A music marketing plan is an integral part of a artist’s toolset.

Writing music, rehearsing with bandmates, recording in the studio, and performing tend to form the foundation of a artist’s career.

But marketing isn’t any less important. Many artists digitally distribute their music to all major platforms only to realize they don’t have many listeners, and that can be discouraging.

A music marketing plan will not only give you a high-level view of what you’re out to accomplish as an artist, but it can also provide you with concrete action steps you can take to get to where you want to go in your career.

Here is how to create an effective marketing plan for your music:

1. Define your brand
2. Identify your audience
3. Establish your goals
4. Determine an action plan
5. Create a budget 

1. Define your brand

In working with artists, I often emphasize that defining your brand makes all other steps nearly trivial. Why is that? Because knowing your brand makes every other decision easier.

So, who are you?

I like to think of branding in two parts. The first is your visual brand—colors, fonts, logos, costumes, etc. The second is your purpose. Why do you exist? What grand mission do you intend to accomplish? What will you be remembered for?

Your purpose can (and should) extend from the type of music you write all the way over to how you communicate.

Though purpose is rarely “made up” or contrived, personas can sometimes be spun upin the marketing of artists. Consider the careers of music industry titans who you feel aren't genuine—posturing can certainly play into high-stakes branding at times.

Usually, though, your brand is something you already are—something you stand for and believe in. It doesn’t matter whether it’s as juvenile as throwing the best college parties, as zeitgeist as female empowerment, or as mission-oriented as Christianity—it's the driving factor of your motivation.

Aligning your brand with your identity makes it easy to stick to. After all, being consistent with your brand is how you will be remembered.

Optional tip: Conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. Some artists and bands have found this type of analysis helpful. The main downside is that it can be challenging to gain an accurate view of these criteria (can you honestly say you know what all your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are?) without costly outside consultants, focus groups, and deep audience research.. Additionally, technology and markets change quickly—by the time you assemble your SWOT analysis, it risks already being outdated. While I wouldn’t put too much of a point on this exercise in defining your brand, the process can be tremendously helpful for crucial marketing projects, like promoting album releases. 

2. Identify your audience

Now that you know what your brand is, figuring out who your fans are and where you can find them is much easier than you might think.

As a musician you've already started to grow your audience, so there’s no need to start from scratch. You can take advantage of a variety of free and low-cost online tools to extract the demographic and psychographic data you need. For instance:

• You can install Google Analytics tracking on your website and track the demographic data of your visitors (age, gender, location, etc.) as well as interests
• You can search for a band you sound like on Similarweb and unlock a treasure trove of demographic information, audience interests, marketing channels, traffic sources, social networks, and more 
• You can find an artist or band you sound like on Instagram and follow their followers, DM them, learn about them, and identify what they have in common

With this information at hand, you can plan:

• How to set up your website to appeal to your fans
• Which social networks to build a presence on
• Which magazines, websites, or companies to build a relationship with
• Which streaming platforms to prioritize (hint – it’s usually Spotify and Apple Music)
• How to build an ongoing relationship with your fans (email, text, fan subscriptions, etc.)

Pro tip: Aligning your brand with audience interests is sneaky and powerful. For instance, if you know your potential fans love video games, you could drop the name of their favorite game in your next song (in some rare instances, the company may come after you for using their trademark, so user beware). If there’s a good fit, you could even book performances at relevant video game conferences. 

3. Establish your goals

Here's where we consider what we want to accomplish. I like to think of goals in blocks of 90-day sprints. Each year only has four of these (they’re also called “quarters”), and during each of these 90-day periods, realistically, you can only accomplish one thing.

Sure, you could go after a lot of small goals and dedicate less time to each. But what if you could only do one thing per quarter? This all-or-nothing approach forces you to think in terms of what’s going to make the biggest difference in your music career instead of flirting with smaller tasks that don't move your career needle forward.

One bigger-picture exercise you can do, though, is to consider what you’d like to have accomplished at the end of a year and break it down into quarter-sized chunks. These smaller 90-day goals will help you get to the goal post you envision reaching at the year's end.

Here are a few examples of good 90-day goals for musicians just getting started:

• Book and perform 12 shows (four shows per month)
• Increase Instagram following by 300 followers (100 per month – if this is easy for you, aim higher)
• Record and release a new single

Of course, you should be thinking long-term as well, whether it’s to perform at Wembley Stadium or to open for Kendrick Lamar. I would more accurately describe these as “dreams.” While dreams are essential, in the early stages of your career you should always be thinking in terms of what can be achieved now within your 90-day sprint. 

4. Determine an action plan

Now that you've defined your goals, it’s time to map out how you’re going to approach every aspect of your plan by choosing which music marketing strategies to use.

It’s all well and good to have “increase our TikTok following by 300 followers” as your next 90-day goal. But if you have no idea what your next steps are besides making more content, chances are you will not reach your target. 

When it comes to reaching goals, I like to think in terms of the following:

• What promises can you make? For example, “I promise to create and post three new videos per week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 1 PM during this quarter, and to share these with the band by 9 PM on Saturday.” The more specifically you define the steps you'll be taking, the better.
• What requests can you make of others? For instance, “I request our bassist Jerry create one short bass lesson per week and post it to TikTok by Thursday at 7 PM and let the band know it’s done by 8 PM the same day.” There are plenty of other requests you can make: follow us, share our latest post, let us take over your TikTok profile (“guest” post), interview us, cover us on your podcast, etc.
• Who can you consult? Conversations form the foundation of results in the real world. Don’t forget! If you’re not talking with anyone or meeting anyone new, your career is probably at a standstill. Consulting other people in the music industry not only expands your knowledge base and broadens your network of peers and industry professionals, it could also lead to your next opportunity for career development.

When it comes to achieving goals, you must be able to monitor and evaluate your efforts on an ongoing basis. The best way to do that is with built-in accountability.

While you don’t need fancy software to track your performance, I still advise:

• Writing down all your goals with pen and paper
• Performing weekly reviews and charting your progress (line graphs make it crystal clear how things are progressing—draw them out manually or use a spreadsheet)
• Using a project management tool like ClickUp to set and manage your goals 

5. Create a budget

Not everything has to cost money, but let’s be realistic: whether it’s setting up a domain name and creating a music website, distributing your songs, printing new merch, or buying a pack of guitar strings, promoting your music can involve small costs that add up over time.You may even want to leverage advertising to reach the goals you set.

In any case, the correct approach is to create a budget, set a goal for your project, and build an action plan to accomplish it.

Let’s explore the 90-day sprint example from earlier:

If you’re going to be booking and performing 12 shows this quarter, your primary costs will probably be gas, PA or gear rentals, accessories (drumsticks, batteries, guitar strings, etc.), and advertising if you’re thinking about promoting the shows more broadly.

Hopefully, these costs will be offset by guarantees, ticket sales, merch, etc., but it’s always a good idea to work out the costs in advance.

Additionally, here’s a little mind hack that can help when it comes to managing your project funds: think in terms of how you’re going to spend, not in terms of money you’re going to lose. Money is fun to spend, and spending (rather than conserving) is where you’re going to see growth. 

Budgeting is essential because when you’re crystal clear on where the funds are going, you can make decisions without hesitation.

Pro tip: when it comes to marketing and advertising spend, always consider what will make the biggest impact based on the size of your investment. Not all channels are created equal. This is where knowing your audience and where they like to hang out will really pay off because you can show up where they’re already spending their time.

Every artist must create a music marketing plan if they intend to use their time wisely and take decisive steps towards their goals. But music marketing for artists doesn’t need to be hard!

Final thoughts

To set yourself up for success, ensure that your marketing strategy matches your goals. Measure your efforts as you progress, and tweak as needed. Your music marketing plan is there to serve you – you aren’t there to serve your plan!

Getting noticed isn’t necessarily easy, but all the tools you need to be able to do the job are already there. All you need to do is to find the most direct route to your goal. Focus on the activity that moves the needle and leave the rest alone.