Leverage free online tools and your daily social media platforms to crush your next song release. Learn how musicians today are running effective Spotify pre-save campaigns from the comfort of their homes.
Have an easy to share, self-explanatory picture to send out
Having a self-explanatory picture to post or send out eliminates all need for the extra text. Fine text inviting others to perform a call for action will only increase the chances of people turning away and giving up on the task; short attention span am I, right? Post this pic on your stories, feed & send it out through DMS to dedicated followers who will be happy to re-share. Having a photo that doesn’t need text also cuts out all need for anyone sharing to actually explain what’s going on; they’re also more likely to share a pic that is nice to look at. Canva.com is a great site to edit pictures and add text.
Host a contest
Hosting a contest or getting a bigger page host one for you is THE way to excel! It’s not even about the incentive either; it shows people just how much you care. I’ve noticed people will only care as much as you do. Fill your stories with updates from the contest, post about it and send the post to some close friends or followers that are likely to re-share or engage. Another great way to quickly grow the number of participants is to invite them to tag 3 friends in the comments to be eligible for the contest. Search relevant hashtags on Instagram to find bigger and relevant pages to host your contest. Some good ideas of incentives could be; free promo from a big hip-hop page (that you’ve already paid for), a free beat pack (that you’ve gotten on the low through networking on Instagram), to write the winner a song dedicated to them (good intentions make great songs)… get creative! Click here to see what Vancouver rapper Chappy Go Lucky did for his pre-save campaign in August 2020 for his song “Arizonna”.
Utilize direct messaging marketing to beat Instagram’s algorithms
Instagram/Facebook are constantly updating their algorithms. In 2020, only about 10% of your followers will be shown your posts, maybe more if it gets high engagement or impression time. For your stories, you’re in luck; 15% might see them! Basically you are a slave to Instagram’s algorithms. The best way out of this is to have an email list; which you are creating right now by doing this campaign, but that’s a story for next week’s blog post! By direct messaging, you can choose who will see your post; and this extends outside of your following. Fellow artists are easy to reach out to and create support for support relationships; a follow for following type deal. Except in this case; a pre-save for pre-save. Be careful not to “spam” people because IG will shadowban you.
Be consistent throughout the campaigns
Stay consistent throughout your campaign. These means don’t just post your content on days 2 and 5 of your promo period and tell yourself: “well now they know about it; the ball’s in their court”. No. They most likely forgot, treated it as just another piece of content or saw it and got distracted. This is no reflection on you, it’s just how she goes. Commit to uploading regular content that is relevant to your new single which will keep the hype going throughout your campaign. Do this at peak hours of the day to keep engagement high.
Any marketing strategies you think we’ve missed for running an effective Spotify pre-save campaign? Curious to know more about good contest incentives that are not money? Let us know in the comments and follow us on @cannalifenet for more music & lifestyle hacks!