We’ve all heard the marketing buzz – it’s all about engagement, with high profile influencers maximising the use of social media. Today the most successful bands are the ones that know how to engage their fans. Of course, fans bring recognition but importantly, they help create financial success as well.

Digital channels give access to fans and to musicians alike which means the relationship between them is direct and measurable.

Here are some key lessons businesses can learn from the music industry and musicians in particular about how to engage and create a loyal fan-base.

Get the conversation started

Whether you’re a new band, a startup, or a more established business you need to remember that consumer expectations across the board have changed dramatically. So much of our lives are online, using numerous platforms, which means it’s becoming harder to hold people’s attention. Relationships with publishers and media have also evolved with traditional media losing its clout, and you need to think differently about how to get your message out and keep your audience interested.

The power is being handed back to fans and consumers, who are driving the conversations on social media and user generated content platforms such as TripAdvisor. This means more work is required to create and nurture audience relationships, but it also provides new opportunities for conversations with fans, finding out what they want and keeping them updated and informed about what’s in the pipeline.

Steps to take

Authenticity rules

Marketing is becoming increasingly story-led. Artists, brands and businesses need to show a more complete and authentic picture of who they there and what they stand for.

But it’s not just about your story – you need to be able to talk to your audience in a way that shows you want to listen to theirs too. Authentic people are those who ask questions and open up conversations. As in daily life, these conversations will be multi-genre, they may be political, they won’t always relate directly to what you do or make, but they will show your values and identity. Avoid sitting on the fence.

A good example… when your fans are getting fed-up with ticket prices, availability and secondary sales do something about it.  Ed Sheeran did.  He went out of his way to ensure tickets to his shows were only available through reputable ticket exchanges.

Create your niche community

User generated content platforms are driving conversations between fans and artists/businesses. We’ve all seen how powerful fan communities can be on social media platforms such as Twitter, so it is important to focus on creating your own niche community around your identity.

Subba-Cultcha.com is one example of a music community that is following the model of the likes of TripAdvisor. Fans can not only upload their reviews and read others but have a place where they can buy tickets for experiences they love, all reviewed by like-minded peers whose opinions they know they can trust.

Any space that can offer a sense of exclusivity, and give audiences control over what they see and what is sold to them will keep people engaged.

Make use of the data

There are so many ways you can use technology to understand your audience’s online behaviours – and you don’t need to employ any shady or privacy invading tactics to do so. Remember, anything you or they publish digitally is a tool to discover what your target audience responds to, enabling you to anticipate future patterns trends in more granular detail.

Some tools that will help you measure and monitor audience behaviour include Google Analytics, and Amplitude, a platform that allows you to track user response trends in real time.

What is important is to understand what is driving those numbers – it will be worth the investment of time.

Give generously

Incentivise your following and give them rewards for their presence, for example, competitions, exclusive first samples/listens to new products and music, follower discounts on merchandise, etc.

Radiohead let their fans decide what to pay for their album ‘In Rainbows’ with their ‘pay what you want’ scheme – showing fans that they cared about them, and their relationship with them wasn’t just about the money.

Work out what is most appropriate for your business and the stage that you are at – for example if you want to increase your email database, give them an incentive to sign up, if you want to encourage more word of mouth brand ambassadors, use merchandise.

But show restraint

Don’t give everything you’ve got in the hope that people will return the favour! It must be employed with restraint, and there needs to be some benefit to you. Free content and services are powerful means of showcasing what you are about and giving people the feeling of being a valuable part of the club.

For musicians it can be a difficult balancing act – open access can help you get a viral hit and a loyal following, but you have to be paid for what you produce. Whether you’re a musician or a business – remember, it’s also much harder to roll back and begin restricting access to your content when you started by giving things away for free. 

There are a few big success stories of artist’s having been discovered through giving away content; Carly Ray Jepsen, Shawn Mendes and even Mr. Bieber himself, but there are many more not so successful stories whereby providing free music via streaming platforms didn’t provide the big break the artist was hoping for. 

In some cases it can even lead to a backlash. For example, U2 gave away their album ‘Songs of Innocence’ free on the iPhone 6 – and it caused a massive backlash and didn’t generate the additional sales they had hoped for.

It’s the same with business, giving your product away for free doesn’t mean it will reach the masses, it just devalues the product.  Ever heard the brand slogan “reassuringly expensive”?

Take time to respond

It may not be possible to respond to every comment on your page, but you should be paying attention to them all. Take the time to respond to as many as you can; the positive, the negative, the suggestions and constructive criticism. If you are updating your site or products on offer, share an update and explain how audience feedback and comments helped to drive your decision. And if your community is not yet forthcoming with opinions and ideas, show you want to hear from them by conducting polls and asking questions – this can be easily done on social media channels, blog posts and via email campaigns. 

Trailers and sneak previews are a great way of giving your nearest and dearest fans a taste of what’s to come, whetting their appetite so-to-speak.  Childish Gambino is a great example of an artist who relishes fan engagement by providing sneak-peaks to new, sometimes even unfinished videos.  He continually reacts to the zeitgeist and comes up with ways to whet his fans appetite and keep them engaged.

And remember, if you leave them wanting more, make sure you’re responsive enough to follow up! 

Speak directly

Reaching people in private inboxes helps to add to the sense of community and involvement with something bigger. In an instant message age, communications direct to a personal inbox have more resonance. People don’t want intrusion or anything with a whiff of ‘salesy-speak’, so don’t bombard them every other day with your latest offers. Do keep in regular touch with well thought-out messages telling them something you know they will be interested in.

Where applicable this can also be employed with direct mail – used thoughtfully and with a specific purpose, it can be an effective tool for grabbing attention away from the digital noise. Communication shouldn’t come through just one channel; the conversation needs to continue offline, online, in store, at live events, and through product and service development.

Nowadays you want to attract actively engaged customers. Keep working on engaging and keeping them engaged and their enthusiasm will be a positive force for your business.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Jennings has worked in digital publishing and advertising his whole career. He previously worked in the US and UK for the Financial Times, he most recently launched the digital portfolio for Last Word Media. Mark Jennings set up Subba Media with the aim of disrupting the publishing market. Subba-cultcha.com is a fan generated music and festival reviews platform. Built from a strong loyal community, the content is produced by music fans and  festival goers, enabling artists and brand sponsors to reach a new, more engaged audience.

Web: http://www.subba-cultcha.com/

Twitter: @subbacultchacom

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/byfansforfans/

Kelvin Summoogum, Founder of miiCare – an AI-based assistive tech solution that uses tiny wireless sensors and wearable devices to allow older people to live safely at home – explores the hurdles of turning an idea into a market-ready product.

The process from an idea to a product which is out in the market has its challenges. Luckily, we can learn important lessons from other life-changing products, making the process smoother and easier.

It is important to remember that the idea is just the start of the story. The question: is are you ready to take the actions and do the hard work required to turn an idea into reality?

So many ideas are lost, or are eventually brought to life by others. How can you ensure that you bring your scientific product to market?

Test your idea out

You might think your idea is a breakthrough one, but does it have a place in the market? Are there any similar solutions out there? Is it actually possible to create? And, crucially, is it truly something that people want or need?

To answer these questions, you need to do some thorough research to understand what your market wants and test your idea as a concept before considering taking it further. You don’t want to spend time and money building a gadget that no one will actually use, after all.

I was fortunate in that my idea stemmed from an industry I was already deeply involved in. My role in helping healthcare providers to implement technological solutions meant that I had a good knowledge of which solutions already existed, which worked effectively, and which fell short.

I had also been speaking to and learning the needs of older people on a daily basis. I began to understand that they wanted assistance to help them look after their own health, but without having to leave their own homes – where they felt safe and comfortable – and move into a care home.

It then became clear that there was a gap between what older people needed and the solutions the industry was actually producing. That’s what triggered the idea for miiCare and I was already confident it had a clear space in the market.

If you’re not fortunate enough to be able to speak to your target market on a daily basis, finding ways to meet them, discuss their needs and challenges, and float your idea to them is essential to understanding your market viability.

Funding and development 

If you have reason to believe that you have a viable and original solution to a problem, then it’s time to make it a reality.

 

Sometimes entrepreneurs have an idea that requires a lot of technical expertise to produce. You’ll either have this know-how yourself, need to learn it (which may take years), or assemble a strong and reliable technical team to help you bring it to life.

As health tech was already a passionate interest of mine, I started to dabble with the miiCare concept in my spare time, and the system eventually began to take shape. But for the idea to really take off, I realised it had to become a business, rather than a hobby, which forced me to set some priorities.

When starting from the ground up, you realise that you need to invest a lot of your own money and be very creative in how you use your money. Every investment you make has to be stretched, so you’ll need to learn how to tap into existing resources in many creative ways.

In my case, I enrolled onto a PhD, which granted me an office, a laptop, access to information, resources and even PhD students who were dying to get involved in a real project. This environment also meant that I was able to bounce ideas off like-minded people and find some future team members and other allies. It’s unlikely you can pull it all off yourself, so collaboration is key.

It’s always worth investing some time to build a strong and reliable team. It really helps to have others to share the workload, but also for support and encouragement when things are not going according to plan, and to share in your successes when the hard work pays off.

If you’re bringing a brand new concept to life, you’ll be starting from scratch. If you’re expanding on an existing idea, though, you’ll have more than just a blank page to work from and will be able to find solutions that can be improved upon.

It’s also worth keeping an eye on existing components that could save you a lot of time. While I once considered designing miiCare’s sensors from scratch, I realised that mass-produced sensors which perform the same function were already available and were far cheaper to use in the long run.

Such decisions can minimise your R&D cycle, reducing the time and money it takes you to get your product to market. If you can obtain components that are good quality and have all the relevant certifications, you should take advantage.

Production and marketing costs can also add up. If you’ve spent much of your resources on R&D, this can become a real stumbling block later on. Fortunately, there are more funding sources than ever, especially if you have a proven concept and have completed your R&D.

To fund the production of miiCUBE, for example, we’re running an equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube, attracting over £300k from a variety of investors.

So, crowdfunding can be a way to gain funds from a fleet of investors who will be able to strengthen your business case, support your launch efforts, and prove that there’s a market interest.

Test with end-users

When building your idea, it’s also crucial to keep your end users in mind. Remember to regularly ask yourself, and ideally check with your potential customers, whether they will actually be able to use it.

We work with older people who are naturally technophobic and quick to lose trust when technology isn’t straight-forward and working as it should.

We also encountered software problems almost every day. While our code is written to allow the AI to react to various use cases, testing the product with the elderly introduced new incidents and behaviours that the AI tech couldn’t yet predict, meaning that the model would fail if we didn’t fix them.

This is why we’ve spent years making sure that our AI works in every scenario imaginable, and is able to detect the many different characteristics displayed by our users.

As a techie, I like to focus on features, but all of my snazzy capabilities would have been useless if an elderly person was unable to operate it. By asking that question, it shifted my focus from ‘can an elderly person adapt to the miiCUBE’ to ‘can miiCUBE adapt to the elderly’?

That simple change of phrase changed everything about the development.

Ultimately, you should constantly remind yourself of your purpose, maintain a strong level of discipline, and set key milestones. It’s also important to keep in touch with the outside world and engage with end users throughout the process.

Finally…getting ready to launch

There comes a time when you have to get the project out there just to get money in. You’ll also find development beginning to plateau; there are a limited number of changes you can make before the design process drags on and the product becomes obsolete.

You need to set some very strict disciplines and establish what your MVP needs to achieve and stop when you hit that stage. You’ll then be ready to push the project to the market and with the income generated, roll out updates. At miiCare, we make sure to involve our users, investors and other non-techie individuals in that process – they things differently and it is wise to follow their advice.

When you eventually come to filing a patent application, it’s important to be very careful who you ask for help. Ensure that they sign an NDA, in case they’re working with a potential competitor or have the potential to leak ideas – accidentally or otherwise.

I hope you find the practical example from my own experience useful. Enjoy the journey as you take your product forward.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelvin Summoogum, Founder and CEO of miiCare, a tech start-up which uses an innovative AI-based solution to give elderly people the choice to live independently in their own homes.

It mimics some of the human basic senses to create situational awareness and understand the health of a person, meaning that panic buttons or pendants are no longer required.

Summoogum lost his grandmother from a hip fracture, following a fall at home. Help was only provided the next morning after hours spent in pain and agony.

Often dubbed ‘the Amazon Echo for the elderly’, miiCare uses miiCUBE, an AI-powered assistive technology solution, which links with an ecosystem of sensors, wearable devices and telehealth equipment.

As well as monitoring movement and the use of appliances, miiCare records the vitals of users – allowing for the early depiction of illnesses – acts as a voice-activated home security and entertainment system and is even linked to a call centre of health professionals.

Web: https://miicare.co.uk/invest

Crowdfunding: https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/miicare/pitches/qay88q

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miiCAREuk/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/miiCAREuk

 

I was about to close my digital agency two years ago – I’d tried everything to save it, but it simply wasn’t working. I’d had to let six staff go!

But we signed a key client right at the last minute and the company was saved. From there, I have built the company up from two staff and no income to 20 staff and an almost seven figure turnover.

So, what did I learn along the way and what advice can I offer?

1. Cash is King. All industries go through waves, often unexpectedly, and you need to be able to brace against them as best as possible. This often simply means supporting drops in revenue with a cache of finance for rainy days. Aim for at least three months break-even in the bank for comfort.

TIP: Don’t spend all your profit – keep some back to help you ride and survive the rough times. Softening the impact of risks allows you to take more of them.

2. Keep up-to-date. Whilst the UK’s decision to Brexit had a huge impact on us, it was going to be a 50:50 decision either way, which meant we should have been better prepared.

TIP: Don’t be ignorant to wider scale events that might have a future impact, such as a change in governments, price of raw materials etc.

3. Data not guesswork. Track as much as you can about the operational side of your business. You ideally need to create a data dashboard and update it at least monthly, so you can compare to previous months or years, looking for any trends which might raise a flag.

TIP: By understanding the numbers in your own business you can spot problem early, and develop solutions by using hard data – not guesswork.

4. Don’t stop marketing. We had become too comfortable with the quality of our inbound leads. We had previously (Google) ranked really well, and complacency set in as a result.       We didn’t monitor the rankings as closely as we needed to, and so we simply slipped off the face of the web without realising.

TIP: It’s important to keep marketing, even when times are bad – you can’t build a business if no one is finding it and the leads aren’t coming in. Visibility is key.

5. Track your competitors. Our early impact in the space made us naively confident in our market share and we hadn’t realised how many competitors, like us, had grown to the same degree. No longer did we have first pick of the inbound leads; we had to work harder to reap the rewards.

TIP: Always keep an eye on the competition and ensure you are staying ahead of them, not slipping behind. Don’t neglect your peripheral vision.

6. Secret Shop your competitors. It is SO important to know what the competition is doing, from their inbound process, to their offering and the quality of the documentation in between.

TIP: Create a dummy project and subtly go through the ropes of testing them out. Find out what they do well (integrate it into your process) and discover where they are weak (ensure you don’t do the same). Learn from mistakes without even making them yourself.

7. Understand market pricing. An important aspect of your competitor analysis is to understand both their pricing and how customers will perceive yours. They may want to know your day rate to compare costs, so make sure you align with your market, even if you expect your quote to be much larger than your neighbour’s.

TIP: Get clear on your own pricing and that of your competitors.

8. Focus on a niche. Before our turn around we had an ambiguous company, offering both eCommerce and mobile apps, with no crossover customers. This didn’t work, so we divided the business to individually focus our marketing on clear customer propositions.

TIP: Find your niche and stick to it. Make sure all your marketing communicates your expertise in that niche, and don’t be tempted to try to be everything to everyone. A Jack of all trades is a master of none.

9. Culture. As a creative agency, we are stereotyped with a certain culture and we embrace it. Flexible working; monthly company catch ups (in the pub); bi-weekly retrospectives; internal Slack comms. All of this adds to the reasons why our staff are so committed to supporting each other to deliver great projects for our customers.

TIP: Develop a company culture that suits your business and your team. Work is not just about productivity – it’s also about enjoying what you do and giving you a reason to get up in the morning.

10. Team of trust. Take your time to employ; we did and it has really helped us flourish, but equally learnt from similar poor judgements. Surround yourself with trustworthy staff and give them as much autonomy as possible.

TIP: Build a great team around you by waiting to employ the right people – taking on the wrong people can be time consuming and costly, whereas the right team will help ensure the business thrives.

Businesses start and fail (often as fast), and it’s very important to look for signs that things aren’t as they should be. Unfortunately, we were too busy being busy to have one eye open on the market and the local economy. Don’t be as naive as I was; having confidence in your product and service can only protect you against so many things, some you simply have no control over, so be prepared!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anthony Main is Managing Director of The Distance, an app development company. Anthony has been developing apps since the first iPhone, and with his UK based team of digital natives, The Distance delivers intuitive mobile solutions for clients on both iOS and Android. From disruptive start-ups to global enterprises, including NHS, Bentley Motors, Virgin Trains, PGA Golf, Slimming World, and Astra Zeneca, The Distance supports solutions developed to meet all app based-challenges.

Web: https://thedistance.co.uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedistancehq

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedistancehq

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-distance/