This post on Press Releases is part of a series of articles on concert promotion from TSE Entertainment. TSE provides concert booking, production and concert promotion services. When it comes to promoting your concert, you want to use the trifecta of digital marketing. They include “paid media = advertising; owned media = your presence on the Internet, e.g., website, social media channels, blog posts, etc.; and earned media = PR, mentions, shares, reposts, etc. The latter is online “word of mouth” and content picked up by Third Party sites such as industry publications and websites; press; and event directories. If you are not familiar with these terms, you can check out this article on what is owned, earned and paid media.
The Press Release is the Key to Earned Media for Concert Promotion
Press releases are a very important part of your concert promotion strategy for gaining earned media. They are the tool that is used to reach out to other media outlets that can help promote your concert beyond your own capabilities, and if done correctly can make a significant impact on the success of your concert turn out.
However, with thousands of press releases being transferred daily, it’s important to construct them correctly and stand out from crowd so it gets noticed in a good way. The following tips are important to keep in mind before sending out your next press release for concert promotion.
- Don’t Send Your Press Release to Just Anyone
When promoting a concert or festival you will want to send your press release to relevant media outlets, journalists and radio stations. Relevant meaning, it’s something that will interest them and is in the realm of the type of events and geographical area they already write or talk about. Do your due diligence beforehand to make sure that the entity you are addressing would be interested in your subject matter and covers similar events. By doing this you can eliminate any wasted time on their behalf and yours.
A great place to start for this, especially if you often hold concerts in the same geographical area, is to create a spreadsheet with contacts of different journalist and radio stations. Choose those that would be interested in knowing and sharing information about your concert via their publication. You can keep this list up to date for future concert use to save you a ton of time.
- Avoid Fancy Language
For journalists and radio station that receive multiple press releases a day, time is of the essence when sifting through what is newsworthy and what isn’t. The more you give them to read that isn’t relevant or could be considered “filler verbiage” the more likely they are to toss it aside and move along. Try to stick to facts and sensible quotes instead of a bunch of adjectives and overly descriptive wording.
Everything you include in your press release for your concert promotion should be answering all the “W” questions (where, what, why, when, who) and if you find it doesn’t, it can probably be removed.
- Leave the Branding Out of it – Focus on Title
You’re sending your press release to media outlets that care more for the important information about your concert and less about fancy colors and fonts. It can be an easy misconception that in order to grab someone’s attention you will need to make the press release for your concert promotion flashy and eye-catching. Remember, it’s the information itself is all they really care about.
Instead of getting carried away with flashy images, fonts, and colors, format your press release with plenty of white space and be precise and to the point. Outline the details, such as exact dates and times and other pertinent information.
If you want to catch their attention, place your focus on the title of your press release. In your title, try to answer the question of why they should want to learn more.
- Do Include Relevant Attachments
Although you will want to skip on the fancy language and design, it is still important to send relevant, easy to open attachments and photos that will help the reader gain further understanding. You can include a professional quality headlining band photo or tour poster (if applicable). Anything beyond that probably isn’t relevant or important enough to include as part of the press release.
If it’s possible, try to keep your images in the body of your email so the recipient doesn’t have to go through the work of opening the attachments. However, if you must include them as attachments, make sure the photos are hi-res but not too large so that they are easy to open.
- Include URL For More Information
Make sure to include a useful URL that will allow them to gather more information if they need it. Do not include Facebook Event links here. These URL’s should be for ticketing information or the concert promotion website. Any information that is on your Facebook Events page should already be included in your press release for your concert promotion.
- Proofread. Proofread
You don’t want to damage your reputation by hastily putting together your press release and not taking the time to double check your grammar and spelling. Any error can reflect badly and raise doubts as to whether your concert is worth the attention. Before sending your press release to anyone, you should always have more than one other person look it over to make sure you haven’t missed any important details or errors.
To Wrap it up
Press releases are vital to concert promotion earned media and should never be left out of the equation. Using and constructing one incorrectly can be just as bad as not using one at all. When trusting TSE Entertainment to handle your concert promotion, you can rest assured that all your concert promotion needs will be met, including a killer press release!
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Concert Promotion: 6 Best Practices Using Facebook and Instagram
