- Create information that educates
- Package the experience
These last two go together (read the post) to form a consistent experience that you provide for each and every person you interact with – whether in person, online, on stage, in recordings/videos, etc., etc.
- Generate leads from many points
Use EVERYTHING you can to get in front of as many folks as you appropriate.
- Nurture leads along the logical buying path
First, make sure you’re presence is felt at the beginning of each buying path and then nurture the leads. In other words, people who might be interested in what you do look for what they want in certain ways and in certain places (again, read the post), make sure they find you.
- Measure everything that matters
I suggest the lesson to learn here is to make sure you don’t keep doing things that aren’t working. This means you must determine why you’re doing things, what will make them a success and then keep track of whether they work or not. If they work, keep doing them. If not, stop and do something else.
- Automate for leverage
Perhaps this is a bit of a stretch for some music endeavors, but this is about finding ways to NOT work on your career 24/7. Use tools, people, whatever to keep a good balance.
- Commit
Building a career is about momentum and momentum comes from doing the right things over and over and over again.
Those are my thoughts, but be sure to read the whole post (did I say that enough?).
