Regardless of whether you’re a beginner that’s been tapped to play a few gigs out of town or a well-known act taking the national stage, there’s always the struggle of performing your music in a new city.
Performing in a city that you’ve never had a show before comes with an understandable amount of overthinking, self-doubt, and an overall fear of what’s ahead of you. Out of all the different aspects that you have to worry about when playing a show in a new city, the promotion will be at the top of your priority list. While it may be true that it’s very much possible to gain momentum and a set of new fans to your following by performing in a new city, ensuring that people actually know you’re performing can be more difficult than expected.
Two sure-fire promotional strategies
Fortunately, promoting in a show in an unfamiliar city doesn’t always have to be as hard as people say it is— especially when you know the right tips and tricks for effective promotion. To ensure that your set is a big hit in a place that you’ve been to before, here are two promotion tips that most of the industry’s biggest players abide by:
1. Pitch your show to local press and radio outlets
If you play your cards right, being the newcomer in an unfamiliar town can work to your advantage with the help of the area’s local press and radio outlets. Pitching your show through a simple meeting or conference call can go a long way in making sure that everyone in town has a reason to go to your show.
Presenting your upcoming show as a “debut performance in the city” to a local press or radio outlet will undoubtedly get the attention of the locals. Bringing local press and radio outlets into the mix will speak for itself in terms of answering the question, “why should we promote and cover your show?” Blogs, online news outlets, and radio outlets look for certain stories to generate interest in the area that you’ll be performing in, which makes it much easier for your debut show to come off as a hot topic.
2. Run a targeted ad campaign for your upcoming show over social media and local blogs
Should you find yourself with a comfortable budget that can be used on various promotional expenses for your upcoming show, then its best to go all-out on social media through targeted campaigns.
With the help of a targeted social media ad, you can get the word of your show spreading like wildfire, especially in locations that thrive on discovering talented acts. Selecting the right location, age, and music preference when setting up your social media targeting can be particularly impactful, even more so when you have a flexible budget.
With the right promotion strategies in place, you can easily overcome the pre-performance jitters of performing in an entirely-new territory to a crowd that you’ve never performed in front of before.
If you’re looking for a music promotion company to help you promote your show, get in touch with us to see how we can help.
