A Secret Marketing Trick That Nobody Seems to be doing Anymore

   

  When I was about 16 it was hard for me to find a job. I would apply for McDonalds, Popeyes, KFC, I would commute to the local malls no luck. Finally one day I got a call from a friend of mine named Ruff Ryder. Around this time dvd's were very big in Hip Hop. You had Smack, you had cocaine city which was real big in my neighborhood and you had Sub Zero. So a friend of mine said I know you watch the dvd's all the time would you mind working for one? So of course I said yes get paid to do what I love and do for free of course. So I take a train to there location in J street Brooklyn. I enter  the room I see computers everywhere poster and painting of different rap artist state of the art studio it looked amazing. So I saw my friend he introduced us to every body and handed us a box. We then proceeded to a back room. In side the box were promotional stickers, posters, bumper stickers, etc. I remember asking Ruff Ryder why don't the owner just buy commercial space it wasn't like they didn't have the funding. That is when Ruff Ryder began to explain to me the power of streets teams. Late 90's early 2000's you had something called street teams. Ruff Ryder asked me who was my favorite artist. He then ask me how did I find out about him. That is when it clicked for me i realized that most of the artist I ever gravitated to was because I had friends that would run to my house after school with mixtape cd's which increased my interest even more. The most powerful form of marketing is word of mouth. Being able to interact with people first hand was not a luxury alot of major record labels had. So they kids that were in the streets and allowed them to get first hand information directly from the consumer. This is prior to Soundcloud, Reverbnation, Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. So I learned that there are various forms of marketing but nothing is more powerful then word of moth. Nothing like people talking about your product everywhere its free advertisement. So if you are an up and coming independent label start a street team. They can promote on the internet, setting up displays, or going to concerts passing out stickers, posters and samplers. A street team can become your eyes and ears of the streets. Once you have a street team always show great appreciation for them. Give them bonuses free merchandise, credits on work just to show that you appreciate there work. There are a myriad of marketing companies around the country that you can purchase stickers and send your street teams to high schools(if that is your audience) to distribute them.

  So know the power of word of mouth. You can look at a McDonalds commercial and they will tell you 101 reasons why the big mac is the best burger in the world. That is nothing compared to your friend who you respect and adore telling you man this burger is the best! So create a buzz do whatever you can do to create it and I promise you your music will go a long way.