NAMM U - Marketing

Leading social media consultant Jenn Herman hosted a session on current Facebook success strategies at The 2019 NAMM Show. The presentation offered practical tips to help you make the most effective use of your time and business presence on the social media platform. Here are highlights. (Watch the video for the full session.) Every post should have a purpose. If your content doesn’t serve a purpose or isn’t of value, it won’t generate engagement. You need to know your “why.” What’s your end goal? Your content strategy should be to educate, entertain and provide value—not to sell

New changes to Facebook are and have been impacting your audience reach and engagement, yet there’s no instruction manual to help you navigate these waters. In this session for music retailers, brands and musicians, Dan Shinder, founder and CEO of Drum Talk TV, shows how to make the most of your Facebook presence. Shinder has grown Drum Talk TV’s Facebook page to more than 1 million active followers organically, with no paid or boosted ads. Here, he reveals his best tips to get maximum reach and engagement, even—and especially—in lieu of these changes. He also explores changes to

At 2018 Summer NAMM, Ben Blakesley, social media and content marketing leader, musician, and author of Get Social: A Practical Guide To Using Social Media For Business, shared the keys to social media success. Blakesley revealed that adding value and being consistent are what drive social media success. Here are his four steps for effective social marketing. (Watch the video for the full session.) 1. Set Your Strategy Blakesley directed businesses to identify their marketing objectives and marry each with a social media benefit. Also, put purpose and direction behind everything y

Video is critical to marketing your business, but every social media platform calls for a different strategy. Whether it’s YouTube, Instagram or Facebook, you’ll want to know about the ins and outs, do’s and don’ts, and latest updates on video for each platform. In this session from The 2019 NAMM Show, Tim Spicer of Spicer’s Music moderated a panel of rock-star marketers in the music business, who revealed their video success secrets for YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. They covered how they use different social platforms for video, why they might abstain from a particular platfor

We live in an age of disruption. Every week, it seems there’s a new strategy, technology or social media that’s a “must use” or game-changer for your music retail business or brand. But in this endless quest for the next big bright, shiny business object, it’s easy to forget that while everything has changed, nothing is different. Trust, connection, consistency and service will always trump the next app to hit the market. And at The 2019 NAMM Show, Scott Stratten hosted an inspiring NAMM U Breakfast Session to help NAMM members navigate this age of disruption. A marketing rebel an

At 2018 Summer NAMM, Dan Abel, director of marketing for Reverb.com and former marketing manager at YouTube, looked at five successful YouTube case studies that apply to the music products business. He outlined their different strategies and even some missed opportunities in their video marketing. Abel also remarked that each user is effective at engaging its audience. Here are highlights from the session. (Watch the video to view the full presentation.) Andrew Huang (Artist) Huang got his start creating one type of video, the song challenge, and it turned into an episodic serie

At The 2018 NAMM Show, Tim Spicer of Spicer’s Music shared his best tips for hosting events that help drive business. As a NAMM Top 100 retailer and winner of Best Marketing and Promotions in 2017, Spicer offered best practices, his formula for success and valuable lessons learned along the way. Here are session highlights. (Watch the video for the full presentation.) PLANNING AND COORDINATING EVENTS 1. Decide why you want to hold an event. Is it to create sales and new customers, showcase a new product, or build name recognition? In 2017, Spicer’s Music held 28 in-store events,

At The 2018 NAMM Show, Lee Anderton of Andertons Music, NAMM's 2018 Dealer of the Year, shared tips for getting noticed on YouTube. According to Anderton, he grew his online business from $2 million to more than $30 million annually in seven years, and YouTube was critical in making that happen. Andertons Music currently employs a full-time video staff of three and eight regular part-time presenters. The company releases at least one video per day across four channels. Early on, Anderton contacted guitarist Rob Chapman to do a couple of videos for the store. Anderton eventually mi

Does your website need an all-out makeover, or are you just looking for some do’s and don’ts to update your site? At 2017 Summer NAMM, Tracy Leenman of Musical Innovations, NAMM’s 2015 Dealer of the Year, and panelists Dan Fugate of Blues Angel Music and Allen McBroom of Backstage Music shared what they’ve learned through their recent experiences with website redesigns. McBroom and Fugate were both forced to do complete revamps when their websites crashed. Likewise, Leenman did a makeover to her site. Her advice: Do it before you have to. Here are their tips for a successful webs

At The 2018 NAMM Show, Dan Abel, director of marketing for Reverb, shared top-level information about YouTube, designed for music retailers who are already managing a YouTube presence—and for anyone interested in making YouTube more than just a video archive. As a former YouTube staff member who developed strategic partnerships, Abel emphasized the need to think about how you use YouTube. He then offered five ideas to make your videos relevant and to ensure you’re getting in front of the right people, in the right way, in an ongoing fashion. 1. Get discovered with Search Think a

At The 2018 NAMM Show, web designer Michelle Schulp shared her experience with designing and building websites for clients from different industries, including the AV/pro audio industry. She revealed her tips and design secrets for effective retail websites that make a big impact. Here are highlights from the session. (Also, watch the video to view the complete presentation.) Know Your Audience Schulp began by stressing the importance of knowing your audience and why they’re visiting your website. Likewise, know yourself, why you’re uniquely able to give customers value and what

The digital consumer has changed business as we know it. What does this mean to the music products industry? How can your business keep up, and even lead, in this new reality? Following his standing-room-only session at The NAMM Show, international marketing thought leader Marcus Sheridan returned to 2018 Summer NAMM for a NAMM U Breakfast Session. This time, Sheridan revealed proven steps for turning a traditional organization into a powerhouse for this age of online marketing, e-commerce and disruptive technologies. Using examples from inside and outside the industry, he showed