An excellent stay present will be the engine that actually drives your music profession. Let’s be certain individuals are there to see it!
You place your coronary heart into your efficiency, however enjoying to 5 folks and a bartender will be soul-crushing. The issue isn’t your expertise or a perceived lack of skill, it’s the promotion.
Listed here are 7 action-oriented methods that can assist you fill the room, whether or not you’re enjoying an area gig or heading out on tour.
1. Announce the Present Like It’s an Occasion and Not a Gig
You need to pique their curiosity and make them really feel like one thing distinctive or particular will occur.Don’t simply put up a flyer and say, “Come out in the event you’re free.”
As a substitute:
- Make it really feel like a celebration or milestone
- Use phrases like “One evening solely,” “This Friday goes to be wild,” or “You have to see what we’re bringing this time”
Takeaway: Individuals present up after they really feel like they’ll miss out in the event that they don’t.
2. Textual content Your Superfans Personally
DMs are good. Texts are higher.
“Hey! Enjoying [venue] on Friday [date] would like to see you there! Need me to place you on the checklist?”
Even when they’ll’t make it, the non-public contact builds loyalty. You can even embrace a fast teaser about WHY they need to come out for this explicit present.
10 private invitations > 100 flyer reposts.
3. Collaborate With One other Act (Or Two)
Extra bands = extra attain. Even higher: choose acts from completely different scenes (like the following main metropolis) to cross-pollinate your audiences. If coordinated correctly and ALL the artists and bands promote the present, it may be a giant win for everybody!
Bonus:
- Create a joint flyer that options everybody (not simply the headliner)
- Movie a fast “See you Friday!” video collectively
- Encourage every act to advertise prefer it’s their very own present (as a result of it’s)
- Within the final set, carry out a collaborative tune with all of the acts from the evening
4. Use Countdown Posts the Week Earlier than
Don’t simply announce it as soon as, remind folks usually! The gravity on followers to remain residence and simply watch Netflix is robust. Use highlights from previous reveals to advertise the upcoming present. It faucets into the concept leaving the home won’t solely be value it, it will likely be an expertise!
Publish one thing like:
- “7 days out” – rehearsal clip
- “5 days out” – throwback to an emotional present second
- “3 days to go” – throwback to a wild present second
- “Tomorrow evening!” – stage shot or new merch teaser
Takeaway: Repetition + momentum = attendance.
5. Make Your Poster Shareable
You could give your followers (and often the venue) the supplies that make it straightforward for them to share and do promotion for you. Static JPEGs of a cluttered flyer received’t lower it.
As a substitute:
- Make sq./vertical variations for IG Tales & Reels
- Embrace your face or band pic, not simply textual content
- Add a hyperlink QR code or easy link-in-bio data
- Use Canva or PosterMyWall to make it look 🔥
Takeaway: Good design = extra shares.
Sure, folks nonetheless verify them on a weekly foundation. Particularly locals in search of issues to do. This received’t be the silver bullet that brings the followers out in droves, nevertheless it’s a part of the fundamentals that make it simpler for folks to recollect your present after they see it on all of the occasion calendars.
Strive:
- Fb Occasions (and native FB teams)
- Reddit metropolis subreddits
- Native alt-weekly or newspaper occasion listings
- Eventbrite, Bandsintown, DoStuff, Indie on the Transfer
Takeaway: It’s free visibility you’re in all probability ignoring.
7. Supply a “Deliver a Good friend” Bonus
Nobody desires to go to a present alone, so flip your followers into your private live performance promoters.
Instance:
“Deliver a buddy to the present and get a free sticker / pin / shoutout / entry to win a hoodie.”
It provides folks a motive to not come alone, which is able to enhance turnout and fan engagement.
Takeaway: Incentivize the habits you need.
Don’t simply play the native scene, use it as a launch pad!
Your subsequent present doesn’t need to be empty, however in the event you’re simply counting on the membership or venue to fill the room, chances are high, you’re setting your self up for a foul evening. You simply must put it on the market with the identical vitality and pleasure you set into your music. As a result of in the event you don’t imagine it’s value exhibiting up for, why would anybody else?
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