The stepping stone of success is to win a small slither of their time and attention by getting them to add you to their playlist. The small list of things they are interested in giving some consideration to.

In this episode we explore the 5 steps you need to take to make your prospects playlist. How you get on their radar and build a list of people who want to learn more from you and about you.

This is a game changing strategy every marketer and business owner will want to apply.  

00:00:00:06 - 00:01:38:09
Paul: You know the music industry has changed a lot from the days when I was a musician. You know I remember back our goals were pretty simple we wanted to get some gigs. We wanted to get some airplay we were hoping to get our music video played on MTV. Or really a simple hype that we wanted to sell some of our CDs to sell our albums to people who liked our music. But right near the end of my journey in music came along a new technology that really disrupted things called Napster and Napster was a sharing platform where people were able to all of a sudden sidestep the industry. They didn't have to buy people's albums anymore now. People were just sharing the songs that they liked that were really pirating people's music and the music industry was in you know sort of absolute turmoil at that time. Now of course Napster is gone and in its place has come things like Spotify. So the way that we listen to music is change people don't tend to rush out and buy the album anymore now they build their own playlists they build a playlist based on genres of music that they like or moods or feels that they want to have. And typically a playlist will only include maybe one or two songs from any artist. Well in business we have to learn how to get on our customers playlist how to get in front of them. And part of their mix of attention. Brian Tracy once said a minute spent planning will save you 10 minutes in execution. So this episode is all about helping you build a plan for how you get yourself on your customers playlist. But first let's cue the intro

00:01:49:06 - 00:02:04:26
Warick: Welcome to the marketers club podcast. The show all about helping you work smarter earn more and accelerate your success and now here's your host Paul McCarthy

00:02:08:12 - 00:04:13:08
Paul: So welcome to Episode 16 of the marketers club podcast I am your host Paul McCarthy and I'm here to help you market your talent so you can earn what you're worth and ultimately make more of a difference in the world. Great to have your company again. For this episode so solo episode this week and I want to talk to you about an idea that I think is absolutely fundamental to your success as a marketer and this is the idea of how do you get on your prospective customers playlist. You know my old industry the music business has changed a lot. It's very different from the days when I was a musician. The way that people consume their music is very different. These days we have our Spotify we build our own playlists. It wasn't like that back in my day as a musician it was a very different marketplace but just like music has changed. So has marketing and our ability to grab the attention of our customers has moved dramatically. So we have to understand this principle of the playlist. What we're really talking about we have to understand that we are all we're fighting for the attention of our buyer. You're in a battle not just with your competitors to get the attention of your buyer but you're in a battle to get their attention at all. And so the best you can hope for is how do you just get a slither of their attention. And this idea is really how you get your company your name in front of your prospective buyer. How do you get yourself added to their playlist the things that are on their mind that they're considering that you're part of that mix. So our goal isn't really in marketing to simply go from cold to sold anymore. Those days are long gone. So just as the days of my music playing long gone. This is about how are we going to change the game about the way we get your message in front of your prospective buyers.

00:04:13:10 - 00:05:21:24
Paul: So I'm gonna walk you through a five step plan to help you better get your brand in front of your customers by getting it onto their playlist. So let's walk through five steps five things that you really have to pay attention to. If you want to achieve this outcome. So the first step is you've got to know your audience. You've got to understand the audience that you're serving and what problem you are looking to help them solve. Now when we think musically people might say oh you know music doesn't solve problems. Of course it does. People form playlists to solve problems. We have a playlist that might help us to listen to some music that's gonna help us relax. It might be quite low key it might be ambient. We might have music playlists that pick us up that energise us before we don't do sports activities when we're doing a workout. Things that are just gonna get us juiced right up. We might create playlists because we've got a party or an event and we want to entertain our guests we have a reason we've got some sort of problem we're trying to solve and so we're putting a list together of who can help me do that.

00:05:21:28 - 00:08:47:19
Paul: So that's the first step is we've got to understand who our audience is. One of the big mistakes lots of people make with their marketing is instead of locking down onto their genre they try and create multiple genres to try and collect more clients get more attention but it doesn't work that way. So as the artist you're choosing your sound what's what is it that you want to be known for. What's the genre where your strongest that you want to live in. And then you have to put that in front of your prospective buyers and get a song added to their playlist. If you chase the audience and keep changing your style trying to capture people you get lost in the mix. You won't be found at all. So we zero in on the genre that you want to be famous for. Where do you want to operate. What's the the feel or mood or outcome that you're looking to create for your audience. And understand that customers will have a really broad range of tastes. They will be looking for lots of things and we're just trying to fit into one of those categories. You know this will probably age me a little bit in terms of my music selection but I can remember as a kid the very first three albums that I bought as a kid I bought Simon and Garfunkel I bought kiss and I bought Iron Maiden. Now they are all really different and they were about me exploring as a kid and trying to find my musical taste and looking at what I liked and so I had this really eclectic collection of albums and music that I liked to listen to. Now your buyers are exactly the same. They're going to be eclectic they're going to be looking and thinking about a whole range of of things but you can't make the mistake of trying to position your business as the answer to all of them. You've got to lock into your genre. The sound. The thing that you want to be known for. So we get to know our audience and know our place in their world how we want to be positioned with them. So imagine if Simon and Garfunkel started trying to play Metallica or Nirvana or Madonna. You know it just wouldn't work. Imagine if Coca-Cola said that we're bringing out a new range of computers or if Apple said we're starting our own hamburger chain it just wouldn't work because what would we be doing from a marketing point of view is breaking the law of line extension where something simply doesn't fit together. So it's really critical that you have found your genre the the sound for your business and that you stay inside that genre and then you get creative within that range understanding that you aren't going to appeal to every client and that's fine. You just need to find your audience as long as there is an audience that's deep enough that has the means to pay for what it is you do then you are on a winner and it's much more powerful to be a champion of that genre than it is to keep trying to cross out into others trying to win all of the clients because that's just not what's going to happen. So that's stage one of getting ourselves added to our prospective customers playlist is to understand the audience to know that we can sing our song to them because that's what they want to hear.

00:08:47:21 - 00:11:05:09
Paul: I mean as a pop rock musician as I was there was no point going to a jazz club that were going to hate me. So we got to know who our audience is so that we can sing the right song to them and that's the starting point. So we know who the audience is. Step two in terms of this plan is that we've got to know that we have to promote the single not the album. So one of the most common mistakes I say business owners make is trying to trumpet out everything they do to everybody. So again if we start with the step 1 we've targeted who it is we want to talk to. Well the next part of that mission is we've got to be really clear on what we're talking to them about. So in your world you know the mistake that's so often made is if you think about the whole body of work that you have all of the things you can do. We package all of that together and we could call that your album that is your body of work. That's all the things you can help people do. But you know as a musician we didn't send the album to the radio station. We sent the single we wanted one song played if we wanted to get one tune. We didn't become known for one song that became the thing that everybody started to sing. Everyone was humming along too. And that's exactly the same for you in your business if you want to get maximum traction and attention in a marketplace. You've got to be delivering one message. You cannot be trying to send out the whole body of work because when you do that it just becomes noise and in the world of a market the noise is the enemy. When you confuse people you lose and confuse minds. They simply do not buy and most people are confusing their marketplace by sending out way too many messages. So you've got to get single focused you've got to get this clear focus point of what is the primary message that you want to send out to the world. What's the signature song that you want to be singing. You know if you think of various artists you know they have signature songs. I mean if you think of John Lennon beyond his days in the Beatles what song do you think of.

00:11:05:11 - 00:12:38:11
Paul: Well most people will say imagine it's a signature song it's a song that he's synonymous with and that's what we've got to do for your brand as a business is sing one tune over and over and over again. Entrepreneurs like musicians are naturally creative people. They're looking to produce new ideas and concepts and develop things and that's really great. I mean just as an artist has to keep producing materials keep writing songs and lyrics and music. The issue for the entrepreneur however is that their creativity is often being expressed through changes of genre. You know if you imagine a musician doesn't move from one genre to the other very often they lock into a genre that they specialise in. And then I write songs based on that genre. But what a lot of entrepreneurs are doing is switching genres chasing the market chasing the audience. They're going from rock to hip hop to blues to heavy metal to discard a funk to rhythm and blues to techno of jazz to folk. It just doesn't work. So we've got to make sure that we're clear on that primary messaging that we're delivering. You know what area and genre we want to live in. And then what is the primary message that we're driving. What's our one song that we want people to be singing. All of the time. And that's gonna be a critical stepping stone towards your ability to get more people to put you on their playlist.

00:12:38:25 - 00:13:55:25
Paul: So the third element of getting yourself onto your prospective customers playlist is the production of original content. So just as the musician produces a single and they want the person to consume that single to put it on the playlist. As a marketer as a business owner we have to create content. We have to produce something that they're going to want so typically as a marketer we talk about this as being your lead generator. This is your lead magnet. Something that someone will exchange their details for in exchange for the chance to have it to consume it. So whether you're producing videos or an e-book or a report a webinar it doesn't matter what the format is. The key here is that we're producing a piece of original content that is going to be seen as valuable to that audience. And just as a musician when they're sending you know a song to the radio station hoping for airplay that I'd send them their worst song they send them their best song because that's the thing they know is most likely to get the attention of the audience. It's going to be the thing that can be the hit. Well just the same. When we're producing our lead magnet we're producing this content.

00:14:30:17 - 00:16:04:03
Paul: And typically we ran a cover band because getting cover gigs is easier. There's an audience. The pub owner already knows is an audience for that music and they're happy if you've got some sort of modem of skill and ability to put you up on a stage and perform these songs for their audience and you will get paid. So it's quicker and easier to get paid. The problem is there's a real ceiling on your income potential. So when it comes to content production as a marketer I see the same things happening in the marketplace. A lot of people who aren't producing any original content they're just regurgitating other people's content as the means of trying to attract and get attention. Now of course when you're doing a cover version of somebody's song you're mimicking somebody else then you are not ever really going to get the maximum traction you can get some short term quick wins but you don't build a really powerful brand that becomes known for something because you are just imitating somebody else. So the key is we've got to be producing quality original content. Your thoughts packaged up in a unique way that really is going to resonate with your audience is going to sing to them about helping them solve a problem that they have in their world. It's very important to understand that this is not just about banging out any sort of content but we have to be producing some quality original content that's really going to resonate with your audience.

00:16:04:05 - 00:18:41:17
Paul: So the fourth step once we've got a piece of content that we now want to project out to the world we know who we're giving it to what that single message is that we're driving out then we've got to be able to do the fourth step which is amplify people's awareness of what's available to them. So we want to get some airplay for what it is that you're doing how do we amplify your message out. Well one we're going to start using the social channel more effectively to get out and say Okay here's something that I'm helping people to solve. So here's this resource here's this tool that I've put together. You're going to add that to your email signature. You're going to let people know that there's this resource that every email that you send them becomes a potential attractor to give people the opportunity to add you to their playlist to start saying okay. This is an idea I want to consume like artists do we start to look at who else can you collaborate with. So collaborations are a big part of the music business and why do people collaborate because it helps them to get their message out to another audience. Based on that other musicians audience. So we share audiences. So you start thinking about who is operating in your marketplace that you could collaborate with. They have some sort of complementary service that will really go well it can harmonise with what you do. And we can create this connection where they can open up their audience to you and you can open up your audience to them and all of a sudden we've got twice as many people hearing our song hearing our message going out to them giving them this resource this tool this sample of who you are and what you do and giving them a real taster of what you can do for them. So we've got to be generous in our spirit in terms of that we've got to want to be able to project other peoples tunes out to the world as well as have them share ours. So you start looking at opportunities to get on into the media where you can share some of this learning where you're getting interviewed being on podcasts. So this is how you amplify this message to the world. But it's critical that the message has been single focused. Again if you aren't clear with that then no one's gonna want to pick up that message. No one's gonna be able to share that message because it's gonna be too hard to understand. Too confusing. So if we've done the first four steps then amplifying out to the world becomes much much simpler for you to do.

00:18:42:07 - 00:22:11:12
Paul: So the fifth and final step in terms of getting yourself added to somebodies playlist is understanding that we are in the business of creating followers before fans. So the goal here is that we're trying to create curiosity. We're trying to build a fan. We can't just create a fan. You didn't come instantly a fan of of a band. If you're a music lover of any group you know you discovered them and you listened to a tune and then you got curious about them and then you started exploring what it is that they do and you fall in love with that particular artist. And then maybe you start to buy everything that I did and this is the journey for the customer. It is about building an awareness building a connection building trust with them and being ready to really support them and give them more and more value and slowly introduce the other things that we can do for them. You know this is a building block process that many people are trying to rush. How do we move somebody from being a follower into a fan from going simply from their playlist to them really being a buyer of what you do. How do we get them to come to the show to buy the ticket. How do we get them to buy the merchandise and buy the whole album not just the single. Well it's a journey where we are nurturing those people through. So one of the principles in music is the idea of high rotation when a music station is adding a song which they do relatively sparingly because they know that people like the familiar but when they add a song they put it on what's known as high rotation and the goal of high rotation is very simple to get you to hear that song six to eight times as quickly as possible because they know once they've achieved that then you become far less likely to change the channel you start to lean into the song you can harm along you know the words sting from the police. Famously once said when he was asked how did you know when you know you made it. When you when you were going to break through as an artist and he said well we did a gig in a little pub somewhere and as a guy there afterwards cleaning up and I heard him humming. One of the tunes, he said that's when I knew. So that you've got a song that people are going. It's gonna stick in their mind and they're gonna it's gonna start to resonate with them. So the principle here of high rotation from a business point of view is the nurture process that we put behind this system. So we're gonna need to have automation in place. So we're gonna start to email and communicate with people and add more and more value to them. So we've got to have a rule of six in place behind the scenes that once somebody said yeah I want your lead magnet I'm going to add you to my playlist that now you start to up the ante in terms of getting high rotation getting into their inbox more often adding more value building the relationship and moving someone from follower to fan. And so we've nurturing this relationship along by continuing to let them know more about you then who you are. And this is the same discovery process that people go through with their music. So this is a proven stepping stone process to building a really strong brand voice for your company.

00:22:11:15 - 00:24:46:05
Paul: So let's just walk through and recap our five steps to helping you to get on the playlist of your perspective buyer. One you've got to know your audience. You've got to understand the problem that you're solving and understand the genre in which you want to live and operate and stay inside that zone not chopping and changing your soundscape to try and pick up more and more customers because that will only weaken your position. So we get really clear about who your audience is where they are so that you can sing the song that's going to resonate with them. The thing that's gonna get their attention that they want to know about because you can help them solve their problem. Second step is that we promote a single focused message not the whole body of work. Don't confuse the marketplace don't become noise to your customers your customers are already being bombarded with over three thousand commercial messages every day. So if you want to be heard you've got to get clear and have one message if you want to hope to penetrate that marketplace. So we've got to get single focused message. three that we've got to produce some original content. You got to create a lead magnet that's high value that's gonna become the sample the taster for people. It's gonna be the thing that they add in that is how you get on the playlist by giving them something of value in exchange for simply some basic data in terms of name and email. Now you're in the game and that's this first step step for is and how do we amplify that messaging. So how do I start to collaborate with other artists in complementary industries around me that can help to project my message out to more people that I can build my audience more quickly through collaboration as well as making sure that I'm doing it through all of my own channels on my website on my social media channels. In my email signatures. So it's being amplified this one message over and over and over again out to everybody consistently and finally to understand that the fifth step is the movement from a follower to a fan. We're building a fan base. Nobody starts as a fan. They become fans and that's because we put a nurture sequence in place. We're going to put them on high rotation in terms of getting messages out to them regularly. And that's our stepping stone to success.

00:24:46:07 - 00:25:41:27
Paul: So there you have it five steps to help you build a plan to getting on the playlist of your ideal customers. So I hope that you've enjoyed this episode that you've got lots of value and ideas and things that you can go away now and start to work on start to challenge yourself about how clear your message is. Are you clear on the audience that you serve. Have you produced that piece of original content that people are going to want to consume. Have you got a list of the people you can collaborate with. And are you utilising all of the strategies you have to take people on a journey from being a follower to a fan. So I wish you well over the course of this next week getting to work on starting to build your strategy to get yourself added to more people's playlists. And until we speak again I wish you all the very very best of luck with your businesses. But much more importantly with your lives. Take care. Bye for now.