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Promotional Photo
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In Concert Footage
Promotional Guidelines
Promotional Guidelines
PROMOTER’S RESOURCE GUIDE
Scheduling and promoting the Melodyaires for a concert is just the beginning! We hope it will be fun and a rewarding experience for you, as well as a successful event. Here are some tried and true guidelines to help you make that happen.
We encourage you to form a team to help support you in organizing the event. After you do that, follow these guidelines to help aid you in a successful event.
PROMOTIONAL AVENUES TO PURSUE
WORD OF MOUTH – Once you’ve finalized everything with us: booking date, time, location, etc. the first thing to do is to start a ‘word of mouth campaign’ immediately! Start talking to people about the event. Ask about making announcements in their local churches of friends and family (not just your own). Get your team together. Discuss ways to get the word out. Start generating some excitement about the event.
CALLING - Get on the phone and call as many churches, as you can within a 100-mile radius of the event (make 25 – 50 churches your goal). It’s not unusual for a Southern Gospel fan to travel over 100+ miles to one of our concerts if they are informed about it. Get a team together to work on this task and divide up the list to call.
Ask these other churches to:
1. Display the event poster
2. Put the event in their posted calendar
3. Make announcements in services about the concert in the weeks prior to the event. (This is very helpful when churches do this each service as it keeps their members informed and done the right way makes a great impact on your attendance. The support of churches, music pastors, senior ministries, and Bible study groups is most important! Don’t forget to call Nursing Homes and Senior Citizen’s Centers about this. Often they will organize a “field trip” and bring a van load! Make calls, be encouraging, and don’t forget to mail or drop off promotional posters for them to post. The more posters you drop off, the more they can help you get the word out.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING - Take advantage of all social media marketing—such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. USE YOUR EMAIL LIST! Create an informational email blast that churches can post to their Church Website, Twitter or Facebook feeds. Encourage people to “Like” and “Share” us on Facebook, or go to our website:
www.themelodyaires.com to listen to our music or watch clips of us performing. This will get the word out to tons of people in a very short period of time.
DIRECT E-MAIL - Most churches, pastors, worship pastors, and senior pastors have e-mail lists for their respective groups. Create an informational letter (email-blast) and ask those leaders to forward it to that list. It is an effective and inexpensive way to reach potential guests.
PRINT - Have all of your posters and flyers printed including a photo of the group, starting time, date, location, and ticket information. Poster ‘blanks’ can be downloaded from our website and personalized for your event. Print extras to mail to the area churches that you have already called (above). If you have a mailing list of previous concert attendees, churches, bookstores, etc., be sure to send a flyer to these, also. This list can be developed over time by your concert attendees.
RADIO - Be sure to call the Christian and Southern Gospel radio stations in your listening area. Get rates and ask for discounts and special promotion policies. Explore all public service announcement options with other radio and TV stations. Many will announce concerts free of charge—but they really appreciate a good amount of lead time on these announcements. Don’t call them the week of the concert and expect a good response. Additionally, many radio stations will allow artists to ‘call in’ for a radio interview, or we can provide ‘liners’ to help promote the concert. Contact our office and we will be happy to arrange this. (Be sure to include the station call letters, location, contact name, phone, and e-mail address. Radio is a great way to get the message out to individuals who might not be reached in any other way!
NEWSPAPER - The News Paper is still a great way to advertise to those who do not get online or do the social media thing. Make your ad appealing and use an updated photo of the band you are promoting! Usually, local newspapers will even put it on their “front page” you make the event exciting and something that the whole community can get behind.
SPONSORS - One of the most important assets of a promoter is local sponsors! Getting sponsors for your event is one of the best ways to ease the burden of paying the talent you book. The more sponsors you get, the less that comes out of your own pocket! Put together a team to go out among the local businesses in town and the surrounding towns and have them donate money to advertise their business in an ad book. Example: 1/4 page (business card size) $25.00, 1/2 page $50.00, 3/4 page $75.00 and whole page $100.00. The more you get, the better off you’ll be. Within the ad book, add the bands' bio, current photo, and a few autograph pages for the attendants' souvenirs of the event. It’s well worth your time to do this as it can pay for all printed materials: Tickets, posters, etc, as well as the talents expenses and rate.
CHURCH BUDGET - If your church is planning to host the event and you have booked the Melodyaires in advance. (Usually 1 year in advance) One of the best things you can do is start a budget just for that event. Each week take up an offering, along with the other regular offerings to cover church expenses, etc. If done correctly, you should have enough in the budget to pay for any band or event that you have planned, given that you started the budget and give it plenty of time to build up.
WILL THIS BE A TICKETED EVENT? – If so, remember to:
Set ticket prices, including General Admission, Artist’s Circle and
Group pricing.
Distribute tickets to churches, radio stations, and other sales outlets
well in advance of the concert. Don’t forget about radio station giveaways and
complimentary staff passes.
Develop a method to track sales and money.
Collect unsold tickets and money at least 24 hours in advance of the concert.
GET CREATIVE! - Think outside the box! Are there other places to advertise? Here are a couple of ideas that worked for other churches. Try these, or maybe you have another idea.
YouTube: Play a couple of our YouTube videos prior to your services, or during the offertory time (for several weeks leading up to the concert). This often grabs someone’s interest enough to come to a concert!
Road Signs: If you have a signboard in front of your church (or if someone is creative at making a ‘sandwich board’.) Post-concert information on the sign board for a couple of weeks prior to the concert. Sometimes people come to concerts who were just driving by, saw the sign, and came in.
Ask to make announcements at other Southern Gospel concerts in your area. Attend other Southern Gospel concerts in your area in the month leading up to your event. Information about other concerts can often be found at sites like: www.gospelgigs.com, individual artist websites, or promoter’s websites. If you ask ahead of time, most event organizers will allow you to make announcements about upcoming concerts.
PROMOTIONAL COUNTDOWN!
4 - 6 WEEKS PRIOR TO THE CONCERT
Distribute all promotional materials to churches (including tickets, if ticketed event).
Send announcements to all print outlets (activities calendars, church bulletins, newspapers).
Make calls to Radio and TV stations – follow up with posters, CDs, etc.
Start making announcements on Facebook and Twitter feeds.
3 WEEKS PRIOR TO THE CONCERT
Start Christian radio advertising. If selling tickets, arrange to do a ticket giveaway (several pairs per station), and offer tickets to the station employees. Arrange for Artist’s radio interviews or request ‘liners’.
2. Start showing YouTube videos, or using our music as a prelude, offertory, or postlude for your church’s worship services.
THE WEEK OF THE CONCERT
Follow up on advertising efforts. Does everyone have what they need?
If you are selling tickets, be sure to get all the unsold tickets and money from each of your tickets
outlets at least 24 hours in advance of the concert.
If you have not already discussed arrival times and last-minute details with us,
call to confirm appropriate arrangements.
DAY OF THE CONCERT
Unless otherwise arranged, the Melodyaires will plan to arrive 3 hours prior to the concert time. Prior to our arrival, the stage area should be clear and ready for set-up and sound check.
Have 1 table (6’ or 8’ preferred) set up at the appropriate entrance/exit for sales of merchandise, etc.
Have an usher or volunteer pass out e-mail list cards to get the name and email addresses of all that attend so they can receive information on future events. (Builds your email list quickly)
Have meals or food arranged? (Just a more hospitable way of saying thank you)
If this is a ticketed event, have a crew ready to handle ticket sales at the door.
AFTER THE CONCERT
Have a few volunteers present to help with load out. This really speeds up the process!
Send thank you notes to volunteers and churches that have helped with promotions.
Provide feedback on the concert to us through our website.
If you do these things outlined in this guide, you will have a more successful event and have more success in all future events as you apply these proven methods.
Thank you and we wish you all the success in your promotions!