How to Build an Audience in a New Market When You Know No One—Janette Berrios, Symphonic
Janette Berrios, SVP of Corporate Marketing at Symphonic
Every distribution company’s international playbook assumes resources an independent artist doesn’t have. In this conversation, Janette Berrios, SVP of Corporate Marketing at Symphonic, scales things down to a solo artist with no team and no budget. She breaks down a repeatable way to enter a scene where you know nobody, research who matters, reach out so you actually get a reply, and how to follow up without being a pest. She also describes a cold outreach she made years ago to someone at a peer company bigger than Symphonic at the time, and where that relationship stands today.
Our discussion also covers the following.
- Researching a new market before you commit to it
- Finding local collaborators and producers on social
- Cold outreach that works: subject lines, tone, and follow-up timing
- Warming up a contact on social before you ask for anything
- Symphonic’s Women Empowered+ mentoring program
- How she found mentors by reaching out cold
- First moves for audience-building in new and unfamiliar markets
- The virtual side of conferences most people overlook
Janette Berrios spent 15 years building Symphonic’s expansion across the U.K., Europe, APAC, and Latin America. She also shares how Symphonic’s niche and regional focus drove its growth, why she treats every Latin American country differently, and what sank the competitors who tried to buy their way into new markets.
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