10 ways to improve your band's online marketing in 2014

As we approach the end of 2013, we thought we’d share some tips with you that will help you tune up your online promotion efforts in 2014. Read on for some advice on how to improve your website, e-newsletters, Facebook presence and more…

1. Ensure you have a great site

Yes, it’s easier (and cheaper) to set up a Facebook page than build a website, but there are several advantages in creating a strong site:

• It marks your band out as a professional, serious outfit
• It gives you full control your band’s image and identity
• It will allow you to blog (and if you are good at blogging, you may well find yourself with a truckload of additional visits to your site thanks to inbound marketing)
• You tet full control over search engine optimisation and data capture
• You can incorporate a wide range of functionality that might not be available on third party sites.

So, if you haven’t got a website for your band, build one. And if you DO have one, maybe take a look at it again, with a view to improving it as much as you can for 2014: ensure imagery, integration with social media, data capture and even typefaces are all as good as they possibly can be. Find out about how to build a great band website here.

2. Use ‘Addthis’

…And speaking of websites, ‘Addthis’ is a brilliant free tool that encourages visitors to your site to share content from it in lots of clever ways; it also maximises the chances of them following you on social media. If you’re not using Addthis now, you should be.

3. Make sure you are not neglecting smartphone users

A huge proportion of people accessing content online are now doing so using a smartphone. This has all sorts of implications for how you present your band online – and getting this wrong could severely limit the reach of your promotional efforts. Find out how to present your band to a smartphone audience.

4. Make sure you are capturing data effectively

If you don’t have a proper mailing list set up, you are shooting your act in the foot (or feet if you’re not a solo act). In my book, an email address is still worth far more than, say, a Facebook ‘like’, because 1) when you send somebody an email, a Mark Zuckerburg algorithm isn’t deciding whether that person receives it or not and 2) email addresses can be used to forge connections on multiple social networks (via ‘find my friends’ features). Read our in-depth guide to email marketing here.

5. ‘Incentivise likes’ on Facebook

Ensure you are using (and promoting) tabs on Facebook that ‘incentivise’ likes – i.e., use tabs that give people who like your Facebook page access to particular content (a free download, exclusive video etc.). Woobox provide some really helpful tools in this regard.

6. Start using Google+

People may snigger when they hear the words ‘Google Plus’ – Google’s social network is, after all, renowned for the quantities of tumbleweed that blow through its news feeds. However, it is becoming increasingly important, because Google is starting to treat websites that are connected to Google Plus via ‘Google Authorship’ (a way of attributing your site content to a particular individual in search results) rather differently (and arguably, preferentially) to other sites. Find out more about Google Authorship here.

7. Don’t overcommunicate online

Regardless of whether you’re using emails, Facebook updates or tweets to communicate with your fans, don’t fall into the trap of spewing annoying nonsense every five minutes. Only say something when it counts. With this in mind, you may find our article on managing your online reputation handy.

8. Spend some time on data hygiene

Yikes! Data hygiene. Sounds horrendous, like going to the dentist or something. But in 2014, take a look at your various databases – be they lists of fans or industry contacts – and ensure that your records are in the best shape possible. Think about standardising the format; removing duplicate records; and ensuring that as much information as you need is in them (name, email address, phone, favourite coffee…). The cleaner and more accurate your databases, the more results you’ll get when you promote your music.

9. Don’t promote your music to your friends all the time

Tempting as it is to bombard your personal Facebook friends with encouragements to buy your album / come to your gig / purchase a limited edition t-shirt with your face on it, it’s generally a bad move. Find out when is and when isn’t the right time to promote your music to friends here.

10. Plan ahead

Most marketing departments worth their salt create 'e-comms schedules' for the year, where they forward plan what kind of communications they are going to send / broadcast throughout the year. In your case, YOU are your marketing department, so follow best practice and engage in a bit of forward planning. Forward planning also allows you to automate some of your comms in advance, meaning that when you are in the middle of a promotional campaign for your new album, you don't need to worry about sending a bunch of e-newsletter and tweets out: some software somewhere is doing it for you...

Hope these tips speed you on your way to music success in 2014; and, while we've got your attention, may we take this opportunity to thank you for reading The Prescription in 2013 and wish you a lovely Christmas and all the best for the new year.