 Yeah, I feel like at any point in time There's an obvious trend happening that most people are in denial of for me right now It's that this ukulele wrap thing is going to be a thing because truly this is like nails on a chalkboard to my ears But come on we're talking about music marketing not my taste in music So I think a lot of musicians are in denial that in every single genre Tiktok influencer marketing is the hidden hand making songs popular I'm seeing this in Midwest e-mode a hyper-pop to some seriously underground hip-hop to the most mainstream pop Tiktok marketing it's where people are blowing up by putting very little money And I know people are in denial of this because they're still stupid enough to defend putting money into Facebook ads or other old dumb Ideas the con artists that take the money from them tell them to do but the fact is if you look where the music business is Spending its money. It's here. So in this video I'm gonna go step-by-step through how you do tiktok influencer marketing on your own and Effectively and why it's one of the best paid marketing methods you could spend your money on today So while many people get that tiktok marketing is what's blowing up so many songs and creating the hit songs on the radio today I haven't seen musicians changing their strategies to incorporate it and admittedly I've been experimenting on a few campaigns It's been crazy to watch how few dollars we spend to get so many people to listen to a song and build an artist into Someone fans are engaged with it's a funny thing since I've discussed before that I think most of the artists who complained about fans who find them on playlists aren't always engaged with going deep on their material Well, I love about fans that we've been finding for artists on influencer campaigns through tiktok Is they really engage with them? And I think that's because right now the users of tiktok are the most bored but avid fans of music and the ones who Jumped the curiosity gap to go to Spotify or Apple to listen to more of a song They loved hearing on tiktok are the best music fans as they're super engaged Where's the fans that listen to playlists just want to be served music and never in the mind the fans you get from Facebook ads Are the laziest worst music fans you can find which is why the people who buy those don't turn out to have fans that Actually build them up into something bigger. So all this is to say I really find that outside of doing the work of finding your community This is the next most effective way to promote your music if you don't know what I mean by finding your community Please hit the description and watch what I call my most important video And it's not just me but oftentimes the marketing behind songs is hidden But many of the artists that are blowing up through tiktok and the agencies they use are just coming right out and saying they are the Not so hidden hand behind these songs blowing up and that's mostly because it'd be a little sus Otherwise since it's not always subtle now but think of it this way right now tiktok is the main catalyst as to why the two-year-old Glass animal song heatwaves or Bastille's nine-year-old song Pompeii was on the top 40 charts all through this year Well, it's all from tiktok influencer marketing getting attention to a song that people really liked and no one's even trying to hide that or deny it But some of you I'm sure are a bit unclear on what this influencer marketing exactly is Well, I along with everyone else keep calling it influencer marketing, but let's be honest here It's basically bribing an influencer to make a video that they then put on tiktok and you may be wondering How is that effective for you and to you I say you are obviously not a tiktok ad For one of those influencers can often get the clip of your song heard by more people than anything else You could spend money on but the pushback I often get is it's just a clip of your song and a small portion at that And we all know we often have to hear a song a few times to become susceptible enough to jump the curiosity gap and Give the song a full listen, but here's the real power of the money you spend on this Let's say your song has a lyric and music vibe That's perfect for let's say a video where a young lady describes how annoyed she is by male youtubers with deep voices talking confidently But then others hear that song and then they talk about their gripe with that song in the back of it This meme evolution snowball effect happens as more users see it and pick it up And as those videos get thousands than millions of impressions many users of tiktok jump the curiosity gap of seeing the rs Name down at the bottom of the video and listen to the full song and become fans And here's what makes this so explosive is you don't have to pay those imitators And you get free promotion that continues to spread for months and months on end if it catches on Truly what makes this so much more interesting compared to past promotion techniques in music whether they were Facebook ad Campaigns are touring is once the promotion stops Well, the numbers would usually fall off but trends on tiktok can grow for six or more months at a time Long after you've spent the money lighting the initial fire on your marketing campaign The only marketing like this in the past I would see as good long tail results were from radio and video campaigns as they could have such long shelf lives But we all know those have gotten ineffective, but I know you're thinking this has got across tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars But here's the good news. I've been a part of campaigns that have received hundreds of thousands of streams from this for around $2,000 so let's start off discussing who this is for while this won't be effective in every genre of music It does work for every genre that's consumed by those under 25 And if your audience is mostly in that age demographic I really can't think of a more effective way you could spend your money now when it comes to marketing But really the way you know if it's for you is by using tiktok And if you see a community of people on there talking about the music you make by exploring the hashtags of your micro genre Well, then this can probably work for you. I should say one of the other reasons I really like tiktok right now is it gets you the best people for growing a fan base the addicts the Influencers of the people most passionate about your music or discussing music will spread the word about you So even if your music's micro genre doesn't have millions of posts that can actually be better as it'll be easier and cheaper to Infiltrate the hip people in your genre who are engaged on tiktok and you probably want to know what's the strategy So let's get Nathan fielder for a minute break down the plan the plan So first off before anything else we need to understand the tiktok landscape of your micro genres What we need to do here is have a list of songs by artists who are doing well in your micro genre and are similar to you In fact artists with a few hundred thousand plays rather than millions upon millions Tended to be even better for this and if you have no clue how to find those songs Perhaps hit chart metric and look at the playlist you want to be on and the artists on them and find some songs of theirs We don't want these to be huge song But instead one that is blowing up on the playlist most similar to you since that's where we really need to find the Perfect influencers will be goodbyes for this to make your spending effective If you're looking through the playlist of your genre of hip and upcoming artists closest to you and sound and going through those songs You will hopefully have a few songs targeted at some influencers that we can now find We're then going to do a search of these songs on tiktok by doing what I'm doing on the screen right now in a tiktok search As you see those songs come up It's time to grab a spreadsheet and input the name and how many views and follower count into it as well as what song They did just like you see on the spreadsheet on the screen now cuz this tiktok has changed the way This is viewed you do have to often click user profiles to see the views on their video But you can often guess how successful the video is by looking at hearts and comments But if you want a great shortcut for this and have some spare budget chart metrics upper tier plan allows you to search any Artist and song and if you click on the tiktok panel You can see all the top tiktoks that have been made for a song laid out perfectly to easily choose which users to approach And even download a spreadsheet of them Which is what I do but we also want to go to their profile and write how many views their video got of this song and then their Follower count as well as what song they did but it's important to know what we're looking for here when I talk with my friends who get Tiktok we all talk about how unlike any other social media platform tiktok is because here's the thing you could think you Have a banger of a tiktok and we'll flop then one that feels kind of mid breaks all of your records And this is evidenced by there's tons of people on tiktok with videos with 100 views that have 10,000 followers then videos with 600 views or then videos with 100,000 the disparity is wild and this is why it makes it such a huge marketing opportunity But it's also why betting on just one influencer instead of a few is far less effective Since rolling the dice five times is way more effective than one since the odds of losing versus winning have about the same chances With someone with less follows, but this is not to say betting on people with just 20 followers is necessarily smart Since so many people just don't get the attention span of tiktok if you don't know what I mean by that I highly suggest you watch my playlist on tiktok. That's linked in the description below any who so we want to bet on a few different horses are Influencers so that the chances of this blowing up are even better So as we go through the tiktoks of the songs that are similar to you You need to know what we're looking for which is users who make videos to songs in your microgenre that have between Five to one hundred thousand followers But commonly make videos that get five times their follower amount meaning look at my profile I currently have about eleven thousand followers and a lot of my videos get two times that but the occasional one gets three to Thirteen times that meaning I would be a good candidate if I did videos in your genre Which I'm not but music business brands keep hitting my inbox since I'm enjoying this influencer We're all looking for people that meet this criteria since how much you pay is largely determined by follows not views So if they're regularly getting a lot of views, but the follows haven't hit well That's actually perfect and I know some of you were like Jesse I've heard that there's a whole parasite economy of influencers. We're just watched by smaller influencers It steal everything they do so why shouldn't I pay for one of those big influencers? Yeah, that's true But you probably don't have $10,000 and if you do their agent would love to talk to you But I want you to understand the dynamics of this You're a small artist and finding the people most passionate about this music to pay for an influencer video also Fights the other people were most passionate about your type of music since the algorithm serves people who saw the make-of-video To that song similar to yours is most likely to find perfect fans to be your first fans Which is another reason I love this technique so much is even if you don't get hundreds of thousands of streams You're building a really good bedrock of finding the exact right people who should hear your songs at first and getting your first fans But when you target those huge influencers, you're thinking too big and put your eggs in one basket That isn't perfectly home to your small dollar spending and your more niche market And what we're trying to do here is bet on a bunch of people cost effectively and hope that one takes off and inspires more And the more horses you bet on it seems to be more and more effective But also we want to make sure these people you choose don't have too high a flop to hit rate So after you've identified a bunch of them It's sometimes good to make sure they're not making 300 videos and only one or two of them have a high number of views And you know They're a really good candidate if more than half the videos They make to songs do more than half their follow number and I should say I know people do this for major labels And they're doing the same technique but across lots of big influencers for a high price tag I should also note if your song is doing well the bigger influencers will be far more likely to take it on and do it for free And this could be your test run of smaller influencers And if it's doing well for smaller influencers who are paid less That could be a good test as to whether you should pour money into marketing it more And paying for one of those bigger more expensive influencers Anyway, so let's say you have like 50 influencers now in your spreadsheet Now the ones that are most important are if they appear on the list a few times because they're doing the songs in your genre Since those are the people who are really going to reach the fans of your micro genre And get you the most enthusiastic people to your song The next that are most important are those who regularly bat above their weight Meaning that they make videos to songs and if they get way more plays than they have files I'd identify a good deal of those depending on your budget And then start reaching out to the ones who are most ideal Now here's the not fun part TikTok is not like Instagram where you can slide into anyone's DMs First you should follow them since a lot of people follow back a lot and then you can chat Next you can comment that you'd love to chat about an influencer video and ask them how you can get in contact with them This will get you a follow a lot of the time and one of the benefits of finding people in the 2-10k range Is they often haven't done much of this so they're super excited to get started And way more enthused to do a good job for you But if not it's worth looking for them on Instagram using whatever clues you could find from their profile And hopefully there you can get through and leaving a comment on a photo that you've slid into DMs is fine After all you're trying to give them money So the big thing here though is you want to contact them like 4 weeks out from when you're going to make this video So here's what I would message them I'd love to discuss how much you would charge for a paid TikTok of my new song I'd like to do whatever you see fit as we enjoy your content But we'd like you to use a particular portion of the song caption and pick the date you will post it And if you successfully get through one of these ways make sure to add it to your spreadsheet How you successfully contacted them so you can write them for your next campaign Which brings us to the money part of this So here's a fun fact No one knows what influencer marketing costs And a lot of people we're going to target are just going to be flattered you're offering to pay them at all Whereas other people are going to ask for dumb money and you can just keep it moving If you google on the internet how much to pay an influencer it's a penny a follower And while you'd be thinking that's more than Spotify pays you per listen I would say take that up with a guillotine in their corporate board meeting Oh yeah my lawyer told me to say I'm totally joking about that Anyway okay but as I was saying look no one actually pays that rate If you really want the influencer but they want too much money Ask them if they'd be willing to come down They often will Now you'll eventually have to make some budget decisions But since a lot of smaller influencers will do this for 50 to 200 If you have a thousand dollar budget you can have somewhere between five to 20 videos From different influencers And another thing to remember about this is some people are going to flake out If you concentrate this in a few weeks you can keep reaching out Or add money if things are going well And add more influencers after the campaign's already started The super cool part of this marketing is really that it could be an ongoing thing Especially since so many tiktoks are still getting watched months after they're made And this could be a long tail that continues paying off for you in promotion Okay so let's say you agree on a rate Now we need an agreement And what I want you to do is identify some terms We want to make sure they understand that they're being paid to make a video With your song in it And you're going to approve it after they make it And once they agree to that Just get them the right back in an email that they agree This will be after you pay them using PayPal Since that's what PayPal is actually good for Is secure transactions Or you can use the Venmo Switch since they're the same company Where it says you're paying for goods As it allows you to get a refund if they flake out And like I said Some of these people are going to flake Since I have shocking news for you Being an influencer doesn't exactly attract those with impeccable work ethics And I know a lot of you are wondering what to do If you hate the tiktok that the influencer makes for you If you do Send them a 25% kill fee Just you know Agree to have them refund it Aside from 25% for their effort Meaning since you were dumb enough to have faith in them You'll pay them for the time they took to make this But you're not paying for them to post it If you think it sucks And it is going nowhere They at least get some money But honestly It doesn't usually hurt you If they make a bad video Unless it's super embarrassing Because it's probably going nowhere But if you like it Greenlight it And ask them to post it on a particular day And also remember It's not just green light or red light You can ask them to filter it Or change the caption Or do tiny tweaks to it Tiktok is a creative art form And often trusting the influencer's instincts is good But collaboration and objectivity is also helpful But here's a fun one I know musicians as someone who's been Both a record producer and a marketer No one knows more than me That musicians are too close to their songs And bad at picking what is good about them So I highly suggest you said the influencer of the song And let them choose what part to do But here's the annoying part If all your influencers do a different lyric Are part of the song Then it doesn't get the earworm of Tiktok's audience Hearing the song repeatedly So it feels familiar Which is part of what we need to do To get people to jump the curiosity gap And listen to Spotify Is they need to keep feeling like They've heard the song before And want to hear it again And so much of this Is we're trying to get people to hear that song Numerous times So it becomes an earworm Which is why we also have these Tiktok influencer space These videos out So it feels organic to Tiktok And that it's spreading And people are creating around the song But it also works well for getting in people's heads So you have to decide What part of the song it's going to be And often you want to have the most important influencers Try to find that first And see if they agree on it And here's the thing These influencers often hear Where the song can be viral So one way to do this Is if you can only afford a few influencers Is send it to the ones you trust the most first And see what they say Is the best part of the song to do a Tiktok to If your spend is flexible You can let a wild card are too loose And if one goes better than the rest Then follow up with more influencers doing the part That is working better And here's why this ad spending is unlike none I've ever seen And as long as I've ever watched marketing So one friend and I got drunk And we found some people to do this for his song But a funny thing is Is a girl found his song From the other girls who he paid And she made a video That is four times bigger than the one he paid for And from another part of the song That she found better And now he's paying everybody To make that part of the song It's hard to guess this stuff as it's an art form And also remember It doesn't need to be a dance It could be a trend about depression Or acting out a lyric Or even just doing something dumb Like flipping a table when a part of the song happens It could be whatever And if you don't get this If an influencer seems psyched to interact with you You can get their opinion And this is the craziest part of this advertising Is it could spawn organic marketing And reiteration that starts a fire from a spark Which is why it's the most effective way To spend money in my opinion and marketing right now And truly why when I keep telling you That Facebook and Instagram ads Are a clown show of a thing And obsolete This is it Because you only have so much money And you could put it into this Instead of Facebook ads But you're probably wondering How much should you spread these out So at a recent campaign I advised on We saw some really good evidence That when we concentrated All of our promotions across five days It was way worse than we spreaded The 10 influencers we paid over 10 days So get this We paid 10 influencers to do three singles for the artist And this is important to understand Since unlike say Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram TikTok have a bit more of a long tail And that posts that are months old Could still get surges And huge engagement And much like YouTube videos They don't go out of style fast But they do have initial spikes That sustain for a few days most times And we found whatever familiarity of people Hearing the song over time Really seemed to help And if I'm being honest If I had say 5K to spend I would probably spread the influencers out way more And have 20 of them making videos over a month But this also brings me to another point Of how this is effective There's one last part of the secret sauce Which is having the video target the same hashtags And you should determine this As many of the influencers are good at making videos Because they're at a smaller follow size They don't always get the hashtag thing So if you've done your community research And figured out some hashtags That are going to get your music To people who are interested in your micro genre I would suggest adding three of them In addition to whatever the influencer normally does But if you notice this influencer didn't use them In the video you found them through Encourage them to use the ones you have found In your targets And make sure you approve their description Just make sure that they're putting the right hashtags And keywords in the description So that it gets to an audience That your genre would be interested in If you're thinking they're going to be annoyed By all this approving You're right But trust me As someone who produces ads For these YouTube video sponsors And podcast sponsors all damn day This is part of the game If they're interested in being an influencer They know this is part of the job And as Don Draper would say This is what the money's for So you're probably wondering though What do you do after all these TikToks are out TikTok at least for now is a repost button Or you could stitch the videos And spread them to your audience Through your own account But doing a funny stitch Is what really makes them spread But the very least like comment And bookmark the video that the TikTokers make To cue the algorithm that you want to see more of it And give it a boost to the algorithm This will also tell the algorithm To show you more videos like this Which could only be helpful So that you see videos made about your song And remember This influencer is now on your team So boosting all of their videos That come down your feed Helps the one they make for you too So making sure your whole team Now sees this person as on your team Is crucial to getting the TikToks They make of your song To spread in the coming months Also one of the last thoughts I want to leave you with Is I want you to get that Even if this doesn't get you into top 40 radio Or one of the longest running hits of all time Like Glass Animals What I've seen it do Is get a lot of people enough streams That they set their next song up To get on big playlists It becomes a catalyst for managers reaching out And big things starting to happen While this marketing technique Is huge right now Oftentimes it's just a step along the staircase That helps get things going So manage expectations Put in the work And start getting your music heard Okay, that's it Just remember I have a whole playlist that's linked to the description On how to blow up on TikTok And on the screen now though Is a video that if you have never watched It will blow your mind On how you market your music effectively And that doesn't cost you a dime to do it And is guaranteed to up your streams Click and keep learning