Why You Should Market Like Nine Inch Nails

Unless you’ve been living with a Head Like A Hole, you’ve probably heard of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. They’ve been around since the 1990s and, I would argue, kick-started not one but two gigantic musical movements: Modern Industrial Rock and Digital Recording.

Meet Your New Marketing Consultants

These guys are so influential that Marilyn Manson is said to have started his musical career after meeting Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor.

But I’m not here to tell you how cool Reznor and NIN (that’s cool kid street slang for “Nine Inch Nails”) are for reinventing a rock genre that had grown stale with post-grunge lameness in the mid 90s. Instead, I want to show you why Reznor is a marketing god, and how you can apply his techniques to your own projects, regardless of if they are heavy metal bands or church charities.

I should point out that I’m drawing the meat of this post from an article published by Aweber called How To Market Like Nine Inch Nails. It’s definitely worth a read. (Aweber is a an email marketing company – if you’re into list building you’ve probably already heard of them. If you haven’t, you will, because I plan on discussing list building in the not-so-distant future).

Why NIN’s Marketing Deserves Your Attention

Because it’s out of the box. Actually, it’s so far out of the box that it’s in an entire different universe. If you put “the box” on a street corner in Denver, NIN’s marketing techniques would reside somewhere near the Alpha Centari star cluster.

Not to mention that NIN strategies are insanely successful. I don’t have income tax records for proof, but I’m willing to guess that Reznor and friends aren’t enduring any financial hardships.

But the real reason why even the most educated, been-through-it-all marketing executive should should study Nine Inch Nails is because the band has bucked the traditional music marketing system and prospered tremendously as a result. Chances are there is a “system” in place surrounding your business/brand – it might not include smelly roadies and truck loads of pyrotechnics, but I’m willing to bet that there is a “this is just the way things are done” culture in your market.

Embrace New Viral Technologies

Remember when some of the biggest names in the music industry were crying foul as a result of music downloading software? Labels and bands seemed to join together by the thousands pleading with fans to stay away from “illegal” programs like Napster because it was “stealing” and ultimately driving them out of business? Guess who actually encouraged his fans to download his music? That’s right, Mr. Reznor himself.

Why? Why not. Instead of wallowing in self pity with the rest of the industry, Reznor looked at the glass (or in rocker terms, “vodka bottle”) as half full. So he sat down (“drank”) and thought: “How can I use this to my advantage.”

The result was an increased knowledge of the NIN band, brand, songs and style. And fans loved the fact that NIN was willing to give them music for free. Reznor was already a sub-major player, but this move catapulted him to the A-list faster than Mel Gibson’s drunken rant catapulted him to the S-list. As fans grew weary of anti-song-sharing bands like Metallica, they embraced NIN’s willingness to “give music to the people” and as result began following the group like a bunch of emo teenagers.

Did NIN lose potential dollars as a result of these downloads? Probably. But everybody was. It was inevitable. But what NIN didn’t lose was fans. The group’s fan base grew exponentially as fellow bands lost theirs.

Pop Quiz: Who do you think had more successful (financial and otherwise) concert tours, NIN or Metallica?

Change The Rules

“If you have nothing in common with American Idol and you don’t want to be the Pussycat Dolls, then you don’t really want to be on a label.” – Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails (source)

Several years ago, Reznor began providing fans raw instrument clips from his songs and holding remix competitions. Music recording-savvy NIN-heads (is that what you’d call a rabid Nine Inch Nails fan?) went to work right away, churning out hundreds, if not thousands, of high-quality remixed versions of the band’s popular songs. The fans loved that he was willing to share what was normally considered “sacred source materials.”

Nine Inch Nails embraced these remixes and, ultimately, complied them onto a CD. The disc was made available to purchase through the band’s website, and was quickly gobbled up. Not a shabby way to make a couple of bucks, eh? Engage your fans, help them create NIN-licensed materials, compile them, then sell them (albiet cheaply) back to the same fans who have come to devour anything NIN-related. I’m seriously not trying to sound sarcastic, I’m just wondering why other bands haven’t embraced this.

I’d be willing to bet (again) that you could incorporate a viral game like this into your business.

A Worthy Exchange

In 2008, Reznor literally gave the new album “The Slip” away for free – straight from the official Nine Inch Nails website. All a fan had to do was enter his or her email address and BAM! An instant, free, legal, high quality electronic version of the album was now residing on his or her hard drive.

Sound crazy? Sure, if you’re a major music label executive.

Some of you might have caught the ingenious part of the download process in the earlier paragraph. If you didn’t, I implore you to reread it and see if you can find it. Seriously, I’ll wait…

Still stumped? I’ll give you a hint: “Email Address.”

That’s right. By downloading the album, you gave Reznor your email address. What’s the big deal about that? In a word: Profit. Reznor estimates that the band makes more than $100 per year on average for each email address it compiles. That’s $100 PER YEAR, as in RECURRING INCOME. Compare that to a one-time “loss” of a $15 CD and, well, you get the idea.

How does NIN make this much money off a simple email address? It’s simple. Reznor is known for keeping his fans up to date on what the band is working on, and does so through email. So when the group begins working on a new album, he let’s his fans know. When they announce a new tour schedule, he lets them know. When they roll out a new line of NIN apparel, he lets them know.

The result is eager fans gobble up concert tickets, new albums and merchandise like Cookie Monster at an All-You-Can-Eat pastry buffet.

Obviously there is a fine art to “selling to your list,” whereas you can’t shove sales pitches down people’s throats and expect them to stay loyal. The key is balancing such pitches with relevant, non-sales information that fans are dying to know.

Go Get ‘Em

Reznor has succeeded through creativity. He’s obviously a talented musician, but by tapping his creative juices into marketing, his band’s popularity has soared – so has his checkbook, I would imagine.

Now it’s your turn. Take the lessons you’ve learned from Nine Inch Nails and become a self marketing genius.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 6:56 pm by Lee and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.