10 Things You Can Do To Promote an Out-of-Town Show

published on July 21, 2021by Anitra Jay 0 Comments

A show at a venue out of town can be difficult to promote. You may not have a large following in the area. Plus, if you’re unfamiliar with the area, finding ways to build awareness about your show can be challenging. Sometimes, there are other bands on the bill that can help cover the promotion efforts, but other times there aren’t. Also, venues are not in a position to promote each of their shows in the same way that you can. In many cases, it’s all up to you to promote your show and get people to show up.

If you have an out-of-town show coming up, here are 10 things you can do to promote it and get people to come out to see you perform.

Your Friends/Acquaintances/Family

The first thing you should do is reach out to everyone you know in the area and let them know you will be performing there. Send them a text message or email or even a phone call. Ask them if they’d like you to send them some flyers to pass around to their friends. You never know, you may be able to pick up some street team support this way! Also, ask them if they know of any promotion channels you haven’t thought of.

Your Subscribers

Reach out to your subscribers and let them know you’re doing a show. If it’s a tour, send them all of your tour dates, times, venues, etc. Ask them if they know anyone in the area and ask them to invite their friends. Create a special invitation for each show and include a link to the invitation in your email. An even easier route would be to send them a link to your Facebook event page.

Local Outlets

Event Calendars.

Each city typically has at least one online event calendar. Most cities have several. Search for all the online event calendars in that city and add your event to them. Chambers of Commerce chapters, arts councils, and weekly newspapers often have online event calendars. You could also reach out to bloggers who cover local events. You may be able to land a feature this way!

See if you can get a studio feature.

Morning news shows and radio stations often invite performers to come on to their shows for features and interviews if they are performing in the area. Reach out to them and pitch the segment idea and see what happens. People will be watching and listening and it could be a great way to promote your show.

Write a press release.

Likewise, you could do something similar with traditional media outlets such as newspapers and weekly flyers. Write a press release and send it to local media outlets. You can use a free press release distribution service like PRLog to send your press release to related outlets. There are tons of other free press release distribution services as well! Check out The SMB Guide’s handy list here. Don’t forget to post it on your blog as well. If you utilize keywords and phrases in the blog post, it could potentially end up on search engine results for people searching for things to do.

The Venue

Send your materials to the venue.

The venue where you will be performing can be a prime source of promotions for you. Be sure to send them physical posters, large and small, to post throughout the venue. If you have free sample CDs, send the venue 20 of these. Stick a flyer for the show on the CDs and another sticker saying “FREE CD.” People will pick them up simply because they are free.

The other thing you should send to the venue is an electronic promo kit. This would include your bio, an electronic version of the flyer, and a link to your video flyer (more on video flyers below). The venue could use this with any electronic promotions they are doing for example on their Facebook page, email list, or their website.

Ask the venue for pointers.

Lastly, ask the venue for promo tips. Sometimes venues have connections with local reporters, radio stations, DJs, and other local channels that might be willing to feature you or give you a shoutout. They also may have some other ideas that can help you promote your show. It’s in the venue’s best interest to give you any information they have that could help you promote your show since they are booking you to make money. Asking the venue couldn’t hurt.

Social Media

Create a video flyer.

YouTube is quickly becoming one of my favorite social media platforms. I started creating video flyers for my shows several years ago and it’s always paid off. A video flyer is a recording of you promoting your upcoming show. It can be as simple as sharing a picture or a clip of you performing and including details about your show at the end. Or you could forgo performance footage altogether and just record yourself talking about the show, why you’re excited about it, and why people should come. These work well because if any of your subscribers happen to live in the area, they’ll find out about your show. You could also use the video as a way to promote the show on other forms of social media. Venues love it when you create a video flyer. It gives them something to post on social media and you’ll get extra cool points from the venue. Not many artists go the extra mile to do something like this.

Create a Facebook event page.

Create a Facebook event page and tag the venue! Plus, check out my article How to Promote a Show on Facebook.

Network

Special Interest Groups.

Do you have any niche audiences? Do you have any special topics you write about? See if you can find any special interest groups in the area related to those topics. For example, if you write about being a vegan in some of your songs, why not invite local vegan groups?

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Other bands.

Reach out to similar acts or bands in the area and let them know you’ll be performing in the area. Let them know you’d love to meet them. They may come out. You could also ask them if they have any other ideas on how to promote your show. Who knows, they may give you a shoutout in their newsletter or on their social media page.

An out-of-town show gives you an opportunity to network and build your fanbase. Give yourself the absolute best shot of having a good show by doing your best to promote it. Even though you may not be familiar with promotion channels in the area, you can still make a big splash by using these 10 promotion tactics to promote your out-of-town show. Did we miss anything? Have you used any other promotion tactics we should add to this list? We’d love to hear your take. Let us know in the comments section below.

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Anitra Jay

Anitra Jay is an acoustic soul singer-songwriter based in Eureka Springs, AR. She tours regularly up and down the US from Vermont to Texas and everywhere in between. Her music is a sultry down to earth blend of soul, pop, and gospel. After being laid off from her job in 2007, Anitra decided to pursue a career in music. She took her educational experiences in Public Relations and her professional background in marketing and applied it full force to her music. She's found significant success in establishing a lasting fanbase using her special brand of marketing techniques which she shares freely with other artists. In addition to being a full-time performer, Anitra runs TheCraftyMusician.com, a blog for indie artists sharing actionable tips and advice on how to promote, develop, establish a fanbase, and more. Her passion is to inspire other musicians and build a community of like-minded independent artists to encourage and promote successful careers in the arts. She appeared on HGTV's Tiny House Hunters in May of 2017 to share her music story and her Tiny House Journey with the world. Join Anitra on YouTube where she shares weekly DIY tips and secrets to move your music career forward.