Band Flyers - Worth the Effort?

How to Promote Your Music?

Band Flyers: Yes or NO?

In the internet age, when any band or musician considers the question "How to promote your music" do they really need to even think about band flyers as part of this?

Traditionally, pre Facebook and website notification days, band flyers formed a key part of any musicians promotional strategy. 

Particularly when it came to publicising any band booking. 

Now though, it seems whether of not to bother using band flyers divides opinion amongst semi-pro musicians across the world.

Band Flyers - The Good

 " I lost count of how many events I've gone to just from passing a flyer or ad letting me know what, where, and when." - US Gig-Goer

The statement above is typical of how positively the right target audience can  respond to band flyers as adverts. Band flyers can be a whole lot cheaper to produce than full size gig posters for example. On size alone, you should be able to get 4 band flyers (A4 size) for every band booking poster with the typical A3 dimensions.

Once you get these band flyers out there, theoretically that's 4 times the exposure for your band.

Band flyers are a very versatile method of publicity in terms of where you can use them. Shoppers at the mall, students at Unis/college campuses lunch-room and your local record store to name just 3.

Maybe even more importantly about how to promote your music with band flyers is this.

You give your potential fans the chance to meet the band in person when you give the band flyers out. Clearly that's never the case with posting a Facebook event or a band booking update on your own website.

Band Flyers - the NOT so Good

Critics of band flyers as an important tool in understanding how to promote your music argue mainly the following.

"All that band flyers do is alert existing fans to an upcoming gig or event".

So ,are they  no use for attracting new fans?

Certainly you'll keep your existing fans abreast of what you're up to and make sure they know about your upcoming band bookings with your flyers. But, are they really so useless at attracting people who've never heard of you? Doesn't that depend on what you say on your band flyers? Who you target with them and how you go about giving them out?

For example, aren't there people who are more likely to go and watch live bands than other people and who may be very interested to learn of an act they've never heard of who are about to play in their town?

Your job in this case might be to target these kind of people with your band flyers.

Band Flyers take too much time and effort

Critics also point to the time and effort involved in distributing band flyers. Here they do have a point as well. If you're going to make the investment required to design, print and distribute your own band flyers, you need to target the right area & people. You also need make sure you really capitalise on the fact that your fans are meeting the band in person.

Ultimately your band flyers may or may not form a useful part of knowing how to promote your music successfully. Even if you don't succeed in significantly increasing your band booking  crowd numbers with them, one thing is certain. Simply by getting your band flyers into people's hands or in front of their eyes you're unavoidably increasing awareness and exposure for your act.

You just better make sure you're saying the right things in the right way when you give them out.

Band Flyers Tips

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How to Promote Your Music: #1 Gigging Key

"What's the #1 Secret with How to promote Your Music as a Gigging band?"

Normally when you want to learn how to promote your music, time is of the essence. 

This was certainly the case with a  young drummer who emailed me with the above question recently.He was a musician clearly in a rush and looking for a "short-cut" to get him and his band mates out there live as quickly as possible.

How to Promote Your Music - The Steps

Many musicians ask about the key steps of band booking within the context of knowing how to promote your music. Generally I tell anyone who asks about how to get gigs that you  can  condense it down to around 10 steps. This band booking question at the top of this page though was the first time I'd had to consider whether there was one factor more important than the others.

It certainly focused my thinking, but ultimately band booking as a weekend warrior or for a new band, revolves around a series of inter-dependent steps or actions. To maximize your live work, to "Get more gigs than you can play" (as I say about the Gig-Getter system), you need to work on all the steps.

There is though, as I told the enquirer, one key to making all this work.

 

How to promote Your Music & the #1 Band Booking Key

The #1 key is commitment.

Knowing how to promote your music successfully as far as gigging is concerned means you have to commit to your band booking goals.
To be able to do this you need to ask yourselves and agree the answers to questions like: 

How many times do you want to be gigging every month? What price you want to go out for? What sort of band booking venues do you want play at? 

Once you know the answers you then most crucially need to commit to pitching your band to new venues every week.

This shouldn't mean you take up a lot of time band booking. But when you've done all the preparation I talk about in terms of understanding your band USP's, rehearsing etc you should be approaching new venues every week. 

Devote at least an hour a week without fail.

This is real commitment.

It's very different from being the kind of band which occasionally wanders into a bar with a demo CD and can't understand why they never have enough gigs.

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