Your Publicity advisor Bob Baker (How to Use the Internet to Become a Celebrity or Expert in Your Field) shares four proven ways to use the telephone to help you get more media coverage, airplay, paying gigs and CD sales here.

No doubt about it, the telephone is still one of the most powerful tools you can use to turbo-charge your career in the music business. Even with modern communications alternatives such as fax machines, e-mail and video conferencing, the phone is still the workhorse of methods available to promote your music.

This leads to some good news and bad news concerning all this business of dialing for dollars (and exposure). First, the bad news: Virtually everyone has a telephone, and all those people are using theirs to compete with you in your quest to get media coverage, airplay, paying gigs and record sales.

Now, the good news: While all these people are cluttering the phone lines with their own messages, so many of them are using weak and destructive tactics with Mr. Bell's fine invention. This sets the stage for people who know the tricks and nuances of telephone marketing to get ahead by using it effectively.

Put the following four suggestions to use in your music promotion efforts and you may soon find yourself getting more of the exposure you want.

1) Go Through a Mini-Rehearsal Before You Make Your Next Call.

In the same way that your band sounds a lot less polished when you haven't been practicing, so will your telephone presentation be rusty if you haven't prepared beforehand.

Solution: Simply take a minute before each call and consider what your objective is and the approach you'll use. What you want to avoid is stumbling around with vague phrases such as "Um, hey, you don't know me but ... uh, I play in a band and ... er, I was wondering what it would take to play your club ..."

However, if you called with a specific plan, you may sound more confident and say, "Gina, this is Fred from the band Slickboy. I have two other bands lined up that want to do a charity show with us to raise money for families that were left homeless from the recent flood. We'd love to do the show at your club the first week of September ..." Which approach do you think would be more effective?

2) Number Your Points for Impact.

Whether you're calling a newspaper editor to get a story or a nightclub owner to get a paying gig, consider using a number to indicate how many important points you plan to touch on.

Example: "Pat, I know you have a lot of bands that want press in your paper (or want to work at your club), but I'd like to mention three benefits you'd get from using us ..." People will listen more attentively when they know how many points they will hear -- plus it helps you organize your thoughts.

3) Give Two Positive Choices When Making Your Pitch.

The worst thing you can do when marketing your music by phone is ask the other person to make a choice between "yes" and "no." In other words, if you were speaking with a radio station music director, it wouldn't be wise to say, "So, will you play my new single or not?" That makes it too easy for the person to respond, "Well ... no!"

What should you do instead?

Instead, do a little research on the station's shows and disc jockeys. Then ask a question along the lines of, "Do you think this song would work better for you on the morning show or during Greg's local music show?" This way, you give the contact two choices -- neither one of which is not playing your song.

If you were speaking with a music reviewer, you might ask, "Would you like me to mail our CD and promo package to you today or have it sent by courier?" Apply this method to conversations with club owners, retailers and other media people, too.

4) Use a Music Marketing Log to Stay on Track.

If you make even a minimal amount of phone calls to promote your music career, you know how easy it is to forget important details such as who you called, when you called them, what was discussed and how you were supposed to follow up.

What you want to avoid is calling someone and saying, "Hello, Bill. Say,  didn't I talk to you last month about doing a feature story on my band? Right. Did you ever receive our new CD? I'm pretty sure I sent it to you ..."

Solution: Use a music marketing log sheet for each contact you call. Print a fill-in-the-blank form that includes lines for name, company, e-mail and street addresses, and phone and fax numbers. Below that leave plenty of space for columns that list the date of contact, topics discussed, action you need to take next and when you took that action.

Then print dozens of copies of the blank sheets and divide them in a three-ring binder into categories such as print media, online music sites, radio stations, nightclubs, record stores, etc. Start using these log sheets every time you communicate with someone about marketing your music, and jot down notes in the appropriate spaces.

Bottom line: By using these marketing logs, everything you need to know about any contact is listed on only one page. And the next time you call a  marketing source, you'll have the confidence to start the conversation by saying something like, "Hello, Bill. I was following up on the discussion we had two weeks ago concerning my band's new release. You mentioned you might have room for a review in your December issue. I mailed a CD to you on the 10th. Is there anything else I can do to help you make that review happen?"

Now get on the phone and start dialing for dollars -- and exposure.

-Bob

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  Website Back	Bob Baker
	Bob Baker is an author, indie musician and former music magazine editor dedicated to showing musicians of all kinds how to get exposure, connect with fans, sell more CDs, and increase their incomes.   Bob Baker is the author of "Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook," "Killer Press Kits" and "MySpace Music Marketing" and more. He also publishes TheBuzzFactor.com, a web site and e-zine that deliver marketing tips, self-promotion ideas and other empowering messages to music people of all kinds. Get your FREE subscription to Bob's e-zine by visiting http://TheBuzzFactor.com today.
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