How do you grow your fanbase and have a large audience that’s ready to spend and go miles for you?
In an industry where you have everyone paying attention to FC, Tatibiji, Outsiders, MAVINS, YBNL and other big names, the struggle to make oneself heard and also have a strong fanbase can be very frustrating. One remains within the shadows tagging and begging to make oneself heard, praying and crying to be signed by a big label or have a hit feature like Bella Shmurda. But Baba never pick up, hustle non-stop. This is the story of every upcoming and independent artist like me.
Let me take you through a journey of what works for a few mentors in the industry.
If you’re observant, you’ll find out that it’s now easier than ever to reach many more people with way less cost through the internet, if and only if you know how to position yourself around it. It’s easier to go viral now, it’s a matter of posting the right content on the right platform, and to this right audience. This is why we talk about Content Marketing in this article and how you can use it to grow your fanbase, get stans and ultimately have a successful music career.
What is Content Marketing?
Don’t be scared, it’s not rocket-science or further maths. It’s not even as hard as Nigeria is right now.
Content Marketing isn’t anything new. As you’ll find out in this article, you’ve probably been using elements of content marketing already. This only helps you with upscaling and perfecting your strategy.
Information marketing is also content marketing. It’s a marketing strategy that involves taking your audience through a journey by sharing value for free for a specific end-goal— which almost always is sales.
Sho get?
To build a sustainable music career, you need a few hundred stans. Getting those few stans who play a huge role in pivoting your career can feel almost impossible when you’re just starting. And you know without a doubt that the number of artists in the music industry is right now at an OPG level, e plenty and it’s perpetually on the increase. This makes it increasingly hard to stand out and put your music in front of the right audience. As in e choke die.
Content Marketing is a strategic approach that allows you as an artist to use valuable and interesting contents to attract and retain an audience and ultimately create emotionally attached fans (stans like FC and tatibiji) who are ready to throw their money at you and put in supportive words for you, anytime & anywhere.
Ọmọoo. Interesting, innit?
The next question you might want to ask is…
Why Should I Adopt Content Marketing?
Simple. Because people don’t like you to force things on them. And you don’t like to waste the money you don’t have too.
Unlike traditional music promotions and marketing which thrives on a tedious, cost-consuming push tactic, content marketing with the help of the internet, allows you to effectively and genuinely pull in your target audience, grow a powerful fanbase and cost-effectively promote your music. Content Marketing allows you to make your fans emotionally invested in whatever you have. It helps build trust and genuine relationships between artists and fans.
Think of it this way. You find someone you love. How do you make them attracted to you and choose you every time? Simple. You speak their love language. You buy them gifts. Make them feel important by asking for their opinions. Share your burdens and happiness with them. Compliment them genuinely. That’s what content marketing is. You speak your audience’s love language. You make them feel important. Share your story with them. Make them part of the process and watch them choose you over and over again.
Fans know when they’re being taken for granted, hyped or exploited. They want to know you’re listening to them. They want to be informed and not marketed to. They also want to be treated with respect. So, if you don’t put in the time and work to build real connections and genuine relationships with your fans, you run the risk of having an unsuccessful career. Content Marketing puts you at the top of fans’ minds. It gives you more reach and creates a long-term impression that can translate into more streams and more sales for you.
Marketing is telling the world you’re a rockstar. Content Marketing is showing the world’s you’re one”—Robert Rose
So you wanna ask…
How Do I Practice Content Marketing?
This brings us to the hack.
To grow your fanbase you need to communicate with them. Thankfully, content marketing is about communication. Strategically exploring different communication platforms helps you strengthen your fan base. These platforms can include Social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, Triller), Email, Blog or YouTube: depending on how consistently and efficiently you think you can manage the platforms to engage your fans, not just using the platforms at random.
Before you begin to use these platforms there three things you need to know:
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Know Your Brand:
This means identifying your tone, your story, everything that makes up your artistry and your uniqueness. This helps you create & maintain a persona online & offline that you want your audience to keep thinking about. You’ll find out that the A-listers in the industry have a brand persona that is built on familiarity, likeability and similarity. The reason why the street likes Olamide, Zlatan, Naira Marley is because they built a persona that reps the street.
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Know Your Audience:
Knowing who you want to communicate with is as important as the communication itself. Knowing your fans, their age, where they hang out, their likes and dislikes help you speak their language, make better decisions on where to reach them and build better relationships with them. Don’t speak PH pidgin when you’re targeting people at Lekki.
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Know Your Goals:
Okay. Now you have their attention, what do you want to use it for? Cook beans or fry plantain? Although, content marketing is a long-term attention retainer, knowing what you want to use the attention for is important. To build a tribe that buys your music? Stans that buy your merch? Attend your tours?
It becomes easy to communicate and efficiently expand your fanbase when you know these things.
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