Music Marketing Tips I Got From A South African Millionaire

I used to be a caffeine junkie, regularly waking up to an expresso at a nearby cafeteria when I spent some time in Carletonville in 2017. Whilst I sat there inhaling that addictive aroma, I felt the weight of a shadow fall onto my desk. It was the café owner!

He greeted me with a bold smile and introduced himself as Mr. Douglas. He just wanted to thank me for being consistent and with that I took the opportunity to ask him how to market Zim music. I mean I was in the presence of someone who had clearly built many business ventures and was still building more.

Mr Douglas took a napkin for the table and a pen and wrote one word.

CURIOSITY.

The word alone opened my mind as we discussed. See curiosity is responsible for a lot of inventions as well, but today we will talk about it in terms of marketing any product including music. In this article I will make my best attempt to plant ideas you can use to develop your own.

Albert Einstein is famous for having said, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

One thing we all agree on in a big world is that we know no one who knows everything. Curiosity hinges on that very lack of knowledge. We are only curious about things we don’t know.

For instance when that Facebook couple you’ve that has been cluttering the feed with pictures stops, you are curious to know, “What happened.” Curiosity is what has moved sex-tapes, news headlines, books, movies and products.

Let’s admit, whether you are a fan of Vimbai Zimuto or not, you were curious to watch her sensual video. Nothing goes viral without the aid of curiosity.

Mr. Douglas was spot on!

What is good marketing?

Good marketing is partly about your ability to make people curious enough about your message to give it attention whilst the other part being the ability to make them curious to know more.

So many content creators do good in making you curious. They don’t do very well at maintaining that curiosity. Sustained curiosity is usually what we refer to as interest.

Any marketing that cannot sustain interest beyond curiosity is terrible.

The main driver for curiosity!

Curiosity is driven by the appetite to know more and the fear of missing out (F.O.M.O) and you are about to learn how to manipulate this truth to your own advantage.

Here is how!

Disrupt Them, and have a plan!

There is something that marketing guru, Seth Godin calls the purple cow theory.

It is simple: Cows are generally boring, and you’d most probably drive past them on the Highway on your way to Murambinda. However if a particular cow were purple (or yellow, green… whatever) you’d probably stop and take pictures.

You’d be curious about many things.

Did they paint it?

Is the fur originally purple.

Whatever your question(s) may be, the cow would have effectively captured your attention by disrupting what you expect. Remember curiosity depends on not knowing.

Well where is this used in entertainment!

Tytan S’khokho appearing injured and in pain, a day before dropping a video where he was in a hospital.

Vimbai Zimuto posting nudes that cover only the vitals some weeks before a new video (which drives your primordial instincts in sane, because she is a work of art).

Lady Gaga wearing meat to an award show.

You get the gist!

People Are Curious To Know Your Process

I don’t know about you but whenever I stumble on a new artist I like, I go beyond the music. I want to know them. Who they are, where they are from and what their beliefs are.

It was interesting to watch a Takura documentary where he revealed that he once had to be a gardener to get by. It was inspiring. It was clever for him to include that phase in his life.

He also made his album title an acronym, so that you’d be curious what SHTDi meant. It is definitely an art to be able to do that.

We watched 8 Mile, Get Rich Or Die Trying and other movies based on artist lives because when someone makes music you like you want to know more.

It also has the reverse effect, because I started paying attention to 50 Cent more after that movie and to Meek Mill after a documentary I watched on him.

Actionable Steps

Look, I love to give these suggestions but I also like to see them in action. It is so many people that read these blogs and say , “Well said” then they forget and go about their business. That’s okay because am guilty of it too!

But the first step I want you to make is to save this article in any way you can. Copy and paste it to a word document or print it.

The next steps

#1. Write down 5 ways you can disrupt the market without conflicting with your brand values.

#2. Start on one of them immediately

#3. Search for “Copywriting Formulas on Google” and here is a link to one I got for you. ~ Don’t just read about them implement them.

#4. It’s tempting to keep this to yourself but if Mr. Douglas had done that to me I wouldn’t be telling you about this, so nudge the share button.

Conclusion:

The magnetic forces of curiosity can never be fully understood. I have read research paper on research paper about curiosity. Curiosity is what turned the wife of Lot into a pillar of salt and the very basis of the temptation that made Adam and Eve consume the fruit of knowledge.

Mr. Douglas promised to do an interview with me in the near future so he can share his exact marketing formula with people who read Earground, but there is a catch.

Scroll down and comment with what you learnt from this piece or ask questions. If we manage to get 10 comments directly under this post (not in Facebook) he will definitely make time.

I hope your music makes it to your audience.