The Sales and Marketing Hat includes:

It overlaps somewhat with the Creative Hat, because often when you are wearing your Marketing Hat, you are implementing the branding and identity you created using your Creative Hat.

  • 2 Lessons from American Idol – Top 11
    In last week’s episodes, I felt there were 2 themes worth exploring. The first has to do with the choices the Contestants were making – and you’re making as an artist whenever you create.
  • 3 Lessons from American Idol – Top 24
    For Season 9, I will be commenting on AI every week, so I’ll catch up shortly. I’m sure many blogs will be talking about this – but I will be looking at what lessons a music business professional can learn about how to create success promoting your career and your music.
  • 3×5 Contact Management System
    Back in the good old days, before such things as computerized contact management systems, salesmen created a physical contact management system.  I learned this system many years ago, while working in the Network Marketing world.  For those of you who prefer the tactile sensation of a physical contact management system, but are finding that just ...
  • 7 Secrets to Get Booked on Corporate Stages with Tiamo De Vettori
    At the Artists Marketing & Business Academy, we’re all about making a prosperous and sustainable living doing what you love. Are you sick and tired of playing small gigs that pay you next to nothing for your musical talent? What if you could play on huge stages in front of hundreds, if not thousands of ...
  • Alternative Marketing for Visual Artists Presented by Art Business Consultant and Coach, Martha Zlatar
    Mainstream art galleries are not the only way to sell your artwork. Actually most successful visual artists do not make the majority of their sales from galleries. Designed specifically for visual and spatial artists, this workshop will get you thinking outside of the gallery so you can find alternative spaces for your artwork.
  • Booking Strategies, An Interview with Jeri Goldstein
    This month we interview Jeri Goldstein, author of How to Be Your Own Booking Agent: The Musician’s & Performing Artist’s Guide to Successful Touring. In the call, Jeri will help to make the dreaded task of promoting yourself easier, less stressful, and more productive, for musicians and non-musicians alike.
  • Branding 101
    What is branding? Branding is a fundamental marketing concept that is often misunderstood by business owners. According to Wikipedia: “A brand is a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” Branding began as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another by ...
  • Creating Your Niche – A Conversation with Nancy Moran
    Everybody says you have to have a niche. But how do you create a unique and profitable niche that suits you? In this month’s Interview with an Expert, we’ll be interviewing successful performer Nancy Moran. We are talking with Nancy about niche marketing – one of her favorite topics. We’ll examine some real-life case studies of musicians ...
  • Debra Recommends 1ShoppingCart
    But if you’re like me and you want something that requires very little programming to customize the look and feel. And a system that offers all the bells and whistles you want and need from your shopping cart – this is a great solution!
  • Debra Recommends Audio Acrobat – Easy Audio!
    Create Audio for your website, record teleclasses, testimonials, podcasts – quickly, easily, and inexpensively. No equipment to buy. No special skills necessary. I’ve built my entire membership site based on this tool!
  • Debra Recommends Blogwild! – Key to a Successful Business Blog
    The world seems to have gone blogwild. More and more personal blogs appear every day, and businesses large and small are realizing that blogging can be a dynamite sales, marketing, and communications tool. Blogs are cheap to set up and operate, and they can humanize a company’s image, start the buzz on a new product, ...
  • Debra Recommends Bob Baker – The Buzz Factor
    Bob Baker is an author, musician, and workshop leader who is dedicated to helping musicians, authors, and creative people of all kinds get exposure, connect with fans, and increase their incomes through their artistic passions. Bob’s books include “Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook,” “Unleash the Artist Within,” “Branding Yourself Online,” “Self-Publishing Success Secrets,” and more. I was ...
  • Debra Recommends Book Yourself Solid
    I use many of Michael’s stratagies in my own coaching business.
  • Debra Recommends CardScan
    I have been using a CardScan scanner for 5 years, and it’s saved me literally hundreds of hours. I gather business cards where ever I go. And these cards used to sit in piles on my desk. Now, in a jif, I scan them into a database, add them to my newsletter ...
  • Debra Recommends ifanz
    ifanz is a very cool resource originally developed for musicians, but really applicable for creative professionals in all walks of life who are building their career by building their relationship with their fans.  More than just a database and newsletter management tool, it also offers one-stop shopping for many of the needs of the small ...
  • Debra Recommends John Braheny
    John Braheny is in demand as a top consultant for songwriters, performers and industry entrepreneurs.
  • Debra Recommends Patrick Schwerdtfeger Internet Marketing Expert
    I met Patrick in 2006 through his San Francisco Bay Area Meetup – The Entrepreneur and Small Business Academy.  I am tremendously impressed with his vast knowledge of marketing on the internet, SEO and social media marketing. Patrick is, frankly, a self-described geek and ridiculously passionate about all things internet marketing.  And he has a way ...
  • Debra Recommends Ruthless Self-Promotion in the Music Industry
    by Jeffrey Fisher Product Description from Amazon.com Despite the ever-changing nature of the music industry, one constant remains: you must become a ruthless promotion fanatic to achieve success. There are no quick fixes or shortcuts to fame and fortune in the music business. But if you truly desire success and are dedicated to putting your time, energy, ...
  • Debra Recommends TAXI
    I’ve been working with TAXI as a speaker for the yearly conference, the Road Rally, since 2005.  I’ve come to know many TAXI Members, as well as Michael Laskow and the other staff who tirelessly work to help their members create a prosperous living doing what they love. I can without hesitation recommend TAXI Membership to ...
  • Debra Russell Recommends Indie Band Manager
    My friend, Charlie Cheney, designed this system based on filemaker Pro for his own career in music.  But when he saw how many musicians, agents and other professionals in the music industry needed this product, he made it available to the public. This program is a comprehensive contact management, booking and tour management system. And I have ...
  • How to Build Your List with Elizabeth Edwards
    List Building might not be the sexy topic that Social Media is however “The List” is a key ingredient to the success of your business. Independent artist and small labels alike need a large list of raving fans if they want to be successful.
  • How to Create a Fanbase From Scratch
    Back in February, I interviewed Ariel Hyatt about how to create a successful crowd funding campaign. The first thing you need to build a successful crowdfunding campaign is, well, a CROWD! It seems obvious, I know – and yet you’d be shocked how often I get this question from people who have 150 names on their email ...
  • How to Create Buzz and Stimulate Word-of-Mouth Marketing, An Interview with Bob Baker
    On this call, author and speaker Bob Baker dissected and examined buzz and the elusive qualities that create ideas that spread.
  • How to Embrace Your Unique Voice as an Artist
    As children we are taught, by our parents, our teachers, our siblings and our peers, that in order to be loved, we must blend in. We must conform our uniqueness to be “appropriate”. And its an important skill to have – to know society’s rules and be able to act accordingly with volition. But as artists, ...
  • How to Manage Your Marketing – The Contact Management System
    Marketing is creating an environment in which people feel comfortable enough to buy from you,  over and over again. Sounds like a great idea, right? But what exactly does that mean in terms of day to day actions?  And how do you systematize creating that environment? Does this sound familiar? You’ve got a pile of business cards on ...
  • How to Prepare for a Successful Crowd Funding Campaign, an Interview with Ariel Hyatt
    In today’s DIY Music Business, many artists are looking to crowd funding to replace the financing that a record deal used to provide. But the success rates of crowd funding efforts in the music industry are not all Amanda F. Palmer stories. It’s not the get rich quick solution to your financial woes. Luckily for us, ...
  • If You Build It, They Will Come
    Or Will They? Many artists in the music industry believe that all they have to do is record a CD and their audience is sure to show up. I believe that this mythology has had a detrimental impact on the DIY musicians’ success promoting their music. So, let’s deconstruct this idea and really take ...
  • Internet Marketing and the Artist Entrepreneur
    Whether you’re in music, film, dance, the visual arts or writing, the presence of the Internet has significantly changed your industry in the last 20 years. For many of the big corporations who in the past controlled your industry, these changes have been terrifying, threatening their very existence. For the artist entrepreneur, the DIY artist, the ...
  • Marketing 101
    Marketing is fundamental to your success. If you’re out to make a prosperous living doing what you love, it just won’t happen without marketing. Yet few artists spend much time learning this foundational set of skills.
  • Marketing for Musicians
    This is a post I put up on the FAR-West list-serve (Folk Alliance Region-West).  It got a fair bit of reaction and so I thought I’d share it with you. Warning – a bit of a rant here… And I expect I’ll be flamed, but that’s just fine with me, because one of my jobs as ...
  • Meetup.com Creating Community in Your Community
    Meetup.com was mentioned in response to a question from the March 2009 Ask Coach Debra call.  The question was about finding and/or building community with fellow artists.  I have found meetup to be an incredible tool for finding and creating community centered around common interests. I have been both a Meetup organizer with my Bay Area ...
  • Mining the Gold from Your Contacts
    This class will cover the heart of relationship marketing (pun intended). Making that initial contact with a prospective client, customer or fan is just the beginning of a long and beautiful and hopefully productive relationship. Knowing how to turn an initial contact into a relationship is a key success skill.
  • Multiple Streams of Art/Music Income
    So how do you break out of the familiar system, and build a successful business as an artist? The key is Multiple Streams of Art/Music Income. Multiple Streams of Art/Music Income is a powerful, comprehensive way to approach your business as a whole and your marketing strategy in specific.
  • Multiple Streams of Income
    I’ve been following this model in building my business and it has made a tremendous impact on my income, on my success with my clients and on how much fun I have working! While these products are primarily focused on Coaching or Service and Consulting businesses, I’ve very successfully coached my clients in the Arts and Entertainment ...
  • Multiple Streams Step 1: Niche Picking
    Designing your marketing around a Niche can enable you to have a major impact on a small budget. Since most Artists are working with a limited to non-existent marketing budget – Niche Marketing can give you a tremendous advantage over your competition.
  • Multiple Streams Step 2: Elicit Their Problems
    you chose your niche. Now that you know who you’re marketing to, the next step is to Elicit Their Problems. What does your ideal customer most NEED? WANT? DESIRE? What drives him or her?
  • Multiple Streams Step 3: Find Solutions
    In steps 1 and 2 of the Multiple Streams business model, you’ve chosen your niche and discovered their problems, needs and desires, as well as the language they particularly use to describe those things. Now that you know their problems, the next step is to explore how you are the perfect and best solution ...
  • Multiple Streams Step 4: Develop Your Product Funnel
    Most people create products haphazardly – this step was about how to use your Vision of your business and career to create products that lead your customers deeper into relationship with you and create lifelong fans.
  • Multiple Streams Step 5: Generate Traffic
    The major purpose of marketing, for any business, is to create awareness and desire for you and your product. You can have the finest quality product. But if no one knows about it – how can you create a prosperous living? This isn’t about forcing people or manipulating people. It’s about giving people ...
  • Multiple Streams Step 6: Convert Prospects
    A lot of marketing and sales programs talk about how to Drive Traffic – and we cover that critical area in Step 5.  But if all you do is get people to “Like” your Fan Page or even sign up on your email list – you will not succeed. The key to success in your business ...
  • Multiple Streams Step 7: Strengthen Relationships
    All the principles you’ve put into practice and hard work that you’ve done in the previous steps come together in this 7th Step of the Multiple Streams of Income business model. Your pink spoon and product funnel draw them deeper into relationship with you. The research you’ve done on your niche, their language and preferences and your ...
  • Multiple Streams Step 8: BOP Positioning
    The final step of the Multiple Streams of Art / Music Income process, establishing your BOP (Bold, Outrageous, Provocative) Positioning, is bigger than your Branding, or your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Your BOP Position is about who you are and what you stand for as an artist, as a business and as a human being. What is ...
  • Music Licensing with Sarah Gavigan – An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Music Placed in Films, TV Shows and Ads
    In these times of Music Industry upheaval and uncertainty, Music Licensing is one of the few areas of the industry that offers clear income potential to the entrepreneurial artist. I’m thrilled to have Sarah Gavigan as a guest this month, to give us an insider’s look into the Music Licensing business.   In this class you’ll discover: The range ...
  • Music Marketing in the Real World – An Interview with Michael Brandvold
    KISS, yeah the band. The guy who spits blood and sticks out his tongue. The band that wears more makeup and higher heels than your mom. What can you learn about marketing from them? KISS is alot more that just caskets and condoms. Michael Brandvold will share with Debra Russell some of the marketing lessons he learned ...
  • Niche Marketing
    YouTube highlight video of Niche Marketing workshop
  • Niche Marketing – How Thinking Small Can Payoff Big
    What is a Niche, really? And why is everybody talking about Niche Marketing? Many business owners are afraid to define their niche on the mistaken premise that they will lose business as a result. The truth is just the opposite. Designing your marketing around a Niche can enable you to have a major impact on a small budget. ...
  • Niche Marketing – How Thinking Small Can Payoff BIG!
    What is a Niche, really?  And why is everybody talking about Niche Marketing?  According to About.com a Niche Market is a narrowly defined group of potential customers.  Let me be really clear about this – Niche is not about you.  It’s not about your product or your genre.  It’s about them, your customers/clients/fans.  It’s about ...
  • PR vs. Advertising
    Small Business owners who do not have a background in marketing often confuse PR (public Relations) and advertising.  Advertising refers to a very specific thing – buying space/time in a public medium such as print, radio, TV, or billboard.  Public relations refers to everything else we do to promote ourselves and our business. Frankly, unless you’ve ...
  • Self-Promotion for Performing Artists with Peter McDowell
    Not sure about how to write a press release or to approach press? Unable to move forward in promoting an upcoming live performance or CD release?
  • The Marketing Cycle with Music Marketing Expert Bobby Borg
    In the old paradigm of the Music Business, the Record Company took care of the marketing and the Artist took care of the music. Those days are dead and gone – It’s a DIY Music Business. So what do you need to know in order to handle marketing your music? In this class taught by Special Guest, Bobby ...
  • Websites and the Artist Entrepreneur
    Internet Marketing Part Deux In last month’s Newsletter, I talked about the importance of not only having a presence on the Internet but having a presence that would be easily discoverable by your prospective customers, clients and fans. And that the trick to being found is through the use of good key words and SEO principles. But ...

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