[Dixielandjazz] PRO - Advertising and Momentum part 2

Sat Jan 19 14:58:37 PST 2008

Advertising is another big one that can build and maintain momentum but you must select your advertising medium very carefully because if you don't it will just be a sewer to put your money down.  Americans have become very resistant to advertising so it must be targeted and hopefully last longer than the morning paper.  I think that Yellow Page and newspaper advertising is just plain poor.  The Yellow pages are just too expensive and not all that good. The newspaper is expensive and just too brief an exposure.  Unless you advertise regularly (expensive) it will do you no good.  

A good web site is a whole lot cheaper but alone won't do much for you.  Your advertising should point them to the website and your telephone number.  I sat mine up so they could give me all their information through the web site.  It gives me a heads up on what I should charge and what I will need for that gig before I call them.  A website alone is almost useless.

I have to tell you that I have spent a lot of money over the years on advertising that was virtually useless.  Bands aren't like selling shoes.  If you are selling shoes you can sell from none to thousands in a single day.  There is virtually no limit to how many you can sell in a given period of time but a band can only sell itself one time for a given date.  DJ's can buy multiple set ups and clone themselves over and over but we can't.  My cornet player and I often split.  If he has a gig that I'm on and I get one he finds someone else and I do the same.  In effect we are maximizing our income potential by working together this way.  We do that a lot around holidays and Mardi Gras.

For this year I tried some nice pocket calendars with a rich looking sewn leatherette cover.  I have my name and ad blurb gold stamped on the front.  I ordered 200 which as it turns out to be more than I needed.  The cost was about $1.75 each.  Inside of the front flap I put my mini flyer.  So far I have handed out about 150 but I think I have only handed them out about 50 to people who have a chance to do me some good.  Yet I have those 13 jobs in the first week of January that I didn't have last year.  Did the handouts work?  Who knows at this point but something is working.  The gig I booked yesterday was a new client that got a mailing I did last year.  BTW my advertising directs people to my web site so they can see and hear what they are getting.  

A simple way to find out if your advertising is working - Ask the person calling where they got your name.  They will tell you.

I decided to change my advertising for 2008 and try to target people who actually hire me because it's those return and multiple gigs that are doing me the most good.  I placed an order with Musicians Friend and they included a desk clock with my order.  I liked it and found that www.amsterdamprinting.com  sold them along with a lot of other promotional stuff.  The cost for 50 is $325 or about $6 each which covers the setup and printing fee.  

You need to make personal contacts.  Just a business card isn't good enough anymore.  You need a publicity pack so crank up your PC and get to work on one.  So now I will give them my publicity pack and a clock for their desk.   Like everyone else I don't have a lot of time so I will devote several days to calling on clients and potential clients.

The pocket calendars, while very nice, aren't something that everyone uses, is only good for this year and my ability to hand them out is a little limited.  A clock 

http://www.amsterdamprinting.com/Item/Black+Swivel+Analog+Clock/32478/Default.aspx 

on the other hand is something that will remain visible on their desk for hopefully a long time and remind them where it came from every time they look at it.  It's something everyone needs and uses and won't run out of ink or end up in a drawer like a letter opener or pen.  The total cost is about the same as the pocket colanders.  Due to the limited printing space I will again be mainly directing them to my web site.  If they go to my web site there is much more information there than the highest priced yellow page advertising.  BTW my Doctor has several clocks setting around from various suppliers of medical stuff.  They don't throw these things away.  I will be giving these to people that book me, have booked me or that I am directly calling on so this will be highly targeted.  If this doesn't work I will try something else.

I have set an advertising budget of $500 for this year or about $10 a job based on last years jobs.  I don't think that this is too much to spend but a lot of bands spend nothing and just sit there waiting for gigs to roll in.  

Momentum is fleeting and a lot of bands just never attain it but it's even easier to lose unless you recognize that you have to maintain it.  It might be as simple as a thank you note or follow up call.  If you don't maintain it, it will just slide away.

You don't have to be better musicians than your competition but you do have to be better salesmen.
Larry
StL