How to Get a Bigger Crowd at your Live Gigs |
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September 20th, 2007 Music Promotion | |
Having a successful draw at your shows is truly a mark of adequate marketing. One of the most bittersweet things is to receive word that you just got on a sweet bill at a nice venue for a show that’s only a few days away! On one hand it’s great to get the opportunity, but the truth is - 3 or 4 days is not enough time to adequately promote a live event. Proper gig promotion starts about 2 months in advance. If you’re playing outside of your market, it may be even more. As a small indie band playing in a medium size market, you can probably get away with promoting from 1 month ahead. Any less and you’re risking attendance.
The point of promotion:
As a band playing original music, chances are you will be performing at a bar that serves alcohol in which your sole purpose is to sell drinks. The $5 that the club takes for covers generally gets divided among the bands, and they keep the booze money. So, the happier you make the bar, the more likely you will be asked to play there again. The bigger your draw, the easier it will be to play larger venues -with more popular bands. The truth is, you could be the worst band in the world - I mean, the absolute worst band in the world - but if you draw a hell of a crowd, you are a star regardless. I mean, just look at Creed. Oh yeah, they broke up. Anyway, here are some healthy tips for solid show attendance!
Start Promoting Early:
Probably the most important of all your promoting efforts. At least a month in advance for smaller markets should be fine. You want to get fans to commit early so they can invite others to come. You HAVE to be persistent. Potential fans are distracted - everybody wants their attention, so you have to fight for it. Don’t overdo it though; there’s a fine line between being consistent and being downright annoying. The last thing you want is for a potential fan to be conditioned to feel pain when they come in contact with your band.
Use Multiple streams of Promotion:
Flyers alone won’t help much, or at all. The best marketing tool is word of mouth, but that’s not always easy to come by (see my article about marketing to Communities for specific advice on unlocking the power of groups). Online marketing is necessary nowadays, and lastly radio promotion is not worth paying for if it’s early in your career. Try to do as many of these streams of promotion as you can to get the best turnout for your shows. You really need a solid combination of online and offline band marketing to succeed.
Make attractive & exciting flyers/emails/promos:
Read my article entitled :Why Your Flyers Don’t Work!” for some tips on how to succeed with this. If it doesn’t look like it will be a good time, why should people go? See my article on marketing your shows as events for more ideas on this concept. Promote only in Relevant Areas: Putting up flyers can be tiring and tedious, so put them in worthwhile spots. Ask yourself, Where do the majority of my fans hang out? If they are under 18, possibly the mall, or a movie theatre parking lot, or your high school. If they are over 21 and live in the city, put them all over that city, around other bars, etc. Your job is to get the right message to the right people at the right time. Which leads to my next point…
Talk to People:
Talking to people is ALWAYS a good idea when it comes to music promotion. Connect with them, get to know them, make a friend in them and who knows, maybe they will actually show up. It would definitely help if you gave them a free demo CD and a link to your website to add some credibility to your claim. But here’s a tip…
Don’t Beg!
Never beg people to come to your shows, unless you are 100% confident you WILL blow their minds. It’s risky inviting people that you know are highly unlikely to enjoy your music because you could develop a “negative fan” or an “anti-fan”..somebody who tells other people negative things about your band. You don’t want that. If they don’t want to come to your show, sometimes it’s best to just forget them. Not everybody is going to like you.
Provide directions/cover price/date and time way in advance:
The WORST insult you could give your fan is to drag them out to a show and then find out they got lost/ couldn’t afford the cover/ came too late. Don’t do that to them, they want to like you; respect their time and energy and provide adequate information to them early on.
Make it easy for friends to spread the word:
This is easy to do online - sending links to social networking sites or whatever. In the real world it works basically the same way, but a major concept with this is - reward your friends for referring your music to others. Hell, set up a street team incentive program where the fan who brings in the most people wins a prize. Why not, right? Fans WILL work for you if they believe in you it’s up to you let that excitement proliferate. Make it easy for them - give them flyers of their own, give them free tickets for their friends, get creative with it - it will be worth it!
Start promoting as soon as you get off the stage!
This is also the best time to sell CD’s - but for the purpose of this article, let’s stick to promoting. Make connections with fans after your show and bond with them (see my article about building fan loyalty after a gig). Get them to commit to coming to your next show. Shake their hands. Give them free sample CD’s. Throw an after party. Your goal is to send them home knowing that they made a wise decision in deciding to attend your gig. Make the whole night fun and painless and they will have good things to tell others. Drag them to a trashy venue in the middle of nowhere with no parking, a cover charge they weren’t aware of, a 3 hour wait for your set, and no love from you when you get off the stage - and they will never return. Public relations, folks. Work on it, or it will dissolve your crappy little band before you actually get good. JK, I love your band.
Hopefully you got some value out of this little article, and I wish you the best of luck for your future gigs! Check out some of the articles below for more advice!
