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Would you like your subsequent live performance to be a sell-out occasion?
In “The important thing to reserving higher gigs” I mentioned three of the very best methods to show each present into a hit:
- Don’t play too usually in any given city
- Select smaller venues you can simply fill
- Make every gig particular (album launch present, tour kickoff, and many others.)
However these are all high-level choices. There’s obtained to be extra to the components, proper? Certainly.
On this article I’ll talk about particular steps for efficient live performance promotion.
You gained’t must do ‘em all for each single present, after all. However the extra gadgets you’ll be able to verify off this checklist, the higher your probabilities of promoting out the venue.
Begin early!
The sooner you’ll be able to e-book a present, the extra time it’s important to create curiosity within the occasion and work in your stage manufacturing.
Some gigs come up last-minute. However these ought to be the exception to the rule.
Attempt to e-book your exhibits anyplace from 3 to 12 months upfront.
Status venues, music festivals, and high-demand home live performance sequence could also be reserving even additional out than that.
Curate an amazing lineup
For those who can’t sell-out the present by yourself, staff up!
Discover one or two different acts with a dependable draw in that city. Work collectively. For those who’re reserving a tour via THEIR hometown, return the favor with a gig-swap after they journey via yours.
Be sure to coordinate your plans for promotion with the opposite acts on the invoice. No want for 3 bands to work individually when you’ll be able to pool your efforts and finances.
Select the best ticket value (and time)
You wish to revenue from the present, however not cost a lot that you simply don’t fill the venue. It’s a balancing act, and there’s some trial and error, for certain.
However lean on the venue or promoter’s experience in the event you’re not sure of the best value. They’ll have a protracted historical past of comparable exhibits to attract on.
Additionally ask for his or her advice concerning issues like: ticketed occasion versus door-charge, assigned seats versus normal admission, early present versus late present.
Selecting the best begin time is essential. Match the hours to your viewers and the night time of the week. 9pm on Friday could be very totally different from 9pm on Monday. For an older viewers, 4:30pm on Sunday afternoon would possibly sound supreme. For a crowd of their early 20s, that very same time could be a non-starter.
Additionally, contemplate competing occasions as effectively. I as soon as performed a gig on the Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco the place our begin time was proper across the last jiffy of the Tremendous Bowl. Fortunately the venue wasn’t empty. But it surely was removed from sold-out. If the beginning time had been simply an hour later, it will’ve made a distinction.
Get enterprise buy-in
The enterprise that you simply wish to see most invested in your present is the venue, after all.
So talk about with the promoter, the talent-buyer, or the venue administration what they plan to do to make the night time a hit. What precisely are they operating for promo (adverts, posters, and many others)? Who pays for what?
By getting detailed data, you’ll understand how your efforts can complement each other, or plug holes.
Then ask your self: Are there different companies or charities that may make investments on this present? An outdoor sponsor who can cowl among the prices and promote the occasion to their prospects, in alternate for some branding, schooling, or product placement through the present?
Prioritize superb design
Your occasion has to LOOK cool. Upfront.
You need folks — after they attend the present — to really feel cool by affiliation.
So be sure that your live performance posters, related social posts, Fb Occasion Web page banner, and different internet property all have a hanging visible attraction.
You are able to do loads as of late with Canva and AI design instruments, however in the event you want a professional designer, allocate some promo finances. It’ll be well worth the expense.
Replace all the pieces!
Make a listing of all of the locations that want fast edits or bulletins, together with:
- Your live performance calendar
- Bandsintown
- SongKick
- ReverbNation profile
- A Fb occasion
- YouTube Playing cards (in the event you’re within the YouTube Accomplice Program)
- Information-bars or popups in your web site
- And extra
Now go and add the related data about your present!
Don’t neglect your e-mail checklist both. Phase the checklist primarily based on geography, and ship an e-mail to folks in that city.
Put up posters
IRL posters are nonetheless vital.
For those who’re enjoying a distinct city, mail them on to the venue, native file shops, and every other related place for public show, reminiscent of libraries, instrument shops, bookstores, espresso outlets, and many others. (name or e-mail beforehand).
Or if a neighborhood band is opening, coordinate with them to hold posters. For those who’re enjoying your individual hometown, cling ‘em up your self!
Tease the thriller
Will you will have a particular shock visitor? Get folks guessing, however don’t reveal the reply.
Will you debut a particular tune? Share a snippet from observe that sounds acquainted, however not a lifeless giveaway.
Are you engaged on an fascinating stage design, props, or costumes? Present some behind-the-scenes moments the place these parts are simply beginning to come collectively, however aren’t fairly prepared for showtime.
Plant the seeds of curiosity.
Create devoted merch
Inform your followers there might be a particular merch merchandise that can ONLY be acquired in the event that they attend the present.
You would promote it on the merch desk. You would give it away on the door. Or you’ll be able to embody it as a part of a particular ticket bundle.
The purpose is to create a way of urgency and commemoration.
Make ticketing EASY!
You usually gained’t have a alternative about how ticketing works, which platforms are used, and many others. A variety of that’s left to the venue’s current processes.
However wherever you’ll be able to, you need as few clicks as attainable between your promo efforts and the ultimate buy.
Don’t ship somebody from an Instagram picture to your web site’s live performance calendar to a venue web site to a ticketing web page to checkout, when you’ll be able to in all probability take away a couple of of these steps.
Run digital adverts
If in case you have an amazing piece of social content material (efficiency movies work effectively), run it as an advert to individuals who dwell inside driving distance to the venue.
Use the caption to handle the particular city and get them excited to your present.
Get retargeting data
Is it attainable to accumulate retargeting knowledge or buyer contact data from the ticketing platform or venue?
That is one other merchandise that may usually be out of your management, however if in case you have enough leverage, it could be attainable to work with the venue or ticketing service to coordinate your on-line advertising efforts to allow issues like:
- Cart abandonment messages to follow-up with anybody who virtually bought a ticket
- Bonus gives to current ticketholders (low cost code to carry a pal, and many others.)
Contemplate non-musical collabs
The invoice you place collectively doesn’t all the time have to incorporate different musicians.
If for no matter purpose you assume it’d work higher to accomplice with a comic, a short-film premiere, a storyteller, a dance troupe… get inventive with the lineup!
Host a contest
If followers assume they could be acknowledged in a roundabout way through the occasion, there’s additional incentive to attend.
This might be a contest operating AT the occasion: Greatest costume? Shoot a fan testimonial video on the door and we’ll decide our favourite for a prize?
Or one thing you run upfront of the present: Submit alternate lyrics to certainly one of our songs and we’ll sing our favourite entry? Write your dream setlist and we’ll play our favourite?
Alert the native press
Cowl your PR bases!
Inform the native music critics and bloggers about your present, why it’s gonna be superb, and that you simply’re glad to supply anything they want.
Together with interviews, comped tickets, and many others.
Additionally, don’t neglect chamber of commerce, native newspapers, neighborhood zines, and extra.
Put up natural social content material
It may be a balancing act for touring musicians to create content material that feels related to native audiences with out ostracising the bigger fanbase.
However provided that TikTok and Instagram at the moment are so algorithmically pushed, you might contemplate creating geo-tagged content material, as that sort of stuff usually will get surfaced to related viewers, particularly on TikTok.
You may as well depend on extra non permanent codecs like Tales to emphasise city-specific occasions.
Theme it up!
Not each live performance wants a gimmick. Not each sort of artist ought to have followers displaying up in costumes. But when it’s applicable, get your followers concerned in creating the vibe for the night time.
If in case you have a theme, you don’t need it to be prohibitive. Costumes ought to be elective. And the theme ought to be open-ended sufficient that a median fan can simply put collectively a dressing up (80s night time, favourite film character, and many others.)
Provide totally different ticket packages
Typically a little bit exclusivity goes a good distance, so be sure that to have a ticket tier for a number of varieties of fan:
- Informal fan / normal admission / door cost / balcony seating
- True fan / higher seating / superior admission / watch the soundcheck
- Diehard fan / particular remedy / VIP merch / backstage hangout
Use the entire visitor checklist
I don’t know why, however many musicians really feel embarrassed to really replenish the visitor checklist.
It’s there for a purpose. We’d as effectively put names on it!
Simply be certain you’re utilizing these coveted free spots for folks within the native trade like music journalists, or on the very least, followers and buddies you’ll be able to completely depend on to indicate up if their title is on the checklist.
Do a ticket or prize giveaway
I discussed contests above, and ticket giveaways or merch prizes is usually a good strategy to reward contest winners, but additionally embody the native music trade or music media in your promotion.
Provide tickets to be given away by native radio DJs, native companies, or the venue itself.
Play an in-studio
For those who can carry out at a neighborhood or faculty radio station on the morning of the present, it may possibly typically be an excellent alternative to promote these final remaining seats.
Both as a result of folks have been impressed whereas listening, or since you seize cool social content material that helps extra folks on the town be taught in regards to the present last-minute.
Play an in-store (mayyyyyyybe)
Taking part in in a neighborhood file retailer CAN be a great way to generate pleasure for a present later that night time or later that week.
However… these can typically flip into an occasion all their very own, so that you don’t wish to threat folks selecting the file retailer efficiency OVER the venue efficiency.
That’s why I wrote mayyyyybe above.
Particular themed drinks
It is a small factor, however can make the night time a bit extra enjoyable, carry a couple of extra folks via the door, and enhance bar income.
Work with the venue forward of time to create a drink named after your act, or certainly one of your songs.
Participation is vital
I’ve talked about one thing comparable a couple of occasions already, however you need your viewers to really feel like they could be a PART of the occasion, not only a witness.
Discover methods to incorporate followers.
Allow them to affect the setlist beforehand by modifying a collaborative playlist or responding to a ballot. Put aside a minute or two every present to carry somebody from the viewers onstage. Ask them questions, or allow them to sing a couple of traces.
You wish to create a way of each likelihood and company for the group.
Tag accordingly!
Earlier than, throughout, and after the present — tag the opposite acts, the venue, the musicians within the pictures, the designer, and any followers pictured. Set the situation of the publish. Discover a related hashtag for that city’s music scene.
The identical approach you wish to pack folks into the membership, you need (a few of) your posts to really feel like a celebration too.
Conclusion
As you’ll be able to see, there’s loads you COULD do to make your subsequent present a hit.
Main artists after all have groups to deal with a lot of the work. For self-booking artists, a lot of the above will fall in your shoulders. If you wish to get to the stage the place others deal with the reserving and live performance promotion for you, you’ve obtained to promote out your individual live shows as we speak.
Nobody promised it will be simple. However it’s attainable. And I hope the checklist of choices above supplies you with an excellent framework for fulfillment.
Right here’s to many sell-out exhibits forward!
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