Part Ten

This is the tenth of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:

Some Chips To Dip Into:

1. You got to put in the time.
2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
4. Determine how you fit in.
5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
6. Develop a marketing strategy.
7. Provide quality service or products.
8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need.
10. Keep trying, you can always do it better. (See Below)

KEEP TRYING, YOU CAN ALWAYS DO IT BETTER

In today’s competitive music industry, the level od competition for the beginner is very overwhelming. There is a need to prove your skills and talents in a manner that outperforms your competitors in the quality of sound, the needs of the listener, how your music is presented and packaged, whether it is played or used more than your competitor’s product or service, and when and where it is exposed to your listening audience or customers. There is a phrase that best depicts your focus and it is “practice, practice, practice, and/or market, market, market.”
Continue reading “Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part X”

Part Nine

This is the ninth of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:

Some Chips To Dip Into:

1. You got to put in the time.
2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
4. Determine how you fit in.
5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
6. Develop a marketing strategy.
7. Provide quality service or products.
8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need. (See Below)
10. Keep trying, you can always do it better.

ALWAYS TRY TO ANTICIPATE WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS, FOLLOWERS, OR CLIENTS NEED

This tip is basically saying that having a product or service alone is not enough. You must dig deeper, analyze more, and investigate the bare essentials that create and drive your customer’s needs. It begs the question, “Do you really know your customers or target audience?” If you can answer “Yes” to this question, you are head of the game and on your way to effectively generating more customers and retaining them, and possibly creating more conversions or traffic to your e-commerce platform or other means of selling your product or service. If the answer is “No” to this question, you need to step up your game and focus on specific behaviors of your customers or target audience. You may ask, “how is this done?” One answer is through the use of analytics.
Continue reading “Mike’s Career Success Tips – Part IX”

Part Eight

This the eighth of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:

FOLLOW UP AND COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

We have discussed information to help identify the market specific to what you can offer, how to develop strategies for presenting your product or service, and crucial business characteristics that are basic to building a business. Now let’s turn to another business behavior that is also basic to conducting business and a requirement for customer acquisition and retention. In today’s, online digital world there is no excuse for a business to lose touch with and/or know the needs of its customers. There are a wealth of social media, online applications, and customer management businesses and tools available to assist with the task of finding your customers, discussing or analyzing their needs, and focusing your product or service to specific target audiences. Whatever you call it, customer experience, client management, customer relationship management, etc., is all boils down to communicating with and analyzing the needs and behaviors of your customers. There are many examples of how this is accomplish and are beyond the scope of this discussion, but the meaning and value of this tip should be very evident. Don’t drop the ball when a customer inquires about any issue related to your product or service. Be responsive and don’t take forever to respond and address the customer’s needs or concerns. Send follow-up messages restating the issue of concern and show your interests and passion for resolving the problem. Include the customer’s name in your communications to show that your know the customer and provide a means to show that the response is not an auto-generated message.

Another perspective and possible catch 22 to this tip is the obtrusiveness of some methods of communication. Everyone requires your email address in order to take advantage of some free material or trial subscription. The result of which is the spamming and overloading of your inbox due to the selling of your email to company affiliates or other marketing agencies. The use of global positioning systems (GPS) in our smart phones that know when you are near a specific restaurant or business, and sends marketing and advertisements to sell or offer products to your phone.

In today’s, online digital world, it is getting impossible to avoid the technology being used for the marketing of products and services. It almost makes you want to turn off the GPS feature, turn off pop-ups, refrain from visiting websites, etc. The point here is that the methods for following up and communicating with customers is one that you must be sensitive to, so that you won’t turn away your potential customers. The question of whether to use these marketing strategies and techniques, yes is a conundrum for any business, but somehow must be done to generate business leads, acquire customers, market and sell your product or service. Just be savvy and sensitive to how this business act is conducted. What is next? In Tip/Chip 9: Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need, we will focus on another aspect of marketing your product or service that is germane to developing you marketing strategy. So keep reading and stay tuned for more insights from MiJen Publishing.

Part Seven 

This the seventh of ten tips and chips I plan to impart for any interested listeners, starting out on his/her journey to work in the music industry. There are a lot of people providing access to joints that help to build your skills, and most do a great job. My goal there is not to try and compete them. I will stay in my lane. From time to time, I might suggest and recommend others, these tips and chips are aimed at your mindset, and behaviors that will either make you or break you. Whether you aspire to be a songwriter, an artist, a musician, and or producer, these tips and chips apply:

Some Chips To Dip Into:

1. You got to put in the time.
2. You can only do two or three things very well, so focus.
3. Once you are focused, decide on what value you offer to others.
4. Determine how you fit in.
5. Determine how you can market what you offer.
6. Develop a marketing strategy.
7. Provide quality service or products. (See Below)
8. Follow up and communicate with your customers.
9. Always try to anticipate what your customers, followers, or clients need.
10. Keep trying, you can always do it better.

PROVIDE QUALITY SERVICE OR PRODUCTS

What is the use of having a good marketing strategy, if the product or service being offered to your customers is a bunch of crap? The answer is the marketing of a bad product or service is useless. Per the New York Times, the Ford Motor Company replaced its 17-year old slogan, “Quality is job one”, for a new slogan, “ Better Ideas. Driven by you.” Believe me, “Quality and service is still job one.” Get in your mind that in order to be competitive, you must have a better product, or a service second to none, in order to make it in today’s market. Customers buy the best or better product that meets their needs. Customers respect a company that provides good or better service. Companies such as Netflix, Amazon, Uber, Cosco, Samsung, and Nvidia got to the top of the market by offering their customers a quality product, or a better more responsive service. Although of late problems with the supply chain has and is still impacting this provision.

So what does a better product or service mean in the entertainment industry? The answer to this question is dependent upon many variables. Oftentimes, the answer is specific to the talent of an individual, the skill that one possesses, the quality of people interacted with, the experience of an agent or agency, the process used to create the product or how representatives treat potential customers. The answer to the question eventually gets down to the personal level. Each person involved in the creation of delivery of a product or service must understand that what they produce or deliver is going to have personal meaning to someone, used by someone, consumed by someone, or will have a lasting affect on someone. A product or service that doesn’t consider the customer’s needs and behaviors as it relates to the product or service is bound to fail and not be very successful. This attention to detail is omnipresent and prominent in successful products or services and reap the rewards from customers who buy or use the product or service.
 
This act of providing quality products and services should not be taken lightly. The competitive landscape in the entertainment industry is huge and new competitors are getting into the business everyday. Make what you offer to your customers unique and standout from the crowd, and don’t let a little thing like a crappy product or non-responsive customer service take you out of the game. A very good read and great motivational self-help ebook that provides insights on the pursuit of any type of career, and not only songwriting is, “Don’t Keep Your Day Job” by Cathy Heller. This ebook focuses on how to turn your passion into a career.

The last three tips provided information to help identify the market specific to what you can offer, how to develop strategies for presenting your product or service, and crucial business characteristics that are basic to building a business. What is next? In Tip/Chip 8: Follow up and communicate with your customers, we will explore other aspects of conducting business that is crucial to the acquisition and retention of customers. So keep reading and stay tuned for more insights from MiJen Publishing.