6 Easy Ways to Promote your Show & Pack the House
Photo credit: Meg McLaughlin
Congrats, you created a show call and connected with a rad artist, and you’re going to host a show! Whether this performance is happening in an art space, cafe, or backyard, it can feel intimidating to sell tickets.
The most important aspect of promotion is persistence - the more shows you host, the more you will learn, grow, and build trust with your audience.
Here are six tips to help pack the house.
1 - Announce 3 Months in Advance
The sooner you start marketing and promoting your show, the better! Many artists book shows three months or more in advance, so they can plan tours and sell tickets. A sufficient lead time allows people to plan to attend and for you to adequately promote your show.
When announcing, make sure to include all the essential details about the concert (artist information, time, location, etc.) and a link to buy tickets (Side Door show page). Only those with a purchased ticket will receive the address if the venue is a private residence.
2 - Tell Your Friends
Nothing beats word of mouth for promoting a live show. Start by inviting family, friends, co-workers, the fellow soccer mom/dad you always talk to at games, and anyone who’s come to a show you’ve hosted (or played) before.
A great way to monitor ticket sales is using the guest list manager - it lets you track sales in real-time. This is a great way to observe who has purchased tickets and determine if you need to send a few reminder texts.
Next, you’ll want to get out into the music scene and get to know artists and their fans. Building a network through local outreach will be your most robust promotional tool! Excitement is contagious; others will feel your excitement for hosting the artist and will want to be a part of the intimate experience.
3 - Involve the Band
Align with the Artist on co-promoting the show! If it’s a public performance, share a high-quality photo and a description of your space for the artist to use in their promotion.
Host Amy Constantine Kline of The Parking Pad outside of Pittsburgh generally attracts about 100 people to their house shows. The best way they’ve found to spread the word and build community she says is to involve the band.
“We definitely are not “pay to play” and book completely unknown bands, but if the band invites their friends and family to attend, we grow the audience for their shows as well as our upcoming shows,” Amy shared via email.
Check out this promotional post from Canadian icons, Said The Whale, advertising some of their upcoming Side Door shows.
Band, Said The Whale show promo on Instagram.
Depending on the platform, you can also ask the artist to add your page as a collaborator to the promotional post.
4 - Local Outreach
If it’s a public show, local outreach means posters, mailing lists, flyers, local radio, local event listings, and good old-fashioned legwork - getting out to other shows in your area!
It’s essential to keep in mind that your show’s artist(s) will be hard at work promoting to their core fan base in your area - your goal is to reach out to people in your area who may not yet be fans of the artist, but may be interested in some live music.
Mailing Lists
Mailing lists allow you to stay in touch with people who previously attended your shows. Our guest list manager allows you to export all the emails from ticket buyers (those who have opted in). You can also pass a notebook around before or after the show to collect names and email addresses. Or try creating a sign-up form for the door using a QR code.
You can enter these emails into a free service like MailChimp, which will allow you to design and send out mass emails when you are ready to announce your next show! It never hurts to include a media link of the artist to entice the audience.
Local Listings
Whether it’s an online forum, or an event listing in your local paper, it’s worth considering notifying them about your show. Most listings take a few minutes to submit the information online.
You can even contact local community or college/university radio stations and see if they’ll boost your event on the air.
5 - Social Media Promotion
Creating posts
Create promotional content for your social media pages. You don’t have to be a professional creative to pull together a fun, eye-catching graphic. You can use a free design tool, like Canva, to design and share promotional assets. To help get you started, we’ve created editable templates you can use! Click here to use our templates.
Here are some key tips to follow when creating a photo post:
Use a high-quality photo, sized accordingly to the platform
At a minimum, include the artist's name, show date, and show location on the graphic
Use colors that compliment each other and have high contrast. For example, white text on a dark background
An easy to read and eye-catching show promo image for social media.
When it comes to writing the post’s caption, it’s most important to have a call to action (CTA). If you’re selling tickets to a show, a great CTA could be:
“Get your tickets today before they sell out: _insert link_.”
In addition to a CTA, add a section about why you’re excited to host the artist.
If you’re creating video content, especially for Instagram Reels or TikTok, make sure to use one of the artist’s tracks as the background music.
Before posting, tag the artist, Side Door (@sidedooraccess), and anyone else involved in the show. We also recommend using the hashtag #bookedwithsidedoor, and we’ll be happy to share your post with our audience.
Creating Events
Facebook events are a free, easy, and effective way to promote your show. Create a Facebook event that includes:
Show details
A link to where you can buy tickets (Side Door show page)
A photo of the artist and media links to their work
You can use this Facebook event template when building your event to help get you started.
Social Calendar
Share at least 6 social posts promoting your show. If you follow our timeline of promoting 3 months in advance, that is 1 post every two weeks. If you’re short on ideas, here are 6 examples:
Image of the artist, with a caption announcing the show
Image of your space, highlighting where the show will take place
Video of a previous performance by the artist
Video of you talking about how excited you’re for the show
Image of your favorite album/EP by the artist
Share another image of the artist, with a caption counting down to the show
Pro tip - recycle the content to save time and improve your reach on a post. For example, if you make a post to your feed one week, share it in your story the following week.
If you have extra room in the budget, you can boost a post or run a paid advertisement. Remember, there are more platforms than Instagram and Facebook (Kiiji, Reddit, Spotify, Twitch, Bandsintown, etc).
6 - Community
Finally, 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 space to participate in the overall hustle and bustle of your community - arts or otherwise.
This can mean going to the farmer’s market on weekends or buying tickets to a local music festival.
As a member of the local arts community, it helps to be seen getting involved in other people’s passions!
The more you do it, the more your reputation will grow, “The Parking Pad has become a small but known entity in our small borough outside of Pittsburgh because we treat our bands well, allow them artistic freedom, and our guests love the relaxed experience, ” says Amy.
You’re ready to rock!
Those are the basics! Enough to get you started in promoting your own house concerts or first gig in an alternative venue.
Did we miss something? Definitely! There are countless great ways to promote a show, and what works for one host may not work for another. Have any tips? Let us know on social media!
Have a great space? Host a show!
Do you have a great space to share? Want to get closer with your local arts community, meet new people, and support artists at the same time? Host a show!
Side Door gives you everything you need - connecting with great artists and online ticketing, booking, and reporting tools. Sign up for free and create memories like these:
"Great vibe, unique sound, supportive and engaging audience, and beautiful evening weather made for a phenomenal night! Thanks to the hosts, Amy and Stephan, for opening their house and providing such a warm atmosphere for this event. We will be back for more!"
- Dave H. attended Big Fat Mallard: Live from the Parking Pad in Pittsburgh, PA.
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