Have a new show or concert coming up? It’s time to start promoting! Without adequate promotion, after all, you can’t guarantee that enough people will buy tickets or show up to make it worth your while. Fortunately, the old adage “you have to spend money to make money,” isn’t necessarily true when it comes to promotions.
Indeed, you can promote your next show without spending a dime if you know the right strategies and tricks. Let’s break down those strategies one by one so you’re able to spread the word about your upcoming show without breaking the bank.
Use an event listing site
To start with free music promotion, post your upcoming show’s date and details on one of many free event listing sites. Event listing sites, in a nutshell, are popular listing sites where anyone can list an upcoming social event or show for free. Since you don’t have to spend money to list your show here, it’s one of the best ways to get your initial promotional campaign up and running.
On top of that, many of the best event listing sites allow you to post tickets or RSVP lists. That way, people can respond to your show listing and you can start drawing up estimates for how many people you think will attend.
Some of the best event listing sites to use for free music promotion include:
- Facebook Events, especially if you already have a Facebook profile. Make an event on Facebook, and you’ll see your RSVP list balloon in no time
- 10Times, a free event listing site that lets searchers filter different events by format. In this way, you can be sure that you only get people interested in your upcoming show or concert
- Eventbrite, arguably the most popular ticketing and listing site overall. If your event is free, Eventbrite won’t charge you any money, either
- Evvnt, an excellent event listing site that allows searchers to filter events by region or functionality, such as B2C or B2B
Make & print your own posters
Of course, you can also promote your upcoming show for free by creating your own comedy act or music posters. Making and printing your own concert posters means:
- You have 100% control over the design and look of the marketing materials
- You don’t have to spend money from your limited marketing budget on expert designers or poster creators
- You can use the same poster design both for in-person posters you put up around town and for digital posters you post on your social media pages. Online resizing tools allow you to quickly and easily increase or reduce the size of any poster design for your needs
Don’t have any graphic design experience? That’s okay! You can easily make your own music posters or other show posters by browsing the templates gallery at PosterMyWall. With thousands of free templates available, you can easily whip up an original design for your event poster and get started marketing for your show ASAP.
Spice up your social channels
In this day and age, it would be a big mistake not to use your social media pages to maximum effect. You should have a profile or page for your upcoming show on all the social media platforms below:
- TikTok
Once you have your event pages set up, you can set up countdown posts and other quality social media content, interact with fans or people who have questions, and even set up RSVP lists so you can easily count how many people plan to attend.
Some platforms, like Instagram and TikTok, are less valuable for organizing your event attendees and more useful for drumming up anticipation or excitement for the event itself. For example, you can post a candid or behind-the-scenes video on TikTok showing you and your team getting ready for the event. That’s a great way to convince people to make a purchase or sign up for your next show for free.
Alternatively, you can post video content on YouTube, ranging from full-on advertisements to no-cost videos like announcements, giveaways or contest videos, or something else. Make a YouTube page and post a stellar YouTube banner advertising your next show.
Again, you can make your own music YouTube banner for your page and future videos without spending any money, so long as you use the right tools for the job.
Send newsletters to fans
If you already have a group of fans, communicate with them regularly by sending them newsletters. Email newsletters are great for:
- Announcing the date and time of your upcoming show, as well as related details like where it is located
- Counting down the days until your show launches
- Reminding people who haven’t yet signed up that your show is coming quickly!
- And more.
Newsletters are also great for boosting brand engagement and helping people remember you as an artist. Whenever you have a show coming up, email marketing newsletters are the number one way to remind your core fans that it’s on the way and that they need to RSVP quickly!
Connect with sponsors
You can also partner with sponsors to advertise your next show without having to necessarily spend any money. For example, Instagram influencers might partner with you and promote your next show if you promise to do the same thing for them when they have a concert or event in the near future.
These mutually beneficial sponsorships and partnerships don’t cost you or the others involved any money, but they can help you gain more event attendees. This is an especially useful strategy if you and several other sponsors or partners share audience members (such as if you and another band play the same kind of music, so you play to the same overall audience).
Create an event page
Lastly, consider creating a dedicated event page for your next show. This doesn’t cost you any money if you already have a website up and running (if you do, you’ll have to spend a bit of cash).
Regardless, a dedicated event page is useful for free music promotion because:
- It gives you a landing page to link to for your social media posts and other marketing materials
- It helps you concentrate all the information about your next show in one place
- It allows fans to link the page and send the information to each other, which can spread word of your upcoming show like wildfire
The event page can be simple and include a countdown timer or even a basic RSVP list if you want to get more information about show attendees. Just make sure the event page looks great and has the same theme as your concert or show posters or other marketing materials!
Take advantage of free music promotion strategies & save big
Ultimately, promoting your show without spending money is contingent on you building a strong social network and using your networking tools to maximum advantage. For the best results, try to make all your marketing materials look similar or share an overall aesthetic; that way, event attendees will be able to quickly recognize announcements or marketing materials from your show and be more likely to sign up or buy a ticket.
Senior editor at PosterMyWall.
