Overcoming Self-Promotion Obstacles and Retuning Your Brain
1. If you have negative associations to sales and marketing, get busy curing yourself of “antimarketing-itis.”
2. Create new associations to self-promotion if the old ones don’t work for you.
3. Your brain is your greatest asset, so use it to adjust and fine-tune the way you think about and approach self-promotion.
Laying the Foundation and Offering Value
4. Realize that your music is a special gift that should be shared with the world.
5. Be driven by a burning desire to reach as many people as possible with your musical gift.
6. You have musical integrity because you are spreading the word about something you’ve created yourself that touches people and enriches their lives.
7. Self-promotion starts and ends with YOU. No one else understands your music and passion
more.
Understanding the ArtistArtist-Fan Relationship / Focusing on Fans
8. The artist-fan relationship is a two-way transaction. You get recognition, satisfaction and money. They get a valuable physical and emotional payoff.
9. You must understand how your music positively affects your fans – or what’s in it for them.
10. Focus on the benefit your music offers fans, not the category of music you play.
11. Avoid “middleman-atosis.” Focus on getting and keeping fans – not on the media, the industry, record labels, retail stores, distributors, etc.
12. Every morning, ask yourself: “What can I do today to connect with more fans?”
Reaching and Attracting Fans
13. Motivate fans to identify themselves and give you permission to show them more.
14. Create a brand identity by clearly communicating who you are, what you do and the unique
way you do it.
15. Use the VFW Hall Principle: Find at least one fan out of every thousand people.
16. Know who you are as a musician.
17. Be able to clearly describe your music in asfew words as possible.
18. Know who your fans are - based on the benefit you offer them.
19. Determine the best avenues to reach people most likely to become your fans.
Using Additional Fan-Building Tactics
20. You don’t have to be a household name to be successful.
21. Understand that fame and fortune are merely byproducts of being a good self-promoter consistently over the long haul.
22. Be consistent with your identity and selfpromotion message. Changing them too often will
confuse people.
23. Obliterate the “local” and “starving artist” mentality.
24. Cross-promote with other artists and combine your marketing impact.
25. Use testimonials and guarantees to help firsttime buyers give your music a try.
26. Exploit talk shows and position yourself as an expert related to your musical niche.
27. Do something every day to promote yourself and connect with fans.
27 Self-Promotion Tips
