Marketing is limitless. It is important to remember that different shows presenting live music require different approaches when promoting a live music event
The bottom line of any successful live entertainment event is attendance. As a promoter, you are responsible for filling up the venue and satisfying the stakeholders, which includes the musicians, their management, the venue and the audience. A successful event can lead to expanding the artists’ future and and builds trust to encourage the venue management to work with you again.
1. Promoting a Live Music Event Through Social Media
Social media has become the most popular way to connect with fans and promote a live music event. It allows you to spread the word about an upcoming event to a particular audience. People learn about new local artists through social media interaction, as well as what events are happening nearby, and which ones their friends are going to — whether through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, bandsintown or any other medium. Developing a strong and active internet presence is an important part of expanding your potential audience and coordinating with everyone involved in your events. Promoting live events by posting regularly on social media platforms, at least twice per day, can help you reach as many people as possible — share links to local artists’ pages, videos, articles, tag the venue, artist or event by using @ before the keyword in a post, using hashtags before a #keyword often at the end of a post, and the like.
Further, taking advantage of social media strategies, employing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques can help develop a viral presence, where your posts get shared over and over, reaching an exponentially increasing audience. The purpose of using SEO can be broken down into 3 unique benefits:
Quality of traffic – Understanding that potential consumers are genuinely interested in your product. For example if you are a farmer selling apples, you want to make sure people aren’t mistaking your product by searching for and iTunes Apple product.
Quantity of traffic – With the right audience clicking through your web page, the more traffic, the better.
Organic results – Ads generate a significant portion of click-throughs. Organic results are the click-throughs you don’t have to pay for.
2. Engaging Local Media
A more traditional yet still effective method of promoting live music events is reaching out to local media. This also involves understanding what sort of media your target audience consumes. For instance, if you are promoting a jazz concert, you might contact the local jazz radio station about plugging the concert during a show or even have the band or artist do a live in-studio session. When targeting a younger indie-music crowd for a popular new band’s concert, you might pitch an interview to a local music scene blog. Other ideas to help local promotion are:
TV shows – Acquiring a spot on the local news advertising the band, or a placement promotion for a local TV show. You can even pay for a commercial promoting the event.
Newspapers – Using the right ad for your event, venue, or band will attract an audience to your event. College campus newspapers are great for this, if one is nearby.
Magazines – Locally targeted magazines are an excellent way to get the word out. An ad or an interview can have a large promotional reach.
3. Fan Engagement
Engaging fans is key to a successful entertainment event. In addition to reaching your audience through social media posts and local press, there are other ways to engage your fans when promoting a live musical event.You can also offer free ticket giveaways through mediums such as radio. You can also hold a contest of some sort through a newspaper or social media. You should encourage artists to engage their fans directly, posting about the event and responding to comments and posts. This creates a personal connection that promotes fans’ investment in both the artist and the event.
4. Physical Promotion
Putting up posters and passing out flyers in the area where the event will take place is also an excellent mode of promoting a live music event. Keep in mind that you should be aware of the legal regulations regarding passing out materials in a public space.
5. Word of Mouth
Often perceived as the most important part of promoting live music events is to get people talking about them. If you get one local music scene advocate excited about the event, chances are he or she will pass the word on to many others. Anyone who the community may consider a source of information on local events can be of great value, from a grocery store cashier to a professional in the music industry.
These are just some of the examples of actions you can take to promote a live music event for your local music venue, event, or band. There are many steps you can take on a daily basis that add up and can make a big impact over time. With the right combination of tools, you’ll be well on your way to success within the community in no time!
Megan Dorn
