Making Band Flyer Templates – Advice

Posted at March 31, 2007

Many Indie Artists believe that all they have to do to pack a club to capacity is open Microsoft Word and write their band name/show info in GIGANTIC LETTERS, hit up Kinko's and tape up 200 band flyers all around town. Hours of effort. Empty venue. Wasted time.

Should you still create band flyers? Yes, but read on.

Where is the disconnect here? Why don't potential fans simply know your group is the next big thing and come to your show? Why don't they stop and look at your amazing band flyers, jump on your website and sign up to your mailing list? Or Download your MP3's and make mix CDs for their friends?!

The Problem:

Stop for a minute and think of the situation from a fan's perspective. They are the target of a ridiculous amount of advertising. Everybody wants their attention. Apple wants to sell them iPods. MTV wants to sell them...well, everything.

Record companies spend millions each year to promote their latest investments, via TV, Radio, Internet, and all other means of advertising. Combine that with competition on a local level. How many Independent Artists play in your market? It is overwhelming for music lovers these days; so much so that they have stopped paying attention all together.

Band flyers alone do not work! Fans can't hear them...and even if they could play sound, they wouldn't listen! This is unfortunate for the many, many artists who don't have a grasp on public relations and marketing - luckily you are smarter than that and will rise above. Pull up a seat!

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The solution:

Let me ask you something. Where did you hear about your last favorite band? Let me rephrase that. WHO told you about this "great" artist that you just had to check out? Granted it was somebody or something whose opinion you trusted. Behold the power of "Word of Mouth".

Nothing is more potent a form of advertising. So if one friend tells another friend about a great band, and that friend listens and starts to love - why can't you just be friends with that person and get them to love your music too? Well, you can!

How people respond to flyers:

People don't respond to dry, lifeless, static advertisements as generic as 'band flyers'. Even the most creative ones don't work. Band flyers are not completely useless however.

They serve a function of 'branding', which is a loooong but valuable process that every band or business needs to accomplish. Say you are the "X-band", and you have a cool logo with a Giant "X" on it. Perhaps this image was even made to appeal to your target market (generation X'ers) and it was a all grungy! Awesome!

Eventually, and I mean EVENTUALLY, once people see enough of this X-band image, they will start to grow familiar with it. When they grow familiar with it, their brain will tell them, "Wait a minute - I have seen this image a million times, I recognize it, I kind of enjoy seeing it, yet I know nothing about it."

Curiosity ensues. They are then "primed" to be sold to. This is the opportunity to capture them. If at this same time they've been hearing their friends tell them about X-band and how great the X-band show was, or how nice the bass player is from X-band, or how cool the X-band website is- then they will certainly feel like X-band is something they ought to know about.

If, on the other hand, none of their friends have said peep, chances are they will approach that band flyer, give it a quick glance, see that your show is on the same day that their friends band is playing, decide not to go, MAYBE take note of your website - and then leave. That's it. And this is after all the million hours you've spent capturing their curiosity with band flyers!

Band flyers do serve a purpose, but they should be treated as just a small COMPONENT of your marketing measures, and NOT the only measure. There are TONS of online and offline band promotion techniques which you must constantly work on to get your band noticed.

How to Engage Potential Fans:

So what about being friends with fans, Will that work? Yes. Strong relationships are the foundation of every successful band, business, and organization.

Try walking around at a music store or something and chatting with a potential fan. Don't just say, "Hey you, I'm in a band and we rock. Check us out this Friday." That might work, but probably won't.

Take it slow, get to know the person. See that they are holding an Aerosmith CD, tell them you just saw them in Boston not too long ago, find out where they are from. Give it a few mintues, make a solid connection, earn their trust.

Introduce yourself. Then, and only then, mention that you are 'Actually' in a band; they will be impressed! Give them a free CD and a flyer to your show. They will be impressed because they now have a cool new "friend" who is in a band!

See what happened here? You didn't just try to sell them something like the million other people and companies did all day. You got to know them first, and that goes along way.

Now, if your music is actually good it will do the work for you. They will put it in their CD player on their drive home, be impressed, check out your website, and tell their friends about this cool dude they just met.

Let your fans have a stake in your success. Being friends with them lets them share in the excitement of being in up-and-coming band.

Conclusion:

To tie it all together, I say still use band flyers - but realize that flyers alone play a small part in your overall music marketing plan.

Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on fancy flyers, I would hit up the bookstore and grab a couple books on marketing your band. There are a bunch of good ones out there, most notably Bob Baker's Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook or the band promoting eBook, "It's Time to Get Noticed".

Marketing a band is a slow process, and it takes commitment. Try to focus on a "home-base" area first; your town or your school for instance (see my article on Taking Advantage of Communities). Get the locals on board by getting out on the streets, at shows, in stores, Wherever they hang out..and Get to know them!

Now, when they are driving with their friends and they see your lonely band flyer hanging on some pole in front of a Dunkin Donuts, they will perk up and say, "HEY! I know that guy..from that group�they are pretty good too, I checked them out- you know what, I have the CD right here!"

Exploit every marketing avenue you can, and constantly build real relationships. That's what it's all about. You will see massive results if you have all engines going.