Are You A Reluctant Marketer?

I don't think I've ever met a musician who was not a reluctant marketer.

A reluctant marketer is my term for someone who recognizes the need for self-promotion, but regrets and often resents that need. "Why do I need to convince people to buy from me? I just want to put my albums, performance dates, courses, books, and merchandise out there and let people decide to buy them. I hate the thought of having to convince people. It feels wrong."

Does that sound familiar?

The purpose of this series of articles is to offer a perspective and practical tips for helping you become comfortable and, as a result, good at promoting yourself. You have a lot to offer the world and you deserve to be rewarded for that contribution probably more than you realize.

Let's start with this fact: Trust, time, and money are scarce commodities for each of us. You and I are misers with all three. Without the spark of motivation, we tend to stay put and resist action. That great 17th Century marketer, Sir Isaac Newton, said it first when he discovered that "A body remains at rest unless acted upon by force."

That force we apply to convince people to buy our album or attend our show or subscribe to our newsletter is not physical. It must be made with persuasion—words, images, and sounds. And over the coming months, we'll examine the most effective ways to use those tools of persuasion to help you become more materially successful.

But before diving into any of those details, I want to first offer you some fresh ways to think about marketing, selling, and persuasion. Because if you continue to feel that marketing is somehow cheap, wrong, compromising, or uncomfortable, the most killer marketing tips ever known won't help you because deep down, you think it's wrong to take that kind of action.

As a musician or someone in the music business, you make stuff that benefits people. Listeners win by enjoying your music, musicians win by performing your music, fans win by showing off your merchandise, and students win by implementing your teachings and materials. Without access to those things, these people are all at a loss.

Remember what Newton discovered—without action, there is no movement. Without your action, all these people lose out. I want to make clear that you do not have an obligation to promote yourself, but if you care about your audience (and about being more successful), realize that they are depending on you to persuade them as to why they should take action to visit your website, your ticket distributor, your streaming service, your social media pages, or your shopping cart to take action now rather than later!

You are depriving your audience if you are not doing everything you can to let them know of your wares and to make those lessons, albums, appearances, t-shirts, books, etc. as appealing and easy for them to obtain as possible.

I honestly think that the mechanics of how to do good marketing is a lot simpler than getting past the psychological barriers of the acceptance and enthusiasm of actually doing good marketing.

As I explore this important topic in the articles to come, I'd like to hear your thoughts and learn about your struggles around marketing, money, and business.

Are you a reluctant marketer?