Music is the answer
- Stuart Ridley
- 2 June 2009
- Page 1 of 2 : single page
to market the talent he represents to corporate and commercial events clients.The Panel
- Jonathan Crossfield, Netregistry. Expertise: Search marketing and social
media
- Owen Lansbury, owenlansbury.com. Expertise: Multimedia and
entertainment
- Douglas Nicol, The Works. Expertise: Direct marketing
- Stuart Ridley, Moderator
Attracting new clients via The Groove Academy website
Stuart: When Scott launched The Groove Academy agency last year one of the first things he did was begin building a website to showcase the DJs and bands on his books. The website launched a month ago and he wants to make the most of it.
Scott Pullen: My site is designed to appeal to corporate event planners and people running commercial events. I want these people to find it easily, and I want it to stand out among all the other DJ pages, so they know it’s for a professional agency.
Jonathan Crossfield: You need your website to appear prominently on page one of Google for the phrases searched for by your target market, rather than just anyone looking for DJs. The phrase ‘Sydney DJ services’ might not work for you because it covers the mobile DJ market, which is not what you want your business associated with. You’re talking the more high-end, exclusive gig. You need to investigate combinations of phrases that reflect this and strongly appeal to your target market.
Scott: How do I work out what words to target? I’ve also been wondering if it’s worth advertising on Google.
Jonathan: Trying to guess which words to use on your site for natural search results and managing your own Google AdWords campaign can be costly if you get it wrong. Start by asking some of your existing clients what phrases they might use and then hire a search marketing consultant to run your campaign, targeting those words and others that will get you the right response: genuine leads. When we offer a paid service, we expect that cost to be recouped, because it’s being run professionally.
Scott: When I go for AdWords, what exactly am I paying for?
Jonathan: You pay when people click. It’s about finding the right keywords and phrases with the lowest amount of competition so you get more conversions. Not every click will convert into a sale, but if you know that for every 10 visitors you might get one booking, you can factor the cost of those 10 clicks into the margin for your booking.
Scott: So, what might that cost?
Jonathan: To be honest, you can pay as much or as little as you like – but you want to be sure you’re generating new business. There are people out there that will charge thousands a month, and there are agencies like Netregistry that will start you off at $165 a month for a six-month trial. You need to give it more than just a month. Some people do a big search marketing push for a few months and then once they start getting the traffic they stop. That’s where they can come unstuck. It’s a continuous effort to stay on top and you need to look at always refreshing your marketing campaigns and regularly updating your website content.
Scott: I also have a professional MySpace page, a personal Facebook page and a Facebook group for The Groove Academy, but there’s not a lot of action.
Jonathan: There are a lot of people saying social media is the way of the future and that all businesses should be on Facebook and Twitter. It’s still very hard to measure their effectiveness for marketing. Let’s say ‘The Groove Academy’ is mentioned on 100 blogs or Facebook pages in the next six months – how do you measure how that generates specific sales?
Scott: I guess if someone is searching for the services my company offers, they’re going to go to Google right?
Jonathan: People go to Google for an answer to an immediate need. If they need a particular professional service, they want to find companies that can provide that service properly. It is a case of promoting yourself in the right space appropriately, depending on who is using it. Social media is great for maintaining strong relationships with people you know. People tend to be more immune to direct online advertising in these networks, though they’re interested in conversations, staying in touch, discovering content. Think about the kind of conversations and content they want – the audience is in control of the internet, the brand is not.
Building a following with great content
Stuart: We’re looking at ways Scott can give potential and existing clients a taste of what The Groove Academy is about.
Owen Lansbury: One of the key things about your business is that you’re essentially a content creator. You can view yourself in a similar way to a music label or events brand. What I had in mind was to add mixes and videos onto each of the artists’ pages. thegrooveacademy.com.au is a platform for your artists to be promoted, an easier option to them managing their own websites or social media profiles. The ultimate goal would be if anyone Googles one of the artists you represent, your website is one of the top results and they’ll be presented professionally. You could then link to their personal sites, too.
Scott: But if I have links from my site to their Facebook or MySpace, wouldn’t that be driving traffic away?
Owen: One of the big things happening with online content is that the model has moved away from solely controlling all of your content from one location, to distributing your content out to a much wider audience. You probably watch as many YouTube videos on Facebook as you do on YouTube and probably more Flickr photos on individual blogs than on Flickr. Give each of your artists a downloadable press kit, including bio and photos that they can share anywhere. It will have The Groove Academy Logo on it, links to your website and your contact info. In turn, your artists can link back to their professional profile pages on your site from their personal sites – maybe via a Groove Academy logo.
Scott: OK. I can see that. DJs and artists who are used to looking after themselves have signed with me so they get better publicity and better gigs, nationally and internationally.
Owen: Yes, as their agent, you have a better ability to provide them with a professional promotion platform. I think the effectiveness of MySpace can be overstated – it works for some people, but for others not at all. So it’s important you provide your artists with marketing material they can use on their own sites. You can also make it easy for them to upload mixes, videos and photos – and allow fans to re-link to those from their own Facebook profiles and blogs. You could also give the artists a box of their own The Groove Academy business cards (costs about $100 these days) that has a link to their professional profile on your site and they can give these out as promotion at gigs. Make it easy for people interested in booking an artist to get all the information they need. It’s easier if you have all that content online, rather than them waiting for something in the post. Online is immediate and it stays top of mind.
