Perception: Hearing what we want to hear. Is it good enough?

     The perception of seeing what is real and understanding it in our own way through the five senses. For example, placing an apple in front of someone, the person knows its an apple, but placing a text message in front of someone can be perceived in many different ways. "A way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting". These descriptions explain perception as expressing ones opinion of what they saw, heard, smelled. tasted , or touched. 

     For example in the form of smell, one might perceive something as too salty or too sweet. On the other hand, another person might feel a complete different way. My point is simply this; Everybody perceives life differently. Everyone has there own opinions and views. In this day in age, people across the globe express themselves in many ways. What is perceived as good to someone else (even your neighbor next door) might not be good to you.

     With the many genres and sub-genres of music. The isles of different cereals and options of potato chips should blow your mind. The country has become saturated, and so will the world. Its already happening. With more people, comes more businesses, more pollution, more cars, more energy, more problems. Without a doubt more demand for McDonalds to be on every corner for the rest of eternity. 

     There are many times when working with artists and musicians that we come across several perception issues. What separates the pros from the rookies is this. Know what is good, and what isn't good. There are many times when working with artists when suddenly "its good enough, just isn't good enough." Our expectations are too low. On an overall scale of issues as a human race, are expectations are way too low. 

     When settling for "it's good enough" there are several problems. We clearly do not know what we want, and we definitely do not want to have to do it again. It's simply the lazy way out. Sometimes musicians will just say, "turn it down, turn it down in the mix". That way no one will hear how bad your performance was. Sure certain tracks need to be low within a mix, but make sure your take is good before you commit it to tape.  

     The most important part about music to me is when it moves you. So, when you are listening to a song for the first time. Make sure you listen with an open mind. Understand why you do not like the song, or you do enjoy the song. Interpret what hits home with you as a person, but do not let it limit you to dislike other music. Sometimes, it takes several repetitions of listening to a song or watching a movie to be aware and understand what that might be trying to do for you mentally and emotionally.

"Help Me Be Free" by Justin Cost

"Help Me Be Free" by Justin Cost

"You Got it Good" by Justin Cost (Feat. Fly Envy)

Cost Publishing Campaign Management

SEO Contribution

Search Engine Optimization will enhance our KPI by helping our clients aware of our company, website, and service. Without SEO, many customers will not be aware of our presence. It is vital to get our customers attention. Our main KPI will be determined by how many people visit our site, and our clients site per week. As well as, how many e-mails we will attain per week within our database. To determine if this campaign is working, we will continue to check search engines on a daily basis for effectiveness. Cost Publishing will accomplish the objective by enabling users to contact our site, and service. This campaign will be successful if there is consistent traffic to our website on a weekly basis. We are looking for at least two to three thousand views per month.

PPC Advertising

Our KPI will be investigated on a monthly basis to ensure that this campaign strategy will remain effective. The metrics that we will use will require search engine contributions from funds, and data. Received through the PPC advertising. We will measure its effectiveness by how many viewers click on these ads, if they have purchased anything from these ads, and where these ads were discovered, and clicked on. There age, location, and salary information would be useful to our company, as well as any other personal information, such as e-mail addresses.

Promotions

Cost Publishing plans to monitor all blogs throughout the Internet. We will check comments, and questions concerning these blogs. We will also monitor how the success of each interview went. We are able to monitor each artist’s status on twitter, facebook, and myspace. We can research comments, and other posts concerning our artist on these pages. Every time a blog is posted, or an interview is broadcast, we can measure the flow of traffic through each promotion to see if clients are gaining attention. This will let us be more aware of overall industry focus. If fans are listening, then so will investors, producers, and executives.

Social Media and Viral Marketing

Just like the other campaigns, we have the ability to track all flow of incoming traffic. We will utilize Google Trends, as well as other Google applications. Cost Publishing is also determined to consistently check over social media networks, and videos. The metrics that come into focus for future success are video views, facebook friend ads, myspace views, adds, and plays, and posts concerning our artist’s or bands. We are looking for a wide amount of views from YouTube, Facebook, and Myspace. As well as adding friends on each social network daily. We hope that our client acquires a fan base quickly. To accomplish these goals, both the company, and our artist’s will have to do much-needed legwork. This will allow supporters to become fans, and aware of the talent. We hope to acquire four to five hundred fans per month.

E-mail

Depending on how much e-mail get sent out. Cost Publishing would like to see 25% to 30% ratio of e-mail responded, replied, or forwarded. We understand that e-mail can become junk, and clutter of impersonal taste, but we plan to work hard at becoming friendly, and close to our investors, and clients. The only way we will know if this particular campaign is working is if 25% to 30% of the e-mail sent out is responsive. Only then will we know if we are successfully grabbing their attention.

Value of a Conversion

Cost Publishing has spent $15,000 on this campaign. Our goal is to create at least ten thousand conversions per artist. Currently, Cost Publishing is only dealing with two artists. As more talent is acquired, more money will be put back into a similar campaign. As of now, we are dealing with a total of twenty thousand conversions. This sums the value of conversions to 1.5. Broken down, each channel is roughly 4,000 conversions. This means that the cost of conversion for each channel is 3.75.

Review for change

One of the many aspects of this campaign that I would have preferred to change is my KPI. The Key Performance Indicator that is most important in the publishing business is investors, and record label executives. These people have all the connections for licensing music, and getting airplay on FM radio, as well as, XM radio. However, producers are also a key asset to this company. Requiring a good connection is not easy, but affordable. This piece of the campaign is where we would have liked to spend more money. Social Media, PPC ads, and Search Engine Optimization can only take you so far, but Promotions, E-mail, and Viral marketing are crucial to acquire networking with big name investors, and producers.

Cost Publishing Advertising Campaign

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Cost Publishing will be using SEO. This channel is cost efficient, and effective. It is essential to create a clean, and promising web presence. We will do so by continuing to update our WebPages frequently. Links will constantly be evolving with our partners, and our social network pages. It is also important to keep the Google-bot coming back to update our SEO. This campaign will help meet our goals by informing clients where to look for our company, and our information. It will ultimately create a connection with our clientele.

Paid Search/Pay per click Advertising

Our company will focus on flat rate pay-per click advertising. This type of advertising does not hurt our budget, nor does it hurt our integrity. This advertising campaign will help retain money back into our business. Paid search and pay per click will help provide income to fuel back into our business, which will contribute to our goals and our success.

Promotion/PR

Certain promotions will help generate customers, and revenue. Blogs, articles, and interviews about our company are crucial. PR will help to improve our goals by getting our client’s interviews, and other forms of news. Web magazines are becoming more popular, as well as, music reviews websites. Cost Publishing will also contact local radio stations and journalists to inform potential clients, and investors.

Display Advertising

Cost Publishing will not be applying Display Advertising for the first few years of production. One of the reasons for this is because of the cost. Being that we are a new company, we would like to limit the amount of funds and resources to a minimum for maximum profitability purposes.

Social Media and Viral Marketing

These two campaigns are very important for the future success of our company. It is proven that social media, and viral marketing are the new ways of grabbing your target market. It is also a cheaper outlet of advertising. Cost Publishing will be developing several short films every few months. This will allow us to reach more fans, investors, and potential clients. The most important aspects of these videos are to inform of our business, and where the music industry is going. Social Media websites are obviously necessary in connecting, and networking with your audience. We will use all social media websites that are accessible. Everyday, these social media websites will be updated and provide new information about the industry, and our company on a daily basis.

E-mail

Cost Publishing will limit the amount of e-mails that go out to our clients. The reason for this is because it is very easy to scare away or annoy people. E-mails will be sent out more frequently to employees, and involved investors, and clients. However, people that are unfamiliar or unsure of our business model will receive e-mails once every three months (every quarter). This way of advertising is also to simply inform, and let individuals aware of our presence.

Affiliate Marketing

Our company will not focus on Affiliate Marketing until after the first few years of our business. One of the reasons for this is because we do not have affiliations set up within our business model. We are not concerned with this type of advertising at the moment. Though we realize of its importance as our company expands.

Campaign Budget

The budget for our advertising campaign will amount to $10,000. Not much for the first year. Mainly because most of these avenues are cost effective, and we simply just do not have enough in our budget as a starting out company. $5,000 will be implemented in our viral marketing budget for the first year. This equals to roughly $4 – 500 per video. $2,500 will be used for promotions, and the other $2,500 will be covered under PPC, and SEO. Myself, and other staff members on a salary basis will allocate E-mail, and Social Media and Viral Marketing. This will take over two hours of each day during the campaign per advertisement, and per Social Media Website.

Duration of the Campaign

The campaign for Cost Publishing will last for two and a half years. One of the reasons this campaign will last for over two years is to ensure quality results through patience, and hard work with clients, partners, investors, and employees. We understand that success takes time, and rushing through these endeavors could be dangerous, and damaging. Being cautious will always be on your side when making tough decisions. 

Cost Publishing's Social Media Strategy

Cost Publishing will implement a social media strategy via the Internet by creating business accounts on Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. We will also create short videos to ensure our companies quality, and trust. These videos will be posted on Youtube, and sites like Digg. Other videos will be made to show past examples of our artists in the studio, and at shows performing. Another aspect that we hope to apply in our social media marketing strategy is artists working around industry professionals, and hopefully award ceremonies. If just one of our artists make it in the music industry by winning awards, selling songs, and acquiring sync, and mechanical licenses, we will be sure to capitalize on these achievements.

To achieve our goal, Cost Publishing will focus on securing well-known local artists, and professional songwriters within the area. By doing so, we will be able to gain other industry professionals respect, and trust to deliver a quality product. The most challenging task that Cost Publishing will endure is making the proper connections, and partnerships with other companies to gain sync, and mechanical licenses. Our company is focused on bagging these licenses, because it will promote our artists music. At the same time, we will achieve royalties, and worldwide success, as well as popularity.

With our goals and objectives, Cost Publishing will be based on ratio instead of a count, because some of these opportunities are based on odds. For example, how many licensed songs, to non-licensed songs. A count KPI would only be necessary if we were really trying to monitor the number of videos played, and the number of songs downloaded, and streamed. Being at the right place at the right time is crucial. However, it will be up Cost Publishing to gain the respect and trust of industry professionals to deliver satisfactory work. That being said, the more hits that are created by our artists, the more chance to have success with that artist, as well as with other artist.

We all have to do our job. It is important to follow through in every aspect of the business. If the master recordings are not satisfactory, then we will go back to the studio to re-produce the product for proper delivery. A successful campaign will be determined by how many songs are licensed, and how many of our artists are successful in these endeavors. That being said, these artists do not have to be signed. It will be up to Cost Publishing to make connections for these artists and songwriters. They need to be able to have their music heard on a regular basis from TV and film licenses, and digital media. To complete these objectives, artists will need to be in the studio writing routinely, and they will need to perform locally, and regionally.