Every artist I've talked to in the past year, no matter how big their team is or if they're releasing their first single, is always interested in new strategies to promote their music and reach future fans. The typical approach we recommend is consistent short-form content posting across platforms, following the Spotify algorithm and releasing every 6-8 weeks, and cultivating fan connection through messaging or email marketing—but how can we think outside the box to reach that next super fan?

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I'd recommend an Influencer Marketing and Fan Engagement strategy—both work together to activate new fans, listeners, and engagement without a glaring call to action to the artist's campaign like "listen now." And I hear you—the word influencer sounds very expensive, but there are cost-effective ways to see significant results. Implementing a new strategy with your next release could be the difference between 10K or 100K streams.

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Let’s Talk Influencer Marketing

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The best way to start an influencer marketing campaign is to find a niche on TikTok to target that matches the mood and vibe of your next single. A niche is a group of people who have similar interests. With a previous campaign, our target audience was anime fans. After deciding the niche we wanted to target, we created a spreadsheet of accounts. We inputted their username, follower count, contact info (if any), average recent video views, and the most recent date we contacted them.

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Some other niche options could be weddings, gym/workout, beauty, lifestyle, or family. Some of these niches are cheaper than others, so the smaller the niche, the more affordable the "influencers" would be.

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If your next release is a love song, I'd recommend contacting a couple, family, or wedding inspo account. If it's an alternative rock feel-good song, I recommend Van Life accounts or travel accounts, especially during summer. We call this the " upside-down unicorn"—the audience is interested in something besides music but likes your song and is becoming a fan.

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Time To Reach Out

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Now, it's time to start reaching out. Suppose you focus on a smaller niche, such as anime or car restoration. In that case, some of those accounts will post your song behind a video even if you comment something small like "Chocolate by 1975 would be so cool behind one of your videos!". I recommend using a dummy account that aligns with the niche so these comments seem real. If you have multiple releases within a few months, you can follow up numerous times with these accounts. The more specific you are with which song, which artist, and what type of video would align with the music - the better the results. I'd recommend reaching out over email/management if they have it - or comment several times and remind them for the videos to go up.

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The Fun Part - Engaging With Posted Videos

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Once a video is posted, ensure the dummy account and artist share, engage with, and repost the video for your followers. For a previous influencer campaign, we had a ton of engagement with @smaurc.fx on TikTok. Videos would get 60K views, multiple comments, and saves, with viewers checking out the song on Spotify and becoming fans.

Next Up - Fan Engagement Strategy

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A second cost-friendly strategy I recommend artists and their management to try is fan engagement. To get started - I'd suggest creating a few Instagram or TikTok accounts within the niche you want to target (anime, travel, a specific TV show). If you choose something like a TV show or series of movies like Harry Potter, you want to ensure you are familiar with the most famous scenes to get the most engagement on your videos. You can add other well-known artists' music to your genre so you reach more people automatically.

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Consistency is Key

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To get these accounts moving, be consistent with your edits - posting 6-7 times a week. Engage with all comments on your post, and if you get an edit request, create it! That account is likelier to repost your edit if you make what they commented for. Be sure to use the most 'viral' or catchy part of your songs, and stick with that section of the song for 2-3 months. You want that 20-second clip to seem familiar every time, and if you are using the same pre-chorus or chorus, followers will remember it, interact, and become fans.

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Make It Shareable

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Niche, movie, or celebrity edits often hit the algorithm because they have a high engagement quality. People will save these, send them to their friends, comment their opinion on the scene, and will like it even if they didn't watch the whole video. It also helps if quality hooks on the video reel people in or get them to disagree in the comments with their thoughts on their favorite character or scene from the show. Here's an example within the Hunger Games trilogy:

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There are many ways to reach new fans through short-form content strategy, but using specific niches, other growing accounts, and influencers is a great way to find your next super fan and see exponential growth on this summer's new music drop!