[Dixielandjazz] Advertising and more gigs.

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

Just to let everyone know how and what I am doing on my ad campaign to increase bookings.  

Originally I went to the yellow pages and found 85 Senior Citizen homes.  These aren't nursing homes necessarily but most are Senior residences.  I used the Microsoft data base program in Microsoft works to print the envelopes and cards.  That program came with my computer.  It took several hours to do all of this and I had to call each one to get their Zip code.  While I was doing this I found out the names of the Rec. Directors.

I also use Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Corel Draw to produce my advertising.  Both Photoshop and Corel are high end programs ($600+).  If you are any good with Microsoft Word and Photoshop elements you can get by a lot cheaper.  I use these in my business so I already had them.  I use Dreamweaver for my Website which I learned how to use at a Jr. College course I took last fall.  By the way you can get some of this programming cheaper if you are enrolled in a course.  Any course will get you the student rate.  A lot of the college book stores sell these programs already discounted to the student rate.  Since I am a Senior Citizen I get the courses at half price.

My first mailing was a color flyer and cost me about a nickel each to print.  The postage was 39 cents and a penny for the envelope.  The cost was $38.25.  From that mailing I booked 9 jobs and got calls for two NYEve jobs that I didn't take.  

I then ordered 100 post cards from Vista Print.  The cards were free but the postage was $9.95 and they cost 24 cents each to mail.  The cost was $30.35 for that mailing.   I have booked one job off of that mailing and I am playing telephone tag with a second call.

This works out to $6.86 per job for advertising.  Since every one of those jobs are at places I had never worked the prospects of being asked back are fairly good and will mean more jobs in the future.  Many of the directors know each other and recommend groups to each other and will give us good references so we may actually get more work from others.  This includes employee holiday parties.

This could suggest two things, that since I am fishing the same waters there may be a diminishing return and it might also suggest that a colorful flyer mailed in an envelope will get better results without much added cost.

This is a way above average return for mailing and I am surprised somewhat.  I only expected one or two calls with only a 50-50 chance of booking them.

I considered these Senior daytime jobs to be gravy since before a few years ago I couldn't play them at all.  Their budgets are too low (in this area) to get much for a group and really aren't worth it for that reason.  Working them as a Duo has paid off and now constitutes, to my surprise, a major part of my income from music.  They have now become worth going after.  They are also very high pay considering the time involved.   Working as a Duo pays me more than working as a single.  They like to pay for bodies.

Horn players are at a disadvantage because they can't do singles or even Duos.  They are at the mercy and availability of rhythm players and because they must work in groups are fairly low paid even if they are the leader.  They don't work as often either because they have to charge more.  I just have simply cut the rhythm players out of the mix which allows me to slip under the radar and at the same time make more money.

I work these jobs with BIAB and a Laptop, a corrugated plastic music stand, a 15" Eon powered monitor, A cheap Euro mike mixer, Mike and stand and of course my horns.  The cost for such a setup is about $2000 or less.  It takes me 15-20 minutes to set up and tear down.  The shows are 1 hour, usually in the afternoon and sometimes I can do as many as three in a day.  This happens usually during Mardi Gras and NYEve.   I also have several set ups so I can leave one job and make another in 30 minutes and go back and pick up my equipment.  I may have to pre set up my show at the second and third places.  This allows me to play several jobs in a day.  I pack my computer and horn and am off to the next job.  I go back later to get my equipment.  I don't have to do this very often but it's the difference between me making $150 or $450.  I choose the $450.

I also try to be as colorful as possible and use a lot of red, yellow and black in my advertising and setup.   I think color sells.  

I mix in a lot of vocals.  Up until a few years ago I rarely sang with my band or other bands.  I didn't particularly like my voice quality.  I started thinking seriously about that.  I came up with three things that it takes to be a successful singer.  One is a pleasant voice.  This I didn't think I had.  The second was the ability to sing in tune which I can do.  The last is the most important and that is the ability to style a tune.  It turns out that the last two are the most important.  If you think about Louis Armstrong's voice you have to conclude that of the three traits Styling was the most important.  He turned a really bad voice into an asset with styling and delivery.  It also turns out that others are not as critical of my voice as I am.  So now I spend about as much time singing as playing my horn on a job.  Surprise of surprises I am getting better at it.

Along with this is a better rapport with the audience.  One thing that I still won't do is sing with other bands.  The reason for this is that why should anyone hire my act if they can hire someone else and get my act too.  The second reason for this is because I have a limited range and can't sing in a bunch of keys so I have to pick music carefully to fit my voice and show me off to my best.  The last is I have trouble remembering words so I need words in front of me to glance at.

I also find that almost every other group that I compete with do not do vocals and it gives me a sales edge over them.  

I hope this helps some of the guys out there with getting more gigs and selling yourself better to the customer.

This hasn't been easy because it is a lot of work to put this all together but it's been paying off.
Larry
St. Louis