As a DIY musician, promoting your live shows on social media can be a bit of a slog.  Your audience can get a little tired seeing variations of the same requests to attend a show or to buy tickets:

It’s 4 weeks till we play our show at the Rockhouse, get your tickets now
Just 3 weeks till our Rockhouse show, get your tickets now
It’s 2 weeks till…

It’s a very hard sell…yuk.

People don’t like a ‘hard sell’

The best way to overcome this is to contact your audience for another reason and surreptitiously add in your sales message along side.   Here are four simple ways you can do that:

Show Them What They’ll Get

Post a video of you playing/learning a song.  Add to the visuals “I’ll be playing this song for you at the Roadhouse in just two weeks time, get your tickets and join me”.

Show people what they’ll get if they attend.

Take A Request

Say “I’m playing the Roadhouse in two weeks time and there’s space in the set for one last song…what should it be?”.

Take a request!

Do A Throwback

If you’ve played that venue before, post/repost a photo and caption it with “Here’s a great shot from the last time I played the Roadhouse.  I’m back there in two weeks time, get your tickets and join me”.

As your audience “remember this?” as your excuse to contact them.

Showcase The Other Artists

If you’re on a lineup with several other acts, talk about those. “Here’s a great live song from Deborah Smith, she’s appearing with me at The Roadhouse in just two weeks time.  Get your tickets for what’s sure to be a great night of music”.

There’s an art and a skill to communicating with your audience, mentioning the show but making it so that the gig plug is only a small part of your overall communication.

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

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