Look. We work with music industry professionals all the time, and there is one marketing mistake we consistently see that is wasting serious amounts of revenue and marketing effort. That’s bad, and here’s the catch: many people making this error are entirely unaware. They have no idea that they are losing serious revenue due to a common music industry misconception.

So what is it?!

People aren’t properly utilizing their websites.

“What?” You may be thinking. “Of course I am.” Hang on. Allow me to explain.

Your website should be THE place for content.

Make your website the content hub — the place your customers go for all types of information. Why? Because once visitors are on your site, you have their undivided attention. And why does that matter? Sales, my friends. The visitors are yours and yours alone. You can lead them through your beautifully crafted sales funnel distractions aside.

Think about it. If a visitor sees a Facebook post from you, your blood, sweat, and perfectly crafted word by word typed tears are nothing against the cute cat GIF underneath. And do you blame them?

Wait. Where were we?

All roads lead to home(page)

Step two for using your website properly: all of your online marketing efforts, be it social media, email marketing, guest blogging — whatever, should always have the end goal of landing people on your site.

Because again, your site is the best place for them to be. So how is this practically accomplished?

For social media

Follow good social media practices as always (70-20-10 rule, etc.), but use every appropriate opportunity to send the user to your site. For example, if you are considering writing a long, involved Facebook post, write it as a blog instead. Put it on your site and link back to the site when you announce the blog is written.
Announce events, releases, and all exclusive content on your website first. Make a splash page with all the information that has a clear call-to-action telling the visitor where you’d like them to go (such as a prompt to purchase an album). Then use social media to pull people to the page. This style of marketing helps your fans become used to using the website as their source of up to date content, and when your fans begin to demonstrate that consistency, sales will rise — I swear.

For email marketing

We find making your emails short and sweet with a prominent CTA that leads to your site is your best bet for getting visitors on your site.
In other words, don’t clog your email with content. Similar to social media, your email needs to make a user take action — quickly. Otherwise they’ll just read the next one.

This is one of our favorite layouts:

Click here for the above template’s PDF with a detailed explanation and pro tips for FREE!

Let them give you marketing information

Finally, everyone knows sales aren’t always going to happen on the first visit. It takes time, right? Building brand trust is important for developing a good customer base.

So how should your website be helping you on this front?

Have email sign-ups across the site. Use the information from step two to segment.

Have relevant offers (discounts, additional pieces of content, free songs, etc.) be free BUT be behind a form where people can exchange information for the content. You could have a form via Formidable or Mailchimp that asks their name, email address, occupation, and gender in exchange for a 10% discount. Then you have all that information at your disposal to use in the future (marketing gender-specific products, etc.).

For example, this could be your footer.

And once people filled this out, they could be enrolled in an automation sequence that shows them more of your brand.

A quick recap:

1. Use your site as the central hub for content and get it as sales-friendly as possible.

2. Use all your online marketing efforts to lead people back to the site. Get them to rely on the site for the latest information.

3. Gather information by offering information, a product, or discounts.

So many people we work with think of their website last! Don’t miss out on the revenue benefits you can gain by properly utilizing your site.