3 Author Marketing Secrets From The Grateful Dead

I was recently browsing the shelves of my local Barnes & Noble when something caught my eye – a new book about my favorite band, the Grateful Dead. My heart skipped a few beats with excitement. Then I was shocked to see the section where this new golden nugget was shelved: Business marketing. What?

Turns out, that despite their anti-business leanings, they were a pretty business savvy band. They were way ahead of their time.

The book is called Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead (aff link). I haven’t read the book yet, but when I saw it and began thinking about why the Grateful Dead is such an iconic band, it began to make sense that businesses and authors today could learn a few things from Jerry Garcia and Co.

1. Allowed Taping of Concerts & Encouraged Trading of Tapes

Even modern recording companies and publishers would be aghast at such an idea. The Grateful Dead felt that their fans should be allowed to not only tape their concerts, but trade those tapes amongst themselves. The website theatlantic.com has a great article highlighting this point:

They famously permitted fans to tape their shows, ceding a major revenue source in potential record sales. According to Barnes, the decision was not entirely selfless: it reflected a shrewd assessment that tape sharing would widen their audience, a ban would be unenforceable, and anyone inclined to tape a show would probably spend money elsewhere, such as on merchandise or tickets. The Dead became one of the most profitable bands of all time.

This proves that free can be profitable. The idea is counter-intuitive, but it works. Authors today are using this strategy to build a buzz about their books. They give away back titles for free, giving new readers a chance to sample their work in hopes they will buy their new releases.

I’ve been advocating indie authors use free to widen their audience for a while. I also heavily criticize authors who refuse to allow digital editions of their novels for fear of piracy (see my post J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter, Ebooks and the Definition of Irony).

2. Big Benefits for Loyal Fans

For the Grateful Dead, fans were everything. So instead of leaving concert ticket sales to a corporate ticket broker, they sold concert tickets themselves through their own mail order catalog. They reserved some of the best concert seats for these fans and capped ticket prices to keep their concerts within everyone’s budget.

The band also established a mailing list and phone hotline to keep fans updated on tour schedules, band news and more. This gave the Dead a direct connection to deadheads all over the country. And they did this without the convenience of the internet.

Authors today need to think about how to connect directly with their readers. Social networking makes this a lot easier then back during the Grateful Dead’s heyday. Authors should maximize their use of sites like Facebook and Twitter while also maintaining their own website and blog. Selling books directly to the public eliminates the middleman (publisher) which means more money in the author’s pocket.

Additionally, authors should reward their most loyal readers. For example, if an author sends out a monthly newsletter, the author might want to give subscribers exclusive content not available to non-subscribers. This exclusive content could be a sneak-preview of an upcoming book, exclusive books just for subscribers, interviews and more. Give fans a reason to stay loyal.

3. Marketing Doesn’t Have to be Hard or Boring

The Dead didn’t hire some corporate PR or marketing firm to help their image. They did all that themselves, by doing what they love: Playing music. They crafted their image by just being themselves. More importantly, they gave the fans what they wanted.

I think the biggest reason why the Dead were the masters of marketing was because they insisted on keeping that direct connection with fans. What would have happened if they left their ticket sales to a company like Ticketmaster? What if they tried to stifle people from taping their concerts? If they did, I don’t think the Dead would be as iconic as they are today.

As I mentioned before, the Grateful Dead were ahead of their time. They broke the rules, like allowing fans to tape their concerts. They made their fans feel like they were a part of something special.

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Read More: Misc., Self-Publishing, Writing