Promotional Tricks
We've picked up some promotional ideas from different bands, as well as ideas that we came up with that worked. We share these tips here. Enjoy! And definitely tell us if you have one of your own. We'll add it here.
Girls! Girls! Girls!
At one album release party, some of our very helpful female friends went right outside the bar, which was in a very busy part of downtown Chicago (WickerPark) and handed out fliers for the show. They diverted people in from the street!
That was one of the best-attended shows we ever had.
Pre-Show CD Giveaways
If you have a sample CD to give away, set aside some before each show. Once you know where you're going to play, go to record stores near the venue and give them a stack of your promo discs to give away.
Make sure to do the following. You can skip to # 3 if you don't have a giveaway disc.
- Put a flier next to the stack of CDs that says that has the details for the show. You can say something like "Listen to the band playing at the Brewhouse this Saturday!"
- Make sure to put in a mini-flier for the show in the disc, so when they open it, they know where and when to go to see the band.
- Put your full discs in the store on consignment, in case they like what they hear.
- Put a flier up for the show in the store.
- Give a copy of the disc to the store employees. Give one to each employee if you can. Tell them that you'd also appreciate it if they'd play it on their sound system at the store. If they like it, maybe they'll promote the show! Employees at a music store are not really doing it for the huge piles of money that they're making at the store. They love music!
Sometimes, we've had the store sell our promo disc for $1 and told them to keep the dollar. Almost no record stores will turn away free money. People sometimes only trust things that they have to pay for, and don't mind paying an extra dollar. You sometimes have more luck getting people to take the discs if you charge something for it. And that way, the store will sometimes promote it! Also, if they're profiting off of it, they won't mind putting it right next to the register, as an impulse buy. We had a promo disc (the happy result of a color mistake by the guys pressing the album who gave us 1100 discs for the cost of shipping!), and gave away over 300 copies using this technique in stores all over Chicago.
Interviewing Other Bands
One band made up of good friends of ours interviewed other bands, and put up the interviews on their website. This was an interesting way for the fans of each band to get to know each other, because the interviews were promoted on each website. Independent bands need to stick together, and this was an easy way to do it.
As always, if you have other ideas, please share it with us!