8 Ways To Convince People To Buy Your Music

If you want to be a success with your music industry career, you must master the arts of discharging effective publicity, promotion and marketing for your business. You also need to be conversant with writing good promotional materials. From simple e-mail promotions to fan newsletters, from Web pages to full-blown advertisements, drafting persuasive and motivating promotional material is crucial. Here are some tips to get you started.

Focus only on your clients or prospects

Talk directly to the people who would buy your music products and services. Carefully and completely answer their questions and objections. Buyers are skeptical. They want to know what's in it for them. Always focus on the buyer and what he/she wants to achieve (not on what you sell). First, find out what people want, need and desire. Second, show these people how your music products and services give them what they want, need, and desire. Good promotional writing convinces people to buy because it clearly shows that what you sell is what they really want.

Turn every feature into a benefit
Provide clear benefits and the results of using your music products and services. too. People don't care about features. They are only interested in benefits and results: their benefits and their results, NOT yours! For example, a feature is something such as "We have low prices." That is not nearly as motivating as selling the low prices benefit: "You save money." Everybody likes to save money.

People usually want only two things: to gain something or to remove some pain. As you prepare your promotional material, frame your emotional and logical appeals using both tactics.

Create action and urgency
Promotional writing has only one purpose: to sell more of your music products and services right away. It's not about image building or being polite. It's about telling people how they can benefit from what you sell only when they act right away and buy it.. Write in the active voice and use action verbs. Push, motivate, captivate, and ultimately, sell what you offer.

Create a compelling offer
It's essential to include an offer in your promotions. Offers include hard offers of the "buy this now" variety, or they can include soft offers such as "call for more information" or "visit our Web site". Include a mix of hard and soft offers with every promotion you send out.

Have a deadline with consequences
The best offers have deadlines such as "Hurry! This offer expires May 1, 2001". The deadline motivates people to take action fast. You might remind them of what happens when they don't act right away. They usually miss out on the deal: "Order today and save N40. After that you pay full price for our CD."


Don't forget to ask them to take action
Explain what you want to happen next. "To get all these benefits, order your copy now!" As the salespeople of the world often say: ask for the order.

Promotional parts
Your best promotional weapon is a personal letter (e-mail or postal) written as a friend would write to another friend (your prospect or client). These letters should include the following parts:

* Headline. Don't waste time. Put your strongest benefit right at the top of the page or in the subject line of your e-mail.

* State the problem. After the headline, indicate that you understand the problems your clients or prospects face. These problems can be both the gain they want to acquire and/or the pain they want to do away with.

* Sell the solution -- you! Indicate the solution to the problems you've outlined. You might want to say: "We can help." That solution is, of course, the music products and services you sell.

* Pile on the benefits. Explain all the benefits of the solution you provide.

* At this point, you can discuss some of the product's or service's features (size, color, etc.)

* If necessary, take a moment to introduce the people behind what you are selling.

* Testimonials and endorsements from media and other satisfied clients, can reassure people that you deliver what you promise.

* Now, make your best offer and ask for the sale.

* Don't forget to include any necessary follow-up procedures such as how to order.

* Use a Post script or P. S. that restates your most compelling benefit and offer as one more sales push.

FAQ promotion
Another effective promotional tactic is a question and answer format. Again, lead with a headline, state the problems facing your clients and prospects, show how you can solve these problems (through what you sell), address every sales objection, and lastly, provide instructions on how the person can get what you offer.

Finally, don't neglect your need for writing promotional material that works to sell more of what you offer. These tips should help you get started in the right direction.