Stuff For All You Indie Bands...

Hey , Just placing this promotions guide we send out to all of our bands. It is designed to help newer bands and experienced alike get back to basics. Check it out...

Your Down and Dirty Band Promotion Guide

It has been our experience that most Christian bands do not promote their gigs, even though they know they should. In an effort to stop this atrocity we have developed this cliff notes version of band promotion to help you on your path to LARGER GIG ATTENDANCE. We hope you take this as kind advice from people who have been in the industry for over a decade and not as disrespect.

Promotions 101

First things first, what is promotions? For our purposes it is: activities that are designed to cause people to take action. The action that you want them to take is to come and see your gig, and that is what we’ll focus on.

The best fans to get, are the ones you already have!

If you have been a performing band for more than a week you probably have some fans. These are people that like what you do and come to see you when they know you are playing. Your first bit of promotion should be to let them know when and where you are playing and invite them to join you.

Even though this sounds stupidly simple, it is rarely done, think about it though. These people have spent their time and money to see you before, you don't have to persuade them to like you, they already do. These are your best assets. The question is “do you know how to get a hold of them.?”

By the way, the answer to this should be a resounding YES. If not, there is work to be done. To start, make an e-mail sign up sheet and have it at every gig. To reiterate: have an e-mail signup sheet at EVERY GIG. Take the names and e-mail addresses and put them in a special e-mail group labeled “FANS.” You can now send e-mails to that group announcing your gigs and inviting them to join you.

As you know, you have a varying degree of fans, some are average but a few are very dedicated. You need to ask these super fans to join your super elite Street Team. Make sure to get their phone number so you can communicate with them without time the lag between e-mails.

You now have two methods of contacting your fans. 1) e-mail for the regular fans, and 2) phone numbers for the super fans that have joined your Street Team.

Don’t be fooled: Even your super fans will not just wake up and ask “hey what can I do to help my favorite band today.” Even though you have a way to talk to your fans, you still must ask your fans to take action!

The most basic thing you should do is to send an e-mail saying: “Hey come to our show this friday, and bring a friend and we’ll enter you in a drawing to receive TWO t-shirts... one for you and one for your friend.” This works.

Next, call your Street Team and ask them to pass out posters and flyers for you (more on this later). Of course there are many other things you could “ask” your fans to do but that should get you started.

Work the Gigs you Have

Were always a little baffled at how bands will not promote when they have a captive audience staring at them and hanging off of their every word. This is quite possibly the best time to get people to your next gig. You’ve got their attention and they are thinking about you. If they are going to become a fan, it has probably already happened. So “ask” them.

Here are some of the things you can ask, and it should take you only a few seconds:

• Ask them to come to the next show.
  
• Ask them to bring a first timer to see your next concert and be entered to receive a t-shirt (or two).
  
• Ask them to join your e-mail list!!!!!!!!
  
• Ask them to join the street team and take some flyers and hand them out.
  
  

That should all take well under 30 seconds, point them to your merch table for more instructions and get on with the show. Painless.

Hit the streets runnin’

Hey, now that you have a Street Team, you need to give them the guidance they need to succeed. Street Teams usually operate by passing out flyers to people and placing flyers and posters in any business that allows them.

The best way to organize your street teams activities is to let them distribute your promotional flyers and posters inside the normal patterns of their lives. For example if you have a street team member who lives in the city, it would not be wise to send them to the suburbs to do street team work. Incorporate their activities within what they already do.

Do they daily drive past any new(or used) music stores, guitar stores, book sellers or coffee houses? Do they regularly attend concerts of bands similar to your genre?

For the record that last one is probably the most effective Street Team activity there is. Organize people to hand out your flyers at the end of shows with bands of similar style. This is a time proven technique, just make sure you get permission if necessary.

Are the wheels turning yet?

They Key is to get those flyers into the hands of the most likely candidates for attending your shows, and use your street team to do it. If you don’t have a street team yet that just makes more work for you. You will have to do all of the tasks that they do, by your self. Doing this for a week or two should cure you fast. You will somehow find the motivation to get a street team.

On last thought you should maintain your street teams contact info in a central location so that you can always find a way to contact them in a hurry. A cell phone is good, but they have been known to break, so you should always have a back up.

Get It On.

If you have not really promoted your band before don't be ashamed you are not alone. But now that you have some knowledge you need to take some action. We urge you to start experimenting with the show that you have booked at First Friday.

Take the Checklist that is enclosed and use it to promote this gig and see what happens. You should have about three weeks to get the above mentioned stuff accomplished, and that's plenty of time if you make the effort.

Sad To Hear it worked!

Its sad to say, but we know the likelihood of you actually promoting to this level is really low. Very few will actually work at promoting their band. The fact is in the end this may actually be good for us, because if you did promote to this level we would no longer be able to afford you. ;) If this happens, all we ask in return is that you remember the little people.


Sincerely,

The Staff
First Friday Concerts

Your Promotional Checklist

Immediately

- Make an e-mail sign up sheet that asks for first name and e-mail only
- Make a list of all people that would join your Street Team
- Get Posters to Street Team members who can distribute to locations laid out in “Week 3” below.
- Place an ad in College paper that will print before the gig (Sac City, Consumnes, AR, Sac State, UCD, etc.)
- Place ad in High School papers that will print before the gig.

Week 3 (three weeks before First Friday)

- Get Posters in non corporate Coffee houses
- Get Posters in The Beat
- Get Posters in Dimple
- Get Posters in the Church you attend
- Get Posters on College Campus
- Get Posters on High School Campus
- Get Posters in Skips Music
- Posters to ______________________________
- Posters to ______________________________
- Posters to ______________________________
- Have Flyers at all gigs this week
- Have Street Team members handout flyers at end of your shows.
- Find one concert of similar band and pass out flyers at end.

Week 2 (two weeks before First Friday)

r Deliver flyers to Coffee houses
- Deliver flyers to the Beat
- Deliver Flyers to Dimple
- Deliver Flyers to Tower
- Deliver Flyers to Borders

- Deliver Flyers to _____________________________
- Deliver Flyers to _____________________________

- Pass out Flyers on High School Campus
- Pass out Flyers on College Campus
- Pass out Flyers ____________________

- Have Flyers at all gigs this week
- Have Street Team members handout flyers at end of show.
- Find one concert of similar band and pass out flyers at end.

Week 1 (week of First Friday)

- Replenish flyers to Coffee houses
- Replenish flyers to the Beat
- Replenish Flyers to Dimple
- Deliver Flyers to Tower
- Deliver Flyers to Borders
- Pass out Flyers on High School Campus
- Pass out Flyers on College Campus

- Send E-mail at beginning of week to all on list inviting them to come to your show this friday
- Have Flyers at all gigs this week
- Have Street Team members handout flyers at end of show.
- Find one concert of similar band and pass out flyers at end.

Day of First Friday Show

- E-mail “reminder” of tonight's show to your e-mail list early in the morning.

Feel Great!
You’ve done what most other bands will never do.