How to build an impactful artist brand while staying true to yourself
See yourself not only as an artist but as an artistic entrepreneur with your art as your business.
As an artist who wants to share your work with the world, you aren’t really different from an entrepreneur who wants to move their business forward.
It’s useful to look at some well-known marketing strategies used by companies to establish their brand.
In this article, we take a look at how you can build a strong artist brand that is both recognisable and authentic.
What is a brand?
In general: A brand is the way a product, service, or individual is perceived by others.
It’s more than just a logo or a name, it’s reflected in everything that’s presented or expressed by an entity.
For you as an artist, your brand is the part of you that you want to show to your fans.
It’s anything you want to represent and stand for. But it’s also the way you are perceived by your fans.
Difference between an artist and a commercial brand
A music or artist brand is different from a commercial brand.
Commercial branding thinks from the outside in.
A company defines a target audience and identifies its pain points and needs. They build their commercial brand around this.
Music or any other form of art connects on an emotional level. It’s coming from the inside.
This means, an artist brand works the other way around and thinks from the inside out. The artist looks at it from a personal perspective. They want to reach their audience with what they are, what they do, and why they do what they do.
Start to brand your art from the inside out. Think about who you are, what makes you unique, and what you want to represent.
Then think about the outside in. For instance, your logo, your colours, and so on.
If you have these things sorted, you can create content around it to reach your fans.
It gives you clarity to produce the right content and connect with the right audience that shares your values.
The basics of artist branding
Who are you?
Quite philosophical, but it gets to the core.
Try to find that little thing that makes you unique and different from the others.
In traditional marketing, this would be your USP, your unique selling proposition.
In both traditional corporate marketing and artist marketing, this is the essential part of personal branding. Your personality, style, and appearance will make up your artist identity and make you recognisable.
To figure out what makes you stand out of the crowd and different from the others, it may be helpful to do a little research on other similar artists.
Think about artists that inspire you or your music. How would you describe them? What makes them unique? What’s their brand and how do they communicate it?
Define your brand statement
Come up with a memorable statement or key phrase.
It shouldn’t be longer than two sentences, but it should describe you and what you do.
Also, define values that fit this statement and make them your core values.
These are the values you care about most. Ideally, they should evolve from your brand statement. For instance, an appreciation of good old rock. But it could also be something like pushing forward in the fight for social justice.
If you care about something, communicate it.
Use it consistently in everything you present to the public, your website, social media, streaming pages, blog, etc.
Additionally, think of a few keywords that describe your music and match your style. For instance, relentless energy, dark and white contrasts, bass-driven, ferocious sound, disruptive, crunchy guitars, spoken-word style, the list is endless.
You can share these statements, values, and keywords with PR agencies, blogs, or labels to give them some guidance on how to describe your music. It also makes your life easier if you write your Spotify bio or a press statement for your next release.
Speaking of statements, you should also align your visuals and logo. A logo is one part of your identity. Your fans will immediately identify you through it. And it’s an easy way to promote you as an artist as you can put it on everything you create.
3 easy ways to build emotional connections with your fans
Music is personal and connects over emotions. It has the power to impact people in a way that a product, service, or business never could. That said, your artist brand needs to connect with your fans musically, emotionally, and personally.
The music part is easy. Either your fans like your music or not. Building a personal and emotional connection is a different story.
Here are three easy ways to build emotional connections with your fans.
Share your story
If you want to get the word out, be proactive!
Share your story, promote your band. With social media channels, it has become very easy to get exposure, reach out to fans and build a following.
But remember to keep a balance between the online and the offline world. Connect on both sides.
Build partnerships
Join artist groups or creative scenes on social networks.
Go to events, gigs, and shows. Reach out to fellow artists from the same scene. Connect with them. Share and learn and enrich one another. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or collaboration.
Also, build partnerships with local venues. How about a collaboration with another band? That will open new opportunities, and you’ll be able to reach a wider audience.
Be approachable and include your fans
Be approachable.
You don’t want to be that detached person who never interacts with their fans.
Show your fans that you care about them, include them in what you do, interact with them. There’s nothing more powerful than a personal connection. If your fans feel you care about them, they will become loyal followers, come to your gigs, buy your merch, and tell their friends about you.
Share a bit of yourself. You want your fans to relate to you and your music. If they like your music and what you do, they very likely share the same interests or passions.
Share what inspires your music and your writing process, offer tips and tricks or give a little instrumental tutorial for your latest song.
There are many ways to engage with your fans and interact with them. They all have in common that your fans will feel included and build deep relationships with you and your art.
Social media channels are a great way to create buzz. And it’s an easy and effective way to promote your brand and tell the world about it. So, use it (a lot).
Now, you’ve got an little overview of the basics of an artist brand.
Remember: It’s your art. It’s your brand.
You are the one who decides how you want to present yourself to your fans.
Your brand strategy ensures that you do this consistently and convincingly.
You want to deliver a message that speaks to your fans. So create content that is meaningful, relevant and adds value.
But don’t rush! You want to make a difference and stand out from the crowd. Treat your fans with respect, and respect yourself and your thought process, too.
Take your time to build a brand that really represents you and makes you feel comfortable with.
That’s how you can have a real impact and get the reputation you really want.
If you need support with building your artist brand or if you’re searching for inspiration, I’m here to support you along the way.
