20 Jul 4 FREE TOOLS TO PROMOTE YOUR NEXT LIVE SHOW
Author: Niki Filtz, Instagram
I’ve often heard that the definition of a great gig is ‘the right artist in the right venue on the right night at the right ticket price and everyone who might want to come, knows about it.’
Promoting your upcoming show is one of the most important tasks an artist has, but with the ability to reach your audience with a single click of a button, this no longer has to be an overwhelming project to undertake. Though most venues do help with some promotional activity, it’s your responsibility to make sure your fans are aware of when and where you are playing.
Here are 4 FREE tools you can utilize to increase awareness of your next upcoming event.
- Create a Facebook Event- As a fan, this is the easiest way to keep track of all upcoming events in a nice, laid out, calendar with the most recent events at the top. As an artist, creating the event and including links to purchase tickets along with door times, and set times is a great way to provide all the information for fans in one place. Get creative with the event page and add a show flyer as the header with the details and remember to stay consistent, using the SAME show flyer for all socials. Another quick tip for the Facebook Event, add the venue as a co-host so they can also re-share and post on their page as well to increase exposure!
- List show dates on BandsInTown.com- If you’re an artist and aren’t currently utilizing the BandsInTown platform, I highly recommend you heading over there and creating a free and professional profile for yourself or your band. This site allows you to set up a page as an artist and list your upcoming performance dates along with links to RSVP, and purchase tickets. When your fans follow you on BandsInTown, they will receive an email with your upcoming dates. Yes, you can also geo-target your audience to send an email push to fans in the surrounding areas. There are 60 million concert goers that utilize this platform to keep track of their favorite bands so they never miss a show. As if this isn’t reason enough, they also deliver all tour date information uploaded directly to Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube, Google Search, Shazam, and another dozen sites and services. Head over to www.bandsintown.com to set up your free profile now!
- List show dates on Songkick.com- Similar in infrastructure to BandsInTown, this is another great platform which is free for artists to use. Just set up a Songkick Tourbox profile, enter your upcoming event dates and details, encourage fans to follow your profile. They will also get email notifications when new dates are uploaded, and you can track audience insights, manage all your concert listings, and tickets, and also host pre-sale campaigns. Songkick also automatically pushes your tour dates to other important sites including Spotify, Pandora, BandCamp, Deezer, BBC, and a host of other major music sites. Check out www.songkick.com under Tourbox for artists to set up your free artist profile!
- Reach fans using Pandora’s Artist Audio Messaging- Pandora music offers a free service for artists called Artist Audio Messaging. While fans enjoy listening to your music on the Pandora Radio app, you can now add in a special audio message directly from you with specific content or promotion for an upcoming show or album release. This is a personalized way to speak to and engage with your audience on a more intimate level. All you need to do is be set up as an artist on Pandora, have your music available for streaming and then follow the instructions on their site for setting up audio messaging. You can find out more details on the Artist Audio Messaging by clicking here. www.ampplaybook.com/artist-audio-messages
You don’t need a huge budget to market and promote yourself as an independent artist. There are several different ways to get creative and let your fans know where you’re going to be so they can come out, support your music, and enjoy your incredible performance!
Just a reminder that here at FanFlex, we help create promotional posts for our artists to use on their social media accounts, as well as posting them on ours. Our platform is always free for artists to use so reach out and let’s get you on stage again! #LIVEMUSICISBACK!