marketing, business-plan, time-managementI have exactly 5 weeks to promote a music show with a big interstate band headlining. I have a budget of about $2000 and I wish to have 400 people attend the show.
The Headline act have 100k+ fans on Facebook, but aren’t going to do much promotion as they’re touring on a bigger tour with a bigger band, up until almost the day of the show (though they are not touring in the state I am running the show)
Currently the things I am doing are:
-Facebook Event (200 interested, 100 going so far) -Small press release (contacted 10 blogs and music magazines to promote the show) -Hire poster company to stick 200 posters around town -Hired leaflet distributors to hand out fliers at other local gigs.
What other productive things can I be doing to guarantee a great turnout at this show?
Having run a successful events for a number of years I feel I am in a position to answer this. Events are all about networks. Yes you can give out offers, yes you can post on Facebook and flyer other gigs but that really will have limited success. 400 attendees isn’t a lot, it may seem like a tough number to hit but in reality it’s very easy. I don’t mean to sound patronising there, let me explain how I would approach this.
First find 10 people that are really invested in the event, friends, family, guy you met at the coffee shop and chatted to for 30 mins about it. Ask them to invite 10 people to the event each, 10x10=100. That’s 25% of the way there..
Now keep repeating this process with anyone you know, colleagues, local bands, local sporting clubs. The trick is to build up small groups and get others to do the work for you. If you can get overlap between the groups of people then it cements the commitment to attend. Eg, if your best friend from the coffee shop also happens to work with a guy who was invited by your best friend. Although you may not know them through the various connections it now looks like ‘everyone’ is going. This will then generate its own buzz and as such you will get a natural increase in numbers.
Offer local sports teams an incentive for coming down. There is one thing you can guarantee its that sports teams love an event together as much as they love competing, throw in a few drinks on the house and you have a ready made group of 10-20 attending. Who will quite often have 1 or 2 people following them as well, wives, gfs, groupies etc.
Similar to the above local bars, restaurants businesses. If you know someone who works at any establishment ask them to invite people.
It is all about small groups rather than the large mass. If you sit down and map out everyone you know and anyone that is associated with the gig and who they now and get every single person to invite 10 people you will have more than enough numbers I guarantee. If you don’t know that many people and are struggling to invite 10 people yourself then maybe this isn’t the field for you.
Events are all about networks.
As for Adwords or any other Google network advertising, don’t even bother. Not for the size of gig you are talking about, it’ll cost you a bomb and have so little return. Fb advertising may work but again sorry to reappear at this scale and the fact you even phrased it as local that’s exactly what you need to do GET LOCAL.
I am not sure if this questions is relevant to this thread, but maybe there is some guidance I can provide.
Since this is a local event your options are narrowed by geography, but there are a few options that will allow for geographic targeting.
Google AdWords are the sponsored links on google searches and can be purchased and targeted to certain demographics and areas.
Google Display Network is the banner ads you see on sites and they can be purchased. I am not sure about how their targeting works because I have not used them.
You mentioned that Facebook has a been a great source of traffic for you so why not use Facebook ads to generate more traffic? They can also be targeted geographically...
Good luck with the event!
You could offer 2 for 1 tickets to “early bird” buyers.
You could offer group discounts for people who bring 2 or more friends.
You could offer discounts on future events for anyone who buys a ticket to this event.
You could offer rebates on future tickets to anyone who refers friends who buy tickets.
This is all about getting creative. The best way to appeal to people often is with money. What do they get now for taking a chance on an unknown?
Depending on the price of the ticket, offer something else, such as a t-shirt or some other trinket, for purchase of a ticket early on.
What you need is for people to book early. That way you have a better idea of what you have left to sell and hopefully enough lead time to do so before the concert.
Is this about attendance only, or does it have to be paying attendees? If it’s free, you should have no problem finding 400 people to attend.
Another thought is to find bars where the music is the same or similar genre as the band performing, then offer them some kind of financial incentive to sell your tickets for you or even just to promote the concert for you. That way you have nothing out of pocket unless they sell something.
I hope this gives you some ideas.
Good luck!
Everyone else’s advice is spot on.
One thing I would add is that you should target to have 800 people attend. If you’re giving away the tickets for free, you’ll have about 50% attrition rates. In other words, 50% of the people who have said they’ll attend won’t actually attend because they have no vested interest in attending.
If you’re charging people to attend the event, you’ll have about 25% attrition rates. In this case, since people have paid for the tickets, they have a vested interest. Unless something extremely important comes up (i.e. they become ill), they’ll most likely attend the event.
Also, giveaways do really well at events. Say the first 100 people who attend get something. Or give a product away — try to find a brand that aligns with the event and ask them to donate a product. Never hurts to ask!
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