Today, we welcome Danny Fortune back to the blog with another awesome guest post. In Danny’s first post, he made a pretty ambitious promise. This was to begin walking you all through a music marketing methodology. This allowed you to deploy a “sell first, build second” progressive music release strategy. Thereby, fan-funding your, or your artists’ projects. Today, we look at actually establishing your target audience.

There will be affiliate links and/or banners in this post. If you click on them and make a purchase, I will make a small commission. Therefore, you are supporting this blog, the Krannaken TV YouTube channel and the Krannaken Music Marketing Podcast. I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU in advance for your generosity. I hope that reading this post will enable you to accomplish goals, reach targets and that it helps in establishing your target audience.

Establishing Your Target Audience

In essence, rather than dumping tons of time, energy and resources into music releases that don’t yet have a captive audience to support them, why not do what “smart” entrepreneurs do. Smart entrepreneurs get early buy-in on the front-end, secure a certain amount of capital from potential fans, and then invest that money into the production of the project?

Rather than being a “too good to be true” marketing ploy or scheme, this is a guerilla marketing tactic being used EVERY day in the business world.

But, while it’s common knowledge in traditional marketing circles, it’s less known and EXTREMELY under-leveraged in the independent music space.

As a guerilla marketer and independent artist myself, I’ve found a personal passion in spending my days trying to change that!

In talking with independent artists and musicians every day, I have found that VERY few of them have ever put much thought into WHO their target audience is.

Establishing Your Target Audience by Spending Time With Them and Doing Proper Market Research

This is tragic because in business terms, how can we deliver a good product (music) to our end-consumer (fans) if we haven’t even established WHO our music (product) is meant for? Establishing your target audience is all about researching your market and establishing your target audience.

ALL business can be stripped down to problems and solutions.

A certain group of people have a specific problem that they need help solving. The most successful businesses get REALLY good at listening to their customers and consistently delivering the products that help them solve THOSE problems.

The start-ups and businesses that fail, do so, for the same reason that most independent artists and musicians do… they waste too much time, energy and resources on creating products (solutions) without having a CLEARLY DEFINED end consumer (target audience).

Having a GREAT product doesn’t change the fact that it has to be packaged and presented to the right people. It doesn’t mean that you have to forgo at the right time, in the right place for there to be a viable business.

This isn’t just true for “traditional” businesses. It is true for ALL businesses. This includes the music business.

Point made… fair enough… So, how do we establish our target audience?

For the remainder of this post I will be sharing how we can start establishing our target audience by answering 4 simple questions.

Question 1: Who Do We Want to Spend Our Time With?

The most successful independent artists and musicians connect with their audiences over culture and values; and when done successfully, in many ways, the music becomes a bonus.

In this regard, “culture eats strategy” and it becomes less about HOW and more about WHO.

Who do you want to spend your time with? What kind of culture do you want to embody and uphold? What values are non-negotiable to you and your music brand?

When you’re out on the road, who do you want to see showing up to your shows? Who do you want to spend your limited and precious time with?

Naturally, the more specific we are, the better. Are they male or female? Are they in a specific age range? What are their other demographics?

Question 2: Where Do Our Potential Fans Spend Their Time?

Once we establish who our target audience is, we now have to figure out where they’re spending their time and create opportunities to meet them where they are.

When it comes to music, this isn’t a field of dreams type situation where, if we “record it”… they will “come”.

We’re required to meet our potential fans where they ALREADY are! We HAVE to do the “footwork” for them.

Are they attending certain local functions, churches, community events, or colleges?

What social media platforms are they using? Whaich Facebook groups are they engaging with?

What hashtags are they following and using on Instagram or Twitter?

And perhaps the most important question… What artists/musicians are they currently engaging with online?

VERY rarely does a fan ONLY like one artist or band. Therefore, there’s a high likelihood that they are already interacting with other artists, musicians, and bands with whom we share a certain amount of creative synergy.

Don’t try to reinvent the artistic “wheel” here. You can’t create a fanbase out of thin air. Why not meet them where they ALREADY are and have already displayed a certain amount of interest?

Question 3: How Do You Establish Your Target Audience and Attract Them Into Your Fold?

After we know who our target audience is and where they are, it’s time to focus on HOW we can attract them into our own fold?

It isn’t enough to just tell them to like and listen to our music. This step in establishing your target audience requires a little more intentionality and strategy.

Therefore, we have to provide them with a COMPELLING reason to join our fanbase.

Much like fishing, we have to provide some “bait” to lure them into swimming in our artistic ecosystem.

It could be a short project documentary that shares BTS footage of your creative process. Alternatively, it could also be a piece of merch, a free song download, or a lyric video.

A lead magnet requires your potential fan to trade their name and email for access to the “bait” they want.

We also need a way to continue engaging and entertaining our fanbase. When we release new content or music and merchandise, we are able to push it out to our target audience.

In my opinion, one of the most underutilized resources to engage and entertain their fans is inside the container of a Facebook Group for your fans.

Question 4: How Do You Establish Your Target Audience and Provide the Result/Experience That They Require?

If we aren’t able to push notifications and pieces of content out to our fanbase via email or text, we aren’t able to engage our fanbase with any consistency. Therefore, we don’t really have an audience.

The 4th Question we need to answer in order to establish our target audience ties back to what we talked about earlier. All business is problems and solutions.

Let’s unpack that a bit…

Problem

Modern pop is too predictable… It’s cool but I want something a little edgier and less predictable.

Solution

My music provides an upbeat viral pop appeal musical experience. It also uses the power of metaphor and analogy to spark curiosity and wonder in listeners lyrically.

At this point in our process, we also need to be VERY clear about what the desired RESULT is that we deliver.

What specific and unique result does your musical problem/solution deliver to your target audience?

If you’re among the 1% who get serious about answering, even just 2 or 3 of these 4 questions, you will quickly start differentiating yourself from your contemporaries. Therefore, you will be well on your way to making a noble living off your art.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this post about establishing your target audience. Both Danny and I hope you can use this information in establishing your own target audience. If you also want to check out any of the other recent posts on Krannaken.com, please choose from the list below…

• Benefits of Networking With Other Musicians? 10 Great Reasons
• How to Make Money Selling Presets to Music Producers
• Make Money Selling Stock Music to Creators on Etsy
• Make Money by Selling Music to Fans on Etsy
• Are You Too Old to Be a Music Artist?