How to get new people to come to shows

As I was on my way home from a gig today, my band mates and I were talking about getting new people to come to our shows. We all argued about which methods are best and which methods are obsolete. We had a really long discussion and decided that a lot of methods being used by most underground bands are being over used and usually wont get new people come to shows. Of course these techniques can yield some results, but generally they don't do what they could. Here's a list of things you can do to increase the amount of people at your shows:

Do not rely on Facebook events
Facebook events are still a good way of letting your fan base know you are having a show, they just aren't a good way of getting a new fan to come. I think the best way to get someone on Facebook to come is to send a message to them and talk about the show. Send them some tunes and use the next tip...

Offer another incentive
Whether your in the streets handing out fliers or online sending out messages, offering something that they cant get anywhere else will get more people to come. You could tell people that they can have a free shirt if they show up and prove its them. All you have to do then is keep a list of names and when they show up they get a free shirt which kills two birds with one stone; they came to the show, and they will where your t-shirt which is totally cool.

Give them more than just a flier
When I go out and hand out fliers to people I like to hand out demo cd's with them. this works especially well with handbills. With the demos you've got to be selective though because you probably cant hand out 1000 demo cd's with handbills. I choose the people to give demos to by the amount of interest they show when I talk to them. if someone is walking by and says thanks when I hand them a flier, I usually don't give them a demo (Although sometimes I will because it catches there attention and gives them something more than a flier to remember us by.), but if they ask about the show Ill usually give them a demo. Make sure to include some of your contact info on the demo cd.

Start a zine
This will take a lot of work and you'll need to find a way to get it into other people hands but once people start reading it you should see new people coming to your shows. Remember to include all of your shows in the zine and have any contact info you want your audience to see really close to the front of the zine.

Tip: a really good way to get new people to come to your shows is to put out a issue with something in big letters like "Got nothing to do? come out to a show!" or something on the front and put them at various places throughout the local colleges. this is a perfect audience because they are often trying to find something cheap to do.

There are many other ways to promote your band in a successful manner these are just a few that we came up with. It all comes down to how much time and money your willing to put on the line. If we just gave away a bunch of merch with every flier I'm sure it would be easy to pack a house but we don't have $20 for every person we hand a flier to. I think there are still ways to promote that haven't been thought up yet also. The key is to keep getting the word out, keep trying new methods until you find the ones that work in your area, with your band.





Check out my band at skatterbomb.com