When you’re looking for new ideas in how to promote your music, often, the solutions are right under your nose.  Sometimes, you don’t need new promotional techniques; you just need to better cross-promote using the tools at your disposal.

This is one of those “Work Smarter, Not Harder” situations.  Looking for ways to get the most mileage out of every promotional venture will decrease your investments (since most of us are paying out-of-pocket) as well as reducing the stress on you.

Here’s some ideas!

How To Promote Your Music:  Effective Cross-Promotion

1 – Nothing Is Only Shared Once

Once you create a piece of content – whether it’s a blog post, video, demo track, etc – don’t put it in one place.  It should go onto as many relevant outlets as possible.  If you’re only on Facebook, for example, now’s the time to set up those Twitter, G+, and Pinterest accounts.

2 – Use “Teasers” To Drive Interactions

If you have one central hub you want to direct people to – your website, or your SoundCloud – use teasers to draw people in.  Don’t release the whole song on social media, but upload a 30-second clip.  Or include a few pictures from your new video in an email, with a link to the full vid on YouTube.

3 – Swap Opening Act Gigs

Cross-promotion can be a cooperative activity, alongside other bands.  Whenever you AND another band share a stage, you’re also sharing fans.  One of the easiest ways to set this up is just to swap opening acts.  You open for them this week, they open for you the next.

If your fan bases have a lot in common, this is great cross-promotion.

4 – Consider A Manager/Promoter

There is, of course, another alternative:  Get someone to do the work for you.  A manager will take a cut of your profits, but he’s likely to have more promotional experience, along with more ideas on leveraging resources.

Keep Sharing New Tricks

Have you had any particularly nice promotional runs lately?  Tell the world about it in the forum below!  We could all use a little help these days…