[Dixielandjazz] Direct Mail Advertising

Tue Jul 17 10:17:53 PDT 2007

What sort of surprises me is that I have tried this in the past without much 
luck.  The difference this time is lots of color and I have gotten a whole 
lot more sophisticated in my art work as well as advertising copy.  Several 
things have helped.  First the relatively inexpensive color printers that 
can do a top rate job.  The second is that I have educated myself in the 
technology of graphics, photography and the internet.  For example I took a 
course that cost about $65 on web page design and another in Photoshop. 
While I didn't get a lot out of the Photoshop class it was cheap ($15) I did 
pick up a few tidbits.  If I had been a beginner it would have been more 
valuable.  My Photoshop knowledge is mostly self taught as is almost 
everything else.

A lot of the advertising copy that I use is modeled after what you used to 
see on record jackets.  I figure if it sold then It will sell now.  I can 
indulge my habit of self proclaimed greatness in the third person to my 
heart's content.   It helps if you have a great resume but it's not an 
absolute must.  It takes a little practice to say nice things about yourself 
and playing as if you were someone else.

My earlier efforts were OK but not real cost effective and a lot of work 
typing mail labels and then getting them zeroxed or hand writing the 
envelopes.  No color and not much to say about myself.

We spent a lot of time and money on making cassette tapes and mailing them 
out (@1980-85).  We didn't get a single return from that.  It puzzled me as 
to why that was happening because when people heard us live we almost always 
booked them.  The tapes were of pretty good quality.  The problem was that 
people were playing them on really crappy equipment.  That's not the case 
today.  Anyone can buy really good recording equipment and make a demo CD at 
modest cost.  The audio equipment is really good today.  Even a cheap boom 
box sounds pretty good and demo CD's are almost a must.  I would stay with 8 
or 10 sound clips and not the whole tune.

The reason for using sound clips is the same reason you use short 
descriptions and headline copy in your advertising and that is the American 
public is functionally illiterate or at least ADHD.  It's the TV clicker 
age.  They simply won't read unless they really want to and they don't want 
to especially where advertising is concerned.  If you don't believe me look 
at the copy of Time magazine and others.  Articles are dramatically shorter 
than they were in the 60's with almost nothing going over a page except the 
feature article.  People magazine is mostly pictures and very little copy. 
It's like Playboy and I suppose that you are going to tell me that you buy 
it to read the articles.  If you can't read the article in 5 or 6 minutes 
it's too long today.  Billboards are perfect.  Very few words and a logo or 
photo.  Keep things to a minimum and use bullet or headline copy.

I also do all my own photography.  To get the photos I use of myself I went 
into the back yard, set up a tripod and had my wife push the button.  In a 
half hour you can take a whole bunch of pictures then a little work in 
Photoshop or one of the other photo manipulation programs and you will have 
one or two you can use.  In the digital age you can take 500 photos for zip. 
Not even the cost of a roll of film.

Other than my work I have gotten the cost of a job down to almost pennies 
which pays me off for my work in more money in my pocket.

I was sort of reluctant to try direct mail because there is a pretty sharp 
curve to start with and I hadn't had a lot of luck with it before.  The 
important thing is not the number of initial jobs that I got which was very 
good but that I opened up 6 venues that I had never played at before and all 
have the potential of rehires and references.

I initially targeted Senior venues for daytime jobs.  I haven't been 
interested too much in weekend work because I play with several other bands 
and stay fairly busy.  That is dropping off somewhat and I can make a whole 
bunch more booking than just playing so I will start branching out.

I also offer a variety of bands and styles a lot like a supermarket offers a 
lot of products from 2 to 18 pieces.  Since I don't have some of these bands 
the band leaders are more than happy for me to act as their agent which 
makes me money and I don't even have to walk out my door.  That's another 
spin off from my advertising.  It pays to have friends that are in the 
business more as partners in doing well than rivals and competitors. 
Networking is a valuable thing.

Because I use a computer and work a lot as a Duo I can still provide a 
quality performance at a price other groups can't touch.  I can sell to the 
guy that is price conscious and at the same time do really well myself. 
This translates into a lot of jobs that I couldn't get before.  I was always 
limited by the size of the group.  The DJ's almost wiped me out in the 80's 
but now I can under cut them and still do well for myself and other 
musicians that work with me.  I am able to pay the same for a one hour job 
as they get for a three hour gig with other bands and more for a three hour 
job.

Unfortunately in the past we didn't have all these electronic goodies which 
make things a whole lot better and professional looking to the customer. 
People just don't respond to the same things in the same way that they did 
in the 1960's.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 4:58 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Direct Mail Advertising

> As Larry posted, direct mail is both very inexpensive for him, and very
> effective.
>
> Ditto for me. My entire business model is based upon direct mail to venues
> likely to present OKOM concerts. Those leads come mainly from reading the
> local newspapers about concerts, blanket mailing the local municipalities 
> in
> my 5 county area that have more than 10,000 residents, and mailing the
> upscale retirement communities.
>
> Over the past 10 years, the results speak for themselves. Now totally
> computerized and picking and choosing gigs from the responses. Like I 
> don't
> mail nightclubs or restaurants anymore because they don't meet my budget 
> for
> a band performance.
>
> Easy to do, doesn't cost much at all, gets results. Plus, the gigs are all
> within driving distance, no need to travel.
>
> Basic mail marketing cost is well under $1000 a year and generates at 
> least
> 25 new gigs a year, as well as frequent renewal of repeats.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
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