Dream Girls - New York, NY

On Feb. 17, 2007 NABFEME hosted an edition of DREAM GIRLS, a panel seminar where women in their dream jobs speak out to other women, about their jobs, how they got there, and what obstacles they have faced and overcome in the music industry.

To view the video go to: http://www.swan-marketing.com/NewsandEvents.html

Email Marketing

Yesterday, I went to a seminar luncheon where Matt Blumberg from Return Path, who spoke about email marketing. It was a very interesting talk, as he touched on how to build your list, how to make creative emails that grab your readers attention, and what to do and not to do when doing email marketing. A few major take aways that I got from our talk were:

1. Try to build a house list (people that raise their hand to email them rather than renting a list)
2. Make sure you have email sign up options on your home page and throughout your website
3. Give your visitors an incentive to sign up, tell them why you want their email address and what you will give them in return
4. Be aware of view panes which people nowadays view their email in. Your call to action should always be at the very top.
5. Test, Test, Test - your subject lines, color, copy, and style to improve response rates over time.

Please stay tuned for more helpful tips and ways to sign up for our monthly newsletter coming soon! Check out our current events and news now at http://www.swan-marketing.com/

Search Engine Optimization

The other day I received in the mail, a booklet from Quickbooks that talked about how important it is now for businesses to optimize their websites and get involved in paid and natural search, in order to drive more traffic to their site. As a customer of Quickbooks, I wouldn't have expected that they would send me something like this because, let's face it they help me process my transactions and manage my financials, not not help me decide how I should market my website to try and get more business right?

So when I saw it I thought oh, they are just trying to up sell me for something.. Don't we all think that when we get mail from a vendor we are already getting a service from? So let's just say it sat on my desk for about a week, but continued to interest me, about what was in the booklet. I was thinkging, can I learn something new if I read it? I thought I already know about SEO (search engine optimization)..

So anyhow, I went to the spa a week later, and decided to actually bring the book with me to read since I would be doing nothing just sitting in the chair, while I got my nails done. As I got comfortable in my chair while the lady intructed me to to begin soaking my feet, I pulled out the book from my small spa robe pocket, I had stuffed it in and began to read. After about an easy 10 minute ready, I said to myself, I have never read any book or had someone explain SEO to me in such a simple way. I also thought, wow they even gave me tips on exactly what to do instead of just telling me to "better optimize my website, like really what does that mean and how do you do it?

The problem with search engine marketing books, and info that is out there, is it's hard to understand if you don't work in that world. This booklet however, really explained why it's important today for people to be able to find your business on the search engines, (that is when someone goes to Google and types in a word, lets say Flowers, if they are trying to find a flower company, in the search box if your business is a flower business, your site will pop up) and how you can make this happen, naturally (by putting the write words on your website so that the search engines pick up words on your site, to rank you higher) or to pay for a spot by purchasing keywords you think people will search for your business under, and then you pay every time your website link is clicked on.

All this is based on marketing strategy, understanding your customers, and molding your website to match what they are looking for through your content (what you say on each page of your website, what words you use and so forth).

I thought the fact that they took the time to create a small booklet like this, shows they understand their customers (who I am), and care about the productivity of my business. So kuddos, for Quickbooks!

We at Swan Marketing will be offering information on SEO (search engine optimization) along with other useful tips to help you market your business or artist in our client area on our website, as well as through our newsletter for non clients. You can visit us to sign up for our newsletter at http://www.swan-marketing.com/ContactUs.html.

Monique Duarte

Marketing and the Effect on Music

Well hello. Usually I like to talk about things that can help or educate people, but today I want to talk about this link that a friend referred me to go to and listen to. It's a video with D Brad talking about how corporate america has changed the music that we listen to today.

Check it out at Real Talk - www.realtalkny.net/2007/03/topic/videos/confessions-of-a-bet-producer

He talks about his years of experience in the music industry where he worked on rap city, and paved the way for young hip hop artists like Eve, Kelis, and the Lox to be successful. But what he really hones in on is the fact that BET a corporation that he worked for, has now turned corporate. He claims that all the creativity of what use to be of the network, is now gone, and is built now on what mainstream America is publicising.

In the interview he challenges someone to listen to the radio for 10 minutes and then turn on BET and tell him what you see. He guarantees that you will see the same artists 's videos that you heard on the radio 10 minutes ago. He claims that this is because BET has become a dictatorship run by top executives that are usually older white color men who are untapped within the urban music market, but that is more so focused on what sells, and what we think the audience wants to hear.

He goes on to say that we have brought our audience down so much from what real music is, that they now only expect so much. For all the Nases, Kelises and other artist out there that want to make real music, that has lyrical content and that is creative and has meaning to it, it's almost like there is no market for these types of artists anymore.

What do you think? Have we shaped our own music society?