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DJ MARKETING - WANT DJ GIGS AND INFLUENCE, DO THIS INSTEAD!!

By: Andrew Duffield

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The first key to marketing is to ignore everything everyone has ever told you. don't you know marketing is not cool and the fact is if you're telling people to follow you they are going to run the other way and worse, if you are inboxing people custom templates telling people, you don't really know to check out your latest mixes, people will block you.

So how do you do it, how do you get your name out there. Firstly you need to ask yourself why you want your name out there in the first place. I think it's safe to say the majority of DJs are only ever thinking about marketing because they feel, the more support they have on their social media pages the more attractive they'll be to venues and this will help them get shows. Yes there is truth in this, but even if you have got thousands of followers you still may find it difficult to get shows, especially if you are not immersed in the club scene, so can I suggest another route.

Instead of making your marketing efforts about you, why not direct your efforts onto helping others and in my experience one of the best ways to do this is to run your own events and parties. They don't need to be huge, they can be really low key, especially until you build more experience and even confidence, but by running an event, you can book other DJs and this then gives you access to all their friends and you can use your events as a platform to bring like minded people together and the events in themselves will give you a smorgasbord of content you can later share across your social media platforms. and by running events, even if only occasionally, you'll notice your influence builds very quickly as instead of being one DJ in a dozen, you are the guy or girl that runs the killer parties and this gives you a point of difference, and by doing so you also achieve your goal of getting the chance to play to people and share your sound and at the end of the day, isn't that what it's all about, more so than how many followers you have.

*this flyer is one of the events Club Ready Students run!!

Sure at the events you can take photos and videos but when you post, instead of making your pages all about you, you can make them also about the community and share info about the other DJS you shared the line ups with, do shout outs to people that came, and even post highlight videos and reels of cool moments shared by many. This then becomes interesting to watch and instead of running a page that gravitates around you, you make your pages more about the scene and your involvement in it, and this way you reach all the people in that scene, as opposed to sharing info about yourself hoping people will be interested.

F that, you need to find ways to motivate people to get off the couch, come together and do the thing that DJIng is all about, bringing people together through amazing atmospheres and a love of music and let's say a promoter does check out your page and you only have 100 followers but your page has images and snippets of you playing to good size crowds, that's going to be way more attractive than a person with a thousand followers just posting transition clips.

If the idea of running an event sounds daunting, you could even start with some free parties, either in a mates backyard or better yet you could find a local bar with a cool outdoor courtyard or even a rooftop bar and run a dozen DJs during the day when the venue may usually be quiet. Trust me venues are all about finding ways to attract more people so they can sell more drinks and if you operate your event at a time that doesn't conflict with their usual schedule and you pul it off, not only does your influence build in the DJ community but the venues will love you and will want you back and it could really take off, and let's say a hundred or so people show up, who cares if they follow you virtually, as they are following you in real life and you cut straight to the goal of playing live as opposed to thinking having a strong brand will be the thing that gets you in front of people, when really it's the other way round - by playing live you build your brand.

There has never been a better time to take action on this than now. Venues need your help more than ever and people are appreciating live events more than ever as it beats being stuck at home, so it's time to start thinking less and acting more and this starts with you figuring out what you want and why you want it. So let's say your goal is to play live, instead of waiting for someone to give you a shot, create your own opportunities and better yet take other Djs and people with you along the way. If it fails, who cares, it's better than failing on social media and not even getting up from behind your computer. At least you had the guts to try.

Yes sure, to make your events successful you'll want to build awareness around them through posts and possibly ads targeting your desired demographic, which in truth, that is a video in itself, but trust me, if you're promoting events as opposed to yourself, people will be like: wow, this guy or girls got shows, and if they're a DJ they may even start reaching out to you wanting to play and be involved and that's where it all begins.

If running events sounds like something you'd be into let me know as i would love to help and could easily do a video with an attack plan on how I would go about it as running events is a huge passion of mine. In truth my first ever DJ gig was at the grand opening of my own event, and sure I thought a little bit bigger than a local bar and went for one of the most notorious venues in Kings Cross Sydney and got it, and looking back that first ever event of mine went on to run every single Friday night for 7 years at the venue and from there I expanded out big time, but that aside and speaking personally, social media was never that important to me, well in truth, back then it didn't even exist, but even still when I promoted the events, I always made the focus about the event, not so much about me, and I fast became the guy known who ran the popular clubs, but admittedly my clubs became household names and in truth my clubs were a lot more famous than me personally, come to think I still do the same thing but now I push my brand Club Ready DJ school much harder than I push myself and if you're pushing the events and the scene that you're involved in, harder than you push yourself, then perhaps it feels less narcissistic. I guess that's why when we do our student streams they are a thousand times more successful than when students do their own streams as their is strength in numbers and it mkaes it more about the community and culture at events which is what I am all about.

So all I am saying is, perhaps instead of thinking what can I post, start thinking of ways you can get out from behind your computer or phone and create your own opportunities and even opportunities for others and by doing so you'll have more than enough content to post, and even better the content your posting will hold more value.

At the end of the day the more you can find ways to give back the better. So even if it's how you post to social media, think does this actually give the viewer any value and the more value you can give people the more they'll value you, so make it your mission to first know what you want and why you want it and then hop into vibrational alignment with the outcome not the process. So if it's playing live, posting your desires will probably not bring you any closer, but sharing your experiences on the other hand can be huge and it may even inspire other people to go out and support your next shows.

If you don't want to club all night, start a day club, if you prefer parties to clubs, throw a house party and perhaps even get other Djs involved and rotate who hosts it and you could even create a mini touring network using your friends backyards or even take a risk and find some abandoned warehouses. Seeing something like that unfold will be way more fulfilling than building and watching your followers grow through constant posting. However I am not knocking posting, and in truth I read this quote once that said successful people don't think either / or they do both, so do both: post but also find ways to create your own opportunities and you may even surprise yourself.

Anyway I love the playing live and industry side of things, so again, if you want more like this let me know as I am only happy to help and am grateful I am in a position that I can share my greatest passions with so many people. I guess you may think why aren't I still running events and the truth is, after 17 years of running events, sometimes 3 events per week, I got over it, and fell into teaching and now it's my time to pass the torch, and the truth is, I love teaching and helping my students and to see their accomplishments blows my mind and there's even talks among my students of building a global touring network, so perhaps my brainwashing is starting to pay off. All in all I personally feel there is nothing like playing to big crowds of likeminded people and if I can motivate you to start thinking a little bigger and pushing your own comfort zones, then I'm stoked and perhaps once your events are epic you may even invite me to come down and do a set . Thanks again for allowing me to be me I feel really comfortable doing these videos and speak form my heart, see you next Monday bright and early!!! Thank you

DJ Marketing - the best way to get shows - no matter how old you are!

This article cuts through the shit and will change the way you look at DJ marketing forever. The truth is you can look at DJ marketing in different ways. The majority will tell you DJ marketing is about getting clear on your DJ name, designing a logo, sharing links to your mixes and streams across your social media platforms and networking and sure all of those things may help but the fact is, that's what everyone's doing and it can be super frustrating as you are putting in all this effort and getting next to no traction. So how would I market myself if I was in your shoes.

Firstly we need to get clear on one thing, marketing is not cool. The more you try to push stuff on people quite often the more you push them away, so what can you do to get traction. Personally if you want to build a name for yourself I think the best and quickest way to get instant results is to find ways that you can help others and by doing for others what you would have them do for you, you will start to attract the results you want.

For instance let's say you want to get some experience playing live but no one will book you and perhaps you feel too old, lazy or even shy to go clubbing and immerse yourself in the club scene, why not run your own event. It could even be a day party at a local bar or cafe, ideally somewhere that has a cool outdoor courtyard or balcony or perhaps even rooftop area and you could run a free event featuring a dozen local DJs. Putting something like this together would be easier than you think and would just require some organisation and before I tell you the steps how, consider this, how much effort are you putting into your social media and how much results are you getting? So why not put your effort into an area that could get you instant traction and by throwing an event you build influence and people will be more likely to support you as by doing so they feel they can get something from you - SHOWS.

I know from running events for almost 2 decades, my influence was huge and I was always getting approached by promoters to play shows and I dj'd every single week, sometimes 3 events per week, and well over a thousand shows in my life, most of them to packed rooms and why, because I created opportunities for myself and others and by doing so, instead of marketing myself, which unless you are really sexy or have a point of difference between you and the thousands of other DJKs out there, can get you nowhere, but if you are promoting events, people are more interested as your events can be used to not only create opportunities for other Djs in the local scene but more importantly can be used to connect like minded people into similar music as you.

Let me put it this way, let's say you find a cool venue to run a party, and you feature a dozen local DJs and you put that all together, people will be drawn to you and instead of you trying to build followers people will be seeking you out to follow you.

I am only scratching the surface here. In my Club Ready DJ Course I have a whole section called the CLUB Pack where I share over 20 years of industry experience to help you get your foot in the for and keep it there. This is game changer time!!

Buy the complete package now (and get club pack free): https://www.clubreadydjschool.com/club-ready-dj-course/.