Marketing tips?
Marketing tips? Posted on: 26.07.2012 by Shakita Salansky Hey DJTT,I am seeking advice of how to market yourself as a DJ. I've done a few local gigs and am starting to get exposure, but I'd like to expand to my downtown area, and just get myself out there. So my question is, how do you market yourself, or how do you get yourself out there as a DJ..? Thanks, SS | |
Emely Metz 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by tokenasianguy
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Darlene Strohbeck 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by Luconia
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Emely Metz 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by dope
Originally Posted by dope
Originally Posted by tokenasianguy
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Darlene Strohbeck 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by dope
IMHO, moving away for a job, is the quickest way to let your job dictate your entire life. I would rather live where I want to live, and try to find a job that supports my lifestyle in that city...Unless of course we're talking about working for a multi-national company that pays you in first world currency and pays for your housing but allows you the freedom to live in an exotic place like south america or somewhere like Thailand... |
Kasi Marget 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by tokenasianguy
Of course, starting somewhere else from scratch requieres alot of work but that's sometime the only way through. |
Darlene Strohbeck 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by dope
I've been amazed at how DJ's have been able to operate in really small towns, and are also able to operate full time. I know of another guy on another board, who lives in a Canadian town of only 11,000 people, and operates a full time DJ business. Also, he doesn't mix...And he plays stuff like "the waltz". For the OP: I've never been to Charleston, or SC for that matter, but maybe there's a niche market you can tap into...That is, if you really want to. There's no shame in playing a bunch of crap you can't stand, just to support your habit of buying DJ Gear. |
Darlene Strohbeck 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by Luconia
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Darlene Strohbeck 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by dope
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Latoria Kavulich 28.07.2012 | show a lot of leg. |
Freida Leash 28.07.2012 | Networking is superior to marketing in cases like yours. There are places downtown, you want to play them, you need to know who to talk to and give them a demo and press kit. This is going to be the bread and butter of your marketing materials, it is going to tie into your online presence, but actually building some sort of relationship with the venue owners or promoters is going to be necessary. Try if possible to speak to them in person, if not remember their names so when they call you can be professional and associate it with their events. I find that marketing attempts all build on each other, the more effort you put in it, the more residual marketing that follows. You know it is working when it is stretching further than your effort, and you are getting contacts that you don't expect. It doesn't happen over evening , it takes time to get momentum so don't get discouraged if you don't see instant results. It took about two years for me to have enough people contacting with out me making calls to support myself as a graphic designer. When it became full time, if it was slow I would target clients that I wanted to work with and send out professional emails, portfolios and getting to know the person that was likely to hire my services, usually indy record labels and people throwing massive events. When it was busy I would work hard at satisfying my clients, so that they were likely to recommend me to someone else and be repeat customers. It is a lot of effort and marketing and your performance go hand in hand, a banging business card doesn't sell unless you perform great too, and top notch work will speak volumes over campaigns. The kits I would send out would wind up getting passed around, often I wouldn't get the work I was seeking, but would get called by someone that got passed my portfolio. It also bodes well when you treat the people that help you get there, when you do start to achieve success with gratitude and continue to work with them when you do start to achieve success, it is going to go up and down and that is your foundation. Marketing is just one aspect of telling people what you do, what you do and the way you do it is the most important. If playing downtown is your goal, put together a demo and press kit, and start to speak to the people that matter. Don't just drop it off, follow up, make friends, attend events. If you aren't a part of the community, it is going to be hard to get your foot in the door. Make your competition like you on some sort of level, so that you are working together instead of against each other, everyone has the same goal and it is easier to get things done together. Community and networking is far more important than marketing as you are able to contribute back and help it perpetuate. Continue to be a part of the community and help the promoters that book you, promoting them promotes you. Flyer events that you are attending, use your social media to make people that already like you aware that you are playing. It is a lot of work, but can be a lot of fun and you are going to meet people doing this that can work with you later. None of it happens over evening , don't get frustrated, keep trying. People that succeed all have one thing in common, they didn't quit. |
Emely Metz 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by tokenasianguy
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Darlene Strohbeck 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by Luconia
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Emely Metz 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by dope
Originally Posted by dope
Originally Posted by tokenasianguy
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Darlene Strohbeck 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by dope
IMHO, moving away for a job, is the quickest way to let your job dictate your entire life. I would rather live where I want to live, and try to find a job that supports my lifestyle in that city...Unless of course we're talking about working for a multi-national company that pays you in first world currency and pays for your housing but allows you the freedom to live in an exotic place like south america or somewhere like Thailand... |
Kasi Marget 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by tokenasianguy
Of course, starting somewhere else from scratch requieres alot of work but that's sometime the only way through. |
Darlene Strohbeck 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by dope
I've been amazed at how DJ's have been able to operate in really small towns, and are also able to operate full time. I know of another guy on another board, who lives in a Canadian town of only 11,000 people, and operates a full time DJ business. Also, he doesn't mix...And he plays stuff like "the waltz". For the OP: I've never been to Charleston, or SC for that matter, but maybe there's a niche market you can tap into...That is, if you really want to. There's no shame in playing a bunch of crap you can't stand, just to support your habit of buying DJ Gear. |
Darlene Strohbeck 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by Luconia
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Kasi Marget 27.07.2012 | Did I say give up DJing ? We misunderstood, I mean move, live in another town where you'll be able to find sucess. It's a really important decision, but for your DJ career, you got to do what you got to do. |
Darlene Strohbeck 27.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by dope
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Emely Metz 27.07.2012 | now this:
Originally Posted by dope
it's like there's tons of guitarist who never make their way into a band & actually performing for a crowd apart from the odd jam sessions in their house with friends & family ... |
Noriko Lebowitz 27.07.2012 | dopety dope dope. |
Kasi Marget 27.07.2012 | @ tokenasianguy : Another marketing guy is in the house ahah. It looks you've been doing this longer than me, I totally forgot to mention the part about feedback. A last point we seem to have forgot is to use both "traditional" marketing and something I've been taught to call "direct marketing". Dafuq is that ? It's the concept to adapt your action to the person you're communicating with. I've already talked a bit about that with stickers and stuff in my previous post, and tokenasianguy kinda approached the topic when he wrote about the discussion he had with a women. But when I believe direct marketing, I believe deeper than just adapting the media. I mean, adapting every flyer to the person you give it to. Adapting the demo CD with a personal note. Adapting your messages on facebook... Of course, you can't waste time doing that for everyone, so you have to choose your preys wisely. But trust me, a truely personnal message, even as small as a name on a flyer or a jingle dropped at the very beginning of your promo mix, is really effective. It's quite paradoxical because in the end you DJ for a crowd, a gathering of people, but promoting yourself to them, to the promoters, the club owners etc. , one by one, gives you something special, an edge over the competition. That's pretty much it, unless I believe about a point we missed, and then I'll write another novel here. As tokenasianguy, I'd glad to help if you have any question. |
Darlene Strohbeck 27.07.2012 | Dope posted some really good info. I would say secondary to all that, analysis and observation are also important. It's pointless to keep spending money on flyers and business cards unless you know that they're working for you. There are things you can do to track that, like using a different phone number for specific flyers, this might be costly, but if you have both a home phone, and a cell, you might be able to to find a way to make it work. A simpler solution is to use free web-based email addresses. One IMPORTANT factor in ANY marketing is setting objectives and being able to measure against those objectives...Because you don't know if you've reached your goal unless you can track it. One of the habits of highly effective people is "goal-setting"? Is your goal to get more gigs, to get more inquiries, or just get people talking about you? Getting gigs or inquiries are easily tracked, but getting people talking is not. I would say a website is KEY. In this day and age nothing is achieved without a website. If you give out a card or a flyer, where is it going to direct them to? Your website. Where can you market yourself? Anywhere. I've been surprised at the ways I've found to market myself since I've been out of work. I do mobile DJ'ing so maybe it's different for you. The other day I had to get my cell phone serviced, while I was at the store, the girl who was helping me had an engagement ring, so I asked "are you engaged?" And we started talking...I told her I was a DJ, and that I'm married (just in case she thought I was a creeper), she gave me her email and I sent her my pitch. Facebook has also implemented a sort of milestone status feature, where not only do you get updated on peoples birthdays, but on their engagements and marriages. One of the KEYS of any business is innovation. Your marketing efforts are always going to change and need to be progressive in following new technologies and new mediums. I once got a DJ gig from trolling twitter doing a search for "Looking for DJ" or "Need a DJ". It was a Charity gig which I offered to do for free, because they paid for a sound system, but one of the women who organized that event was an experienced corporate event planner who booked me for a corporate gig and paid me $900 for it a year later. So don't be afraid to do a free gig, especially if you get publicity for it (logo on their site, flyer, etc. or a high profile client like the telecom I DJ'd for earlier this year). If you have a site, search engine optimization is HUGE! There are ways to organically gain traction to your site like frequently updating content, making sure your headers and content contain popular search results, keyword strategy, etc. I've done a lot of reading on this and spent 7 years in corporate marketing. I love talking about any and all things marketing related so feel free to PM me anytime if you have questions or even if you want to shoot the shit. |
Emely Metz 27.07.2012 | Wow Dope, i should use your essay for my decision making topic paper next time :P |
Kasi Marget 26.07.2012 | Ahah, I gotta talk to tekki or another administrator to get that nickname changed, it's really cheesy/weird. |
Noriko Lebowitz 26.07.2012 |
Originally Posted by botstein
1. I was a Trouble maker and now... 2. Dope. LOL never mind didn't even realize the person who posted that's name is dope |
Ervin Calvery 26.07.2012 | DAMN. That is quite a post, dope. |
Kasi Marget 26.07.2012 | Ok, you got me started, here we go. INTRODUCTION "Marketing" is pretty vague itself. I studied it for a bit and I'm a DJ aswell so I'll try to give advice even though I didn't apply the following advice to my own case, since I don't DJ for a living and I don't really care about it at the moment. Furthermore, if I remember well, a good article has been published here on the DJTT blog "recently", or at least during the last year about "maketing yourself". Anyway, it seems i found motivation for a giant wall of text, let's go. PART 1 : Who are you ? Who do you need to be ? First of all, your strategy will depend on what kind of DJ you want to be : 1) Spinning what pays your bills/what you are asked 2) Be yourself, spinning music you love. You might not be falling under any of the categories and just be a mix of both (you need to eat but you don't want to spin rihanna either), but it's up to you do define yourself and adapt my advice to your personnal case. So that it's clear, i'll devide my advice in 2 parts, one for each "style". Of course, some tips will be redundants from one case to the other, but that only makes it even more important to follow. • CASE 1 Spinning what pays your bills/what you are asked to I'd say it's the "easy" side. In the marketing process, you have to define your target. Since your goal as "style 1" is to make money, choose the biggest category of people/the one that pays the most as a group. Where can you find them ? The biggest/most popular evening club around, populated with people described above. The biggest/most popular local radio ? Of course listened by the people described above. Now you know where to go. Now we go to another step of the marketing process, the needs. What do these people need ? In terms of : - music : Genres ? Artists ? Pitbull, Rihanna, Avicii, Calvin Harris ? Or maybe something more specific (i.e. Berlin's love for techno, playing some Ritchie Hawtin should be better, etc..) - style : dressing (hoodie, shirt ?), type of mixing (nice mixing needed ? or just slam the fader ? will you use the mic to yell "YOLO" ?), style on the scene (show off ? be discrete ?) Now that you've answered these questions, you know what you need to become. This may be an unpleasant and long process, it's the one that should give you really good results. If you fall down in the second category, here we go : • CASE 2 Spinning music you love While in the first case we had to define who you needed to be, and who you should focus on, here you just have to find out who you are, and see if it fits your environnement. It's a pretty delicate process, and i'll just try to help with bunch of question you should ask yourself. What kind of music do you enjoy ? What are the clubs/bars around you like the most ? Are there any ? What are your friends like ? What's a good evening for you ? Getting super high ? Super drunk ? Dancing ? All the 3 ? Chilling ? Are you shy ? Does your personnality fits your taste in music ? Now that you know a bit more about you, do you HONESTLY believe there's a place for you around ? And here you really have to be honest with you, it will save you time, money, because I really doubt you can change the evening life in your area on your own. Or at least if you believe you can, I can't really give you advice on that. If you believe you can do something, go on to part 2. If you don't believe your area is a good place for your style, I'd say give up and move on. It's a bit harsh, but you wouldn't try to sell beef to an Indian or pork to a Jew or Muslim would you ? It's exactly the same here. PART 2 : Getting known Ok now that you figured out who you were, or who you need to be, how do you manage to be known ? I'm brainstorming as I write this, so don't take seriously the order in which I write the key elements. And btw, it's late at evening (6:00 AM) so I might forget some points. Business cards/stickers Depending on your target, you need business cards and/or stickers. People LOVE stickers, especially if they are under the age of 30. Don't go for a big and shiny sticker first, you need people to use them somewhere, so it must be stylish and discrete at the same time. Demo CDs. Record nice mixes and burn them on CDs. You should give a TON of them. To "party people" and to professionals like promoters and club owners. If I were you I'd do different CDs. 1h mix for professionals, 30 mins mix for people. And remember that the mix should cover your whole style (or the style you decided to adopt above). The intro HAS to be SUPER catchy, otherwise people will skip. The cover aswell needs to be catchy, and in relation with your style, again. Your name and contact method should be clearly on it. I'd go for a more professional look for the demos to professionals, whereas you can go fancier with the demos you give to people. But where do I find these people ? Club and bar owners : go to the places during the day, ask for the manager (no you don't want to deal with the the first person around, you need the owner, or if the place is really big, the guy in charge of hiring the DJs) Random people : At parties, outside the clubs and bars at peak hours (beginning and end of the evening ). You can also find these people on the internet, and use the same method : professional, well written emails for "executives" and "social" spamming for consumers. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, Mixlr, Soundcloud, Mixcloud.. you have to be everywhere on the web. Step out Depending on where you're from, there might be some competition with the other DJs around. You have to be different. Why would the promoter choose you over another dude ? If you can't differentiate DJs with the music (if you are a Case 1 DJ for example), you have do to something more. And you better be creative. Let's illustrate this with a real example : DJ BLEND. I don't know if you've heard of this guy. It's only my opinion but I believe the music he spins is crap, his name is uber crap, and his videos are super crap aswell. Still, dancing like a weirdo with a bizarre mask on made him "successful" in a way. He has millions of view, probably makes alot of money thanks to DJing, loads of people know him, he has bitches dancing next to him in his bedroom filled with CDJ 2000... He gave people something different, and for some it was "fun". Now, he made it. I don't expect you, reader, to become BLEND 2.0, but at least bring something unique to the game, that should land some gigs. Not to mention people will remember you, so it's good for your "professional" image as much as it is for your "public" image. And don't forget that they may not be related for the moment, but in a near future, your image as a DJ for the crowd will have an impact on you getting gigs or not, because DJing or not, passion for music or not, at the end of the day it's about money and how many people are willing on a saturday evening , with a girlfriend/boyfriend in the couch with some pop corn and a nice DVD, to leave they houses, to pay to go to a busy place with overpriced drinks to see YOU play. CONCLUSION I'm not going to hide it any longer, I'm tired and this post had to come to an end. As I said in the introduction, marketing is vague, and when I scroll through my post it's vague aswell. No advice on what-font-to-choose-for-your-super-business-card here, because first of all I don't have a single clue, and also because I though giving you directions and overall ideas to follow was a good starting point before going in depth into specific points. I really suggest you look for the DJTT blog post about marketing (i'm 90% sure one has been made on this topic), and another great idea is to read "DJing for dummies" . This is a really nice book full of tips, and between 2 technical/music related chapters, there is good advice on promoting and marketing yourself. I hope this wall of text was readable and useful. I'm going to bed. |
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