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Enjoying this? Forward it to a music friend you’d like to be closer to and start a discussion!

This week kicks off part 1 of a two-part newsletter on how to actually make announcements perform in the algorithm. Everyone knows announcement videos flop, but Honey Revenge - who I think are one of the best groups on TikTok- has cracked the code.

I’m going to explain the problem behind traditional announcements and break down the genius TikTok formats you can learn from Honey Revenge. Next week, in part 2/2, we’ll get into the darker tricks and advanced tactics that push these videos even further.

THE PROBLEM(S)

So, for those of you who don't get it, the problem is that if you have any success at short-form video, you go, "Why do my announcements always do so terribly? And yet these videos do well, or these videos do well?" Well, I'm gonna teach you how to get your announcements to do well so that people are aware of what you do.

So the problem obviously is that announcements never go very far. We've been talking about it on the questions on this member's feed. We've been talking about that on the My Point 4 Cents group chat. And one of my clients who was not happy about this is like, "Jesse, you need to make us a roadmap. We have a big announcement to make and none of our announcements do well. "So I made them essentially what you're about to read here.

The biggest problem we have is that announcements are really important. They're the key to getting people aware of the big things we're doing. Albums coming out, tours, new singles being released, music videos—whatever it may be. We need your fan base to be aware of what you do, so we gotta fix that.

THE SOLUTION

So the solution is, instead of doing the thing where we go “This time, the announcement will do well because our video looks so good, or that tour flyer looks so good,” we're just gonna do the things that actually work to spread content.

So what's in a good announcement? We're gonna use Honey Revenge as an example of what's in a good announcement. Let's get into it.

EXAMPLES

What’s an Announcement? (Bare Minimum Examples)

For those of you who aren't even getting what I mean by an "announcement," here's the lowest form of it, and it's from Honey Revenge—even though they're very good at this stuff. The video is teasing that there will soon be an announcement.

@honeyrevengeca

Our new song Risk is out everywhere 5/23 but you can hear it early and watch the music video tomorrow, 5/22 on the @Thriller Records YouTu... See more

Now, I don't always think that we need to tease an upcoming announcement, especially when you're a small artist. Like above, it's just a video making an enticing teaser that tomorrow will be a huge announcement to basically just say that your new music video is out now.

But the principle is just simply saying "out now". You gotta do this. It's an announcement video. It's one of the lowest forms of it, but I'm gonna show the better ways to do it after this.

@honeyrevengeca

Risk is out now!!! This song is your reminder to take a chance and trust your gut Listen everywhere #risk #poprock #newmusicfriday

We gotta show people, we gotta basically try to get them interested in the video. We gotta do the basic ad for the video, but at the same time, there are better ways to get the attention for things. So let me start showing how they do this well instead.

Good Examples

Example #1 (5 Bands You Should Watch at [fest] This Weekend)

Here's a great example. Let's say you are playing a show or you're playing a festival—hell, this doesn't even need to be a show. This could just be five bands in your local area/in your genre. This is a great format to get attention and to do audience finding so that the algorithm and people see that you're similar to these artists.

@honeyrevengeca

who are you going to see at @Vans Warped Tour this weekend? Tagged the bands so you can keep up with them👇🏼 @sace6 @Sillygoose @Sweet Pi... See more

Super good value for the viewer, if they are going to that music fest, other people are just curious who's playing Warped Tour in this genre. It's a classic lineup. And the same template could even be replicated for the fucking Spring County fair or wherever the fuck is happening in your neck of the woods.

But if you notice smart things they do, they make a smart caption:

Then bands see them, make them more aware. The algorithm sees connections. Very smart stuff here. And then they tag all the bands, and then they do a bunch of hashtags, some of which are more worthless than others. And then you see it lights up the comments, and it does really well. That's a really, really good video for this type of thing.

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