For you masterful musicians who have an indie band that is scheduled to play at a music festival, it is important to take this opportunity to promote your music for all it’s worth. This is the chance of a lifetime to become known and loved, developing a fan base in ever-increasing size. Music festival marketing presents more opportunities than some other music marketing options for a band to get new fans, make themselves heard and gain a marvelous reputation throughout the region and beyond.
Music Festival Marketing at its Best
Naturally, you will have a booth set up at the festival. This is the first and foremost method of selling your merchandise. This is music festival marketing at its finest! But who will man the booth? Obviously, none of the band members will be able to, since they will be on stage playing, breaking down or setting up. Girlfriends are a good option. They will love to support the band. Family can help as well. You can make a list of people who you think could man the booth, and start calling. You could arrange shifts as needed.
Those who are manning the booth should be sure to collect the name and email address of each person who buys a CD. In fact, the more outgoing friends and family can call out to passersby to come give their email address in order to get special benefits directly from the band. (More about that in a minute!)
Special T-Shirts are a Great Music Festival Marketing Option
Another great idea for selling CDs and collecting names and emails of new fans is to offer a free t-shirt with every CD purchase. You just need to increase the price of the CD to cover that cost, but you will double or even 10x your sales by offering bonus items. Getting bulk t-shirts with your picture or logo on them is not expensive. This is just another in a long list of music festival marketing ideas.
For all the email addresses you obtain, you have options to send them further promotions:
- Import addresses into Constant Contact (or whatever email marketing software you use)
- Send fans a monthly newsletter with your upcoming gigs
- Direct your fans to your website for the most recent videos and news
Music Festival Marketing is Relatively Simple
A fantastic way to get email addresses from fans is to have a special website where they can sign up for a membership site. Before you play the music festival, buy a domain name. It is sure to be available for purchase as you will call it “yourbandpromo.com.” Think of a cool name that will be related to the promo offer your doing or fans taste. This is an inexpensive price to pay for the music festival marketing results you will get.
When you are on stage at the music festival and fans are at the peak of excitement after a performance, simply tell them to go to that website for a special prize. You can have something simple to give away (once they sign up for your newsletter, of course). Perhaps you can run a drawing for everyone who signs up to receive your newsletter where the winner gets a free pass to your next concert or to your membership site. You can also direct them from your promo site to a page with a cool video of your performing. The options are virtually endless. You can think of more to have music festival marketing making a difference in your band’s reputation and fan base! And this is only the start of your music marketing options on your way to real fame.
