Monday, October 23rd, 2006
Promotion and Marketing Tips For Professional Performers
Statistics show that 8 out of 10 new bands will fail to meet their expectations and break up within a year. Why?
The #1 reason is incompetence.
The #2 reason is ineffective promotion and marketing.
The #3 reason is lack of enough information to make informed decisions.
Where are you in your career? Where do you want to go and how do you plan to get there? Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. And many of us will keep repeating the same mistakes we have made in the past simply because we don't know any better. One of the most important things you can do for a music career is to start a Promotion & Publicity "Book" of activities. Your "Book" will eventually provide the information you need to build the framework for a full-scale marketing plan. For those unfamiliar with the "book" process, here is a basic explanation...
Your Promotion & Publicity "Book" is a journal where you keep all your press clippings and document all your live performances, advertising, promotion and marketing activities... for all aspects of your music career. Keep detailed notes of how you have been promoting your music and your career. Document what worked and what didn't work... what went right, and more importantly, what went wrong.
Your "book" can be a simple notebook to begin with. Make a start by writing down your basic goals for the year. Keep track of every gig. Where did you play? What was the date? How many people showed up? How much merchandise was sold? How much did you get paid? What was done to promote the shows? Be sure to include notes on other particulars as well... i.e. What day of the week was it? How was the weather? What time slot did you perform? Was there any other competition in town? How well have others done at the same venue? This information will be invaluable in the future.
Once you have set your goals for the year, pick a few immediate goals for the month, the week or even that day. Then, make a plan for how you can accomplish them. Don't make the mistake of setting unrealistic goals. You're not going to go from being a club band to an international concert star overnight. Set your sights on getting better club dates, or trying to book more special events and corporate shows. Try and increase revenues by making catchy t-shirts or a CD/DVD of your music (or show) that can be sold at all your performances. Make an effort to contact more booking agents, party planners, club owners, etc. Promote your own special events to showcase your talents to prospective buyers while raising your profile at the same time. A "big tent" (special show) event such as a feature spot at a fair or annual celebration, or a fund-raiser for a high profile cause is another great vehicle for getting some extra attention.
Your "book" must be a continual work in progress and should be updated on a regular basis. Write reports on every gig and promotional event with notations that will help you recall details for future reference down the road. Type these reports in an organized Microsoft Word document file in your computer. When you type your notes (monthly at least) you will jog your mind and think of even more ideas to further your goals. By having your "book" on your computer, you'll be able to recall any pertinent information with the stroke of a keyword search. This will help immensely when you need to know details of a previous gig, or what to charge for a second booking at a venue played six months ago. Be completely honest with yourself when making entries into your "book" of Promotion and Publicity... especially if you are looking for sponsorship or a distributor for your new "original music" CD release. The development of your career will be greatly assisted by information from your "book". These details will allow a future manager or record company to expand on your successes rather than duplicating any of your past failures. Unknown performers will increase their chances of acceptance for better opportunities when they are perceived to be serious about their career. Your "history" could be one of the first requests from a potential record company after hearing a demo of your music. Fairs, festivals, party planners and record companies alike have countless submissions and very few openings for artists outside their current roster. If their decision is a toss-up between you and another act, I will guarantee that your "book" will be a deciding factor. So, start keeping track of your career today!
When you review your "book" in black and white, it is easy to see what worked and what didn't work, and you can adjust your goals accordingly. It is ok to dream big. But, review your dreams and establish realistic goals with an action plan to implement them. It is important to commit yourself to the plan and do the work you committed yourself to do. As you go along, you can make adjustments and re-commit Plans are meant to bring our goals to life. A sensible plan leads the way to a course of action we understand, and thus, we can perform confidently, knowing that we can achieve it. Of course just having a plan isn't enough. Plans and goal setting are useless unless they are constantly committed to and reviewed. It is important to understand the process. And, the process is: Commit... Perform... and then Measure the results. If we fail to follow this simple formula, we will most likely fail to achieve our full potential.
Success is the result of developing and/or following a successful process, whether in our personal or our business lives. How committed we are to that process (constantly planning and being pro-active) and not merely reacting to a daily grind, is our choice. Goal setting gives us the opportunity to be more successful. We can't just understand that we should do it... we have to actually do it!
The average human being doesn't like to set goals in writing because unachieved goals can be unpleasantly revealing. So, don't be average... start writing things down today!
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Posted By Les Vogt @ 12:00 AM
Author's site: http://www.members.shaw.ca/lesvogt
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woodrow's comment posted October 26th @ 6:50 AM:
What if you don't do shows....? Is that a must to get recognized?
I would prefer to sell tunes to professional artists for them to perform, rather than having to do the touring myself. How is that possible?
How can I get my songs performed by i.e. Robbie Williams (my song "I am Jesus" would be perfect for his image).
Share & Enjoy!
Commentors site: http://www.isound.com/woodrow |
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