It’s all great and well to know how to market your business, but if you don’t have or know about the tools then you might be struggling. By struggling I mean you might be feeling that you’ve not got that much time to do all things that are required to succeed as a DJ e.g. aspects covered in my DJ Marketing Plan article here.
Now let’s get into the top marketing tools that are going to benefit you in your marketing toolkit. Some you may or not be aware of but with a few tips to get you started with each tool will set you on your way.
Intro to Marketing & Tools
Marketing is a process of:
1) knowing your target audience,
2) the goal in which you want to achieve (become a successful DJ) and
3) using the right marketing tools to help get you there.
There usually needs to be a planner in place for you to get going which you might of seen in my DJ Marketing Plan article here. Below are a set of tools to help you get there and to select which marketing tools you think will work for you.
Remember not everything is going to work, be selective initially instead of spreading yourself too thinly and also try not to spend too much on tools in the beginning.
Website & Blog Posts
What is it?
A website and blog is going to be your online business card / CV. An easily accessible page that anyone can find by typing in the address or finding through search engines.
Goal / Purpose?
A website is going to be your hub in which you can link to other marketing content and activity in your DJing world and brand.
You DJ website will drive traffic from fans to enjoy your music and understand when your next DJ gig is being held.
Traffic from industry people looking to book you will be another reason why your DJ website exists too.
How to leverage it?
To leverage it there are several ways, including email marketing, blog posts, linking to DJ mixes, products, podcasts, basically anything that can shout about you as a DJ or compliments another marketing activity to help you grow your DJ brand.
Resources:
It’s fairly easy to get setup with a templated website these days what with the evolution of website services such as:
If you have a bit of a background in websites then it might be good to go down the WordPress route and self host on Bluehost for example.
If you don’t have too much experience, then opt for the more user-friendly type services mentioned above.
Email marketing
What is it?
Email marketing is the process of capturing email addresses into lists allowing you to then provide value to those lists of people with content, offers, useful updates and advice etc.
Goal / Purpose?
The goal is to build an email audience to engage with on a regular basis which benefits both your email audience and yourself.
How to leverage it?
Usually you can gain an email subscriber list by providing something of free, an incentive, to entice the subscriber that there’s something of value in exchange for their email address.
Sometimes people might subscribe just because they love you as a DJ and your music / mixes too.
Make sure that email content is not boring and benefits the subscribers when reading it.
For example, sending an email to your email list and audience with an update regarding your upcoming DJ events. People like to go to clubs and music events – WIN. You need to draw a crowd to your DJing music events, WIN.
It’s a win win for both parties.
Just remember to focus on providing the most valuable content possible otherwise people will unsubscribe until one day your email list has shrunk in size.
Resources:
Here are some email marketing platforms that I’ve come across in my time and have been recommended by others too.
TIP: Depending on how you set up your website and which platform or service, there may be a preferred email marketing option in there. Sometimes you can get a discount this way, so keep your eyes out for a saving opportunity.
Spotify playlists
What is it?
Spotify is a monthly subscription music platform that allows users to play as much high quality music uploaded from record labels and artists.
Goal / Purpose?
As a DJ you can leverage the amount of people that use Spotify by grabbing a slice of the pie by getting people to listen to your DJ playlists. Therefore contributing to building brand awareness of your DJ name.
How to leverage it?
“Playlist targeting”.
A paid feature that allows you as a DJ to create your ultimate DJing playlists of music e.g. with your DJ name in the music playlist, and target other users (listeners).
By this I mean that you playlist list is likely to feature on the main homepage feed for a user to select.
Now you know the “playlist targeting” aspect that Spotify offers, here’s how you can leverage playlists in general.
- Create monthly top 20 playlists
- Create themed / music genre specific playlists
- Create your “record bag” playlist e.g. non-genre specific but all music you like
- Create playlists similar to Spotify e.g. based on activity or mood, such as “Chill zone coffee mood” or “Saturday night dance vibes”.
How to promote them?
- Embed onto your DJ brand website for your fans and listeners to access and follow. They might not even know or be aware that you create playlists on Spotify.
- Submit your playlists to music based websites and forums e.g. Reddit, Soundplate etc.
- Share on your social media and also try to network with other DJs or contacts to see if they will share your Spotify playlists.
YouTube
What is it?
Is video platform allowing people to upload their videos.
Goal / Purpose?
The goal for you as a DJ is to promote yourself on YouTube with amazing content expressing yourself as a much as you can to gain followers and listeners to your music. Brand awareness can be achieved through this.
How to leverage it?
Create DJ mixes, record them live on video and then put them onto your YouTube channel. Showcase what you’re all about musically as a DJ.
Some DJs and channels record live DJ sets in great locations outdoors and shoot video using drones. Check out Cercle if you’ve not seen it before I think it will blow your mind how amazing some of the locations the DJs perform.
Make your videos and channel a bit about you and your journey too. Some DJs talk about advice and tips you can learn from, how they DJ, their experiences in the music industry and general travelling around gig to gig.
Social Media
What is it?
Platforms in which you can release written content and video content to an audience.
Goal / Purpose?
The purpose is to build a following of fans that like you as a DJ and the music that you mix. Social media can help promote events and your music to an audience that are interested in what you do as a DJ.
How to leverage it?
Similar to YouTube, you can create content that’s informative, entertainment based, musical, DJ mix based and a “day in a life” type content.
Take note of which content appears to pop the most in terms of how many visitors you get to certain types of content. This will allow you to refine the content strategy that you place on social media over time. Not point in releasing content that people don’t want to consume.
Hootsuite
What is it?
Hootsuite is a platform that integrates all of your social media platforms into Hootsuite itself. Allowing you to then create social media posts that can be released and scheduled to publish on all or select social media channels.
Goal / Purpose?
Gain a tremendous amount of time back by creating one post that’s launched to many platforms. Allow you to maximise your personal time and gain the best amount of value back from all of your social media channels.
How to leverage it?
Start by connecting all of your social channels to Hootsuite this will allow you to access all of them ready for publishing to all platforms.
Then create great content that’s more than likely to resonate with you topic, industry and specific to DJing.
Listen to social media channels and feeds to help engage with other people and their channels. Working closely with other DJs and interacting across platforms helps to build up some authority in your music scene.
Communicate with people commenting on your posts and also thank people who re-post your content too. This also helps with engagement in your channel in the long run.
As mentioned in the social media section it’s really important to understand the analytics behind your posts across the various platforms. That way you can refine content that resonates with your audience over time.
Targeted Online Advertising
What is it?
Paid advertising online in the form of display, text or video adverts, targeting specific audiences across multiple social media platforms / websites.
Goal / Purpose?
Target specific niche audiences that might be interested in your DJ mixes, DJ services, music production releases.
The goal is to gain eyes on your DJ brand, traffic to your online platforms (website, social media, YouTube etc). Most importantly in return you should aim to gain DJ business and sales in return for the invested you’ve poured into advertising, otherwise it’s money down the drain.
How to leverage it?
Money into advertising must mean a return and value back to you. Therefore thinking about a strategy in which you want to reach a certain audience is key.
Google, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram are some great platforms to target potential clients to gain DJ gigs or purchasers of your music as a DJ producer.
When planning your strategy, figure out these things:
- What’s your goal? (brand awareness, sales, gaining DJ clients)
- Which platform has the largest audience related to your goals?
- Age of the target audience might be an important aspect, therefore check your website analytics vs what the platforms you will be targeting say the ages of their users are.
- Get the right equipment for recording videos if you’re going down the video route.
- Ring fence an appropriate budget, don’t over spend.
- Get to a good level of understanding with each platform when using advertising so that you don’t waste time with incorrect targeting.
- Email capture is a good way to glean further value out of paid advertising. For example, offer a FREE DJ Mix in exchange for an email sign-up. That way you have a certain degree of control with communication between a specific set of people that are interested in you as a DJ.
Tip: get good quality audio equipment and DJ equipment if you’re going to be targeting people that are expecting high quality audio and video. Check out my top recommended DJ equipment here.
Niche Industry Websites & Forums
What is it?
Websites that are industry specific which cover content and topics within a niche area. Important for you as a DJ if you’re into a sub-genre of music, in the wedding DJ business, are a mobile party DJ, corporate DJ for example.
Goal / Purpose?
To interact on these websites to make new contacts which may lead to future business.
How to leverage it?
Research niche forums and websites. Make a list of them and then figure out if they fit with your goals e.g. trying to increase brand awareness, new business etc.
Be as friendly and as helpful as possible on these types of websites, especially if you’re trying to win over some DJing gigs.
Becoming active on a regular basis will help you stand out from the crowd over a longer period of time.
Even becoming a contributor to writing articles and creating a dedicated profile of you as a DJ on a directory type website might help you gain the DJing gigs or awareness that you need in your area of DJing. Might not be applicable to all types of DJs out there but worth mentioning this in the article.
Gain as much information about your niche genre of music and industry, this might shed some light on invaluable information that you need to grow your career / business.
Podcasts / Radio
What is it?
A podcast or radio allows you to publish regular shows which cover music and topics related to the area of DJing that you’re in.
Goal / Purpose?
Your aim is to gain followers and a subscriber base. Through this it will help you to gain brand awareness of you as a DJ.
How to leverage it?
Some DJs run podcasts to purely advertise their DJing skills by putting mixes and doing a few shoutouts. Some have record labels and so want to push out their new music.
Certain DJs I’ve seen like Danny Savage run podcasts that purely discuss marketing which is great for DJs that are trying to get better at marketing.
You can promote your DJing events that you’re running or DJing at in the future. Anything goes really, you can steer the content and topics that are covered alongside the music (if any) that’s played.
Live Streaming (Mixcloud / Twitch)
What is it?
DJing live on the internet on a platform such as Mixcloud or Twitch for example. YouTube and Facebook are other popular platforms too.
Goal / Purpose?
Entertain and show off your DJ skills to an audience that want to listen to music and listen to you DJ.
How to leverage it?
Promote your live stream events on your social media and emails prior to the actual live stream. Drum up some excitement for it.
Prepare by having some great props and design features in the DJ booths, e.g. plants, posters, lights. Just creative stuff for visually looking different and cool.
Get a green screen for some brilliant visuals in the background. Add some visual FX too during the DJ set to help add that professional touch to your live streams.
Record your DJ sets when you are live streaming.
Then publish them onto other platforms such as YouTube so that people can re-watch your DJ sets online.
Repeat this process on a regular basis and people will start to notice you over time. In the future you can leverage this to get more DJ gigs.
Canva
What is it?
Online FREE graphic design tool for banners, social media posts, website images and YouTube graphics.
Goal / Purpose?
Create great looking images that are professional looking that you can use for your marketing materials. Cheaper than getting a designer if you are on a budget.
How to leverage it?
Learn how to use Canva with their online tutorial section.
Use their pre-made templates so that you can draw upon creativity to drag and drop your own images.
Use different image dimensions etc which are pre-made for you to use on various social media platforms.
Related Questions
How do I market myself as a DJ?
Creating a clear brand as a DJ is a starting point. Then creating all the necessary marketing and promotional resources such as a website, press kit, demo mixes and social media. Networking is key to reaching out to potential leads in order to gain business as a DJ, whatever type of DJ you are! Read here for more details: https://beatmatchguru.com/dj-marketing-plan-the-ultimate-guide-for-all-djs/
How can I promote my DJ business?
Promoting a DJ business involves techniques such as business cards and networking, business related websites e.g. weddings or sub-genre music styles, social media networking, also building a website with great content is another method.
What should I post on Instagram as a DJ?
Photos with other DJs, DJ studio photos, gig event photos, gig event poster / flier photos, photos while you are travelling. Taking photos to leverage the social media accounts of other DJs and industry people is great to get your brand out there on Instagram.