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Written by Jaron Lewis
What’s the point of even setting up if no one even comes to the shows? Banking on the venue to bring the people and just giving a shout out through social media often isn’t good enough to pack the house. Still, there are many ways on how to boost ticket sales and draw a larger crowd into any event. Here are some helpful tips to flood the venue.
One of the best marketing strategies is an effective use of social media. It simply isn’t good enough to just post tour dates and locations on a Facebook page. To really pull a crowd, there must be an aggressive use of social media. Invite all the band followers to events to let them know when and where the band is.
Don’t just play in the same venue all the time. To the normal crowd, the band will just become “that band that plays every Wednesday” and there will be no incentive to show up. They can just go next week. Move around to ensure that the band name doesn’t become stale at the venues you play at.
Find online concert websites and make sure that your shows are listed on their website. Take this a step even further by offering reduced rate tickets when purchased online as compared to at the door if possible. This way it is easy for people to see what’s playing in their local area and you’re band is not skipped over because of lack of publicity.
One of the more creative ways to increase ticket sales is to create a show poster and throw it up everywhere. (If you don't use the Adobe Suite, an online alternative is Design Wizard. It is a fully stocked graphics editor with tons of templates and easy to use tools.)
Grab a couple of buddies, give them a six-pack, staple gun, and a stack of your new posters and have them run around town. Throw the poster up on social media and encourage band followers to share it on their pages.
Do not be afraid to give out band merchandise and run promos and contest at your shows. People love to get things for free so this is a creative way to increase tickets sales on the hopes that some listeners might be there just to try to win a free shirt. Besides, who doesn’t love a good old fashion raffle?
Your band has a loyal hundred people following. Another local band also has a hundred people following. A smaller third band draws about 25-50 people. Why not combine all three? Now, the normal audience you’ve drawn has more than doubled and you are possibly filling a 250 person venue assuming minimal crossover.
That’s not half bad. Be careful though, use this creative tactic irregularly as you do not want people becoming used to the idea of your new trio always performing together. But, if you quickly need to up the capacity, this isn’t a bad idea if the venue permits it.
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