A lot of people building their own website think of it as an outlet for self expression, and nothing could be more true for musicians and other artists. But we don't live in the age of the early internet with novelty sites and word of mouth virality. A website today is a marketing tool to make you money.
You spend money every month to keep your website live on the internet. With that investment in your public profile, you should expect to see a return.
Optimizing your website for sales is key to growing your band's business. A good website can make merch sales, drive streams, and get email signups, all while making fans feel like they are part of your musical journey.
Here are some things you can do on your website to increase time on site and boost your sales. My hope with giving you these tips is not only to give you some projects to implement, but also to help you think more like a marketing professional.
1. Put Your Conversion Points in Your Nav
You need to be thinking in terms of getting your fans to engage with your band–buy tickets, buy merch, sign up for emails, follow you on social. You want your fans to visit your website for information and find those engagement opportunities easily.
The easiest way to ensure that your fans find these engagement opportunities is to put them in your navigation menu. Your navigation menu appears on all your pages, so no matter how your fans find your website, they will be able to find these engagement opportunities.
The order of your nav also matters. You should assume that a person mindlessly browsing your website will go through your nav in order, so put your conversion opportunities–merch, tickets, and any other money making opportunity–first in your nav menu.
2. Think in Terms of a Buyer's Journey
Did you know that your writing should change based on who you expect to visit a page? Depending on how close a person is to wanting to buy something will change the kind of writing they are receptive to.
This idea of closeness to purchase is what we in the marketing world call a buyer's journey or marketing funnel. Although there are many ways to subdivide a marketing funnel, the most basic is dividing your audience between top, middle, and bottom of funnel.
Top of Funnel (ToFu) - These people are just finding out about your band. They might have seen you on social media and clicked the link on your profile. They might have gotten a recommendation from a friend. Whatever the case, they are probably not very familiar with your music. People at this stage in the buyer's journey respond best to informational content that tells them more about your band and your music. These potential fans are likely looking at your bio, any pages where they can listen to your music, and if you have them, your press page and blog. These visitors are unlikely to commit or convert–they probably won't buy anything or sign up for anything. Your goal with top of funnel content should be to get your visitors to click to another page on your site whether it's another top of funnel page or (preferably) a middle of funnel page to move them along the buyer's journey.
Middle of Funnel (MoFu) - At the middle of the funnel, you have created interest in your band. This kind of person is on the hunt for content, but isn't necessarily ready to spend their money on your band. At this stage, they are likely to want to engage with your band in non-monetary ways, so pushing things like your mailing list and socials are good for this stage. A good way to do this is to offer content or freebies in exchange for joining your mailing list or interacting on social media. You can do this on your website with middle of funnel blogs and email-gated downloads.
Bottom Funnel (BoFu) - At the bottom of the funnel, your visitor is a fan and is ready to purchase. Your core website pages are your anchors here–your events page, your merch page, any subscription services you have. Although these are usually external sites, the copywriting you do on these works the same whether on or off your website. Because fans at this stage are ready to buy, they are a lot more receptive to salesy messages, hearing special offers, etc. Your writing should be emotional and confident. Don't be afraid to heap praise on your own content in bottom of funnel assets.
3. Always Give People Something to Click
The overall goal with your website is to keep people browsing your website. Keeping people on your website requires not only well written, engaging content, but also well thought out marketing funnels.
Your website should bring people from ToFu content to MoFu content and from MoFu content to BoFu content. To accomplish this, there should always be somewhere to go or something to do after your visitor is done with a given page.
You should be linking to content farther down the funnel and creating opportunities to engage with your band. There should be no dead ends on your website. Each page should lead somewhere else either at the same buyer's journey stage or beyond.
4. Gather Contacts
Getting email addresses and having a newsletter is so unbelievably important to building your fanbase. Unlike social media, people don't switch email accounts frequently and almost never get their account banned.
This is why you should work to get people to sign up for your email list. Put newsletter subscription forms all over your website. It's a good idea to have several on your home page. (Check out my home page for an example.)
And remember, if those people signed up for your newsletter, they want to hear from you! Don't be shy about hitting your email list often. The worst that will happen is an unsubscribe, but if someone isn't interested in your email, they'll more likely just ignore it until they see one that does interest them.
Hit up Jester of No Court for Music Marketing
I get that not everyone is a wordsmith. Writing lyrics is one thing, but writing focused business prose in an engaging voice that reflects your band is another. If you find yourself struggling with developing content to convert your fans, I provide a variety of digital marketing services to help get your web presence work for you.
I've worked in a variety of industries so whether you're a band, a promoter, a label, or anyone else, I can help you build a website that gets visitors to click that purchase button. Reach out with the contact form below.