Three Ideas To Boost Your Band’s Outreach
So one thing that I don’t think people in this scene understand is the importance and scale of the outreach you need to have to grow. The thing is, it’s all hand-to-hand combat. The more you engage, the further along you will get. What I wanted to do was break down how to engage.
First I want to talk about how to find people to reach out to at scale, both those who are aware of you and then those who are not aware of you. Then I want to turn around and talk about reaching out to higher level people at scale and how to do that in a way that leads to sustained growth.
Reaching Out To Existing Fans
So this is one of my favorite tactics I rarely see people do. Go and start to send direct messages to all the people who comment on your posts. If you don’t have a lot of commenters go send direct messages to the people who like your posts. Just start reaching out and saying thank you. It’s not spam if it’s your way of showing gratitude.
One tactic I like to use is film a quick video saying thank you and sending it to everyone who is engaged on Instagram, just as a way to show gratitude and show people that I give a shit about them and am glad that they are in my content universe.
Reaching Out To Potential New Fans
Here’s a secret that’s so obvious you’ll smack yourself for not thinking of it sooner. The people who comment on some of your favorite bands posts are generally the biggest fans of that band. Furthermore, they are generally people who are very active on social. What this means is if you follow them and reach out about both being fans of the same band, or even just comment on their posts, they will follow you back and engage with you.
Furthermore, what I see working very often is going under relevant hashtags to your genre. So for most readers of this blog, it will be tags like #doommetal #stonerrock, etc. and then engaging with the people who post in their socials. If they give enough of a shit to engage their own audience, they will give enough of a shit to engage with you.
Reaching Out To High Level People
When it comes to reaching out to a high level, you just need to appreciate that they are just people like you and me. They are just motherfuckers out there trying their best. If you can reach out in a human way, then you are going to really start to get somewhere.
One way to really make this work for you is to reach out with a specific question or compliment, especially if you can find out it’s something that relates to a specific interest of theirs. The more you can connect on that level and be like, “Hey, we both like fishing, let’s talk about that!” the more likely you are to open a door. Everyone loves talking about their passions – give people a chance to do that and you will be rewarded.
As you can see, reaching out to your existing fans as well as new fans doesn’t need to be hard if you put some logic behind it. The same goes for reaching out to high-level people. It doesn’t need to be as intense as I sometimes think people make it out to be in their heads. Just do it!
Matt Bacon (IG: mattbacon666) with Dropout Media is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. You can read other articles in the series by clicking the “Bacon’s Blog” hashtag below. Matt can also be heard on the Dumb & Dumbest podcast, which he co-hosts with Curtis Dewar of Dewar PR.