Artist

Posters – the primary source of marketing for your show

How do you promote your shows? Could it be that you rely on the tried and tested method of putting a few posters up and supplying the venue with flyers to put next to countless other flyers? There’s a reason so many live music venues are going out of business or have gone out of business over the last few years. As the title of this post suggests, posters don’t work.

Why would a tried and tested method of show promotion no longer work? Well, it’s all tied into this new tool we call the internet. Put simply, the internet has over the last twenty years or so, reprogrammed virtually every human being in the UK. That’s a bold claim to make, but the evidence is there for anyone to see.

Look Up. Look Down. Look Out. Look around.

Back in the day, it was fine to print some posters up and together with flyers, advertise a show locally, around a venue. This kind of advertising was a primary method of informing people about the show and getting word out to prospective ticket buyers. The average person consumed such information by looking up at the world as they passed through, reading the signs, taking in the posters, talking face to face with their friends & family and generally keeping an open view of everything in their immediate circle.

These days, the opposite is true. The average person is looking down at their smart phone or tablet. They’re stuck behind a computer or wrapped up in the world of social networking. They’re discussing events on the other side of the world but at the same time, they don’t know what’s happening on their street and they’ve no idea what’s going on at their local theatre.

Let’s be clear, posters and indeed flyers do have a place in our promotion tool box. They’re effective means of reaching a very specific group of people and that is the people who go to the venue prior to your show, to see a different show. In this instance, we merely have to hope that people look up, see the posters, pick up the flyers and understand your show. Assuming they do, it’s money well spent. But if they don’t, it’s still money spent.

Digital, online marketing is a huge shift in thinking

There is a reason that Facebook & Google are now such huge companies. Both of these companies have built huge empires, mostly on the back of advertising revenue. That is to say, charging businesses to advertise to their users. It’s no accident that Facebook & Google are worth billions. They can simply offer something to businesses that nobody else can – laser like targeting of their potential customers, that works, at a very reasonable cost.

For example, many of these digital marketing systems don’t even charge you if you are not getting a result. They display your ads for free, until such time as someone clicks your ad to see what you are trying to sell and only then, do you get charged. This is yet another powerful, unique ability that only exists in digital marketing. Imagine not having to pay out £500.00 for a magazine ad and instead only paying a few pence when someone looked at your ad and then went to the correct page on your website to check out what it is you are advertising. In terms of return on investment, this aspect of digital marketing alone trumps all other forms of marketing.

The specialists in online & digital for your show

Ampro Media specialises in online digital marketing. We can run digital advertising campaigns for your show, allowing you to take advantage of cost effective advertising that reaches your potential audience and new audiences alike. Want to know more? Give us a shout on our contact page.

Our methods are of course suitable for any business to use for marketing and promoting their products & services. Of course, we at Ampro Media specialise in promoting shows. As we like to say, “It’s your show!”