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Gig coming up?
Need Gig Promotion and Event Promotion ideas to get
people coming to your next gig? Talk to online music
promotion expert matt @ Kurb about a powerful online
solution.
kurbpromo@gmail.com // +64 27
6848250
100 posters? Uh Try . . . 100,000
ad impressions targeted at your audiences age demographic
in your area. US$150 buys you a comprehensive online
campaign on Google, Myspace and Facebook -
we can even design poster/eflyer cheap - $US50
I always offered online promotion strategies on as
part of my postering options - of course most poster
campaigns are for gigs that are happening in a few
weeks - most online marketing and management campaigns
revolve around propelling an act towards increasing
online revenue, so they can put more into developing
content, more into marketing and promoting that content,
more into digital management systems that can create
income.
But finally had a band who realises that when you’ve
got a gig you can pay me to stick posters and stuff
all over the street . . .
OR
you can stick your ad all over the internet using
google, facebook and myspace.
We do some pretty good deals on posters.
What I usually suggest is a big whack of cheap black
and whites - 200+ plus maybe 50 or so colours - they’re
just to go up around the shops and cafes.
This band has a bit more of a profile so we’re doing
all colour, 100 for $175.
But this time, the promoter has decided to go with
my suggestion of spending $150 on an online campaign
tailored specifically to promote the gig.
In the past, I used this as an opportunity to demonstrate
the myspace software, and that will be part of the
package, just sweep through a few keywords (location,
similar sounding local band etc.) and pick up some
extra friends, before doing a comment out.
You might not know the proper etiquette for spamming
myspace, so again, leave it to a pro, it’s worth $50.
Spamming myspace used to be a powerful tool, now
we also employ other strategies, building content
on blogs and other networks and using targeted online
advertising.
But 3 weeks is not enough time to build blog authority
which leaves online advertising or pay per click.
You know my feelings on pay per click. If you don’t
- pay per click is for musicians who have successfuly
developed a high value proposition.
First we build a platform (ie a blog or website),
then we engage fans with that platform, then monetize
that platform, and only once we can see that your
brand can sprint the 100, that’s when we give it the
steroids of an online advertising budget. Budget,
as in, a drug habit costs money to keep going.
A gig of course, IS a monetized platform, offline.
Promoting the gig is an attempt to leverage the (band
x venues) brand. That is why unfortunately posters
suck for the bands who use them the most, new bands.
So you MUST at least have on the poster: A wicked
night of Funky Drum and Bass DJ’s or whatever genre
you’re doing. It must have big words on it, no one
is stopping in the street to read your poster except
maybe young delinquents. I need details in the 5 seconds
it takes for me to walk past, so if you want to put
a beautiful woman on your poster, i’m not going to
argue that it is a terrible idea.
But If your band is not on traditional media - tv/radio/print
- then posters wont work because you have no brand.
Your crappy poster is just like your crappy website,
it doesn’t engage. It tells people stuff but it doesn’t
connect. Unless you’re engaging then you’re not motivating.
ADVERTISNG A MUSIC GIG ONLINE
Okay now I just love adwords pay per click. As I
said, once you’ve learnt to make money, then you use
pay per click to make more. The whole trick with pay
per click is you get people to click on your ads,
higher click through rate, and google rewards you
with nicely priced clicks. Again, worth paying a pro.
As in someone geekesque like me, not a real PPC expert,
you dont have that much money.
But the thing with PPC for a gig is that you dont
want people to click the ad! you just want them to
see it!
And don’t you know the sweet as thing about pay per
click?
They don’t click . . . you don’t pay.
So when you’re putting together your ad copy, all
you want to do is to achieve what you would with your
poster. Letting people who know your brand and more
importantly if you’ve got a low profile, the venues
brand, know you have a show in their town on that
date.
OR if you’ve got quite a genre based bent, go for
an add that blares Free Genre Frenzy so you get niche
interest.
So this is what I do, I put the bid sky high at like
a $1 a click, so greedy old google will show thousands
and thousands of ads to all the 18-24 year old females
in your area, but because I can pretty much say there’s
not enough competition that anybody would want to
pay a $1 for clicks in the gigs or music genre niches,
so the most you’ll end up paying is like I’d say .
. . 30c.
For like . . . 10,000 impressions targeted at your
local demographic.
So where are your ads showing? They’re showing in
Gmail. And they’re showing on myspace! And ya know
what? You’re paying less per click through google
then you’d pay myspace for the same spots! hohoho.
Again, make sure you list names of other similar,
bigger bands than you in your area, because all the
kids on mysapce will have that keyword on their page,
and google will do it’s thing and the ad will show
to them.
Facebook, similar, but you get a lil pic and more
text to your ad. Except the thing about facebook is
the targeting is on another level. You can target
people by their occupations . . . oh, not to mention
what bands they like, but the keywords will only register
for international branded acts.
Another point about postering town is that a lot
of unless they work or go to school in town, people
only come into town to see a gig. It’d be much harder
to argue that - depending on your demographic - that
less people will see it on myspace, facebook, google
and gmail.
Oh but Matt, people ignore those ads! Sure they do!
They also ignore your posters, but there’s not 100,000
of those hitting your target. And of course they’re
allowed to be there - there’s no vague council bylaw.
There’s no street cleaners on Monday. There’s no haters
pulling them down in a convoluted local band rivalry.
But those punks will sit there clicking my ad, costing
me 30c! They can try, google will only charge you
once.
So what are you doing? Get an online campaign going
for your next gig.
It’ll be cheaper than posters, and it might just
be more effective. Then you can make a video of all
your fans at the gig saying how wicked it was - so
you can keep building that brand as great entertainers
for next time . . .
Gig coming up? Talk to online music promotion expert
matt @ Kurb about a powerful online solution.
kurbpromo@gmail.com
We do graphic design, and of course poster printing
and distro in New Zealand.
US$100 buys you a comprehensive online campaign on
Google, Myspace and Facebook.
100 posters? Uh Try . . . 100,000 ad impressions targeted
at your audiences age demographic in your area.
PAY WITH PAYPAL to: kurbpromo@gmail.com
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