How To Start A Mobile Karaoke Business (Ultimate Guide)

Updated: January 18th, 2023

How To Start A Mobile Karaoke Business (Ultimate Guide)

You've stumbled upon the idea to build a mobile karaoke experience and now you're ready to take the next steps.

There's a lot to think about when building a business, so we put together a guide on how to get started, launch, grow and run your mobile karaoke experience.

We also provide you with real-life case studies and examples of founders running successful mobile karaoke experience (and how much💰 they're making today).

avg revenue (monthly)
$12K
starting costs
$18K
gross margin
50%
time to build
360 days
growth channels
Direct sales
business model
Consulting
best tools
Google Drive, Karafun, Spotify
time investment
Side project
pros & cons
40 Pros & Cons
tips
1 Tips

💡 Introduction To Starting A Mobile Karaoke Experience

Services To Include For Your Mobile Karaoke Business

There are a variety of different services you can offer for your mobile karaoke business. Adding these services can also help diverse revenue streams.

Here are some of the most common:

  • Bar services (alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages)
  • Photobooth or photographer
  • Surround-sound system or DJ
  • Full and partial wraps of the vehicle (for branding purposes and activation)
  • Snacks or catering services

Search Interest

Let's take a look at the search trends for karaoke service over the last year:

How to name your mobile karaoke experience

It's important to find a catchy name for your mobile karaoke experience so that you can stand out in your space.

Here are some general tips to consider when naming your mobile karaoke experience

  • Avoid hard to spell names: you want something easy to remember and easy to spell for your customers
  • Conduct a search to see if others in the space have the same name
  • Try not to pick a name that limits growth opportunities for your business (ie. if you decide to expand into other product lines)
  • As soon as you have an idea (or ideas) of a few names that you love, register the domain name(s) as soon as possible!

Why is naming your mobile karaoke experience so important?

The name of your business will forever play a role in:

  • Your customers first impression
  • Your businesses identity
  • The power behind the type of customer your brand attracts
  • If you're memorable or not

It's important to verify that the domain name is available for your mobile karaoke experience.

You can search domain availability here:

Find a domain starting at $0.88

powered by Namecheap

Although .com names are the most common and easiest to remember, there are other options if your .com domain name is not available. Depending on your audience, it may not matter as much as you think.

It's also important to thoroughly check if social media handles are available.

As soon as you resonate with a name (or names), secure the domain and SM handles as soon as possible to ensure they don't get taken.

Read our full guide on how to name your business ➡️ here

Learn more about starting a mobile karaoke experience:

Where to start?

-> How much does it cost to start a mobile karaoke experience?
-> Pros and cons of a mobile karaoke experience

Need inspiration?

-> Other mobile karaoke experience success stories
-> Examples of established mobile karaoke experience
-> Marketing ideas for a mobile karaoke experience
-> Mobile karaoke experience slogans
-> Mobile karaoke experience names

Other resources

-> Mobile karaoke experience tips

🎬 How To Start A Mobile Karaoke Experience

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Write a Business Plan

Writing a business plan from the start is critical for the success of your mobile karaoke experience.

Why?

Because this allows you to roadmap exactly what you do, what your overall structure will look like, and where you want to be in the future.

For many entrepreneurs, writing out the business plan helps validate their idea and decide whether or not they should move forward with starting the business.

You may want to consider expanding upon these sections in your business plan:

  • Executive Summary: Brief outline of your product, the market, and growth opportunities
  • Overviews and Objectives: Overview of your business, target customers, and what you need to run your business
  • Products and Services: Specifics on the products and services your business will provide
  • Market Opportunities: Analysis of customer demographics, buyer habits and if your product is in demand
  • Marketing: Outline of your marketing plan and how you plan to differentiate yourself from other customers
  • Competitive analysis: Analysis of your competition and the strengths and weaknesses therein
  • Operations: Hierarchal structure of the company and what it will take to run the business on the day-to-day
  • Leadership Team: Detailing roles and responsibilities of each manager based on their specific skill-set
  • Financial Analysis Understanding of all expenses, operating budgets, and projections for the future.

Learn more about how to write a business plan here

When it comes to setting up your business, you may find yourself in a place where you have to make some financial and legal decisions.

The first thing you'll want to decide on is whether you want to be an LLC, S-Corp, or C-Corp.

These three options are found to be the most common when starting a small business, and all serve to protect your personal assets and also provide you with certain tax benefits.

  • LLC: All income and expenses from the business are reported on the LLC personal income tax return.
  • S corp: Owners pay themselves salaries + receive dividends from profits.
  • C Corp: C Corps are separately taxable entities that file a corporate tax return (Form 1120). No income tax is paid at the corporate level and any tax due is paid at the owners individual expense.

Depending on where you're conducting business, you'll also want to consider securing the proper permits, licenses and liability insurance.

Learn more about securing the right permits and licenses ➜

Need to start an LLC? Create an LLC in minutes with ZenBusiness.

How Much Does It Cost To Start A Mobile Karaoke Experience

If you are planning to start a mobile karaoke experience, the costs are relatively low. This, of course, depends on if you decide to start the business with lean expenses or bringing in a large team and spending more money.

We’ve outlined two common scenarios for “pre-opening” costs of starting a mobile karaoke experience and outline the costs you should expect for each:

  • The estimated minimum starting cost = $62
  • The estimated maximum starting cost = $35,923
Startup Expenses: Average expenses incurred when starting a mobile karaoke experience. Min Startup Costs: You plan to execute on your own. You’re able to work from home with minimal costs. Max Startup Costs: You have started with 1+ other team members.
Employee & Freelancer Expenses
Payroll Costs & Fees: Payroll cost means the expense of paying your employees, which includes salaries, wages, and other benefits. This number depends on if you decide to pay yourself a salary upfront and how many employees you have on payroll. At first, many founders take on all responsibilities until the business is up and running. You can always hire down the road when you understand where you need help. Keep in mind, if you do plan to pay yourself, the average salary founders make is $50K. $150 $250
Employee Hiring Expenses: Apart from payroll and benefits, there are other hiring employees costs. This includes the cost to advertise the job, the time it takes to interview candidates, and any other turnover that may result from hiring the wrong candidate. $1 $2
Total Employee & Freelancer Expenses $151 (min) $252 (max)
Website Costs
Website Builder: The cost of your website will vary depending on which platform you choose. There are many website builders on the market, so it's important you choose the right one for your business and overall goals. To learn more about your options + how to build a great website, check out this article. $10 $500
Web Designer: Web design includes several different aspects, including webpage layout, content creation, and design elements.If you have the skills and knowledge to design your website on your own, then outsourcing this to an expert may not be necessary. There are plenty of other ways you can design a beautiful website using design tools and software. $200 $6,000
Domain Name: Your domain name is the URL and name of your website - this is how internet users find you and your website.Domain names are extremely important and should match your company name and brand. This makes it easier for customers to remember you and return to your website. $12 $200
Business Email Hosting Service: An email hosting runs a dedicated email server. Once you have your domain name, you can set up email accounts for each user on your team. The most common email hosts are G Suite and Microsoft 365 Suite. The number of email accounts you set up will determine the monthly cost breakdown. $1 $15
Website Hosting Costs: Server hosting is an IT service typically offered by a cloud service provider that hosts the website information and allows remote access through the internet. A hosted server can help you scale up and increase your business’s efficacy, relieving you from the hassles of on-premise operations. $0 $300
Total Website Costs $223 (min) $7,015 (max)
Business Formation Fees
Small Business Insurance: Depending on which state you live in and the business you're operating, the costs and requirements for small business insurance vary. You can learn more here. $500 $2,000
Permit and License Fees: Depending on your industry, there are certain licenses and permits you may need in order to comply with state, local, and federal regulations. Here is an article that goes over all the permits and licenses you may need for your mobile karaoke experience. $50 $700
Lawyer Fees: Although you may want to avoid attorney fees, it's important that your business (and you) are covered at all costs. This comes into play when creating founder agreements, setting up your business legal structure, and of course, any unforeseen circumstances that may happen when dealing with customers or other businesses. $0 $1,500
Set up business: LLC & Corporations: The first step in setting up your business is deciding whether your business is an LLC, S Corp or C Corp. The cost for this depends on which state you form your business and which structure you decide on. We put together an article that goes over the 10 Steps To Setting Up A Business. $50 $500
Total Business Formation Fees $600 (min) $4,700 (max)
Vehicle Expenses
Mode of Transporation: For your mobile karaoke experience you'll need to rent or purchase an operating vehicle such as a van, vessel, RV, or enclosed trailer. $0 $10,000
Total Vehicle Expenses $0 (min) $10,000 (max)
Retail Business Expenses
Utilities (storefront business): This refers to the cost of monthly utilities for your storefront location, which is typically based on a per-square-footage rate. $0 $1,000
Building improvements and remodeling: If you plan to operate a physical location, you may find yourself dealing with building improvements and remodeling costs. Even if these costs are minimal, this is something to consider when renting/buying a physical location. $0 $950
Storefront Property Rent: This refers to the storefront space you rent or buy for your business. The cost depends largely on the city and the size of the space. Keep in mind that other costs may be involved with your base rent and your lease will define additional expenses you are responsible for. $1,250 $3,500
POS System: Gone are the days of cash registers! Many businesses now use point-of-sale systems for their checkout needs and to track sales and inventory. Here is a list of the best POS systems for small businesses! $0 $1,200
Total Retail Business Expenses $1,250 (min) $6,650 (max)
Advertising & Marketing Costs
Business Cards: A mobile karaoke experience involves quite a bit of customer interaction, whether that is attending tradeshows, sales calls or simply having face to face interaction with prospective clients. Business cards are a great way to stay front of mind with your clients. $0 $50
Business Signage: Business signs let people know they're in the right place and are one of the first impressions your customer will have of your business.The cost for signage depends on a variety of elements:- material- size- number of colors- durability- installation and laborThere are plenty of design tools and software to create your own signs, or you can hire a sign business to do this for you. $75 $2,486
Direct Campaigns, Printing and Mailing: Although it may sound old-school, traditional marketing methods can be a cost-effective way to drive awareness for your brand. This includes flyers, postcards, sales letters, coupons, special offers, catalogs and brochures. $0 $300
Press: If your business and story is unique enough, press and media attention may come to you, but odds are, you may need to do your own outreach and budget for this. We put together a guide here that discusses different press opportunities (both free and paid). $0 $500
Google Ads: With Google Ads you have the ability to control how much you spend by simply setting a monthly budget cap. Additionally, with these ads you only pay for results, such as clicks to your website or phone calls! It's okay to start with a small budget at first and make changes accordingly if you see valuable returns. $0 $300
Facebook & Instagram Ads: With Facebook and Instagram ads, you set your budget and pay for the actions you want (whether that be impressions, conversions, etc).You can learn more about pricing based on your impressions here. $0 $350
Total Advertising & Marketing Costs $75 (min) $3,986 (max)
Software Expenses
Email marketing tool: If you plan to grow your email list and email marketing efforts, you may want to consider investing in an email marketing platform (ie. Klaviyo, MailChimp). We put together a detailed guide on all of the email marketing tools out there + the pricing models for each one here. $0 $100
IT Support: IT support installs and configures hardware and software and solves any technical issues that may arise.IT support can be used internally or for your customers experiencing issues with your product/service.There are a variety of tools and software you can use to help with any technical issues you or your customers are experiencing. This is a great option for businesses that do not have the means to hire a team of professionals. $150 $2,000
Accounting & Invoicing Software: It's important to have an accounting system and process in place to manage financials, reporting, planning and tax preparation. Here are the 30 best accounting tools for small businesses. $0 $50
CRM Software: CRM (customer relationship management) software system is used to track and analyze your company’s interactions with clients and prospects. Although this is not a necessary tool to have for your business, implementing this, in the beginning, may set your business up for success and save you valuable time. $12 $300
Internal Communication Tool: If you plan to have multiple members on your team, you may want to consider an instant message tool such as Slack or Telegram. The cost is usually billed per month (approx $5/user/month) or there are freemium versions available on many platforms. $0 $20
Social Media Management Tools: If you plan to do social media marketing for your mobile karaoke experience, you should consider investing in a social media automation or publishing tool. This will save you time and allow you to track performance and engagement for your posts. Here is a list of 28 best social media tools for your small business. $0 $50
Payroll Software: The main purpose of payroll software is to help you pay your team and track each of those payments (so that you don't have to do it manually). If you do not have any employees or have a very small team, payroll software may not be necessary at this stage. Here are the 11 best payroll tools for small businesses! $0 $200
Total Software Expenses $162 (min) $2,720 (max)
Office Space Expenses
WiFi & Internet: Whether you work from home or in an office space, WiFi is essential. Although the cost is minimal in most cases, it should be appropriately budgeted for each month! $0 $100
Total Office Space Expenses $0 (min) $100 (max)
Specific Industry Expenses
Handyman Tools: To start your mobile karaoke experience, you will need to have the essential tools to bring to each job. Here's a list of tools to get you started - you may find that you already have these in your tool-kit or garage! $0 $500
Total Specific Industry Expenses $0 (min) $500 (max)
Total Starting Costs $62 (min) $35,923 (max)

Raising Money

Since the startup costs to start mobile karaoke experience range between $62 - $35,923, there are ways you can raise money to cover these costs.

Here are a few ways you can secure additional funding:

Revenue Expectations

We've interviewed several different founders in the mobile karaoke experience and asked them how much $ they're making today.

The AirScream

  • $144K/year in revenue
  • Sells mobile karaoke
  • 2 founders
  • 2 employees

When it comes to setting up your business, you may find yourself in a place where you have to make some financial and legal decisions.

The first thing you'll want to decide on is whether you want to be an LLC, S-Corp, or C-Corp.

These three options are found to be the most common when starting a small business, and all serve to protect your personal assets and also provide you with certain tax benefits.

  • LLC: All income and expenses from the business are reported on the LLC personal income tax return.
  • S corp: Owners pay themselves salaries + receive dividends from profits.
  • C Corp: C Corps are separately taxable entities that file a corporate tax return (Form 1120). No income tax is paid at the corporate level and any tax due is paid at the owners individual expense.

Depending on where you're conducting business, you'll also want to consider securing the proper permits, licenses and liability insurance.

Learn more about securing the right permits and licenses ➜

Need to start an LLC? Create an LLC in minutes with ZenBusiness.

How To Price Your Karaoke Service

One of the most challenging aspects to starting a mobile karaoke experience is determining how much to charge for your karaoke service.

When businesses under-price their product, this can be extremely detrimental to their bottom line and reputation.

Often times, businesses under-price their products to drive demand and volume, but that last thing you want is for customers to view your product/service as "cheap." Additionally, this can have a big impact on the type of customer you attract, which can be difficult to recover from.

On the other hand, when businesses over-price, this tends to be just as damaging to the business.

When customers buy, it's likely that they will explore the internet and look at other competitors to ensure they're getting the best value + deal. This is why it's so important that you research your competition and understand where you land in the marketplace.

Here are some factors to consider when pricing your product:

Understand your customer

It's important that out of the gates, you identify the type of customer you want to attract and how much they're willing to pay for your service. One great way to do this is by surveying your customers. Here are some important items you'll want to takeaway:

  • Customer demographic: Age, gender, location, etc.
  • Buying habits of your customer: What they buy + when they buy
  • Level of price sensitivity with your customer

All of these segments will help you identify the type of customer you're attracting and how to price your product accordingly.

Understand your costs

When pricing your karaoke service, it's critical that you first identify all of your costs and consequently mark up your karaoke service so you can factor in a profit.

The actual cost of your karaoke service may include things like:

  • The actual cost to make the product (ie. raw materials, supplies, manufacturer).
  • Shipping + overhead fees
  • Rent
  • Operating costs to run your business

You may want to consider creating a spreadsheet with every single expense involved in operating/owning your business. This will give you an idea as to what you need to generate in order to at the very least, break-even and will help you price your products to factor in a profit.

Create revenue goals

When determining the price of your karaoke service, you'll want to create goals for revenue + how much profit you want your mobile karaoke experience to make.

This process is simpler than you may think:

  1. Think about your breakeven cost (by completing the above step).
  2. Create a revenue goal based on your break-even cost
  3. Evaluate the # of items you plan to sell in a given period (make sure this is a realistic number)
  4. Divide your revenue goal by the number of items you plan to sell

This figure will help determine your estimated price per product in order to meet your revenue goals.

Evaluate your competition

The last piece in determining how to price your karaoke service is by simply looking at your competition.

The best way to do this is by finding like-minded businesses that offer product(s) with similar perceived value. Then, you can compare prices of the different businesses and determine where your karaoke service fits best in the marketplace.

All of these factors play an equal part in pricing your karaoke service, so it's important you evaluate each one individually to come up with an accurate price that will help optimize your business from the start.

Design A Prototype

Turning your idea into a reality can feel like a daunting task - but it's critical that you have an idea of what your product will look like (even if it's just a sketch) prior to finding a manufacturer.

Here are some common ways you can design your prototype:

  • Draw Your Initial Design on Paper
  • Form pieces of fabric together
  • Consider Taking A Generic Product And Putting Your Own Brand On It
  • Try Making the Product Yourself
  • Consider Building A Prototype With A 3D Printer

To learn more about how to design and prototype a product, check out our latest guide here.

Kelli L Bielema, founder of The AirScream dives deep into the process of designing and prototyping their product:

Case Study

Having fallen in love with Airstreams after renting one for a festival and living in it for a week, I definitely knew I wanted to own one but never would have thought that it would be in a business capacity. There’s something so iconically American about that shiny beast on the highway that appeals to all of us. I also considered that this was something of an effort of sustainability & recycling an old trailer for a new purpose was an exciting idea.

We knew that refurbishing an Airstream was going to be no easy feat. Watching countless YouTube videos of people pulling out junky old toilets and fussing with outdated electrical was going to be nothing short of a nightmare. It was our preference that this is an empty shell, or close to it, so we wouldn’t have to do as much of the demolition as it was going to be expensive in labor and our time. As luck would have it, the trailer I saw on Marketplace was just that: empty. The enthusiast we got it from had rebuilt it from the frame up, left out any plumbing and input only minor electrical. It was perfect for customization. Plus, the size was spot on. We originally were looking at 31’ trailers and in hindsight, I’m glad that didn’t work out. This is a great first effort in terms of interior and towing square footage for these trailer newbs.

BEFORE: Yikes! This is the trailer outside & in prior to its initial refurb & us picking it up

DURING: Rebuilt from the frame up

DURING: All shined up & ready to pick up in Oregon

On our way down to Medford, Oregon to pick up this 1961 Globetrotter, I got a text from my friend Danny (Preston Steps Design) out of LA with a rendering of his idea for the buildout. It kind of blew our minds and captured what we envisioned but didn’t know how to put it into action.

A first draft of the interior layout. Created by Danny Schmitz of Preston Steps Designs on SketchUp

It was driving home from Oregon that we really knew we were on to something special. We used that time to brainstorm ideas around marketing, targeting customers and how the lounge was going to look and feel. Vanessa and I both share a love of all things over the top and loud and she completely trusted my event design background to integrate the crazy. With the help of Spoonflower & their incredible pool of artists, I uncovered some quirky patterns that once implemented would give the energy the space needed. From there, Danny was able to see it all in SketchUp to see if our wackadoodle print fantasy would translate IRL.

Print pattern scheme that was just crazy enough to work

Final mock-up

Final mock-up - another view

While the design elements came together, there were a number of things that were somewhat unknown. Enlisting Danny to help with this refurb was crucial as he had first-hand knowledge having rebuilt his own 1971 Shasta camper. Our trailer had some similar elements to that canned ham but a number of others would require some heavy research. Electrical was our biggest challenge and took at least a good solid week to just figure out the schematics. We would lean on a number of our local mobile biz colleagues for input (Shutter Bus, Happy Camper Cocktail Company) as well as another unicorn in the wheeled karaoke game, The Gold Karaoke Room in Los Angeles. It’s always encouraging when people who’ve been in our shoes are willing to share their experience & expertise with us so we can all, ultimately, be in this together!

The cushions were fabricated by a local Seattle vendor that specializes in RVs & boats, but otherwise, all interior elements were built by Danny. The materials were purchased primarily from a local hardware chain, Dunn Lumber. It was important to us to utilize community businesses as much as we can but we still needed to get a few random items off of Amazon. OK, a lot of items…! Our window signage was printed from the fine dudes at Spittin Llama. I (Kelli) sewed the curtains (after screwing them up at least twice). Pillows & accessories were selected on many shopping trips and are likely going to be a continuing process as I really can’t seem to edit! The entire build took approximately 2 months, which ultimately was still months ahead of our original goal of being completed by Spring 2020.

Because the only thing we truly knew well collectively was events & karaoke, doing this with a refurbished vintage trailer along with technology was new territory. Vanessa found Karafun to be the app that would best represent how we wanted to run our operation. Karafun is a terrific app that allows you to download the entire library so you don’t have to run on wifi, which appealed to us considering there will likely be events where internet access is spotty at best. The app also has current songs in its archives as well as access to community songs from other users. There are somewhere around 34,000 options, so if you want to sing that obscure Tom Waits ballad, chances are we can find it for you.

Almost done... Sitting outside Kelli’s house in the Seattle winter

Step inside

Seats 12-15 throughout the trailer

Let’s get this party started!

-  
Kelli L Bielema, on starting The AirScream ($12,000/month) full story ➜

🚀 How To Launch Your Mobile Karaoke Experience

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Build A Website

Building a website is imperative when launching your business, and with the right tools in place, this can be a simple task to check off the list (without having to hire someone).

  1. Pick a domain name that's easy to remember and easy to type
  2. Choose a Web Hosting Plan (ie. Shopify, Squarespace)
  3. Make sure you choose the right theme and design
  4. Implement the proper page structure (ie. about page, contact page, pricing etc)

To learn more about how to build a stellar website with little stress, we give you all the details on this step-by-step guide.

Web Design

Once you have chosen the domain, web hosting, and platform, it's time to get started with the design phase.

Themes are a great way to produce the fundamental style and identity of your website - this includes everything from your font design to your blog post styles.

One of the best ways to get started is to simply explore the various themes (free or paid depending on what you're looking for) and test them on your site.

If web-design really isn't in the cards for you, you may want to consider outsourcing a web designer to help bring your vision and brand to life.

Traditional Launch Strategies For Your Mobile Karaoke Experience:

There are various different ways you can launch your mobile karaoke experience successfully.

Here are a few different strategies to get customers excited about your mobile karaoke experience:

  • Set up a Facebook page for your business. This is a great way to establish an online presence
  • Host an event in a fun location with drinks & food. This is a great way to get exposure in the local community.
  • Get Press! Pitch your story to the media and you may just land in an amazing publication
  • Live sales to get customers excited
  • Send a hand-written letter in the mail with a discount on your services to the local community/neighborhoods.

Kelli L Bielema, founder of The AirScream dives deep into the process of launching the business:

Case Study

We are launching officially with a celebration for our Kickstarter backers in early May. Prior to that, there will be a handful of pop-up events & open houses with some of our event partners so we can finesse our processes prior to what is likely to be a really busy first summer season.

We are beginning to grow our online presence. Again, there aren’t many of us out there, so we are working on making everything look great with lots of content that we are currently building. The website is operated through Wix. It’s the most user-friendly tool that we’ve found. We’ve used them for myriad projects over the years & their customer service is exceptional.

Our logo idea came from Danny, which we fell in love with. Our hired artist Leah Tiscione, who also illustrates for Mad Magazine, created our new image for the brand. Our first logo I created in Canva because I felt we needed something when launching our Kickstarter.

Baby’s first logo. Before we added “The” and some color

V2 Logo. We gave Leah the direction “an Airstream with a mouth singing into a vintage mic”

Since our Kickstarter covered the bulk of our costs for the trailer & we got a homie hookup with our remodel, we essentially were able to cover all expenses with those funds. However, we wouldn’t get off that cheaply! A little digging into savings & credit cards was necessary to get those final elements and fulfill our Kickstarter obligations but we feel with our spring launch, we will be getting those funds back with multiple bookings. Overall, this venture will continue to be bootstrapped, but talking with investors is not off the table. We’ve got some early plans for growth beyond Seattle.

-  
Kelli L Bielema, on starting The AirScream ($12,000/month) full story ➜

🌱 How To Grow Your Mobile Karaoke Experience

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Improve your SEO

SEO is not just about driving traffic to your site, it's about driving the RIGHT traffic to your site, and ultimately, converting leads into customers.

One of the most important aspects of SEO is understanding what your customers are searching for, otherwise known as "keyword research."

Here are some tools that can help you choose the right keywords for your mobile karaoke experience.

Publish Great Content

Finding keywords is an important piece of the puzzle, but Google also ranks your site based on the actual content you produce, as this is what your customers are reading and engaging with.

There are various different "forms" of content that you may want to consider diversifying on your sites, such as blog posts, articles, studies, and videos.

So let's discuss what google considers "good content:"

  • Length - This will vary depending on the page, however, generally having a sufficient amount of content helps search engines recognize that your site is a good source for a specific topic
  • Engagement - The longer people stay on your website to read your content, the higher Google will rank your website. It's important to have informative and "thick" content that keeps people reading
  • Avoid Duplicating Content - Google will recognize this and may consider your content to have low value
  • Ensure pages load quickly - This will also help with engagement and time spent on your website
  • Shareability - Create content that people want to share, and is easy for them to share, especially to their social media accounts (ie. "click to tweet" is a great example of this).

Another element of creating good content is creating consistent content.

If (and hopefully you are) publishing content frequently, it's important to stick to a schedule - this helps build brand trust and easy user experience with your customers.

Planning out your content with a content calendar is key to staying consistent.

Here are a few great content calendar tools that can help you:

  • Trello
  • Airtable
  • If you prefer to keep it simple, your average spreadsheet is just as useful!

Backlinks

Backlinks are an important piece to SEO, as they allow for other websites to link to your content.

Search engines recognize that other sites are essentially "verifying" your content and essentially rank you higher because of this.

Of course, some links are more valuable than others and can affect your site in different ways.

For example, if a highly valuable and credible site like the New York Times links to a page on your website, this could be remarkable from an SEO perspective.

Aside from organically getting mentioned from other sites, there are other ways that you can increase and earn backlinks:

  • Create infographics with relevant data that people want to share
  • Promote your content on different sites/look into "guest blogging"
  • Contact influencers/journalists/bloggers and ask them to mention you!
  • Write testimonials for other sites in exchange for a backlink
  • Leverage existing business relationships

Learn more about the fundamentals of SEO ➜ here and check out Neil Patel's 3 Powerful SEO Tips below

Case Study

How To Optimize SEO For Your mobile karaoke experience:

Example from Brandon Wong, founder of Photo Booth Supply Co

SEO is a pretty difficult world to understand. I suggest finding the best talent you can and letting them do what they’re best at.

Sometimes that means bringing the service in house, sometimes it involves an outside agency. For us, the ROI on our spend here is huge. It goes back to what I said about picking the trade show your customers attend. Pick the channel your customers use.

Don’t worry about what you like, where you think you’ll find them, or anything like that. We started hearing from our customers that they found us by searching and so we had to honor that. It has worked very well. The kind of entrepreneur who does research and compares their options tends to land with us. That’s great. Our SEO has changed alongside Google, of course.

When we got started, a lot of people found us through our photography company. They eventually started landing on us for searches about which photobooths had the best picture quality. It’s a natural transition for sure. Trust is big with Google, and people immediately trusted a photographer to have made a great photobooth. It makes sense.

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Brandon Wong, on starting Photobooth Supply Co. ($500,000/month) full story ➜

Grow Your Email List

The more engaged list of emails, the more engaged customers, which ultimately leads to more sales.

One of the best ways to start growing your list is by providing your customer with something free (or discounted) in return.

This could also be anything from:

  • Ebook
  • Fascinating case study
  • Video series
  • Free week of the product
  • Discount on the product

Learn more about how to grow your email list and improve email marketing ➜ here.

Case Study

Dylan Jacob, founder of Brumate states their email collection tactic that is proven to work:

We use Spin-a-Sale for this (you spin a wheel for a discount code in exchange for subscribing to our email list). This has been the best email-collecting tool we have found because the customer truly feels like they won a prize rather than just a coupon code.

Even if a customer doesn’t convert right away, if we have their email we have a 19% chance of converting them into a future customer whether that is through future promotions, new releases, or simply just sending an email at the right time for a purchase to finally make sense for them.

We also have a return customer rate of over 14%, so one out of every 6 people we convert will end up buying from us again with an average order value of over $60.00.

article

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Dylan Jacob, on starting BrüMate ($12,000,000/month) full story ➜

Improve Your Email Marketing

Different types of emails

Here are the most common types of email campaigns you can send to your customers and their benefits:

  • Welcome emails - the perfect way to provide information from the start with a clear CTA. Make sure to tell your customer everything they need to know about your product or service.
  • Newsletters - a great way to give customers updates or send out your latest content
  • Product launch emails - the quickest (and easiest) way to increase sales is by selling to current customers. Make sure they're the first on the list to know about your new product
  • Promotional emails - promote discounts, deals coupons etc. Try and make this feel exclusive and for a limited time only
  • Abandoned cart emails - give your customers a reason to complete their purchase!

Here's a great resource for finding curated email designs, for all types of email campaigns!

Authenticity

As a brand, you want to deliver an experience that authentic, honest and transparent.

Don't make the mistake of giving your audience less credit than they deserve.

Case Study

Be Authentic

If you go around chasing every trend and only focused on yourself and money, you’re going to lose very quickly.

There have been many times where we have been tempted to do this but stayed true.

Sure we sacrificed sales, but we kept our integrity, played the long game and people saw and appreciated that, and really began emotionally investing in the brand.

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Valentin Ozich, on starting I Love Ugly ($300,000/month) full story ➜

🏃🏼‍♀️ How To Run Your Mobile Karaoke Experience

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Provide Great Customer Service

Providing exceptional care and creating relationships with clients is a great way to build your reputation and retain customers.

Whether you are an online business or a physical business, it's highly important to communicate with customers and make them feel like they are the priority.

Just remember: customer service represents your brand, values, vision and YOU as a person.

Case Study

Customer service is huge for us. Like I talked about, building a community has been one of the best bi-products in the shop.

We want everyone to feel loved, cared for, and appreciated.

If we have a customer that comes in quite a bit, we will begin to notice what they buy and reach out to them if something new comes in if we think they will like it. We also try to call people by name and greet them as if they were entering my home, not just the shop.

Another great way we retain customers is through a loyalty point system. When a customer gains enough points through their purchases, they are rewarded with a discount. It’s our way of saying “thank you” for having them be a great customer.

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Emilie Casseday, on starting Blush Boutique Co ($25,000/month) full story ➜

How To Retain Customers For Your Mobile Karaoke Experience

Retaining customers is one of the most effective ways to grow your mobile karaoke experience.

Oftentimes, it's easy to find yourself focusing on generating new customers, vs retaining your current ones.

Look at it this way - you are 60-70% more likely to sell a new product to an existing customer than you are a new customer.

That's not to say that finding new customers and revenue streams is not important, however, the easiest (and most inexpensive) source of new revenue is right there in front of you.

Here are some ways you can retain customers for your mobile karaoke experience:

  • Responding to comments on social media
  • Send discounts (or freebies) to loyal customers
  • Provide valuable content, for free
  • Write a hand written thank you note
  • Provide awesome customer service and build relationships with customers

To find out more tips and tricks on retaining customers, check out this article ➜ here

Kelli L Bielema, founder of The AirScream dives deep into the process of attracting and retaining customers:

Case Study

Our backers, social media followers and events community have been chomping at the bit to book service. Early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with our trial runs. Based on all of these interactions we feel confident that we will have a successful first year. A lot of this is garnered from sharing the entire crowdfunding and buildout experience. Through Instagram stories and posts we’ve shown the exciting things but also the mundane details of starting a business. We are both transparent in our approach to how we show ourselves to the world and that authenticity resonates with our followers and soon to be customers.

Currently, we are drumming up an intense social media and traditional PR/media push to get the word out. We are personally teaming with local print outlets, TV networks, appearing on multiple podcasts and blogs because we believe in cultivating like true gardeners & getting our hands dirty. We want to connect with people so they are part of our journey.

Healthy early social media following & hearty engagement

We will utilize our social channels (primarily Instagram) to announce pop-up events as well as open houses where we are able to showcase The AirScream in action.

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Kelli L Bielema, on starting The AirScream ($12,000/month) full story ➜

Outsourcing

If you can afford to hire someone to help support your mobile karaoke experience, outsourcing is a great way to save you time and energy.

Most importantly, outsourcing can help you focus on the core growth of your business, versus spending your time on day to day tasks that other people can do just as well!

If you do plan to outsource your work, it's important to be hyper-familiar with the actual work involved.

Why is it important to be hyper-familiar with the work?

  • So you can understand how long it takes
  • So you understand the full process, edge cases, things that can go wrong.
  • So you can explain it in detail to your employee.
  • So you can make sure it actually works (for example - how do you know cold email works for your business if you’re not on the ground floor trying it out?)
  • Understanding the tasks at a deep level will save you a lot of time and money.

Resources

We put together the best resources on the internet to help you start your mobile karaoke experience.

Tools

Books

Web Resources

Videos

Case Studies

meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.