Building a strong DJ brand brings many benefits to the table, packaging your skills and style in an instantly recognizable format that can be easily shared online.
Whether you’re an enthusiastic amateur or a budding professional DJ looking to take your hobby to the next level, creating a brand is essential for success.
Read on to discover the step-by-step process to build a great brand, from understanding how the best DJs in the world approach branding to creating eye-catching visuals for marketing.
How To Build A DJ Brand (Step-By-Step)
This article covers everything you need to know about building a solid brand from the ground up and marketing your content to the broadest possible audience.
If you want to build the best possible brand, here are the ten steps you need to follow:
Step 1: Research Other DJs
All the different types of DJs have their own unique tone and style, from their names and logos to their musical genres and overall vibe.
These elements combine to make up their DJ persona, which is reflected everywhere, from their promotional materials to their social media content.
The first step you should take when building your persona is to research the personas of the big-name DJs who inspire you the most to understand better how they craft their image.
Once you’ve selected some successful DJs to research, dig into their bio descriptions, logos, and social media presence, as well as any radio shows and DJ sets they have on platforms such as Mixcloud or SoundCloud.
Take notes on the visuals used for their website and the kind of content they post to social media to engage their fans in conversations and create a strong community.
While you can learn a lot from common DJ mistakes, understanding how the best in the DJ business reach their target audience can help inspire many creative decisions.
Step 2: Choose Your DJ Name
If you haven’t already decided on a memorable DJ name, choosing one you’re happy to stick with, whether this is an alias or your real name, is the next crucial step.
While some DJs prefer to use their name, several advantages exist to choosing an alias and building your brand around it.
An alias affords a degree of anonymity that using your real name won’t offer and allows you to change direction in the future and relaunch under a new moniker.
That said, many famous DJs have become household names without using an alias, such as Carl Cox and Richie Hawtin.
If you choose to opt for your real name, to begin with, there’s always the option to rebrand using an alias once you’ve found your feet and want to switch things up.
Step 3: Create Your Brands Visual Style
Understanding what your image will look like across all media platforms requires several design elements you must consider in depth.
Your brand’s image will be informed by the type of content you put out, particularly the genres of music you intend to DJ with.
If you’re an open-format DJ expanding your horizons into multiple genres, this approach will also impact your look based on the combination of genres you bring on board.
From here, you can develop a strong and consistent aesthetic that can be applied to creating an iconic DJ logo and other visual branding, crafting bold, simple, and catchy designs.
By drawing on inspiration from research, you can create a professional-looking personal brand capable of attracting new fans and potential press coverage.
Step 4: Write A DJ Biography
Once you’ve caught the attention of potential new fans and media with eye-catching visuals and a good logo, it’s time to create a detailed DJ bio.
A strong bio lets you quickly communicate the essence of your brand and DJing ethos, filling in your backstory, music projects, and achievements.
This can range from a short bio of around 50-100 words that covers the basics, such as when you started DJing, to a more comprehensive one of 200 words or more.
Unlike your brand’s visuals, which require a lot of work to change, your bio can be easily edited at any point in time, allowing you to rewrite it to improve the language or update it with new information.
If writing isn’t your strong point, you can look into hiring a writer from a website such as Upwork or ask a friend with knowledge of the business world to help you.
Step 5: Get Professional Photos
Professional photographs are another aspect of your overall look, providing additional information about the kind of DJ you are and what sets you apart from the competition.
Taking these yourself on your phone can be tempting, but high-quality photos with a professional-level camera are essential to establishing a stronger impression.
Poor-quality photos may damage your chances of being featured on professional websites and other media outlets and gives the impression that you’re not taking your brand as a DJ seriously.
If you don’t have the budget to hire a professional photographer, ask around friends and family to see if there are any amateur enthusiasts with semi-professional cameras and lenses.
Whether you opt for action shots of your DJing prowess or portraits to use as a profile image, taking them with the best available gear will deliver the message your DJ persona is one to take seriously.
Step 6: Set Up Your DJ Social Media Accounts
With a long list of social media channels to choose from, it can initially seem overwhelming to decide which ones to focus your efforts on.
Whether you spread your social media presence on various channels or stick to one platform, selecting those that best suit your intended audience and content is important.
If you’re sharing news and insights with your fans, Facebook might be the best choice, while regular uploads of your mixes will be better suited to platforms such as SoundCloud.
Social media is where you can really push your branding and create engaging content, so it’s worth looking back on your research to find a perfect example of how the best DJs accomplish this.
Make sure you set up dedicated social media channels for your DJ persona rather than using any accounts you have for personal use.
While there’s no limit to how broadly you spread your content across multiple social media channels, consider how time-consuming it is likely to be, particularly if you intend to post large volumes of content.
Step 7: Build A Dedicated Website
Social media channels are excellent resources for updating fans on your latest DJ sets and other activities, but a dedicated website offers a central hub for your online presence.
Archived image galleries and DJ sets, DJ bios, and even your online store to sell merchandise can all be included in a dedicated DJ website.
It can also be used for an evergreen contact form, a resource for booking event tickets, and implementing marketing stunts, with greater flexibility for tracking and analyzing engagement metrics.
By linking your social media pages to your website, you can use them to drive traffic across all your platforms to create a network of sites to push your brand to a wider audience.
There are many free options for building a dedicated website, such as Wix, WordPress & Squarespace, so spend some time looking at these to decide which service is the best for you.
Step 8: Brainstorm Marketing Ideas
With a visual aesthetic in place replicated across social media platforms and a website, it’s time to brainstorm ideas for marketing to get your name out there.
There are many options for marketing your DJ brand, from running ad campaigns on Facebook linking to your online mixes to guerilla marketing in the real world.
Both approaches are necessary for a comprehensive marketing strategy, with the expected reach varying depending on your available budget.
If you intend to DJ locally to boost your brand awareness, marketing strategies such as handing out flyers outside local venues are a great way to draw attention to your brand.
These traditional marketing approaches can feed into your online presence by including website addresses on the flyers and business cards you hand out to potential fans and venue owners.
Step 9: Publish Consistent Content
Attracting consistent engagement from fans requires a consistent approach to content, whether your own work or through content curation, sharing other posts with your commentary attached.
This can include sharing music production and DJ tips, such as the best equipment to use on your Facebook page or uploading your latest mix to SoundCloud.
The objective is to push your online presence as often as possible to increase your brand awareness through constant exposure while avoiding repetition and keeping the content interesting.
It’s also crucial to ensure this content is of high audio quality, so try to keep your mixes at the highest possible bitrate.
Step 10: DJ Locally To Build Your Brand Awareness
DJing is a grassroots activity, so the real work of building your brand awareness begins with performing locally to establish a strong reputation.
If you’re new to DJing, you might want to spend some time visiting venues and events in your area to get a clear idea of your local music scene and which DJ controllers the venues use.
Putting together a comprehensive music library is also essential, so ensure you understand how to choose a DJ pool that offers the content you need.
As you spend more time in the local scene, you can build up and expand your networks with other local DJs and events managers, using these to promote your upcoming events further.
Each time you DJ locally, you create more content, such as live mixes for your online presence, and can include banners and other visual elements to promote your brand to the audience directly.
Summary
That wraps up this step-by-step guide to building a brand, from choosing your DJ name that best represents your image to pushing brand awareness on and offline.
The techniques and steps outlined here are incredibly versatile and have been successfully applied by many DJs, and can be used by music producers to improve their tracks.
If you have any experiences you’d like to share or have questions about the steps outlined above, let us know in the comments.
Take your DJ brand to the level and sign up to ZIPDJ for exclusive access to thousands of tracks and unlimited downloads!