In my previous article, Music Marketing Plan Part II, we went through a brief summary of how to do the research and structure your informal music marketing plan.  The plan you will personally use to lay out your day to day marketing strategies, time frames, and initiatives.  We talked about doing your market research, listing all the marketing methods you will pursue and implement.

In this Part III article we will talk about formulating your formal music marketing plan.  This plan contains the exact same information as outlined in your informal marketing plan.  However, it will also lay out in addition, the all-important financial projections.  These will be used to demonstrate to a potential investor the ROI (Return on Investment) they could expect by investing money in your independent music career.

Brief Summary of the Formal Music Marketing Plan (The Financial Projections)

Adding financial projections, what kind of income can be expected from record and merchandise sales, royalties, and performances, will show the potential investor in detail the projected income from your project.  This is a crucial section of your formal music marketing plan and it is very important that you do your market research, including demonstrating your past history of overall sales.

When attempting to acquire financial backing for your music project you must remember, the number one question on the mind of any potential investor in a business is “How much money can they expect to make from their investment?”  In the financial projection section of your music marketing plan, you attempt to answer these questions.

Questions Like:

* Who are the artists behind the project – What is their experience?
* What are your sales goals for records, merchandise, and performances? 
* How to you plan to market and promote your products? 
* What kind of profit margin do you expect?
* When do you project that your project will be profitable?
* Are there significant debts that need to be taken and later repaid, such as for CD manufacturing, cost of merchandise, tour bus, or equipment, music publicity? If so, you need to factor such things into your financial projections.

A potential investor in you independent music career reading your financial projections will want to know that you have taken everything into account and produced some realistic expectations for your music project and the gross income that can be expected.  This is why researching all these areas to come up with realistic projections is vital.  Don’t bloat figures out of proportion – be honest with your projected income figures.  A savvy investor who knows a little bit about the music industry trends will be able to determine if the figures you have input into your music marketing plan are really possible to achieve. 

The financial projections in a marketing plan, specifically a music marketing plan for an independent artist, can be pretty challenging to come up with.  The assistance of a music business manager or consultant who has business experience in preparing these plans and projections may be your best bet.  Remember you only have one shot at one particular investor.  If he or she is not dazzled with your music marketing plan and does not realistically believe they can get a good return on their money based upon your written plan then all bets can be off.  Make sure it’s professionally prepared, accurate, realistic, and done right the first time.  Good Luck!

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As I talked about in part one of my three part article series on the preparation of a solid music marketing plan there are actually 2 types of plans and marketing strategies guide that you should research and assemble.  In this article we are going to very briefly discuss the first kind of plan — The Informal Music Marketing Plan.  This is the plan you will use and follow to put into place all of your music marketing and music promotion strategies on a daily basis and the research that will be necessary.  In part three of this article series I’ll discuss in more detail the elements of a formal marketing plan.  This will plan will have all the essential elements of your informal music marketing plan with the added aspect of financial projections.  This is the plan you will use to attract an investor in your music career.

Brief Anatomy of an Informal Music Marketing Plan

A good music marketing plan should include some of the following elements.  First though however, you must ask yourself; where do you want to be in 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years as an artist or band?  Lay out the time frame.  Be clear, truthful, realistic, and concise, with yourself.  Write it down.  Keep in mind that part of putting together a realistic and effective plan will require a good deal of market research.  So please be prepared to do some if you want to do it right.

 First Step:  Do your “Due Diligence and Research”
So what do I mean by due diligence and research?   The first thing you must remember during this entire process is that as an independent artist trying to sell your product (CDs and Merchandise) after all, as an independent artist, in essence, You Are in Business.  Please make no mistake about this.  You are in the business of selling yourself, your band, and your products.  And as in any business, you have to explore the market environment for your particular offering in order to be competitive, and make certain that you are concentrating your efforts in the right place; which of course is your particular niche music market.  Whether your genre of music is Rock, Pop, R&B, Hip Hop, Punk, or whatever, it matters not.  What matters is that if you are in the Alternative Rock Market then this is where you need to focus your marketing research and implement your subsequent marketing tactics.  

The Music Industry Climate in General and in Your Particular Niche
First of all, you want to research and determine the music industry climate in general — all genres.  You do not need to focus too much time and attention on this it’s more important that you research your particular market.  So how do you research your music market and what exactly is it that you are trying to determine and why?  Let’s say for example, your band is in the Rock/Alternative Rock Genre.

Describe the current state of the music industry in that particular music market and lay out in detail just how you plan to overcome any strategic barriers that you may come up against as an artist.  Describe in details thinks such as:

What distribution channels are best suited for your particular CD?
Explore the radio market – Which best suits your recording?
How saturated is your particular market
Do a competitive analysis- Outline your strengths verses your competitors and visa versa
What kind of touring opportunities are available in your market?
What is the best music media to pursue?
Describe the optimal geographic regions for your music
Who would you consider to be your most aggressive competitors?
Explore and detail the demographics of your fan base
Define and detail your target market and audience

The Challenge:
A brief summary of the product … the record that is to be promoted, and associated goals, such as record sales you project that you will receive, and other strategic goals…

Describe the music industry trends as they exist today
What is your most challenging market and how will you overcome it?
What trends in the industry are on your side and which are not?

Detail and list your marketing strategies and the time frame for implementation

Determine a street date for your new release
Describe the distribution channels in detail you plan to pursue
Define which regions you will focus your distribution on
Define which forms of music media you plan to go after
Determine your touring regions best suited to you as an artist

Now what we have talked about in this article is merely the tip of the iceberg.  The plan needs to go into far more detail than is discussed here.  This article is only geared toward giving you an idea of what you need to do and just how important actually having a written music marketing plan really is.  Part 3 will go into the financial aspects of a formal marketing plan.

If you’re truly serious about advancing your music career you may want to consider having your music marketing plan prepared by a music industry expert with experience in planning the careers of independent musicians.

Most importantly, whoever prepares your marketing strategy plan, Follow It Closely.  There no use in taking the enormous amount of time it will take to gather the necessary information and writing the plan or spending the money to have a professional do it, unless you use it.  Good luck.

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It’s estimated that approximately 95% of independent musicians and bands either fail to gain any aspect of success or only achieve minimal success in the music business.  As an independent musician, artist, or full band, you have chosen a field which is probably one of the most competitive in which to try and be successful.  However, this in no way should discourage you from going after your dream.  After all, it can’t – Music is in your heart and soul and it’s simply something that you must do.  Therefore, since it is something that you literally must do to be happy then why not give it your best shot by doing everything right.  Doing everything right means beginning with a solid foundation.  This is where your music marketing plan comes into play as the first and foremost element in creating the music industry success that you so desire.

Your music marketing plan is essential in your overall strategy and is the roadmap that once properly researched and outlined, you must absolutely follow if you intend to achieve any semblance of music career success.  It will provide the stability you need to stay focused on your course of action.  The music marketing plan will be used to lay out your plan of action for marketing you as an independent artist or your band but it can also be used for seeking the “ALL IMPORTANT” investment money that can be used for serious music promotion.  Essentially, this is your blueprint.  And like any other blueprint, for example in the construction of a building, it must be taken seriously and followed precisely for that building to be constructed solidly.  You can write it, but if you don’t adhere to it, it’s useless. 

There are actually two types of plans that you can prepare:

An Informal Music Marketing Plan:
This plan should consist of a summary of your band structure, responsibilities, and a  roadmap of the day to day marketing and promotion efforts that you should pursue along with the timeframes for their implementation.  Your plan should cover methods by which you will market, promote, and develop as an artist, and the steps to take in order to market and promote your product (CD). You should segment efforts to develop as an artist and the promotion of your product separately in two different categories for easier dissemination.   Some research and music market analysis is necessary so that you have a clear picture of what it is you are trying to overcome and eventually achieve.  This should essentially be an outline and blueprint that when adequately developed and clearly written should act to keep you highly focused on the paths you must take. 

A Formal Music Marketing Plan:
The formal music marketing plan should be professionally laid out and prepared, and contain substantial specific financial projections and details – mainly because you may want to use this version of the plan to entice potential investors in your music career.  This plan should not only contain your development and promotion summary, structure, and product marketing initiatives, but should also consist of more detail on projected finances, income, and statistics if you are going to go after investment money from an outside source. 

Music investors or “Angels” as they are sometimes referred too want to be assured that they will receive a return on their investment.  Any doubt or weakness in the proposed formula to provide the potential investor with a reasonable return on their money can result in “No-Takers”.  Therefore your formal music marketing plan should clearly point out exactly how you plan to bring in the money through record sales, performances, merchandise, and media appearances, that will create the return for the music career investor as well as your informal blueprint to follow to get to where you want to go as an artist and how you are going to market your products which essentially is your CD’s and merchandise.  Having the ability to get serious money behind you for the marketing and promotion of your career and your products gives you a major advantage over most other Indie artists.  If you can get it …  you should jump for joy and be extremely grateful because it means your chances of success in the music business increase immensely.  But in a plan to attract this money you need to be honest, precise, and highly detailed with the financials.

These are the basic ideas for the 2 types of marketing plans you should seriously consider putting together prior to even starting your music marketing effort.  The plan will provide an easy to follow map of day to day music promotion strategies that you should employ to get you where you want to go.  I go into the essentials and details of both a formal and informal plan, in our next post.

Writing your plan can be a daunting and time consuming task.  There are many elements that must be researched and included.  If you would like advise or help preparing your music marketing plan, surely we can help.  Vist our website for more details.

http://www.indiemusicconsultant.com

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