One of my all time favourite quotes is this one by Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Well, interestingly, one of the best tools for tapping into your target community’s thoughts and feelings is also one of the most underutilised when it comes to content marketing. That tool is music.
Music is more than catchy. It’s catching!
Music evokes emotions like nothing else. Studies into neuroplasticity show that music has the ability to harness the contagious nature of our emotions. It can make you feel angry, sad, elated and inspired; and those feelings are passed on to others around us like viruses. So, if the emotions evoked by music are so powerful and so viral, why aren’t more brands using music in their marketing? Music has always been a huge part of my life, both personally and professionally. As a musician and a former communication strategist for a major music festival, it’s a big part of who I am, but funnily enough, until recently, I didn’t really tap into this or share this part of myself through my own business. Like a lot of small business owners, I just didn’t really consider it until I started playing more with the music sharing platform Spotify.
Spotify’s Power
Spotify is an incredibly powerful platform. It has 50 million users, a very engaged community, huge social reach on Facebook and Twitter, and a well-received brand marketing platform. Recently Spotify also ventured into the world of podcasting. Spotify teamed up with Libsyn to bring podcasters onto the music platform. This move could be a game changer for podcasters across the globe. The podcasting medium is already growing in strength, mostly because it’s a monetized medium. Adding Spotify into the mix (which is also a monetized platform) is like igniting a rocket. Think about it, if the audience is already monetized, they have disposable income. If they have disposable income, they are more likely to buy from you. According to the Spotify for Brands website, the average Spotify user spends 148 minutes on the platform every single day and their mobile audience is growing exponentially. It’s actually a little ridiculous that it’s taken me so long to catch on to Spotify’s power. Aside from the fact that music can positively influence people’s buying decisions by influencing how they feel about a brand, when looking at Spotify’s stats, I just want to bang my head against a wall. Here’s a free tool small business brands could be harnessing in their everyday marketing and community engagement, and yet few are. A few of the bigger brands have taken action on integrating music into their marketing. Brands that have successfully integrated music into their content marketing are Burberry, Zumba Fitness, and Red Bull. Qantas had a “Coming Home” playlist on Spotify to coincide with their ad campaign. BMW created a road trip play list to celebrate the launch of their 320i Car. If you have a big advertising budget, it’s easy to engage users on Spotify. Spotify has a range of advertising formats that you can target at your optimal user base. However, what if you are a micro business, artist or small business that wants to leverage musical content?
Here’s a shoestring marketing idea to get your started
Firstly, sign up to Spotify if you haven’t already. You can use Spotify for free so long as you’re happy to be exposed to ads every 20 minutes or so. Otherwise, you can become a premium user from about $15 US per month. Once signed up, create a playlist. Just go to the bottom left hand side of your screen on Spotify and select “New Playlist.” Once you’ve created your playlist, and given it a name you need to find songs to add to your list. There are a couple of ways you can do this.
- Ask your social media followers to suggest songs. Let your followers know that you’re creating a playlist on a particular theme. It could be “I’m creating a playlist of motivational music to help you be more productive and focused on Mondays. What songs should I add to the playlist?”
- Browse other people’s playlists on Spotify. When you come across a song you would like to add to your playlist, you simply drag and drop it onto your playlist title. Below is a video showing you how to do this.
Once you have a number of tracks on your playlist, you can change the order of your songs by dragging and dropping the individual tracks where you want them on the list. Again, there’s a quick video guide on the blog post to show you how this is done. You’re then ready to add your playlist to your website. To add the widget to your sidebar, go to https://developer.spotify.com/ From the menu items, select Spotify Play Button. The page walks you through how to add the widget to your sidebar on your website. You can make Play Buttons for albums, playlists, tracks, and artists. You can also add a “follow” button to your website. Just go to: https://developer.spotify.com/technologies/widgets/spotify-follow-button/ On Spotify you can even create a custom branded playlist. However, there’s a fee to do that.
So, how can incorporating a Spotify playlist or follow button help you market your brand?
Here’s a few ideas to consider.
- Creating playlists based on your followers’ music tastes is a terrific and easy way to create brand engagement and find out what inspires your community.
- Creating playlists gives something to your followers and fans they can use instantly and take with them everywhere. Music is incredibly mobile-friendly.
- If you run events or perform, Spotify enables people to listen to the music from events and gigs and that could lead to sales down the track. If you’re a performer, it would be wise to add every song you play at an event to a specific playlist on Spotify and then share it on your social media platforms.
- Playlists on Spotify can enhance your brand. If your brand is identified with certain music genres that can be yet another way to enhance the look, feel and sound of your brand and share your brand story. Remember branding is more than a logo… it is the soul of your business and of you!
- Lastly, you can run engaging promotions and competitions using your Spotify playlists which creates more engagement for your brand on social media.
Experimenting with Spotify can be a lot of fun. Why not try using playlists to engage with your fans and followers in social media? How do you incorporate music into your marketing? I’d love to hear your ideas.
