Live show promotion is by far one of the easiest ways of grabbing fans attention while they are open and willing to give it freely, yet, it’s one of the most under utilized means of marketing music. Sounds crazy right? Believe it. Most bands and artists feel that a live show is about performing, and sure, you have to have a good performance… but really, the actual performance of a show makes up less than 25% of what is needed to sell CDs and merchandise.

The other 75% of a live show is about marketing, networking, connecting, and making friends with your fans. Fans and potential fans go to see live music to have a good time. Believe it or not, they are not at the venue to see you perform. Sure, you will have a few die hard fans that come to simply see you, but reality is that most the people at the venue are there to socialize, have a good time with friends, and primarily not sit at home watching reruns of Friends.

It is your job to ensure every single person at the venue on the night of your performance is indeed having a good time. Yes, you heard correctly! It is you and/or your groups job to ensure every single person at the venue receives the experience far above what they expected when they feed the cat, put on their best shirt, and set out to hook up at the venue you happened to get booked at.

Your job as an entertainer, yes entertainer, is to ensure your fans and potential fans have a good time. That starts with a great performance and ends with you or your group speaking to each person that attends your show…. personally, standing or sitting in front of them, not from the stage. Everything in between is what determines whether or not your show will be a success or just another night at the club for your fans.

The experience for your fan or potential fan starts outside the front door of the venue.  Think about when you are going out to have a good time. As you walk up to the venue you will think to yourself, “What does this place look like? What’s going on inside? Do I really want to do this? Will I have a good time?” Every single person does this, it’s human nature. Your job is to make sure that from the very start, your fans know they are going to have a good time.

You should have one or two street team member posted outside the club to talk to the club goers as they arrive. They are not there to get people in the door, they are there to greet them as they arrive. You need to make sure your team members are out going, can talk to anyone, and truly greet each person as they walk in the door of the club. You want to really make sure that your team starts to learn the names of your fans… nothing beats a fan getting greeted at the door of a venue by first name. This is golden marketing dollars. This is a connection!

Inside the venue you need to have two or three street team members, dressed similar – all wearing merchandise available at the merchandise table, walking around the venue networking. The main duty of your inside team is to get email and phone numbers of everyone in the venue. They need to carry a clip board with a pen or pencil and simply talk to every single person in the venue. Their job is not to simply get a number or email and move on. Their job is to talk and network with every single person in the venue and get the information during the conversation. Meaning; having a team member simply walk up to someone and say; “Can I get your information….” is not networking and making friends with your fans. It also does not get to know how the crowd found out about the performance, how far they are coming from, what they like in a show, what they don’t like in a show, how much time they spend on the internet looking up new music, whether or not they have visited your website, if they have bought your CD, if they have visited your merchandise table, and beyond.

Get the point? Your inside street team’s job is to get to know your fans, find out what makes them tick, and network until the relationship moves from fan to friendship status. This is not accomplished by sitting at a table talking amongst each other or only the fans they already know.

Your merchandise table should be the hub of activity at each live show. The team member that is sitting behind the table needs to be the friendliest, most outgoing, member of your team. This person needs to talk to people as they are passing the table to get them to the table. It is their job to sell your music and merchandise. They are not there to sit and wait for someone to come to them. They are not there so they have a seat for the entire performance, in fact, they should rarely sit down. They need to be standing in front of the table and networking.

Your job, or your groups job, is to host the party from stage and from the floor in-between sets. Again, the music matters, but the hosting matters more. Hosting is talking to your fans, not at them. Hosting is guiding your audience into having a good time including drink specials, contests, jokes, etc.. Your job is to communicate with your audience as if they were sitting in your living room at a small intimate house party.

You need to remind people about your merchandise table, your website, contests you are currently running, to tip the bar tenders and waitresses, where the rest rooms are, up coming shows, etc., etc., etc.. You have to do this with style, not “service announcement” type speeches. Remember, these are your friends, not people in the audience. You have to make a personal connection from stage with each and every member of the audience. Do not be afraid to use fans first names on stage. People love the hear their name!

You should run a contest during every performance. Give out tickets to fans as they walk in the door and about three quarters of the way through your show have a drawing from stage and give a way a few t-shirts and CDs. Do not do the drawing yourself. Invite a fan on stage to do the actual drawing. Again, people go to venues to have a good time and interact with other people. Give your fans a chance at their 15 minutes of fame by getting them on stage.

The biggest mistake made by most performing artists is made on breaks in between sets. When you step off stage do not, for any reason, head to the table where your girlfriend/boyfriend, close buddies, or other band/group members are sitting. You have nothing to gain here. In fact, you have everything to loose. By going to sit with a group of people, that no one else in the venue knows, you are separating yourself from your fans. No one, including you, likes to walk up to a group of people they do not know and try to talk to someone.

Your job is to walk off stage and talk to your fans. Sure, if you need to use the restroom take the time! But you need to make sure you are talking to each person that attends your performance, personally, before they leave the venue. Shake hands, ask names – and try to remember them, get to know them and genuinely make friends with your fans. You need to start thinking of your fans as friends, not fans. The only way you make friends…. even outside of the musical world…. is to get to know the person you are trying to make friends with. Do it now!

Ask your friends if they signed up for your news letter with one of your team members. Ask if they visited the merchandise table and what their favorite shirt or hat is (if you have more than one variety!), find out why they came to the show, what their favorite song is so far, etc. Basically, you need to interact and talk to them!

When you get back on stage from your break it’s time to prove to your new friends that you remember their names. Thank the crowd for being at the venue and then address your new friends by name. Tell your core fans at the show that you met some really interesting people and that you need them to take the time to get to know them. Don’t put fans on the spot by making them raise their hands, that sucks…. but do say that you met “joe blow” and that you need the core fans to reach out to them and show them why it’s a good thing to be a core fan of your music.

About three quarters of the way through your show it’s time for your outside team to get into action promoting the next show. Have your team place flyers on all the cars in the parking lot announcing the next show. Then, from stage, announce your next show and tell the audience that your team placed flyers on their cars to help remind them. This is important. How many times have you walked out of a venue at the end or the night, found a flyer on your windshield, and threw it on the ground?

By telling your audience that you placed a flyer on their car you are upping the chances of them actually looking at it and taking it home to stick on the refrigerator as a future reminder. Sounds too simple to be true, but it does work very effectively.

In a nut shell, it is your job and your teams job to ensure every single person at the performance has one of the best times of their lives. It doesn’t matter what it takes. The number one job of the entire show is to make sure your fans and potential fans have a great time. The only way this is going to happen is if you actually take the time to notice them, interact with them, and get to know them.

Inside Tip: Less than 5% of all indie artists take the time to follow any of the preceding advice. Really! If you do this, you will instantly see fans turn into friends, you will instantly see a major increase in attendance at every show you perform…. by a lot of the people that attended this show, and you will instantly see new friends being brought by old friends to each new performance. But the insider tip…. the thing that matters the very most…. the big secret…sssHHHHHH don’t tell anyone so you can keep it to yourself……… YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY TAKE THESE STEPS AT EACH SHOW FOR THIS TO WORK!!!!!

Peace,
Jai
www.IamMusicNetwork.com
www.JaiHutcherson.com
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”