5 Steps For Marketing And Promoting Your Next Record Release

Releasing a record is always a monumental moment in your career. It’s so much more than just the blood, sweat and tears you put into making it — it’s also your big reveal — you stepping out on the ledge for everyone to see, to judge, to comment on. For better or for worse, your record is about you putting yourself out there – a brave and hopefully liberating step.

With all of the knowledge out there about brand building and social media at your disposal, why is it that most artists still just put their record up on iTunes, do a little Tweeting + Instagraming, but can’t get their record to go viral? After all of the effort to making an earth-shaking record not knowing how to make all that hard work pay off?

Fortunately, you won’t have to ask yourself that question anymore if you follow the 5-step Framework outlined below. This is, of course, only a small smattering of the whole enchilada, but these five should get you out of the gate and on your way to being a real indie contender.

You can find out about all ten in my Fast Forward to Fame program where I teach you to be your own Music Mogul (comes with my “Non-Passive Music Marketing & PR Plan”), but this is the way to ramp it up until then (January 2013 is the next run of the program).

The 5 Steps for Marketing and Promoting Your Next Record Release (and making a splash in the marketplace!)

1. Catch — Build Your Brand Before Your Record Comes Out: Just because your record isn’t out yet doesn’t mean it isn’t time to market. Artists with successful releases know they have to build brand awareness online far before the record is out. I recommend beginning this process at least six months before your release date. How? Start with webisodes that talk about & show the making of the record. Build your List (email list).
2. Capture — Make A Record Release Schedule: This is the backbone on which your marketing plan + your to do list rests. Start with your release date and reverse engineer (go backwards to chart out what has to be done). Map out each and every milestone along the way and then plug in every single to do. Then assign a due date to every task on the list. Include webisodes, social media marketing, newsletter + blog schedule (schedule in your writing time), YouTube uploads, website revisions, photo shoots, recording-mixing-mastering schedule, rehearsals, gigs, CD release party, tour, radio shows, publicity + press releases, advertising (FB Ads) etc. Make a master document with all the boxes you’ll need to check off along the way.
3. Carve — Shout Out Your Message: Pick 3-4 core messages and make them a part of your posts and brand building. Good places to start would be: the message of your songs (saving the polar bears, being a goddess, peace-love + hippie flower madness); your genre (what do you sound like – describe it); your target audience (speak to them specifically); your unique features as an artist (are you a poet? a recluse? a party animal? etc. Once you are CLEAR on your message, then comes the task of getting it out there. It’s important to continuously reiterate it even if you feel like a broken record. Remember, the message is new to each person that finds you, and staying consistent is how you grow your brand. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.
4. Connect — Make A Plan: Now, with your marketing schedule + message, create an overall larger plan. If you are in Austin and want to drive to L.A., you get a map and plan out your trip. So you want to release a record and reach X amount of people and make X amount of dollars. You need a plan to make that happen. I.e.: How many people do you want to reach? (Be enthusiastic, and somewhat unrealistic – but don’t go overboard.) Look at where you are now and what the next step up is. If you only have 100 fans on your list (and that means your email list not Reverb Nation – more about that in the Fast Forward to Fame Program & Blueprint) — then your next step would be to reach 1000. If you have 4000, your next step is to reach 10,000. Putting a number to your goal is planning. Then create action steps to reach that goal (touring, social media marketing, radio shows, FB Ads) – make a reality.
5. Continuity — Execute: Once your Marketing Road Map + your Plan is all set, you have to follow it to a T. If you miss an important date, it’ll set back ALL your efforts and thereby weaken your record release. Live the Calendar and be committed to your own success – or no one else will be.

What are your experiences with releasing a record? Did you have a marketing plan? What worked? What didn’t? Let’s get the convo rolling in the comments below.

©2012 Cari Cole, Vocal Mag, Inc. All Rights Reserved.