Coming up with a name

Create a mixture of a name you like with what you are able to grab for a domain name. Compare that against what looks good on a poster, banner, or a pen. Then add in how it can be spelled or misspelled, and you’ve got a little more work on your hands than you may have thought.

It’s a good idea to do an online search to see if any other bands already have your potential name. Even more so, however, it’s important to see what companies share the name and who might have a trademark, copyright, or some level of marketing that tie into the name or phrase.

Just because someone else may not have the copyright, trademark, or ownership of a name, it isn’t worth trying to take over if that artist or band has a serious presence with that name. When you fight an artist who already has a great deal of search engine optimization (SEO) in place, or you see potential confusion that might lead a fan of yours to another musician, ask yourself if it’s really worth the fight. Pick your battles wisely and watch out for names, phrases, and ideas that are already immensely popular.

Avoid niches that might be too close to other bands or brands or nicknames that might confuse fans. When building the foundation for your brand, let it be yours and not tied to something or someone else that could take the spotlight away from you.

Your name is going to be with you for a long time. It will be on your album covers, website, social media, merchandise, and whatever else you can get it on. Make it something that you’re proud of and do not see it as a placeholder till something better comes along.

It’s fine to read up on the way that your favorite bands came up with names and be inspired by the process; just remember that the Internet has changed the music business drastically. Your considerations for creating a band or artist name in 2015 may not have same creative freedoms of an artist in 1975 or even as recently as 2005.

Draw from the creativity of creating a name but consider the business, optimization, ability to be found, and ability to draw the most people online as well as off with that name. Do your due diligence and research to make sure there’s no trademark or legal ownership of that name, too. Keep all those considerations in the forefront to help you find the best name possible.

Making your name memorable, easy to spell, and not too long

Thurston Sedgewick Beauchamp III, which is a whopper and easy to misspell, would also be a challenging domain name to use as well as making the branding process with that name a whole lot more challenging.

Can you imagine www.thurstonsedgewickbeauchampthethird.com as a domain name, or a social media page like www.twitter.com/thurstonsedgewickbeauchampthethird/? Then think about how that would look if someone were trying to put that on a business card, flyer, letterhead, or even as a link in a post on a social media page. Way too long and offering way too many chances for someone to misspell it, misread it, or just miss it all together.

Do what you can to abbreviate and simplify. Think of this name on a stage banner behind you, or on a bass drum, business card, letterhead, or swag promo pen that you might have for people who leave their names for an email list.

Also, consider the domain name when you create email addresses. Thurstonedgewickbeauchampthethird@thurstonedgewickbeauchampthethird.com is a tad lengthy. Make that name a little shorter for every possible use in your branding in order for more people to connect with you.

Searching for availability beyond the domain name

It’s more than just capturing a domain name after you have a name that you think might be the one. Make sure it works across social media pages, and then go for it.

Imagine you have a domain name — go with www.kittylikesavocado.com — but it’s already taken on Facebook or Instagram. So you come up with some obscure name that has nothing to do with Kitty Likes Avocado, but has some meaning to you … maybe something like Fluffy Fruity Cat. What you’ve just done is create a greater challenge for someone who wants to find you on that network. The more difficult you make it, the less chance for follow-through. So make it that much easier for fans to find you anywhere and everywhere with your name and brand.

If you can’t find the name, look to other names that might add music to the end of a band name or simple adaptions. Don’t just go after a .net extension. It is better to grab all the extensions you can to secure that brand for you.

Grabbing more than just the dotcom

Don’t forget the other extensions that are available. Grabbing the .com may not be enough of a deterrent for other musicians, or others not even in music to buy the same name but with a different domain extension. The top seven most recognized extensions for domains are .com, .co, .org, .net, .us, .info, and .biz.

It’s a great idea to lock them all up, and it’s great branding if all are available. If you don’t find a .com available and jump to grab the .net, you’re already making your online branding a little more challenging if that .com is already well optimized. In other words, if fans search for the name, the search results come up with a page of information about someone else and not you.

Hundreds more domain extensions have been added, including .club, .name, .music, .photography, .singles, and even .xxx. As some will gain steam in the coming years, right now, the top seven in the United States are all worth reserving for your band name. If you want to go a step further, reserve some of the international domain name extensions like .uk. The reservation of these extensions won’t only lock in and reinforce your brand and your name, it also keeps others from trying to use that name because you locked it down and have taken control of it online.

With the reservation of other domain extensions or even misspelled domains, you can create individual landing pages that point to your main website to build up additional search engine optimization. Check with your website designer or check out Search Engine Optimization For Dummies by Peter Kent (Wiley) to make sure that you follow the right White Hat methods so that you’re not penalized by Google for Black Hat methods. White Hat methods are preferred by Google; Black Hat methods are frowned upon and can get your website flagged, making it even harder to be found.

Simply put, White Hat methods are the type of SEO practices that you want to use, whereas Black Hat methods are frowned upon and can get your site blocked and lowered in its ranking. For more information about White Hat and Black Hat methods of SEO, look at www.warriroforum.com, which shares some of the most up-to-date SEO tactics.

Even if you’re unsure of how to create landing pages, reserve those domain names and extensions, and point them at your main website or even at some of your social media pages. Reserve the domain names and own them so someone else doesn’t have the option to buy and use them.

Securing free emails for your name and brand

The following list shows the top eight free email sites. If your band name is Kitty Likes Avocado, then sign up for or secure these eight email addresses as well your domain name emails.

• Gmail: [email protected]
• Outlook.com: [email protected]
• Yahoo! Mail: [email protected]
• Inbox.com: [email protected]
• Yandex: [email protected]
• AOL Mail: [email protected]
• Mail.com: [email protected]
• My Way Mail: [email protected]

This doesn’t mean you have to manage these eight emails! Just set them up with the basic information and check to see where you can forward each of these emails to your main email. This also means that they won’t be available to others who might like the name or might want to set up an account that people think is you.

Keep a simple spreadsheet for all the emails, blog sites, social media pages, and everything else online with the six elements shown in Figure 7-1. It keeps confusion to a minimum and allows you easy access when you log in to sites you haven’t been to in a while.

With each of the email addresses you set up, you have one more place where you put your name, one more place someone else can’t use that name, and one more place where you’re able to fill in a profile or information that leads people back to you.

Locking up the free blogs for your name and brand

Just like securing free emails, lock up the six free blog sites with your name and your brand. Again, this doesn’t mean that you have to blog on each of these sites, but you can connect them and share from your main site.

• Wordpress.com: https://kittylikesavocado.wordpress.com/
• Webs.com: http://kittylikesavocado.webs.com
• Wix.com: https://kittylikesavocado.wix.com/kittylikesavocado/
• Blogger.com (BlogSpot): https://kittylikesavocado.blogspot.com/
• Weebly.com: https://kittylikesavocado.weebly.com/
• Blog.com: http://kittylikesavocado.blog.com/

I use WordPress, and I find that with all the plugins, the SEO functions, and the ease of use that it’s the best site to blog from and be able to share information with all your other social media or blog sites. As you sign up for each site, make sure to track it in a spreadsheet to make it easy to log back in and fill in the profiles completely. Every page on your website and signature on a blog should point people back to where you want them to go or where they can connect in other places.

The more basic information you have on each page, whether it’s a social media page, blog page, or email profile, the more you are getting your brand out in more places.

Signing up for all the social media pages

Some musicians talk about how they focus on a specific page or pages, and whereas that’s not the most productive way to connect with the largest audience, the more places and more sites where fans can find you, the more you can connect with a larger audience. Regardless of the time spent on certain social media sites, it’s still key to reserve your name and your brand so everyone can find you.

Signing up for the following 28 sites for musicians as well as making it a regular habit and part of the schedule to continue to sign up for new pages is the best way to spread your name and brand across the Internet.

Like the blogs and emails, fill out the profiles in full. Add everything you are allowed to. From linking your other social media pages to uploading videos, audio samples, your bio, and your pictures, it allows you to create one more place that potential fans may come upon that will lead them back to you.

Just as with the blogs, many of these sites have sharing functions where you can post links or automatically have the content you create shared to them. So after you have a post, it can be as simple as sharing a link from your blog or from one social media page to all the others in minutes.

Don’t copy the same content into every post. And if you share a link and put a headline on it, change that headline a little so that Google and the other search engines don’t see it as copied content being cut and pasted on different pages.

Certain sites need you to put up a certain amount of content over time or achieve a certain number of followers to be able to choose the vanity URL you want.

As you find out about different sites, get on board, sign up, and see what happens down the road. If a site is a bust, at least you secured your name. If that site develops over time, you already have a page into which you can begin to put more energy or time. Plus, those who look to see if a name’s available and find that every search result comes back with you will most likely be kept from taking or using that name.

Getting your name out there

Get your profiles set up on TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Amazon. Musicians are always looking for reviews for their music but often times don’t think about leaving reviews for other people. If your Amazon account or a band Amazon account reviews books, other people’s music, and products while leaving reviews about hotels you stayed at or restaurants you ate at on the road, you have a few more sites that are connecting you with that many more people.

It’s not only securing your band name on some more sites, but again, by filling out the profile in detail and putting some efforts in to your reviews, you may attract people to your profile page and get them to click through to find out more about you and your music.

Connecting through these other pages can connect you with a large group of people who may not be looking for you at all, but then be drawn to you from a review you leave for a musician, product, hotel, or restaurant — and all while cementing your band name and brand on one more site online.

Securing your name on other sites

Create a music publishing company with the name of your band. Even if you have your songs published elsewhere, secure that name as a publishing entity. Set up an Amazon account with your band name, travel review sites, and even your business legal entity. Secure the Skype chat name, KIK name, Yahoo! Messenger, and anywhere else. Take control of your name to the point that no one else has the option to use it.

Adjusting a name for a site when unavailable

If you find a solid name and in certain places it is unavailable or you are not quite able to get it across all domain extensions, social media pages, review sites, emails and blog sites, but you are set on it, then work to stay as close to that name as possible to have the best branding of that name as possible. For example, if you are able to secure /kittylikesavocado in most places but there are a couple where the name is unavailable or by a small chance taken, stay close to the name.

Some sites like Twitter have character limits, so you might need to make alterations when your band name is too long. Instead of going for something completely different, however, try to stay with the brand and at least the first part of the name. For example, Kitty Likes Avocado can have that as the name in the title, but the web link is https://twitter.com/kittylikesavoca. It still leads people to the name and maintains the first part of the brand: kitty likes. If the name is not available at all, try URL names like /kittylikesmusic or /kittylikesband. Always try to have the beginning of that URL the same as the others.

If you are able to keep your name and then add the word music at the end, that is one way to make a slight variation while maintaining your name and brand. Switching up to all sorts of different names or using words like official come off unprofessional and cheesy. That continuity of your name and your brand gives it that much more of a chance to continue to reach more people who are both searching directly for it or stumble upon it by accident.

Capitalizing on misspellings

Don’t assume that people will spell your name right, even if you have an easy name. Think about the easiest ways that someone could misspell your name or band name, and consider buying those misspelled domains.

Now, this isn’t like your correctly spelled name; you don’t need to buy up nine different misspelling extensions or sign up for social media sites with that misspelling. That would be an excessive and ineffective waste of money. Still, grabbing a couple misspellings and simply redirecting them to your correct spelling or creating a couple landing pages that can send people to the right website is effective.

Try adding some misspellings of your name into your social media and blog posts. It can create some optimization for your content that allows for someone who misspelled your name to find content that is about you. Also between the domain and some misspelled content, search engines may start to correct the misspellings and point them right to you.

Protecting that name

With the work you do in reserving, purchasing, owning, and controlling the domain name, different domain extensions, emails, blogs, social media pages, reviewing pages, business name, and the misspellings, you have the best chance that no one will use that name or phrase. They would have a very hard time trying to market it, when it is all pointed at, coming to, and belonging to you.

Copyrighting a name is not allowed. You can’t copyright a domain name, either. These are pretty big misconceptions. This also includes your tagline. You can copyright elements of what is put on a website, but you can’t copyright a website. That all falls under U.S. patents and trademarks, which is an option, but a very expensive one. The best steps to take for the protection of your name and brand initially is to lock it up so that no one else would want it or be able to use it and then look into the trademark options. If you’re able to lock up and have all those different elements in place with that name, then it’s worth going after the trademark.

Just because a name doesn’t show up online, doesn’t mean that someone else might not have the trademark on it. As mentioned earlier, do your due diligence, and make sure that name isn’t trademarked before you put all that work into it.

Consistency and uniformity in your design

Regardless of your logo or font, stick with it and stick it everywhere. Your font needs to stay the same so more people will recognize it as your font that goes with your logo. Imagine if you saw the Disney name in the cursive Coca Cola font. It wouldn’t make sense.

Consistency and continuity in your branding date back to well before Internet and online marketing. The recognition of a brand becomes psychological. That comfort in consistency can bring in a potential fan with the ongoing recognition that much more over continuing to try your name in a series of different fonts with different logos all over the spectrum.

Make sure your logo and font are legible on the smallest item (such as a pen) to the largest item (such as stage banner). As much as you might want to go into amazing detail in the logo or a wild cursive and thin typeset for your font, the lack of clarity and legibility will hurt the productivity of your marketing and promotion.

Making your designs shine to increase visibility

As you begin to explore what you want your logo and font to look like, think about all the places they will go. The logo and font, in many cases, are the very first things that most people will see. They might see it on a T-shirt, poster, sticker, bass drum at a show where you might be opening for another act … your logo/font should be seen everywhere.

The more places you can imagine where you need your logo/font, the easier it is to make the final decision about what it should look like. Give a thought to how your logo/font might look on the following:

Some of these items will only have the logo on them like the online avatars, those little graphics that are associated with each of your social media posts, but most of these items should have your logo, your font, your tagline, and your URL.

Keep the different products and placements in mind as you design your graphics or work with a designer in the early stages and you will have a logo and font that is able to work well across the spectrum of your branding for a long time to come.

After you’re close to zeroing in the logo and font you like the most, upload them into the Google search function for photos. This helps you see what Google might bring up for comparisons. Although you might feel really strongly about a given design, if it’s uploaded to Google and comes back with a large brand that you might be aware of or looks too much like another artist, it can be a good idea to make some alterations at that point to make it a little bit more yours and look a little less like it is someone else’s.

Designing before you begin with the designer

There is a lot you can do before you hire a graphics designer. By taking the extra steps early on, you save money and time because you already have some ideas dialed in and sketched out.

A logo and font is a personal thing beyond just the business elements and you can mix business and personal together. Think of it like a combination of the two so they can work together and let your personality shine. If you think only business, you chance something being too boring; if you think only personal, you chance it not being business-like.

Make sure the designer you choose has these business and branding elements in mind. Some designers take a more artistic route. Align with and hire a designer who is going to brand you for the best level of visibility across the board, the web, and all products. By discussing with your designer the uses of the logo and font and how it needs to work, you give them a better outline and starting point to work from to give you the look you want.

Think about the things you like in fonts and logos as well as the things you don’t like too. Begin to write up a list about what you like, what you don’t like, and examples that you can show a potential designer from the Internet to get them going in the best direction possible.

For example, if you like the green in the Starbucks logo, mention that you would like Starbucks Green to be considered or used in some way. You don’t have to find the exact color that Starbucks uses; the graphics person can do that.

If you like the four-leaf design in the Hilton Garden Inn logo, mention you like the four leaves and go into a little more description about why. Do you like the idea of four small emblems? Do you like the square that the leaves are in? What is it that draws your eye to that design?

Sharing the same concepts around fonts can help, too. Copy and paste links or pictures of five fonts you like as well as five fonts you hate. Note what you like and don’t like to give your designer some direction.

Writing your band or artist name in a Word document and then formatting it using your favorite fonts can be a helpful tool. Find something you really like, then hand it off to a designer to edit and alter so it’s yours. This can make the whole process easier and faster.

The more basic information you can give your designer about what you like and what you don’t like, the easier it is to get your logo and font done. The logos that can cost the most come from the need for too many back and forth ideas mixed with poor planning and communication.

By almost pre-producing your logo and font before going to a designer, you get the same effect of pre-producing a song before you go in to the studio. Everyone is on the same page early on.

Finding the right designer for you

Just because a designer has a great résumé and has done great work, doesn’t mean they are going to be a great fit for you. In the same way that you want to find the right recording studio or the right producer, you want to find the right designer to work on the image and font that you want for the front and center visual for everything.

Designers competing for your logo

There are websites like 99 designs.com that first ask a series of questions about what you are looking for, then a number of designers get a chance to create their interpretation from the info you’ve given to them. You get to pick and choose from many options.

The cost of creating a logo can go from a virtually nothing to breaking-the-bank pricy. There are artists out there who can design a basic logo for as little as $5 through websites like Fiverr.com; however, you could go all the way up to a $12,000 design. Make sure you get all the information about the job and the costs before you start. I can’t stress enough how important it is to hammer out a mutually agreeable contract so there are no big surprises at the end of the project.

For some of the less-expensive options, you get less edits and alterations and less formats. A safe, basic cost for budgeting a solid logo and font in all the formats can sit between $400 to $1,200. On the higher side, some designers create logos for upwards of $10,000.

Looking at different formats, sizes, and options

You need more than just the design and the logo. In some cases, a designer can help you create different formats of your logo for use across both physical and digital media; in other cases, you have to settle for fundamental files and basics from the designer and then find someone to help create a series of different sizes, formats, and layouts for your logo and font. Be sure to add to your statement of work that you will receive the graphics in .jpg, .png, and .eps formats to allow edits, adjustments, and changes to go much smoother and much cheaper.

At the foundation of it all, you want files that you can edit and adjust. You need the highest resolution possible for creating a gigantic stage banner, whereas you can use a lower resolution for your website. Your middle-of-the-road resolution is high enough to look strong online and on your promotional documents, but low enough to load a page fast.

From the front page of your website to your Facebook, YouTube, Google+, and Twitter headers, the consistency and continuity needs to be uniform. From your letterhead to business card, promo package to merchandise items, each of these has different size requirements and needs to be designed a little differently while still keeping the brand looking like it is coming from the same place.

Allowing for a page on your website or a link to a Dropbox file for promoters, booking agents, media, and others to be able to download the files in the formats that they need for posters, online ads, or to put in to local papers about your gig will help keep that professional and uniform look that much stronger.

The following is a list of the different ways to make your logo available for industry professionals (as well as to yourself) either online or accessible through the click of a link:

• The logo alone
• The font alone
• The logo and font together
• The logo, font, and the web address
• The logo, font, web address, and the tagline

These are the images that are used the most to promote you, your image, and your brand. This set is also used to create all of your merchandise, posters, business cards, letterhead, and anything else that you can put your logo on.

Have these five variations available in three levels of resolution. The first set in high, medium, and low resolution, should be available as links for anyone to access, while the higher resolution versions can be used by professionals for posters to be made and other merchandise materials to be created.

When people request graphics, always send them a link unless they specifically request the file sent attached to an email. Large files can take a while to download and can tie up someone’s email account, which is why a link is preferable.

The second set is created for your online presence. This includes the formats of the front page or the first things people view when they come to your website and what they see on the top of all your social media sites.

• Website main design or front page template
• Facebook header and avatar
• YouTube header
• Google+ header and avatar
• Twitter header and avatar

Across all social media sites, your brand should be consistent and in plain view. In other words, the logo you use on Facebook should be the same as the one you use on your website, or on YouTube. This makes it easier for fans to know they’ve found “the real deal” when they find your sites and pages.

Don’t take one design and try to resize it to fit each of the size requirements for graphics on your website, Facebook header, Twitter header, and so on. It’ll look messy, stretched, blurry, and unprofessional. Each of these has different requirements.

Pay careful attention to the requirements of each header as you upload as well. Follow the instructions as you click the image upload, format the designs per those requirements, and you will have the best-looking images on every page and on every device where your page is pulled up. Look at Facebook For Dummies by Carolyn Abram and Twitter For Dummies by Laura Fitton and Anum Hussain (both published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc.) for the exact sizing requirements for each of these social media sites and the graphics they allow.

The fundamentals of your branding, especially in the imagery, is the recognition of that brand. Make sure your fans know it’s you! Stay uniform, stay consistent, keep true to the different file requirements for the different sites, and stay strong in how your logo and font show up across all mediums.

Using your logo and font on everything, everywhere

Now that your logo and your font are locked in and you have the files you need for all your different advertising options, you’re in good shape and look professional to fans and potential investors.

Stay with your logo and font together on everything where you can. Make sure that you place your logo everywhere a graphic can be used. From the bass drum head to the poster, on the CD to the coffee cup, the car decal to the sticker, the letterhead to everywhere and on everything, make sure that logo is on it.

You can adjust the color of it, the way it’s angled, and the basics of what’s added around it, but make sure the logo remains the same. Your logo should always be consistent.

The same goes for your band name and the font. Except for your when your band name is used in printed articles and interviews, make sure your font is also consistent. Keep it uniform, and make it instantly recognizable.

Sometimes a promoter or marketer will use a different font. Going all diva won’t help relationships, and it’s not the end of the world. Always offer the links to your logo and font in various formats, but play nice if they don’t use it. When it comes to you and the materials you create, however, always have it clear, consistent, and uniform.

Your logo and font help your branding base as they bring recognition to your music and your content. Take the time to get the best logo and font that you can as well as making it one you can stand by and continually use for a good time to come. As your popularity grows, the font can be removed, leaving just your logo, allowing people to know it’s you with out any words at all.

Think the Rolling Stones tongue. Talk about an easily recognizable logo. And think, also, of Metallica. This is a great example of the font mixing with the logo to identify the brand.

Lastly, by creating, paying for, and owning it, regardless of who becomes involved with you or your band, you still have full ownership of the base of your brand, which allows you more profit on many more products on which you put your logo.

Optimizing your imagery on the web

Just uploading your logo and your graphics to your website can become one of the biggest missed opportunities in optimization of your logos, your graphics, and your pictures. The common mistake is that some one has an image or a photo and it is automatically named 64735264894.jpg or logo3.jpg. Some sites automatically change the name of the file as it is uploaded, but sites like Google love and optimize well-named photos. For more information about SEO, look at SEO For Dummies by Peter Kent (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.).

Name your pictures accordingly. Imagine you have a picture of your band with your logo in the middle. Going back to the Kitty Likes Avocado name, try renaming the photo:

kitty likes avocado, Funk rock, band picture, promo shot.jpg

You capture your name, the style you play, which is a little more vague and more likely to be searched on. This helps optimize that shot for the Internet and helps with the SEO for it.

Just because it’s a picture of you — or even a video with you in it — doesn’t mean it will optimize because you are visible in it. Your extra steps to name photos the correct way help yours photos be seen by that many more people who are searching directly for you. And others might come across you because of the key words you added to the photos.

Keeping consistency and uniformity in your branding and your close

You can create all kinds of different online content, from pictures and videos to some seriously good writing … even links to your website or related sites. When you create content for the web, always close with a call to action. This means that you send your reader off to do something specific; in this case you send them to your web page. Figure 7-2 shows a personal call to action from me, directing readers to my online presence. As part of this content, be sure that you maintain consistency and uniformity in your logo. As already stated, you want your fans (or potential fans) to see your logo and instantly know who you are.

Creating a tagline to entice

With all the other elements in place, your tagline has to define, encapsulate, summarize, and draw interest so people want to know more. Here are a few examples of taglines that make the reader want to know more:

• Fruity Funk Scratching at the Drapes of Rock and Roll
• Heart-Driven Happy Pop
• Indie Retro Folk-Pop Duo
• A Gentleman of Soul
• A Rocktress Sculpted in Blues and Soul

These short taglines can only hint at the full description of what the artist or band may sound like, but that’s exactly what you want. Think a quick one-two punch to draw everyone in. In a sense, tease them with the basic elevator pitch to make them want to stay on for a couple more floors to hear more about you.

Too many artists feel like they need to encapsulate the spectrum of who they are, where they came from, how they are doing something unlike anyone else, and just how amazing they are. On the opposite end of the spectrum, as an example of bad taglines, other artists with a little less confidence almost dance around long-tailed descriptions that can turn a potential listener or fan away like, “well, we have this sound that’s kind of like someone else …”

The lack of confidence in the delivery of the tagline, as well as excessive arrogance, can turn away potential fans quicker than you can imagine.

When a tagline is clear, assertive, short, and can fit on a business card, it can help you move forward and invite people to want to know more.

An enticing tagline is a converting tagline. It makes people want to know what you’re about!

If you were to go with

Rock and Roll

as your tagline, it’s not very descriptive or memorable. It doesn’t give the potential fan any reason to learn more about you.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, however,

Rock and roll that takes you on a journey through time and space as it makes you yearn for more as the groove feeds your soul

is incredibly long and ineffective. Being way too vague isn’t going to help draw in more people, just as being way too obvious or going with oversaturated terms that don’t give enough detail won’t spark any interest either.

Avoid telling people how they will feel, react, or respond to your music. Let them experience that for themselves. People are more sensitive to that than you might realize and even if only subliminally, you telling them what they will feel can become a challenge and a turn-off.

Creating branded letterhead and press packs

For your promotional materials, apply the logo, font, tagline, and URL on every page. The easiest way to remind yourself of the importance of the branding on your letterhead and promotional packages is to think that every single piece of paper and part of that packet might get lost or mixed up with hundreds of others. The consistency and uniformity of your core branding and information on every page means that regardless of what happens, everyone looking at your materials, together or separated, will know it’s you.

Keeping consistency everywhere

Across the board — from car decals and coffee mugs to the stage banner social media headers — keep your branding uniform and consistent. The familiarity in the designs and colors will prompt instant recognition!

Make sure your tagline is as much a part of your products (coffee cups, T-shirts, and so on) as your logo and name. Every time someone wears the T-shirt or takes a cuppa in your mug, you’re getting free advertising.

Allowing the base of your branding to be rooted in the strongest uniformity that shows up everywhere and on everything brings that many more people to you, your music, and your products. Bring them in with solid branding from the business side and then keep them hooked with the creative side that was your main focus in the first place — your music.