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A musician’s personal brand done right
Your personal brand is how you will present yourself to the world and it might be the key to your success. As a unique artist, group or band, this will tell how unique you are, sends a clear message and is a projection of yourself and your product.For some it might take years, for others, it was given to them and some always knew what their image was. Once you have a clear idea of your artist identity and how you want to project yourself, it will be easier for you to distinguish yourself and sell your product. Ask yourself:What are you passionate about? What drives you?Why did you start doing what you do?What are your influences?How are you unique?What types of music (genre) do you make?What do you love about yourself?These self-reflecting questions will help you describe, define yourself to others and create your brand vision. How do you want to be perceived? This is also how you will define yourself professionally, personally and creatively. It will help you guide your future actions. When everything is coherent and blended as a whole, it will reflect, support, show your unique qualities, reach the customers/fans, bring your teams together, and create ideas for your marketing projects.
Your target audienceThink of your audience. Who would be your ideal fan? Who are you pitching to? What does your audience want? You sell your product, and the product also sells you. Feel free to involve your audience in the process, create buzz and fans will feel closer and part of the process. Knowing your target audience will help you create a more efficient marketing message. Who is your target audience? Do you mean, who is your fan? Look for their demographic similarities like age, location, status, lifestyle, social media or even spending habits. It doesn’t have to be related to your music per se, it could be your music videos, events, collaborations, social media engagement and much more.Your online presenceOptimize your social media presence. The best free tool that you have is the internet and your ability to reach your global fanbase. A strong and consistent online presence will help you achieve your goals and stay connected with fans. That consistency can become a problem if you don’t have high-quality products or image. Hire professionals, graphic designers, photographers, web designers or even invest in software if you can. Free software and YouTube videos can also help you create amazing content. Use recent, high-quality images and update your info. Present yourself as a professional and you will attract exactly what you wanted. Once you have found your visual identity, keep it! Consistency means all your social media, logo, merch, banners, portfolios, posters, emails, stage presence, albums, website, YouTube, EPKs, promotions, business cards and beyond respects your brand. Branding will allow you to consistently creating high-quality content that will attract and retain your following or business contacts.
Key brand elementsBrand nameYour name is everything. It evokes meaning, concept, story and who you areYou could change your name in the future. Think Snoop Dogg, but even he stayed on brand.Choose a name that is not trademarked or too common in other areas. You might get lost in search engines. Unless you’re Pitbull…then you come before the dog.Your logoEssential for online marketing, promotions and print mediaYou can come up with logo variants Logomarks are the standalone version and logotypes are the more stylized versionsOnline imageSocial mediaStreaming platformsEPKsBioPhysical/personal imageFashion choicesMerchStage setupsConcert visuals/lights/effectsColour schemesAuthenticity is important. Projecting something that is not you will fatigue you and limit your creativity and potential. If you have a clear idea of what you like, are and do, you will present, define, express and communicate with others confidently. If you are not yourself, your image will be forced, unreliable and untrusty. Finding what’s unique about you will also give you or boost your self-confidence and public worth. Identifying what makes you special and using it will help your image as a person, an artist or your product power. Visible elements like colour, shapes are not enough. An esthetic, color schemes, personality, universe or story, tagline, fashion sense, and even your tone of voice will complete the whole brand image. Incorporating yourself, your personality, in your music will help you establish a more recognizable brand.In summary, your personal brand will effectively and clearly communicate a message, express your uniqueness, have an impact in people’s minds, distinguish you from the competition and target your audience. Encourage and promote others, build up your social media following, musicians all know each other and a positive contribution will help you!
Source: A musician’s personal brand done right