Getting people to come to your concert is almost as important as getting them to listen to your music. You may earn more cash at a show, and if you are a great performer and the songs are awesome, you may very well make some new fans every time you take to the stage. While filling up a room is certainly the goal, it is not easy to do.
These days, there is more to occupy people’s time than ever before. Between TV, movies, music, video games, and social media, there are many who don’t bother leaving the house. Those who do are headed to cinemas, theaters, parties, clubs, restaurants, and countless other experiences–including concerts of more established musical acts.
The best way to get people to come to your concert is to have a large fan base. Of course, you’re working on that, but how should you let these people–as well as potentially interested strangers–know that you’ll be playing live and that they have to attend?
Here are a few ideas that should help you promote your upcoming concert.
In This Article:
- College & Local Radio
- Update Your Website
- Email Newsletter
- Social Media
- Word Of Mouth
- Flyers
- PR
College & Local Radio PR
Getting your music on the radio remains one of the best ways to get the word out to the world about your music and any upcoming shows you may have. When it’s time to tour, work with a radio PR team who knows what they’re doing to reach out to local and especially college radio stations in each market you’re planning on performing in. These stations might post about your show on their website or social media, a DJ may mention it on the air, or they might even have you on for an interview, either in person or via phone, where you can discuss the details of your concert.
It’s time for you to invest in radio promotion for your music and see all the good that it can do for you.
Update Your Website
While many people get caught up and focused only on social media, it’s important to remember that your band’s website is still a vital resource for those looking for all things related to you and your music. Anytime you have a concert coming up–whether it’s one show or a complete tour–you need to make sure to update your website immediately. List all the relevant details for each concert, including the date, time, venue, as well as a link to where tickets can be purchased online. If an entire trek is on the horizon, you probably want to put this front center on your website so people catch it the minute they visit.
Email Newsletter
Those who sign up for a musician’s email newsletter are likely their biggest fans, so never sideline this promo method. They are the ones who went out of their way to let you know that you can reach out to them with news and offers, so these are the fans who deserve to know the good news first. How exactly you decide to promote your show is up to you, but consider announcing a performance to your subscribers before making it public. You can reveal the dates and let them purchase tickets ahead of the show being announced on social media. When you’re just starting out, this might not have much of an effect when it comes to ticket sales, but it will make it seem as if these subscribers are getting a head start and receiving information that others are not. This can make them feel really special and it will prove that it was worth it to sign up for your email newsletter and to stay subscribed.
Social Media PR
While your website and email newsletter should probably come first, social media is, realistically, the most effective way of getting the word out about your upcoming tour or concert.
It’s a good idea to come up with a simple but complete social media promotional plan for each show. Don’t just tweet once about a concert or share a single image in your Instagram story weeks before a performance and expect that to be enough. Create visually arresting graphics that include all the necessary info and begin by announcing. Then, remind fans a few weeks out that your performance is coming up. As the date nears, you can remind them again in an inventive manner, and then post once more the day of the show.
Also, it is normal for artists to get professional help in managing social media for a concert or tour.
As long as you make sure that all of this content is interesting and fun and not annoying or nagging, the continued follow-up shouldn’t be a problem. If, however, you simply post the same text or images over and over, you will annoy your followers and you might even lose some of them.
Word Of Mouth
If you have a show coming up, you should be talking about it. A lot. Don’t keep your promotional efforts to the online world! Tell your friends and encourage them to reach out to their networks as well. Turn your normal concert into a must-attend party, the kind of event that everyone will want to go to. Talk it up and make sure you deliver the night of. If the performance lives up to the hype, you’ve started building a reputation for yourself as a great live artist, and word-of-mouth can continue to spread from there.
Flyers
Flyers are something of a lost art in the music industry, as online advertising, radio promo, and social media have largely taken over as ways to get the word out about an upcoming concert. While those are all very important and worth investing time and resources into, that doesn’t mean flyers are a waste.
Print some out on colorful paper or use graphics to catch the eye and hang them everywhere you think might be helpful. Look to events and community boards where strangers will head for ideas of things to do. If possible, hang them around your school or college, or perhaps even at the venue where the concert is slated to take place.
PR
In addition to radio promotion, you can work with a PR team to get the word out about your show or tour via the media. Work with these professionals as they send out the details to newspapers and blogs, usually ones that are focused on the specific city where you will be playing. Sometimes this effort can be as simple as writing up an announcement and firing off a few dozen emails, while in other instances, your promotion may be far more involved. There could be websites or social channels that are interested in speaking with you for an interview, or perhaps you and your top music PR team can invite some to attend your show with complimentary tickets and either review the concert or simply write about your music.
If you’re about to release an album or head out on the road, you need to get your music PR game in order.
