By: Bruce Wawrzyniak
With baseball season comes the inevitable references to “Field
of Dreams” and probably the best-known line from that film, despite it now
being 31 years old. (Yes, really. Look it up!)
Without a doubt you’ll read or hear, “Build it and they will come.” Turn it into a little game, to see how long it
takes for that dialogue to come up once the Major League Baseball season begins.
In the world that creators live in – musicians, podcasters,
authors, and more – there is actually a bad spin that can be put on that,
though.
Recording artists nowadays are seen prior to the release of a
single, EP, or full album telling followers to “pre-save on Spotify.” Podcasters launch an episode of their show
and push to get potential listeners scurrying to iTunes to subscribe and
listen. Authors celebrate their work
going up on Amazon and wait nervously for interested readers to make their
purchase (and, like podcasters, leave a review).
The above are all logical – and expected – scenarios. But if that’s ALL you do, your scalp will
bleed from scratching your head wondering why more people aren’t consuming what
you’ve put out there.
The good news is, this list of 20-plus ways that you can
promote (your music, your podcast, your book) can overwhelmingly be done alone
and with little to no cost! So, rather
than sit back and say, “Okay, my new release is on Spotify or my podcast is now
on iTunes or my book is on Amazon,” promote the little minnow rather than
sitting back and waiting for people to find it swimming in the ocean-sized
inventory of content on those platforms.
Remember that as easy as it is to
hire me to be your publicist and do the promotion for you, up until then, when you’re on your own,
if you don’t promote, who else will?
As you read through the following list and decide that a
couple of these might seem elementary, do a self-audit. It might seem obvious, but are you doing it?
1.
Get media
interviews. Be sure to have a hook,
though. Just being a recording artist, podcaster,
author, etc. and having what you think is good music, a good show, or a good
book, merely puts you in line with the other creators who are contributing to
that huge body of metaphoric water referenced above. Seek out TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, and
online media outlets and give the host and/or producer a reason why they should
interview you (and not the other recording artists, podcasters, or authors).
2.
Post
media coverage on your website AND on YouTube. I devote an entire section of this website to
showcase
where I’ve been interviewed.
By
posting media coverage on your site, it shows others who are considering
interviewing you that you have the experience on the guest side of the mic and
that others have found you to be of interest to their audience.
Posting on YouTube gets you on the second
largest search engine in the world, and thus a chance to be found by folks who
might otherwise not come across you and your show.
Take the audio from radio and podcast interviews
and set them to still photos that will create video that will keep the viewer
interested: your photo, your EP/album artwork OR your podcast logo OR your book
cover, plus, the interviewer’s photo, their show or station’s logo.
Here’s a sample of one that I just did last
week for a client where you can see how even though it was audio only, I used
enough images and changed them regularly as the video went along, so as to hold
people’s interest rather than stop and click away because it was just one
static image throughout the entire interview.
3.
Have a
business card just for your music/podcast/author career. Giving someone the business card for your day
job and expecting them to remember that you do music or have a podcast or are
an author – not to mention them committing to memory what your new album or weekly
podcast or latest book is called – is not only asking a lot, but it’s a missed
(branding) opportunity. At the least
have a website address on there, but consider having your name, number, and
email address as well. I have a business
card specifically for my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast that’s
printed on both sides! No one in
possession of one of those will wonder what the show is about or where/how to
find it.
4.
Apparel. Just like you see me with my company logo on
my shirt in the accompanying photo, whether it’s a hat or a shirt or both, be a
walking billboard for your music or podcast or books. Initially you will find these to be more
useful PR-wise than for merchandise sales, but don’t wear non-branded apparel to
an event where you can market your content.
I recommend putting at least your website on the back too, so that
people seated behind you will be more inclined to look it up than if your shirt
was blank on the back. (Tip: Sit up
front so that more people will be behind you seeing that web address.)
5.
Email
signature.
I had someone approach me
after a speaking engagement and thank me for bringing this one up because although
it’s obvious, they did the self-audit and realized they hadn’t implemented
such.
Mine is loaded, to include all of
the following: website address, text links to five social media platforms, and
text links to five platforms where “
Now Hear This Entertainment” can be
heard.
If you don’t think this is
valuable real estate, consider your chances of someone looking you up further
if it’s blank down there (other than, “Sincerely, John Doe”).
All it takes is ONE entry there that really
catches someone’s eye, and boom, off they go to check you out on Instagram,
Spotify, whatever.
(I invite you to
email me personally so I can write you back in order for you to see the layout/design
of what I just described and how simple it is to set up yourself.)
6.
E-newsletter. Mine goes out once a week – on the day that
my podcast comes out. That’s it. I’m not spamming people, nor am I suggesting
you need to do so. Remember, you have
total control over the content, the length, and the frequency. Many services will even let you use their
platform for free until you have a certain number of contacts in your database.
So, you get access to professional
templates so that what you send out looks good.
Again, steal my ideas. Sign up
for mine (see the newsletter sign-up box on this page) and study what I do (or
don’t do) and what you like (or don’t like) that you want to apply for
yours. Regardless of how you send yours
out, just do something. In this day and
age of our email inboxes being on the receiving end of newsletters from others,
make sure you are active as a sender too.
7.
Public
speaking.
I have spoken at music
industry events, put on workshops, been a speaker at a content marketing
summit, talked to e-marketing groups, and, of course, been featured at
podcasting events.
Heck, I have an
entirely separate website devoted just to all the speaking that I do.
But whether you’re talking to a Rotary Club,
speaking at a corporate event, or, yes, featured in front of fellow podcasters,
musicians, or authors, you should master the art of weaving your new
song/EP/album (or podcast or book) into your talk.
Respect what the organizer has requested and
stay on topic, but, find a way to reference your music/podcast/book here or
there, but then also be a promoter as you’re meeting attendees before and after
your talk.
(Bonus: The events that allow
you to sit and have dinner with attendees beforehand really provide for some
great self-promotion time.)
8.
Promotional
items.
Be specific to your subject
matter, however.
I give people a small
container (pictured) that has earbuds in it.
On the outside of the case is my podcast logo and website address.
This makes sense because “
Now Hear ThisEntertainment” is a podcast featuring interviews with guests who are having
success in entertainment – primarily music.
Listeners need earbuds to listen to music and podcasts!
Thus, it’s a logical item for me to pass
out.
However, if you are a CPA and you
give me a koozy, how does that make me think of your business?
If you host a podcast for DIY home repair
enthusiasts and you give me a small screwdriver with your podcast website URL
on it, that’s clever and totally appropriate.
If you gave me a drink coaster, however, I wouldn’t make the connection.
(Stop giving out all the damn pens too.
I get annoyed when I open my desk drawer
because of all the pens that fall all over.)
One of my author clients puts a feather inside a random page (think
bookmark) because her book is about her seventh-great-grandmother, who was an
important Native American woman in history.
See the logic there?
9.
Social
media.
Yes, I waited this far into
the list on purpose.
It goes without
saying that you should be promoting on social media (
maybe spending money
on Facebook ads), but not
just on
social media.
That being said, I highly
encourage you to have one account dedicated solely to your podcast, author
career, etc.
This is what I do with
Instagram.
Yes, you’ll see posts on
Facebook,
Twitter, and
LinkedIn about my podcast, but I put other posts related to my company
on those platforms too (i.e., every Monday the post is about the blog for that
week).
However,
seven days a week onInstagram I am posting to an account dedicated solely to my podcast.
How do I manage to find something for every
day of the week?
Sometimes I go to a
show notes page from a past episode, pull out a great quote from that guest,
create an image for it on canva.com, and voila, I have an Instagram post.
Go Follow it to steal ideas from me on what else
substantiates posting every day of the week.
10.
Award
nominations. These expose your music,
your podcast, your book to not only the other nominees but to voters and
readers who scan the list to see what artists, podcasts, authors/books are
competing for a certain award. Before
you know it, they’re checking you out to hear why your show, music, or book is
a contender. AND, this speaks to #9
above because it’s something to post about on social media other than the
obvious.
11.
Provide a
road map for your guests to promote.
(Sorry musicians and authors, but this one probably just applies to podcasters.) Email the guest to let them know that the
interview is out, the various links they can choose from to promote to their
followers, and your social media handles that you’d like them to tag in their
posts. I’ll also write, “Some guests
like to say, ‘We talked about _______’.”
There is a greater likelihood of them putting something up if you give
them suggested text than if you just say, “Thanks again. I hope you like it.” You might even get new social media followers
of your own! (Bonus: I even attach my
podcast logo to the email in case they want to use it.)
12.
Contact
other interest groups. Stay with me musicians
and authors. There’s a spinoff of this
one that I’ll get to further down the list that will help you, but for now, I
think this particular entry is safer for podcasters only. One example that demonstrates this is when I
had a former WWE Diva on my podcast.
While I certainly did #11 above, I also contacted wrestling websites (as
well as a fan site or two for that particular wrestler). Clearly they would want to hear what she had
to say. Before you know it, now they are promoting your episode for you!
13.
Gimmicks.
As of the day after tomorrow I will have done
a combined total of 460 podcast episodes.
Rest assured that when that number hits 500, people will know about
it.
Just like… One gimmick of mine that
I’ll point to [and for musicians this might be “It has been one year to the day
since my (title) album came out” or for authors, “It was exactly one month ago
today that my new book (title) came out.”] was when I hit the four-year anniversary
of my podcast.
As seen in the
accompanying photo, I had a bakery do four cupcakes in my show colors.
One had an N on top.
One had an H, one had a T, and one had an
E.
Four letters, four cupcakes, four
years.
I took a picture of them and
posted it on my Facebook page, my personal Facebook timeline, in my podcast’s
Facebook group, on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, and in my e-newsletter.
Heck, I even put the photo up as a post on
mypodcast’s Patreon campaign.
You can also
highlight show milestones (i.e. episode 50, episode 100, and so on).
Get creative!
14.
Cross
promote, cross promote, and then cross promote.
I write a
blog here every Monday on this website
and more often than not refer to my podcast, with a link over to it, of
course.
I will also refer to other blogs
that have been written, with links over to those.
Occasionally on the podcast I’ll be heard
saying, “I wrote a blog about this recently.
Listeners, go to NHTE.net and click into the Blog section to go read
that.”
It keeps people engaged with the
content that you’re creating.
Plus…
15.
eBook.
This ties in nicely with the above in that –
while I’m re-purposing content from the podcast to fill the eBook – I have
links throughout so that readers can click to go and hear the interview that
what they’re reading about was pulled from.
Don’t create more work for yourself.
My eBooks are a convenient workbook so that listeners don’t have to
start all the way back at episode 1 to find out where I gave out the tip and
what it was.
Plus, remember this – There
might be someone who finds the eBooks (or finds the blog) that didn’t know I
have a podcast.
Now they do.
((wink))
Musicians, authors … write a blog, turn a (big) collection of them into
an eBook.
There, I just combined this
and #14 for you.
You’re welcome!
16.
Refer to
past episodes of your podcast. This
might be my favorite out of this whole list.
(Stick with me musicians and authors because I’ve got something on this
for you too.) Just like with movie
lines, I have a bizarre mental rolodex of past interviews that I’ve done. When I hear a guest talking about something
that jogs my memory in relation to a previous conversation that I’ve had with
someone I’ll say, “Wow, I’m glad you brought that up. That’s a lot like what I talked about with
(guest’s name) back on Episode (number).
Listeners, if you never heard that episode, go back and listen to my
interview with (guest’s name).” I also will
put a link to it on the show notes page, but, what happens then is they go
listen to that one, only to hear me employing the same tactic and sending them
off to another related episode. And so on.
(By the way, this also helps you become a better interviewer because it
forces you to make sure you’re listening closely to what each guest is talking
about.) Musicians and authors, when you’re
being interviewed, do a version of this yourself, which is to say, “It’s
actually like a song I had on my previous release, titled xx…” or “It’s similar
to something I wrote in my first book, (title)…”
17.
Do a
“Best Of” episode. (Musicians – are you at a point in your career where you could do a Greatest
Hits release or a Retrospective?
Authors
– if you’ve written three books that all go together, package the trilogy
rather than only selling them individually.)
Podcasters, not too different from the above, it enables you to tease –
in one episode – a number of past podcasts you put out, in such a way that the
listener will want to go hear other episodes that you’ve put out.
PLUS, I did this three times (
NHTE 101,
NHTE203, and
NHTE 301) and each time I emailed the dozen guests who were featured
on each and let them know of this exclusive club they were in and voila, now I
had 12 additional people promoting an episode for me!
18.
Start a
second podcast. (Musicians.
Only perform solo?
Join a band!)
Yup, it sounds like a daunting task, but, think about it.
If someone comes to your new/second show but
doesn’t know about the first, you’ll mention it and suddenly get folks
listening to the one you’ve been doing all along.
When TASCAM hired me to do a podcast for
them, I was sure to ask for this allowance.
Similarly, if you look at the website for my weekly “
Catholic SportsRadio” podcast, you’ll see that I have ads running that say, “Are you a music
fan too? Check out Bruce’s other podcast.”
19.
Contact
constituents who were mentioned on your podcast. Musicians and authors, remember in #12 above
when I promised something for you later on that? Here it is.
Podcasters – I interviewed a drummer who talked about the endorsement
that he had, which led me to write to that drum company and tell them that this
artist did that for them. They will
thank you, puff their chest out, and put it out on their social media (and possibly their website and/or newsletter). Musicians and authors – If you appeal to a
certain group (you just wrote a song about a cancer survivor or your new book
is about aging), then contact relevant groups to see what you can collaborate
on (i.e., for the two examples I mentioned it would be the American Cancer
Society – perhaps start with a local chapter – and AARP, respectively).
20.
Record on-location
(with branding). When I do an
interview on-site somewhere, not only do I wear a shirt, as recommended above,
but I have a tabletop banner that I pop up so that passersby can quickly see
what the interview is being done for. I
even have branded mic flags to promote my podcast. Musicians and authors can do this even if it
isn’t something that sticks. As in, a “pop
up recording session” or an “impromptu brain dump at Starbucks where I put
thoughts to paper towards planning my next book. Grab a coffee with me. Ask questions.”
21.
Ask
someone you know to listen (or read) and provide feedback. Have the confidence, of course, that they’re
going to like what they hear (or read).
But, know that this will make them feel trusted and almost part of the
team. They will then become a promoter
and tell friends about it. (“Yeah, he
even asked me to listen/read and give him a little feedback. I was able to give him some advice that I’m
going to be listening/watching to see if he uses.”)
22.
Give a
number for listeners to call. These
people too will become a street team and tell others, “Listen to this episode
of this podcast. They played back a
voicemail I left on their message line.”
Now all of a sudden other people are bringing listeners to your podcast.
23.
Have a banner day. If you’re going to do enough on-site events,
invest in a standup (also called rollup) banner that stands taller than you are
but also perhaps even the tabletop version.
Don’t overload it with information, though. A relevant picture (or two), a website
address, and text that will allow you to use it for some time to come (in other
words, musicians should have a banner for themselves and not for their latest
release and authors should do the same, otherwise you’ll both be spending lots
of money on banners every time you put out something new).
24.
Use other podcasts. Get yourself interviewed on other podcasts,
yes, but consider advertising (either a paid placement or trading ads with
another show that makes sense/has relevance).
Musicians – your version of this would be playing on other artists’
songs and/or guesting at one of their live gigs. Authors – your version of this would be collaborating
on something so that you could join in on your writing partner’s signing or
launch event.
The list is lengthy, I know.
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
But
start chipping away at it.
Use it as a
checklist.
See how many of these you can
employ.
And throughout it, if you feel
overwhelmed and think you just can’t manage the time to try to promote your
show, then remember, if not you, then who?
Well, okay, you can book a
15-minute power session with me or a
60-minute session, or even hire me so that Now Hear This, Inc. is your publicist and you
can focus on just doing what you do and creating what you create.
I’d love to hear from you and learn about
your goals and objectives and how I can help.
Take advantage of my more than 15 years in the
business. Tweet at me to
@NHT_tweets. Alternatively, use Facebook,
LinkedIn, or even email to continue the conversation.
• • •
I am a manager and publicist, running Now Hear This,
Inc., an agency that has served clients across the U.S. ranging from
music artists to authors to small businesses and even an Olympic
athlete. Since February 2014 I have also hosted a weekly podcast (“Now
Hear This Entertainment”), which has gotten listeners from 153 countries
around the world. Find more about the company and the podcast at
www.NowHearThis.biz. I am also a national speaker. Visit
www.SpeakerBruceW.com for more information.
