Reach People the Way You’d Like to Be Reached

I was just reading a great article by one of our twitter friends, CyberPR, called Derek Sivers’ 7 Critical Marketing Basics every musician should know.

All of the points are right on, and each are demonstrated by Derek’s own personal success story, so I suggest you read the full article when you get a moment.

Point #4 stood out particularly to me, however, and I just had to share it with all of you right away.

Lesson #4: Reach People the Way You Want to Be Reached

Stop thinking of it as Marketing and start thinking of it as creative ways to be considerate. Think of things from the other person’s point of view: Imagine if you called your friend up and screamed into the phone: “THURSDAY COME SEE ME PLAY NEXT THURSDAY!” (HANG UP)

You probably would not show up if you were spoken to that rudely and then hung up on and it was funny to see Derek act this out but his point was: This is exactly the way most musicians speak to their newsletter lists.

If your friends spoke to you the way you speak to them on your newsletter list you wouldn’t be friends. Begin to pay attention to other artist’s messages and notice what works on you. The considerate thing is to be so novel and creative and innovative so that people say: you have GOT to see / hear this musician play

Funny illustration, but a hugely important point! Every day I see musicians flood Twitter and e-mail boxes with advertisements that make them look generic. I can’t tell them apart, so my tendency is to not pay attention (Just like how the majority of people simply tune out commercials on TV & radio). There’s no way to distinguish these ads apart from any other because there is no context of a relationship.

Like we’ve been talking about here, as a musician you are interested in forming long-term relationships, and interrupting someone’s day with an advertisement is going to start that relationship off on the wrong foot every time, even if the immediate result appeals to you.

Be human, creative, and interesting first. Reach people the way you’d like to be reached.

For more great advice, read the other six tips in the full article: Derek Sivers’ 7 Critical Marketing Basics