The one thing bands regularly fall down on, is the amount of ‘run up’ or lead time they leave in order to effectively market their gigs and releases. Booking a gig to play in two weeks time isn’t going to give you enough time to make an impact and get enough people to your show.

You need to make sure you leave enough time for your marketing to be effective.

For a gig as part of a tour I’d try and start promoting at least three months before the event is due.  Four months is even better!  For music releases you need a minimum of 8-12 weeks weeks.  Remember, if you’re running a pre-release sale campaign, the longer you have the more sales you will accumulate and the bigger ‘impact’ it will have upon release.

From my personal experience people need reminding about your products and then reminding again and again.  Your social media posts will only ever reach a certain proportion of your fans, so repitition is the key.  You need to keep your products ‘front and centre’ for a long as possible using multiple posts, different ways of posting (text posts, picture adverts, videos telling people about your music, gigs etc.  One Tweet about a new gig in one weeks time is never going to cut it.

Remember: when it comes to promotion, the longer the run up, the better.

Got any questions about this post or how you can better market yourself?

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