Hosts are the promoters of all Side Door shows, but we will help you get started. There are a variety of ways to promote a show, and depending on where you live, if your show is public or private, who your audience is, and how many tickets you need to sell to achieve a sold out show, there are several different approaches to promotion. We trust that you will adapt and/or implement what makes the most sense for you and the show. Here are some tips!
Promoting a show and getting folks through the door is definitely a challenging aspect of hosting, but don’t worry - even professionals in the industry have trouble, too! The most important thing is to keep trying, because the more shows you host the more your reputation will grow and your audience will learn to trust the quality of your events. The more you promote the more you will figure out what works best for you and your audience. The sooner you start promotion, the better! People will have time to clear their calendar, invite their friends and make plans to attend. We thank you in advance for everything you are doing to attract folks to your show!
Timeline
We recommend announcing 3 months before the show at the very latest. Announcing includes all crucial details about the show and a ticket link.
Word of Mouth
Directly inviting family and friends.
Local Outreach
Create a poster (doesn’t have to be fancy!) and post notices on community boards and/or local poster boards. Don’t forget to mention Side Door and/or include our logo - professional association always helps add some spiffyness and credibility!
Compile a mailing list. You can create a sign-up form for the door at your next show, then send a message to those folks when you are ready to announce your next show.
Find the local events listing calendar and send details.
Flyers in your neighbors’ mailboxes.
Contact the local community radio station.
An artist will promote through their own channels as well to try to attract their fans in the region, so ultimately you want your promotion to cover the other side of the coin - people in the region who may not yet be fans of the artist but are interested in performances in the area.
Social Media
Facebook Event - We will create a Facebook event on the Side Door page that includes show details, the ticket link and the artist photo, and will send you that event link upon announce. In order to make you a co-host of the event we will need to add your personal profile page. If your Venue has a Facebook page, we can include that as well, along with the Artist's page, as co-hosts. Together we can all spread the word!
Share the event at least 3 times leading up to the show. You can post in the event page links to the artists’ music and/or videos, photos from your previous shows, notes about snacks, updates on ticket sales, etc.
Be sure to use hashtags and/or tag people in your posts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to increase post visibility.
Paid promotion also has many forms. The one that will matter the most is geo-targeted social media ads which you can purchase through Facebook’s Ad Manager platform. If you’re not sure how to create a Facebook ad, please explore Facebook’s social media advertising help centre.
Other forms of paid promotion are entirely up to you - some hosts choose to print out posters and flyers or pay for sponsored ads online (like through Kijiji/Craigslist or Reddit).
Send invites through social media - direct invites work better than mass mail! Be sure to target people in your region and avoid inviting people far away (unless you know that they will be in the area at the time of the show).
Be a member of your community
As you probably already know, a great way to ensure that people come to your shows would be to go to other people’s shows! It makes all the difference in the success of your Venue to participate in the overall hustle and bustle of your community, whether that means going to the farmer’s market on weekends or buying tickets to a local music festival or a neighbourhood pancake breakfast. As a member of the local arts community, it helps to be seen getting involved in other people’s passions, and people tend to want to give back to the people who are giving.
If you have any tips or stories about how promotion has worked for you, please get in touch!