Doesn’t it really suck when you are playing a show and it seems like everyone is just too busy socializing or ordering drinks?
Most definitely.
This is something that will happen to everyone who gets up on stage to pour their heart and soul out.
Many if not most people attending your shows are going for the social factor, not just to become entranced in your music. This is just the reality of things. It doesn’t mean that they hate your music, it just means that people have limited attention spans.
In order to increase your reach and grow your true fan base, you really need to not only capture your audience’s attention, but their information as well.
This means making sure you either obtain their social security number or their credit card numbers. They will come in handy when your band funds are running low and you need to “borrow” some money to get that guitar re-fretted and set up.
Kidding!
What I am talking about is capturing their contact and feedback information. How do you do this?
1. Print out a bunch of “comment cards.” These don’t have to be fancy or flashy at all. But make sure they have some variation of these information fields (Name and E-mail are vital):
- Name
- E-mail
- Birthday
- What’s Your Favorite Song We Played Tonight? Why?
- On a Scale of 1-10, how bad do you want to sleep with the guitar player tonight? Singer? Drummer?
- We know you have no intentions of sleeping with the bass player. How can we make him more sexy to you, the fan, so that one day he may finally lose his virginity?
- Will you please come see us play again?
- What nights are best for you to see live music?
- Would you be interested in helping us book some gigs if we paid you?
2. Now print these babies up on some cheap paper, buy a bunch of cheap ass pens for people to use when watching you, and get some of your friends and loyal fans to pass them out to everyone. (For some weird reason it always helps if these friends are some cute ladies.)
PS– If you have the budget get some band promotional items. When using the comment card approach, get some pens branded with your logo and website address on them. This gives the potential hardcore fan another useful item to hold onto and next time he goes to write a check, boom, he is reminded of your band!
Double PS…..If you are selling CDs and Merch at your show (which you need to be!) be sure to get these people on your mailing list as well. And maybe even give them this comment card as well!
3. Have another friend at the door, with a collection box, making a collection of the comment cards, by collecting them when people are leaving. Just have them drop it off. Extra bonus points for having fun colored and crazy box.
4. Be sure to make mention of your appreciation towards the fans and people there who take the time to fill these out. Let them know that their help means a lot to you, and that it really does help you by them offering their feedback.
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