How to use digital word of mouth in music marketing

Question: what do you value more? Seeing an ad on social media about a new restaurant, or having one of your friends recommend that same restaurant to you? That’s the power of word of mouth advertising. And we will show you how to modernize that for successful music promotions.

FOMO!

Digital word of mouth marketing is a strategy based on relationships between people on the internet. Friends tell other friends about great user experiences, new brands or products that satisfied their needs or surpassed their expectations. A conversation with your best friend will most likely be of bigger influence on your buying behaviour than seeing the most tailor-made ads on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. People trust the opinions of friends when it comes to online reviews of a product or service.

That’s when people are convinced, that is when people experience the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO).

Why use digital word of mouth marketing?

The power of Viral

Getting friends to talk to each other and recommend your product can be done in several ways. Making word of mouth digital enables it to go viral: a message can be retweeted, liked or shared. Creating an ad isn’t difficult, but making it so powerful that people actually share it with their friends is a big challenge. This, of course, requires the content to be compelling and adding value: people need a reason to share a message, a reason to feel the fear of missing out.

An exclusive new track, music videos or announcement of an upcoming tour. People love exclusive content. Letting people unlock exclusive content using social media channels is a good example.

Digital is the new physical

Not only when it comes to music, where CD’s have been replaced by Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon and Youtube but most communicational tools we nowadays use are digital instead of physical. Take online advertising opportunities, for example, print has moved on to Google Adwords, Facebook ads and other digital platforms. All people who grew up in the ‘00 are used to digital consumption, getting the new generations to use digital word of mouth advertising is relatively easy.

Working on a musical career, a marketing campaign often includes strategies for a Facebook page to communicate an upcoming show. New times, new methods.

Next step: using digital word of mouth tools to market your music

We offer several online marketing tools, including free tools, to music professionals. Let’s start with our most popular product: a Kwettr Unlock Tool. A reward system for social networks that enables fans to access (exclusive) content with tweets, likes, shares or follows.

Kwettr Unlock Tool

A Kwettr Unlock Tool is a custom made web-based tool that enables your fans to tweet, like, share, snap or follow in return for exclusive content. Giving away incentives using social media platforms. Especially powerful in combination with one of our direct message campaigns on Twitter or Instagram.

How it works:

Record labels or artists create their own branded Unlock Tool, which can be embedded in any website or as a standalone service. Reward your fans with exclusive content if they share your message with their friends.

Kwettr app

Our app takes the digital word of mouth advertising a step further: to live events in the music industry. The app enables artists to reward their fans when they take a selfie during a live show. Artists use the app to automatically welcome all people who enter the venue using geo-targeting. Fans who enter a club or festival receive a personal direct message, including a welcome video of the artist when he is backstage.

Digital word of mouth advertising is used to spread the word about the gig and reward people who perform the action.

Kwettr Games

Creating small online games is useful when it comes to getting your audience to interact with you. Our Unlock Tools include puzzles, referral hacks and questionnaires. Fans unlock a pre-save on Spotify or other streaming platforms when solving a puzzle, flip a digital piece of a puzzle when retweeted or liked. These tools offer a wide range of varieties and creative options.

Kwettr - French Braids Gamification tool Spotify follow and referreal hack

Example of a successful campaign: Paul van Dyk’s DJMag campaign

A few years back Trance legend Paul van Dyk used a Pay with a Tweet campaign to let his fans do the talking for him. His fans were rewarded with his Tomorrowland set when they tweeted a link to the voting ballot. Kwettr sent personal direct messages on his Twitter account, asking them to visit the unlock tool and perform the action. After 6 weeks of the campaign, the DJMag voting ended and Paul van Dyk climbed 9 places in that year’s election.

Up next: your best friend is a robot

Spotify is your best friend

This may sound a bit strange, but Spotify’s artificial intelligence is so strong that it, in fact, can be seen as your best friend when it comes to discovering new music. Our Kwettr tools enable your fans to unlock exclusive content in return for a follow on Spotify. With just one click we add playlists, artists and releases to the Spotify accounts of fans. This is a major step forward in music marketing, as Spotify’s tools use strong business intelligence tools.

Question: what do you value more? Seeing an ad on social media about a new restaurant, or having one of your friends recommend that same restaurant to you?… Let’s rephrase that question:

What do you value more? Generating traffic to your music through an ad, or letting your friends generate the traffic for you? Your choice, try for free here.


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