10/27/14

Marketing Strategy

All right. I’ve completed my Competitor Analysis — time to figure out how the pedal hits the metal! How exactly am I going to attract my target audience, so I can then attract brands?

This is where I really have to create a road map on how to get from here to there, and be able to measure achievement. I need to set:

1) objectives
2) rationale for each objective
3) strategies for achieving each objective
4) measurement mechanisms to determine success

There’s another marketing acronym that serves as a litmus test for each objective and strategy – SMART:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Results-Oriented
Time Bound
No room here for vague! So keep checking that each objective and strategy meets the SMART criteria.

Since it’s DIY and just me, myself and I, rather than create multiple long-term, overarching objectives for my marketing plan, I am going to be very precise and focus on one at a time, creating a new objective once I have succeeded. Since my whole model is fairly simple, and I’m the only one involved, this will work. I’m going to create objectives in phases. I hope to only have two phases. Once those two phases are achieved then I will be in a new place from a revenue and time standpoint, and I will have walked through a door or turned a corner, which then provides me with a new vantage point from which to reassess and update this whole plan!

Phase I:

Objective:
Achieve one major feature article with a media leader whose audience demographics are a match.

Rationale:
This will achieve visibility in an influential medium that other media will follow and spread, and provide credibility to follow-up in my social media efforts, increasing traffic significantly to Ever Entertainment.

Strategies:
-write a series of layered, new concept theme press releases to be sent out on a staggered schedule to achieve a minimum of 4 impressions with media.
-create press kit.
-create traditional & online media database, complete with emails to send press releases to.
-send press releases.
-set up publish tracking search.
-create social media daily plan to implement simultaneously.
Measurement:
-track media kit acceptance
-track publish/reference success
-track media contact
-track social media mentions/retweets/favorites/likes
-track traffic changes to all internet properties

Phase II:

Objective:
Achieve renewing $50,000/yr cash brand sponsorship(s) for Sere, & clothing/jewelry trade sponsorship for Sere.

Rationale:
This will enable Sere to continue to perform live concerts with the proper attire, upgrade video/lighting equipment to achieve the proper setting, and allow the contracting of a web develop/design firm to revamp Ever Entertainment.

Strategies:
-research and identify brands that are a Golden Rule and target audience match.
-create a sponsorship tailoring process.
-create database for those brands.
-begin a call/email campaign to close sponsorship deals.

Measurement:
-Closed sponsorship deals.

This is a bootstrap marketing strategy that I know I can implement at near zero cost and just my time & effort. I can and may get more creative as I go along, still trying for the near zero cost and minimal time approach, by putting together some trades, in-kind or contra sponsorship deals. For instance, I may consider approaching media to trade, furthering increasing my visibility with the expectation of increasing my audience traffic. I may consider approaching a video/lighting expert to trade consulting to increase the appeal of my live online concerts. I may consider approaching actors to trade for exposure and demo tapes and set up a jazz club set in my production studio (trading a wedding rental, a caterer, a winery for sponsorships) for my live online shows. The possibilities are only limited by imagination, and of course, time.

Remember, everything is fluid. The less complex and less decision-makers involved, the more fluid it can stay.

What’s next? I now have to make this plan into a living, breathing action plan by now actually moving all the strategies to my calendar and DO them — time for the rubber to meet the road! Are you ready?!

Well, it’ll have to wait until next time. Gotta rehearse!

DIY Music Sponsorship Journal – 10-27-14.  Eliyora Entertainment LLC.  Ever Entertainment®  © Paradunai LLC.  All international rights reserved.  All trademarks property of Paradunai LLC.  All personas, concepts and original songs created and performed by Sherese Chrétien.