Dear Bands,
every one of you knows the problem. The show is not that far away, but especially in the beginning of
your band history, it’s hard to get the place crowded. With this guideline, we will try to show you some
approaches so you never have to play in an empty venue again. The marketing channels which you can
use are online as well as offline.
Online Channels
Facebook
Yes, it’s probably the most popular place to market your band. Everyone of you likely has a private
profile, and your band probably also has a fan page (if you don’t have one, you can read our guideline
on how to set up a Facebook page).
Create an event, share it and invite your friends. This way, it’s easy to reach up to 1.000 people around
you. I am sure that one or the other person has been interested for quite some time what your band has
been practicing in the rehearsal room and is happy to hear about it.
To additionally advertise your event, you can also post in groups of local musicians (musicians in XY,
band network XY, etc.). There are thousands of groups full of all kinds of musicians, where no one can
wait to get to know new bands out there. This is also a good place to get feedback from others, which
is always good to help you improve and get even more fans.
In case you want to take a more professional approach, you have the opportunity to financially advertise
your events. All you need to do is set a budget, a target group (e.g. male and female, 18-25 years old,
from NY and surroundings) and a time period. Before you decide to take this step, please take some
time to consider it first. That means: if I spend $20 and my entrance fee is $5, are there really going to
be 4 people who are only coming due to this campaign, so that I cover my costs? If you have any
questions concerning this matter, feel free to contact us.
Instagram
Especially the target group of people between 16-25 years are moving increasingly from Facebook to
Instagram. Make sure to share your flyer on Instagram, so that your fans who don’t use Facebook as
regularly get to hear about your gig. Choose your hashtags wisely (e.g. #show #warehouse etc.) Be
sure to pay attention to the quadratic picture format, maybe you need to edit your flyer to avoid any
cutoffs. And don’t forget about Snapchat and other ‘rising’ platforms.
Event Pages
There are thousands of event pages online, but only a few have a high number of visitors. To ensure
that the registration efforts are not so high, ask yourself which event pages are appropriate: are there
special pages for our music genre? Are there pages for my area?
Offline Channels
Local Press
Just go to your local press and ask them if they can give you the opportunity to publish a short article
about you, where you can present your band and your upcoming shows. Especially the local press is
always excited about local musicians, they are often willing to help promote you. Even if it doesn’t work
out the first time around, don’t give up and try again soon with news on your project.
Flyers / Posters
The classic way to promote your show: flyers or posters. To make sure that you are not wasting any
money, you should closely decide where to hang up the posters and to whom you will distribute the
flyers. It’s best to hand out flyers during other concerts, in rehearsal rooms, music stores, schools,
universities, etc. Always keep in mind: where is my target group?
Venues
Definitely ask the venues, if they can promote you. They are the ones who make the most money during
your show (drinks, rent, maybe part of entrance fee). Many venues already have good connections with
the press or have a mailing list, with which they can easily reach many music fascinated fans.
We hope that we could help you get some insights with this short guide. Don’t be shy to try everything
out for your next SPH show!
Good luck and all the best,
Your SPH Bandcontest Team