You see, simply putting a 'buy now' button on your website isn't going to maximize your sales. Yes you may sell a few songs, but if you really want to get more potential buyers purchasing your music, you will need to refine the user experience so it's as easy for them as possible.
In this guide I'll show you some things you can do to increase the chance people will go on to buy from you. If you find it useful, please share it via your favorite social networking sites.
Don't Rush The Sale, Pre Sell
One of the biggest mistakes musicians often do is try and rush into the sale. Get them on your shop page asap and they're more likely to buy, right? Wrong!
Think about it, if you just discovered a musician and heard one song before you went on their shop page, how likely is it you'll buy from them right away? Not very, right?
While spontaneous sales do happen, it's a lot more likely the majority of your sales will come from people who have heard at least a few of your songs. This could be over a shorter time period like an hour, or a longer one such as a few weeks. Either way, people need time to grow a connection with you before they feel ready to buy your songs.
So what should you be doing before directing them to your sales page? Some options include:
- Direct Them To Your Mailing List.
This is the option I suggest you go with first. Get people on your mailing list, share with them your story / songs / videos, and always keep a buy now button in view. By doing this you're giving them the opportunity to buy your music when they're ready. They'll still be around for the long term as you'll still be sending them messages (Read 'reminders you exist and they should check you out again'), so even if they bounce off your shop page the first time, you will get the chance to sell to them again. - Direct Them To Your Video Page.
If you haven't yet got a mailing list (Get one sorted asap) you could instead direct people to your video page. Here they can see videos for you, and see what you're all about. Who knows, if they like one of your videos but can't obtain a digital download version for their mp3 player, they may go on to buy.
Don't be too keen to make a sale the first time a customer visits your site. Build relationships and future sales will be easier. Furthermore, some fans will turn into repeat customers.
Offer A Discount To Mailing List Subscribers.
When it comes to buying, the bigger the barrier there is between the customer and the product, the less likely it is they'll buy.
Price is one such barrier.
While digital downloads aren't that expensive anyway, it's still possible to lower this barrier to increase profit. Even offering a 10% or 20% discount can give fans the feeling of getting a 'good deal', and could give them that final push they needed to make a purchase. A purchase they may not have made otherwise.
Now, here's the thing (And clever part may I add); You don't want to be giving discount codes to just anyone. If you did, that'd make it lose it's special feeling for people, and become less of a reason to buy. Instead, you want to give an exclusive discount only to those who sign up to your mailing list!
Once on there, you can get your autoresponder to automatically send them their discount code.
This is win win for everyone; They get money off your songs, and you get more sales along with their contact details. And with their contact details, you can keep in contact with them and sell to them again in future. Good times.
Have Your Music For Sale On Multiple Sites.
Ok, so here's my final tip to selling more music: Allow people to buy it from a choice of places! This is a simple one, but not one all musicians do.
As with buying anything, people have preferences of where to shop. When it comes to fast food for example, some people like to buy their burgers from Burger King. Others from Mc Donalds. This is the same with music.
While there are a number of different websites on which you can sell your music, the two main sites you'll want your songs available to buy on are:
- Your Own Website.
People should be able to buy your music on your site, simple. It's what people expect.
Having music for sale on your site can also mean third party websites don't take a cut, meaning more profit per song for you. - iTunes.
This is important as a lot of people have iTunes based devices. For some people, if it's not on iTunes, it's not getting bought.
After these two, other good stores include Amazon MP3, Google Play, and the like. You can often get your songs on these and many others via a online digital distributor, more details on where to find one in the section below.
And...
That's it. So there you have it, three ways to sell more music online. If you're not already putting these things into practice, I suggest you get on the case sooner rather then later. If you're already making sales, you will see an increase. If you're not currently making any sale, still put them into practice and you will start seeing sales sooner then you would have otherwise.
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