Pack the House at Your Next Gig With Email Blasts

Photo by tatu43

Putting on a successful live performance takes a lot of hard work and preparation. Booking your gig and rehearsing your set are important, but they’re only half the battle. Perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle is promotion. How do you get people to attend your show?

In a previous article, I talked about how to grow your band’s email list. In this article, I’ll cover how to capitalize on those efforts by crafting and sending emails effectively.

It’s important to consider both the content and the timing of your email blasts. It has been my experience that a two-email approach for an upcoming gig works best. The first is an announcement email, meant to plant the seed and mark the approaching date on the calendar. The second email is a last-minute reminder, meant to catch the folks who might make a game-time decision to attending your show. Here’s how these two emails break down:

Email #1: Plant the Seed

The first email is to be used to officially announce the show. This should be sent no sooner than two to three weeks before the date of your show. The purpose of this email is to plant the seed in the minds of your recipients. It marks a mental spot in their upcoming calendar of “things to do”. Include all of the necessary information: The venue, your set time, street address, cover charge. A nice touch is to add a link to a Google map of the location.

Obviously, you’ll want to add a bit more to it. Entice your fans to make the effort to come out. Use your own personal style to keep the message positive, uplifting and exciting. Feel free to be casual and conversational, even a bit personal. You want to create that sense of intimacy with your following. You don’t want to come off sounding like a corporate mass-email blast promoting a product.  Of course, you are promoting something.  Your music.

Include your website or myspace link at the end of the email. Not all of your subscribers are familiar with your music. They might not even remember signing up for your newsletter. Give your recipients a quick and easy way to go check out your tunes online before making the decision to come see you live. You might also include a link to the facebook event you created for this gig (more on using social media to promote your gig in an upcoming article).

Email #2: Lock it Down

The second email is a quick reminder about your show. Re-state the essential show info (venue, address, and time) along with a very brief message. Don’t use the same text from your first email. This will come off as borderline spam. Keep it casual, fun, and again, enticing.

Send your second email sometime during the week of the show. If it’s a weekend gig, send it early in the day on Wednesday. Catch your audience right when they’re beginning to plan their weekend. Maybe they have a date and they’re looking for something fun to do- like catch a live band! Or they have friends coming in from out of town looking for a raging night out in your city. This email just filled their need for that awesome “thing to do” this weekend.

Don’t Over Do It

Remember, people are very fickle about their email preferences. You don’t want to risk losing subscribers by sending too many emails. As a rule of thumb, You should never send more than one email in any two week period. Pack enough interest and purpose into each message so that each one is a welcomed delivery in your fans inbox.

If you have a packed schedule of upcoming gigs, you might want to consider promoting several gigs in one email, or pack an entire leg of a tour into one or two emails.

Keep it interesting and mix it up. Don’t re-use email content. Always take the time to add a unique twist to your message and tone so that each email has a fresh feel to it.

Over to You

How do you use email for your promotional efforts?

Related posts:

1. Tips for Growing Your Band’s Email List
2. Rock Solid Email List Management from Champion Sound (+ Coupon!)
3. Links Roundup: Find an Open Mic

Enjoyed reading this post?
Get articles sent to you via EMAIL or RSS (what’s RSS?)

Thanks for being part of the conversation at Serve The Song. We have a simple comment policy (with thanks to Tim Ferriss) - critical is fine, but if you’re rude we'll delete your stuff. ’Nuff said.