Influencers should be part of your strategy whether you are a musician or a company working in the music industry.
Sometimes, when I mention implementing influencer marketing into my clients' strategy, I can tell that there is a lot of confusion on this topic.
Too often, an influencer is still perceived as a beauty blogger that sponsors a product in return for money. However, the reality is extremely different and I have seen many amazing influencer campaigns bringing very positive results to my clients.
What type of influencers can you work with?
There are several type of talents that I would recommend working with in the music industry. This is my top 5:
Content Creators: these talents are well known in their community for coming up with great content ideas and for their editing skills. For example, you could hire a content creator to come to your next event and create reels and TikToks for you. You can decide what you can offer in return, however I would suggest to put together a nice package that includes VIP tickets for your event, free drinks and money.
Industry Experts: is there someone considered an expert in your music niche / product / service? Make sure that you reach out either via Linkedin or via Email. Normally those specialists work for important industry magazines and outlets, so assure that your pitch is on point, professional and catchy. Give them a reason to want to talk about you!
Bloggers / Influencers: These creators have the power to influence their community by recommending your music, product or event on social media or via their blog. Their followers are normally very loyal and thanks to them you can seriously move the needle in your promotion.
Working with influencers normally involves an upfront payment for their services. For example, you could request a full coverage of your event (before-during-after), using your new release for their reels, TikToks and Spotify playlists or reselling your product with a special promo-code.
Fan Pages: If you are working within a very specific niche (for example electronic music), there are thousand fan pages out there which promote artists, events, products and services in return for money. You can ask them to post a video of you or your event (including tags and hashtags) to create a cool hype around your music and event. Just be aware that there are MANY scams as well, so ensure that you are researching properly who to work with.
Celebrities / VIPs: As you can imagine, this type of marketing is extremely expensive so I would only recommend it if you have the budget and if you did some research on this person's following base. It makes no sense to work with a celebrity just because of their reach when their community does not fit yours. To work with VIPs it is important that you go through their management so avoid sending cold messages on Instagram as I guarantee that nobody will reply to you.
Have you ever worked with influencers? What was your experience? Let me know in the comments below!