6 Don’ts of Marketing Your Album Online

So your album will be out soon and you are so excited to start talking about it online. You know people will rave about it and it will become sensational. But before you upload that photo, compose that blog post, or post that shout-out, make sure you will not commit any of the online marketing don’ts below. If you do, lots of people might find you annoying. By the way, I know the last two don’ts aren’t actually don’ts. But they are really great marketing tips so I decided to include them anyway. 😉

Here’s my list of things you shouldn’t do when marketing your album online:

Don’t get too active all of a sudden. So you rarely post on your blog and social networks and then all of a sudden, you hire someone to post at least twice a day and your online presence is now so active. And that’s because you have an album coming up. People will notice this and they will have an idea that you’re about to sell something. That is not good. It might sound like a very minor thing but your audience is very sensitive to these things. They can smell if you’re marketing switch is turned on especially if you’re a new band. If your release date is in November, slowly get active at least 3 months before that. Don’t do it one week before unless you’re already a hotshot.

Don’t go inactive all of a sudden. This is similar to the one above. If you usually update daily, do not all of a sudden go inactive for months. You’vespent countless hours to engage with prospects your fans only to abandon them is such a waste.  Your fans won’t like this on again off again thing. If it can’t be helped because you suddenly have a busy schedule, minimize your posts slowly. From daily to 3 times per week is fine. But don’t stop updating. It wasn’t easy nor fast to build your network and fans.

Don’t overshare. Updating your twitter with petty, inconsequential tweets like “ I’m at the dentist”, “ I’m with X and Y at Club Z” , “I’m Mowing my lawn” every 15 minutes could be cute at first but this over sharing of information will eventually get too annoying to even the most die-hard fan. It makes you seem like you have too much free time. Not sexy! Fans would like it if you seem too busy yet you still find time to catch up on your tweets and statuses. Meaning, just tweet moderately.

Don’t talk about your album in every post. Sure you can talk about the making of your album, your CD packaging, your interviews. But those are the only interesting stories you can tell. Talk about your album weeks before and after the release date, but after that, please talk about other things. Your life, your opinions, difficulties of being a band, etc. People love stories. Give them stories.

Don’t post comments on people’s blogs, forums, walls that say, “ Hey, we got a new album coming up. Do check it out!” This is not the way to go. No one would check that out. Do not resort to this desperate move because it will not give good results.

Don’t hesitate to give away expensive stuff. Contests and giveaways are effective marketing gimmicks so instead of begging for attention, why don’t you let them beg for yours? Your giveaway should depend on your number of fans and your image. I know a popular band who gives away their personal stuff- old guitar, drumsticks, and even sunglasses! OK Go gave away an iPad. They asked fans to share their latest music video on their wall and the one with the most likes and shares get the special OK Go iPad. Cool, huh?

Don’t forget to document how you did your CD/ Vinyl packaging. If you think your CD artwork or Vinyl artwork is exceptionally unique, make sure you take photos and shoot a video of how they are made. Here’s a good example of a beautiful record packaging and the video and pictures they took. You may then send them to music, art, and packaging bloggers for review.

So there you go, folks. Basically, what I’m trying to say is attack slowly and engage before you sell anything.

image from: http://www.promoteyourmusic.net_

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