Remember the prom? Some people had it better than others. I had fun…. but I noticed that some people had a hard time finding that special someone, for a lot of different reasons.

Let’s cut to the chase: in American culture, girls typically have to wait for guys to ask them to the prom. But they can’t just do NOTHING, they have to make themselves attractive. It’s a huge game, and everyone has a slightly different way of playing it.

Girls who are too assertive can be off-putting, and girls who are too shy can seem insecure. Guys who ask in a way that makes it look like they are only thinking about themselves (as in, can I take you to the prom because you’re really hot and I want to get under your sweater) can come off like jerks, and guys who are too nice can seem less than manly.

In marketing, all the same rules apply. The ultimate goal is that someone buys what you are selling. But you can’t hit them over the head. You also can’t wait for them to magically discover you.

You have to get out there and be social to get asked out on a date, and you have to get out there and be social for anyone to even begin to think about trusting you enough to buy something from you. And when they do give you their trust and attention, you have to keep being appealing, otherwise they’ll lose interest.

Just pretend like every customer, or visitor to your website, or fan at your show, is someone you want to not only take to the prom, but someone who you want to take to bed, and you’ll probably get a lot better at being interesting enough to deserve their attention.

–Ernest
teamilluminati.com

This one is from a just a little while back – about three months ago. Shamal Ranasinghe, co-founder of Topspin Media, did a presentation on Managing, Measuring, and Marketing With Data at the MidemNet Academy. He then published the presentation as a blog post on the Topspin blog.

The post highlights some of the features of the Topspin platform, and gives examples of methods to best collect and use data to make extremely targeted marketing decisions.

It blew my mind.

If you are involved in the marketing aspect of the music industry in any way, you need to study this blog post. Make sure you download the slideshow too.

http://www.topspinmedia.com/2010/02/marketing-with-data/

//stinson
www.producernotes.com
www.facebook.com/stnsn
@stsn (Twitter)

In the most brutal sense of the word, a “conversion rate” is the simple measure of success or failure arrived at when you compare 2 things: how many people came to your website, versus how many of them actually bought something. It’s kind of like the prom- if you ask 10 girls to go to the prom, and they all turn you down, you’re probably doing something wrong.

The numbers, even for a moderately successful site, are pretty low- about 3 to 5 percent is good. So what does this mean? Are we all failures?

Does this mean that if you aren’t some greasy used car salesman, you can’t have an online business? Does this mean that artists who just want people to see their stuff can’t survive in a sharky world? Those are the first 2 images I saw in my head when I first learned about this from Harald Anderson, an internet marketing guru, as he was sitting across the table from me at the Sunset Grill in Nashville, TN, at 1 am a few years back.

But Harald led me into a very different way of thinking about it, because he introduced the element of real relationships into the equation. The implications are very simple, and powerful:

Good websites create relationships, which are cultivated over time. The same people will come back, if they are treated like friends, and they will share it with their friends. If it has something that is interesting to them, if they value it for any reason, the relationship will grow.

The girl I went to the prom with was a friend of mine, someone I had known for a while. When I asked her to go to the prom, she said yes immediately because we both really liked each other already. I didn’t just wander up to someone, nervous, excited, and ask them out, like it was some kind of favor to me. A lot of people miss this simple fact- whether it’s business, relationships, music, really just life in general, people ALWAYS choose their friends first.

Everything else follows from that simple principle. Brand awareness is simply a reputation, which is established by friends of friends. Differentiation, or positioning (Coke is #1, Pepsi is #2), is simply who wore that cool shirt, or discovered that new band FIRST, before everyone else knew about it. Ad impressions are simply how often you see somebody. If you see somebody enough times, you might go up to them and say “have I seen you somewhere before?” and a conversation can start, which can lead to a relationship.

It’s pretty simple. Conversion is mental, it’s not some number. And the reason for this is also simple: over the long term, you can never know how many non-customers who have visited your site will eventually buy something from you, maybe something you haven’t even created yet, because you don’t know what they think. Ask any small business owner who has half a brain if they would let someone who didn’t buy something on the spot use their bathroom. If they say no, chances are they have turned away potential future customers.

-Ernest
illuminati enterprises
http://teamilluminati.com

Note: stinson, Radical Notion (independent media), or any of the other properties we own are in no way partnered with Topspin Media or the Berklee College of Music. This blog post is not an official review, as stinson has never had any first-had experience with using the Topspin platform. We in no way receive any compensation for writing this post. In fact, Topspin and the Berklee College of Music don’t even know we’re publishing this.

Truth be told, in many ways I wish Radical Notion (independent media) was Topspin Media. But I know we’ll get there eventually, as many aspects of what Topspin does (along with building on that via our own unique offerings) are what we have our sights set on for developing into over the long term.

In any case, Topspin has partnered with the Berklee College of Music online school to offer a course in direct-to-fan marketing, “Online Music Marketing With Topspin.” This is the second time they have offered this course, the first being a great success.

Direct-to-fan marketing is where the future of the music business is, and if you’ve followed me and what I’ve been constantly preaching for the last few years, you know that I’m a huge advocate of the types of ideas people like Seth Godin, Terry McBride, and Ian Rogers (among many, many others) share.

The Topspin platform is a huge game-changer for all of these things. The internet has changed everything, and Topspin has built the platform that gets you exactly where you need to be to achieve relevancy in this new age. This course is a great opportunity to learn from key idea-sharers at Topspin and Berklee, and to get hands-on experience using the Topspin software (which comes free with the course enrollment).

And if this is the first time you’re hearing about Topspin, here’s a list of artists which are currently using the platform: http://www.topspinmedia.com/for-fans/for-fans-2/ Some key artists being David Byrne/Brian Eno, The Pixies, Arcade Fire, and Metric.

Lastly, I need to disclose something really important: I’ve never had any first hand experience with the Topspin platform. However, through building Radical Notion (independent media) and researching relevant ways of marketing artists as the music industry evolves into the 21st century, I have become familiar enough with Topspin and the principles their leadership subscribes to, to know and trust that-given the opportunity-this tool and course is something which every musician, label exec, artist management team, and music marketing team should be taking advantage of.

Here’s the info on the Topspin Blog: http://www.topspinmedia.com/2010/03/register-for-the-next-music-marketing-with-topspin-course-at-berkleemusic-com/

I’m seriously hoping that I can enroll in this course myself (got a lot on my plate at the moment), so hopefully I’ll see you there!

//stinson (find my other blog here: www.producernotes.com; on Twitter here: @stsn)

Ever heard the expression “Don’t put the cart before the horse!”? Well, it’s time to bring it back out. Right now, there are a lot of bands and musicians who are whipping horses that won’t move. Why can’t they figure it out?

No one told them the secret.

Nobody explained to them that once the music industry actually died, and stopped the whole artist development thing, that they would have to learn how to replace the business end of things themselves, and earn their way in like any other business. No one told them that they are only interesting if they have already done most of the work that labels used to do, somehow, magically, with no money and no infrastructure.

So all these services popped up that allow them to sell their music online. But it’s a spam fest, no one cares. How do you reach through the clutter?

You do something truly remarkable.

You connect with people.

And if you find the right people, if you’re selling hotdogs and you pass over all the vegetarians to find those who eat meat-those who love what you have to offer-they will buy it. And the vegetarians might not buy it but who cares? Some of them will tell their meat eating friends.

This video explains how do to this, but it leaves out the secret sauce: that simple thing that you can do, which no one else can do. That gesture which is worth my attention, someone else’s attention, anyone’s attention. Because once you have people’s attention, once you connect with them, if you are offering something truly remarkable, you can build a business that is remarkable.
Connect with fans first, then give them a reason to buy.

Here’s the video:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090422/0407024607.shtml

After you watch it, I want to hear back from you. What could you, or I, or anyone do that is truly remarkable? What is worth your attention? Drop a comment here, or email me at team@radicalnotion.net.

-Ernest
illuminati enterprises
http://teamilluminati.com

This one was originally posted on Producer Notes, the blog I author about my experiences in record making. I figured since I control all the content on that blog, that I would steal from myself a little bit, and re-publish some of those posts which fit the topic of this blog. I’ve got a few posts from Producer Notes that I think would fit, and plan to bring over. I’ll make sure to point out which posts I’ve lifted in this way.

Actual post starts here:

What if you simply organized a few people? What if you took the remarkable idea you have, and instead of going out with intentions of marketing to the masses, you focused on the extremists-your biggest fans? What if you simply empowered these people to do your marketing for you? If instead of putting all your focus on ways to get new fans, deciding how your fans will be fans, and how to convince more people to buy your music instead of trading it for free, you focused only on the fans who care about you the most? The fans who will buy your music no matter what. The fans whose lifestyle is built around your music-empowering them-giving them control. Giving them everything they need to promote you. What if you gave your biggest fans the privilege to be a leader who organizes others around your music, converting them to the lifestyle?

Why would anyone do this? Why would anyone put forth the effort to organize a group of people around your music without getting paid, or necessarily getting any recognition? Because to them it is a privilege. Just like it’s a privilege for Mac geeks to build a website all about Mac rumors, NIN fans to participate in the band’s online remix community, or for German car enthusiasts to create a message board [Update: this site is apparently under construction since I published my original post] where they can meet and talk about their cars. You and I do this everyday within the communities we’re privileged to be a part of.

One of the communities I’m privileged to be a part of is one that organizes itself around the ideas Seth Godin shares, and as usual Seth himself articulates this idea of “empowering others to spread your message” best. [Seth Godin on the tribes we lead.]

What action can you take in your career in music to position yourself so that your biggest fans are empowered with the privilege of organizing others? What do you think would happen if you gave them this privilege?

//stinson