How to attract a more dedicated fanbase for your brand
A question many artists will ask throughout their career is how to gain more fans. Simply put, there are a number of methods out there to increase your fanbase over time. A common misconception is that fans and followers are the same thing and this could not be more false. A follower is someone who has decided to engage with your content at a particular moment but doesn’t necessarily have any loyalty towards your brand. Fans are much more valuable, as they are long-term supporters who will provide you with revenue. Fans are the people who will share their love for your brand and thus bring in even more supporters for you. But what exactly are the methods for gaining more loyal fans?
A method used by big brands when trying to increase sales is the sales funnel. This method involves converting people into customers and then gradually increasing their loyalty over time, thus increasing the amount of revenue they provide. For artists, this same method can be applied. Every fan starts off by coming into contact with your content, whether that be by hearing a track, seeing a show announcement or a social media post etc. The next step is to convert these people into followers, then fans, then super fans. At the end of the funnel is when they are most beneficial, when they’re super fans and provide you with the ultimate level of income by buying/streaming your music, purchasing your merchandise, and buying tickets to your shows.
After the individual has had their first interaction with your content, the only method to convert them into a fan is by making sure that they are given a good first impression. This is why attention to detail is so important, every single one of your posts could be an individuals’ first experience of your brand and could make the difference between securing or losing a potential fan. All of the other steps in the funnel are made possible by the individual’s continuing experience with your brand. If they become bored with your content, they may disconnect from you entirely. It is the campaigns that you run that capture fans’ attention and continue to keep them interested, eventually allowing them to become super-fans and be dedicated to your brand long-term.
Your content can be broken down into different segments. Your music and videos are classed as acquisition content, it is what enables you to gain attention in the first place and pique a person’s interest. What comes next is engaging with your following to build up a relationship with your new-found fans. Make sure they feel that their opinion matters and that you value their support. Lastly, you will need to keep your fans engaged by providing a regular mix of content that interests your audience across all social platforms.
Another aspect of gaining more fans is winning their attention. With so many musicians out there, it is often difficult to get your voice heard among the masses. In the current climate, this revolves around social media and your ability to be as visible as possible on all of the main platforms. It is incredibly important that when you do capture attention, it is by providing quality content. A great example of this is the increase in clickbait through news articles and YouTube videos. A YouTuber may title their video ‘I’m leaving YouTube’, provoking shock and horror from their audience who feel an urgency to watch the video. Upon watching, the title did not, in fact, represent the content of the video at all, and viewers felt misled. This is the worst thing you can do as it damages the trust between you and your fans and could continue to damage your brand in the long term.
Anyone can gain negative attention, take a look at deadmau5 as an example. He regularly attacks other artists on Twitter, causing a stir and creating debate. His posts are generally very negative and despite driving a lot of clicks, his image has been damaged irreversibly. In the process, he has lost a lot of supporters and only the most loyal fans have remained. In the electronic music industry, no fans simply support just one artist. Most will support a whole array of producers, which means that attacking another artist’s music may leave some of your fans (who also support that artist) angry. Recently, deadmau5 came under fire for his criticisms of Slushii, meaning that a lot of the fans who previously supported both artists, felt that they could no longer support deadmau5. To sum up, driving clicks is easy but driving clicks for the right reasons is more difficult. Causing a stir through negativity may be a short-term fix and provide you with some great engagement, but long-term, this buzz will soon disperse and you will be left with no supporters.
In order to generate positive attention, share your story with the world. Although there are various complexities that are required when trying to succeed on any given social channel, the key is to find what makes you unique and share it with the world. Embrace your differences and let your audience see them too, being unique in this way is what will drive clicks, convert fans and hold onto your audience in the long term. Your personality is what allows you to stand out, there are no other versions of you. Embrace this and use it as your momentum to shine.