FREE CONSULTATION? How I approach a new client @ Kurb

How I approach a new client for promo @ Kurb

My commitment to marketing and promotion has seen my range of clients grow from a base specialising in the music industry, to media campaigns involved with environmental organisations, educational institutes and working alongside small business owners to grow their businesses With every client I deal with there's gonna have to be a tailored strategy given the character of the proposition, especially given the range of options we provide - street media, disc media, social media, online media, search optimisation, online advertising and more. But the same methodologies can be applied as any enterprise must develop in a certain logical way. An enterprise must develop content to showcase what it is they offer, they must develop a cohesive brand, and value can be created through many different types of messages that result in exposure, credibility and revenue. Now most often Kurb is involved at only one part of this crucial development. But I tend to make suggestions based not on the options, the effectiveness and our ability to get results and return on investment. For example, Posters is not a big earn for us, but we continue to offer this service because it brings people to us, and the artists we support need access to this service without it costing them an arm and a leg. So we keep doing it. But after 5 years it is my gut feeling that posters are useless for "breaking" anything. If the proposition that the poster is making to the "user" is not familiar, it's not going to get processed. But okay. You're my new client and you've got a few hundred bucks and you want to get started. This is what I say: WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN: If you don't have a website this is going to become a big mid term priority for reasons which I shouldn't have to explain. The reason that it's not top priority is because mean time we'll run HQ from a social site but we want to get something half decent up there from the get go and we want it sorted out right so there's no hassles later on. For example - if you already have a website I'm going to need to be able to interact with the "webmaster" - whoever administers the site. Not in principal to make changes to the way it looks but most importantly it's "searchability". if making basic and regular changes to your website every week is a hassle, then it's going to become a problem, so when starting from scratch we try and anticipate that. ADWORDS: Has to be done. This level of personal customisation and targeting is the future of advertising. This is advertising 2.0. You make your ad, decide who sees it deteremined by location and search query, and how much you want to spend, per day, per month, per lead. You see you only pay when someone actually comes to your site through the ad. Basically, if you don't understand adwords completely, that's cool, we can sort everything out for you. I would suggest a budget of $20-$100 p/month. Otherwise for creatives on the self promotion tip who've got a credit card. Get in there. Start targeting. Get your aim down real good for the optimum. This is the future. Facebook have already introduced a similar system, Myspace will soon too. Like your web site, these campaigns will grow as they are groomed and tweaked to optimised perfection. SEO / SEM - Search Engine Optimisation / Search Engine Marketing I guess just put simply, SEO, search engine optimisation, or the art of making you #1 on Google, is a massive part of online marketing. Luckily in this are I have magical powers. If you go to www.google.CO.NZ and search "online promotion" guess who's number #1? Don't ask me how but I'm good. Just be aware it will take months for me to do this for you, but that's something people usually pay a whole lot more than we charge for. Google will inevitably account for no less than half the traffic to your site, which makes it pretty much the most important part of your marketing. CONTENT DISTRIBUTION + VIDEO Much like adwords I will pretty much walk you through your best options to get your music and other primary content distributed for online revenue (itunes etc.) if you are an artist. Starting with retail and moving to publishing and licensing of content. Whether you're in the entertainment business or not, there is a strong need to develop secondary content for the purpose of promotions, branding and viral opportunities to generate exposure. "Secondary content" is a broad phrase I use to cover a range of media from blog copy, podcasts and video on social networking platforms (Facebook etc.) all the way to blogging platforms (Blogger, Wordpress) podcasts and video platforms (Youtube etc.) Video obviously requires more attention than we have time for now, but we're currently creating packages to get new talent and branding promoted through video, not only through marketing services and automated distribution saving hours of time, but in producing clean, effective and inexpensive video content. If next year you're not using video, you'll be behind the times. Watch for my videos coming soon! But fundamentally, using all these content platforms not only gives you access to millions of worldwide users but also forms a powerful cumulative effect - techniques of which I have barely begun to apply in achieveing what I feel is responsible for the traction I'm now getting with kurb, I mean don't even have an ad in the yellow pages!!! There are many ideas that I have cleverly worked in making the most of networks and commercial possibilities that exist online, many of which are rather too anecdotal to go into now. But have you honestly really thought about how you could be using NZ's most popular website? I've pulled out some crazy propositions to stay within the rules. SOCIAL Well I'm not going to go into the finer details of my deft expertise in this area but it really depends how aggressive you want to be. If you're still developing your content, there's no point in spending a lot of money aggressively promoting. Don't get me wrong, I'm not about album releases and hyping, I'm about a slow building rhythm, you got well recorded songs, videos, photography, design, retailing platforms sorted . . . then lets get stuck in already. Similarly, social platforms present massive untapped opportunities for brands, products and services to create awareness and access. But New Zealanders are savvy and both artists and businesses have to be creative and innovative with the propositioning conducted in these communities. Do you want to be associated with contributing to the community or leeching off it? Sure I get flak for being a spammer. But I get far more support from rando's who follow my blogs, and that goodwill is great marketing. If you genuinely offer value, those who are conscious of it will overlook the spam. POSTERS Obviously I mentioned my feelings about our poster services early in the post. Musicians need to have posters, while other clients may be interested in trying this practical strategy out, and we continue to do it simply because it adds value to our all over service, despite the fact it doesn't add much value to my bank account! More people still end up asking for posters and getting nothing more than posters than don't, but it's a start. I guess in marketing, posters do provide instant gratification but again, without a quality proposition, really it's just more ads. DISCS Obviously if you use disc media (CD or DVDs) in your business or you are a musician or visual performer/artist then you'll be pleased to take advantage of the very generous pricing of our various reproduction packages. But it is also worth considering for non audio/visual clients to consider the ways in which distributing free information or content on CD or DVD can create value as a marketing message or as a free gift. CONCLUSION So that just about covers it, but of course the aim is to get results. The nature of modern marketing - especially in grooming an act for the entertainment industry, or making a new small business profitable - suggests long term results are the only way to achieve lasting profitability, and Kurb provides in response such a range of strategies that create value and exposure and different points without breaking the bank, and most of all, I have personally used these techniques to build the leads generated by my own marketing efforts to a point I'm sure most of you would be happy with. You've got to realise you didn't find me by accident. I'm starting to get real good at making things easy to find, especially to those all important targeted consumers who are most likely to be looking for it. I've also learnt how to slowly turn that into sales. So it's time for you to consider the value of the proposition I'm making you. For $NZ200 for talent and $NZ350 for businesses we'll get under way with the first month of your campaign, once we've gauged which of these strategies, either separately or working together, will provide you with the best value for your money. Despite one month being unlikely to create significant exposure, you might want to try one month before commiting to a 3 month package starting at $500 for talent and $950 for businesses. Please contact me, Matt Turner either by email: kurbpromo@gmail.com Or reach me on my mobile - +64 (0)27 684 8250 Cheers for the connection with Kurb. We’re supporting musicians with successful promotion strategies for a budget. Come by our page, theres plenty to pick up about new developments in the music industry in our blogs and theres a whole lot of free info and articles at our self promotions hub. Get some scope checking out our overview of online promotion strategies and if you’re interested our artist packages or brand new campaign packages including CD’s, posters and a dedicated online distribution, promotion and video marketing program. All the best with your music, from Kurb For direct enquiries get us on gmail as kurbpromo ..................... .