How do you promote your shows?

[Franklin]

Well, how do you promote your shows. Right now my band is playing 4-8 shows a month and I fear that we'll be doing less shows (or be stuck playing the small bars) in the future unless we can get more people out to our shows.

On problem is that we usually play in the same 25 mile radius, and you can imagine that it gets tough trying to get a lot of people to come to your shows when you are playing 2x a week in the same area. If everyone who "follows" the band (anyone who has been to a bunch of our shows) all showed up at once, there would be 150- 200 people at that show. But it does not work that way obviously.

We have flyers made up and get them to the venue at a minimum. We also make up handbills (of all upcoming shows) that we leave on the tables in venues. We have an email list of @ 150 people, a snail mail list of about 50 people who get post card handbills -a sample of the one I sent out this month is on our home page:

http://www.redriversoul.com


Everything we make is print quality too, no black and white copies of our press kit photo with a date written in the margin.


Besides that and emailing everyone, what do you do? We just bought a book on band promoting, but I have not seen it yet.

One idea I have is to make up flyers and head out to the mall or a busy downtown type area and solicit people, just like the people taking surveys or wanting you to taste thier food samples. We could hand out flyers and free cds and actually talk to people -and target our audience. I know we would probably need the mall's permission to work there. Our opening line would be something like this with a cd extended towards the person "Hello, would you like a free CD of our band"?

What do ya'll do? Any creative ideas?

[Mikey]

Yep! I need help in this area as well. We don't even do as much as TBB does.

[Gtrplyr]

That is a tough one and is a bit of a sore spot with in the current band I play in.

An E-mail list is pretty much all my band relies on plus whatever a club runs in the local free press newspapers.

Getting write ups in a local paper sure doesn't hurt in getting your name out and reputation established but can be a tough nut to crack in larger cities.

Bottom line is that it is really hard to get people out to a bar to hear an unknown band these days no matter how many handbills or fliers you can litter a city with.

That said I was overwhelmed by the turnout that the opening band had at a gig I played last night. It was the bands first gig and they had about 50 people in the club that stood up to the stage and filled the entire dance floor area and spilled out into the back of the club.

Unfortunately they were only there to see their friends and 90% of them cleared out before we even had a chance to get started. My guess is that they weren't really even music fans but rather friends supporting friends.

[fezz parka]

One idea I have is to make up flyers and head out to the mall or a busy downtown type area and solicit people, just like the people taking surveys or wanting you to taste thier food samples. We could hand out flyers and free cds and actually talk to people -and target our audience. I know we would probably need the mall's permission to work there. Our opening line would be something like this with a cd extended towards the person "Hello, would you like a free CD of our band"?

What do ya'll do? Any creative ideas?

These are good ideas. :yay

The most important thing is to get females to come to the shows. Seriously. Where there are girls, there will be lots of guys. Try to see if the venue will offer a discounted cover to girls. Or at least a "Ladies Night" type discount on tap beer...( I know that New Jersey recently found this to be a civil rights violation, but it is permissible in other states.)

Is there a college near where you gig? If so, try to get some airplay or at least a "gig mention" on the radio station.

Is there a public access channel on your local cable? Do a show on it. It's usually pretty cheap to do.

Go to shows where the band is similar to what you do and schmooze.

I checked out your flyer. To me, the pic is too big and the info is hard to read. Check out Gigposters for some new ideas for your flyer/gigposter.

My brain hurts. More later...

[FenderBoy]

I get posters made up...11x17 color ones to be posted at and around the venue.
I distribute a reduced version of that poster in Black and White to any business where I think it might do any good. And I give a goodly supply to the place where I'm next scheduled to play for them to put on their tables.
I get a small version made in color for places where I think they'll really make a difference.
I find out who does the music reviews for the local papers and ply those writers with good wishes and kindness till they really want to write about the next gig.
I tell everybody...yes, everybody...I talk to that something is coming up.
I E-mail all my friends and customers and tell them about the upcoming show.
I call people who I think might make a difference down the road and give them the scoop.
I make an effort to befriend the owner of the club I'm playing at so that they might do more for me than they'd do for the next guy.
I contact the media in general and send out press releases to all appropriate media.
I try to make each performance special in some way. I've found that having somebody there who is a photographer or videographer, even a friend, with decent looking equipment really makes the audience think something very special is happening and they'll talk it up...to the owner or their friends later.

In other words, I spend a lot of time and money to promote myself and/or the band.
One can't expect something to happen that's positive by just waiting for it to waltz through the door.
It takes work.

[Franklin]

Good ideas by all!

[FenderBoy]

Just so you know...I don't ALWAYS do this. Sometimes there's not enough time or I don't have enough cash to get it all produced.
But, those are my general rules of promotion and they mostly work.

Last show with The CT recruits was a near sell-out...and that's pretty much what I did to promote it.

BTW...If you get involved in larger presentations a show promoter will do lots of this work....but even then...I tell everybody what's coming up for me...even the cashier at the grocery store.
Pure, shameless self-promotion.

[Franklin]

Damn Paul, it sounds like it really worked for you!!!

We all need to just get busy, if all four of us were doing the same amount of work I am.....

Here's the latest postcard. One goes out every other week, this is going out today, it's also on the front page of our website:

http://redriversoul.com/

[Moe Humble]

Fender Boy says it!! Tell em any way you have the money to do it.
Email is cheap for those who have signed your FAN REGISTRATION NOTEBOOK. Posters/Pics are great.
Table tents for present and upcoming bookings are very good.
and of course phone calls to your fan club leaders to "marshall the troops"

[grito]

We used to send out free CDs and press material to college radio stations and college event programmers (the singer and I were active in bringing events to our campus, so we got to know the folks through networking) It's a nice pull to clubs when you can say we expect a good crowd at the campus, why don't you let us play the bar the same night?

That and netwokring with other bands. About a quarter of our shows were other bands that wanted to fill an opening slot.

[rockntommy]

Great tips here!
The one or two I can add is for local gigs, I place flyers on almost every table in the venue the weekend before as well as the walls...Then later in the week, again if it is local, I do the same thing.
Bar owners really dont care cause you are promoting his place too.

This one works well too:
Print out a pic or a promo showing the date etc. on a 81/2 by 11" thin cardboard printing on all three sides. Fold it in thirds so it looks like a triangle, throw some tape on there and place it on the tables. You can make them smaller and it looks somewhat official like those triangle beer/drink advertisements that are already there. They stay put usually through out the week.

[Franklin]

More good ideas! I employed an idea similiar to yours rockingtommy (table advert), but that sounds like a winner!! I'll have to try one at home tonight and see how it works out....

[Franklin]

Anyone have any input on the cutie on our post card mailer?

[rockntommy]

More good ideas! I employed an idea similiar to yours rockingtommy (table advert), but that sounds like a winner!! I'll have to try one at home tonight and see how it works out....

Mess around with it.
They come out pretty cool sometimes.
Once you have it set then you can print them like crazy and then sit around and fold em up.
Good Luck!

[Franklin]

Ours were "little tents". That's the best way to describe them, about 2.5 or 3" tall when folded.

Also, in our free CDs that we have out like crazy are little handbills. Maybe bigger than a business card, but the have at least the next 5-6 shows listed on them.

[rockntommy]

The other idea I had but never followed through on, is if you play the same joint say once a month for 6 months etc... Beer coasters with your logo, info, and dates on there.

[CocoTone]

These are good ideas. :yay

The most important thing is to get females to come to the shows. Seriously. Where there are girls, there will be lots of guys. Try to see if the venue will offer a discounted cover to girls. Or at least a "Ladies Night" type discount on tap beer...( I know that New Jersey recently found this to be a civil rights violation, but it is permissible in other states.)

Is there a college near where you gig? If so, try to get some airplay or at least a "gig mention" on the radio station.

Is there a public access channel on your local cable? Do a show on it. It's usually pretty cheap to do.

Go to shows where the band is similar to what you do and schmooze.

I checked out your flyer. To me, the pic is too big and the info is hard to read. Check out Gigposters for some new ideas for your flyer/gigposter.

My brain hurts. More later...

Your absolutely right!! You get the chicks to come out, the guys will follow, and they spend the $$$$ to impress the gals, which impresses the bar owner,,which gets you gigs.
Add lots of `chick` type songs to your repetoire, and that`ll get `em out. We do `My Girl`, and other such songs, which makes the gals sprint for the dance floor.
And it helps if the band is really good, and tite, which impresses people, and they tell theyre friends that they saw an incredible band, so they`ll remember you. I`m not being a smart ass, but polish is everything.
I learned long ago, that if your songs start tite, and end tite, then what you play in between they`ll forget quickly, so the mistakes go un-noticed. Make the endings memorable and tight. When you watch SRV live at the Elmocambo, you`ll see exactly what I mean.

CT.

[Franklin]

I checked out your flyer. To me, the pic is too big and the info is hard to read. Check out Gigposters for some new ideas for your flyer/gigposter.

Thanks fezz! I like your link.

[CA Bobcat]

In the Sacramento area I post our gigs on line with Sacramento News & Review (local liberal paper big on entertainment), Napkin Nights and Sacscene (entertainment oriented web sites). It's amazing how many people check them and remember the band name.

[Chaseinthesound]

Local radio stations will usualy help out.
That tends to work quite well in this part of the world.
That said most local venues down here are managed by one of three professonal promotions companies so local bands need to get tied up with them to get anywhere, unfortunatly they are not generaly very friendly to new acts.

Good luck.