How to Make Traditional Fliers work
WHAT EVERYONE IS DOING IS NOT WORKING!
The majority of local artists are already using traditional paper fliers. Yet, they are not seeing significant results from the fliers they put up. Acts are giving out hundreds of paper fliers, and NOT seeing many new faces attend their show as a direct result of the fliers distributed.
If putting up fliers is so effective, and every local artist is already giving out fliers to promote their shows, WHY ARE THEY NOT WORKING? Why are hundreds of fliers going out for these shows without much of an increase in attendance?
IF you are NOT experiencing the ineffectiveness of fliers that MOST local acts experience, there is NO NEED to read further.
If what you’re doing works for you, keep doing it. BUT, if what you are doing is NOT working, it’s time to change your strategy.
YOU PROBABLY HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS FIRST HAND
Most local musicians have had the disheartening experience of spending hours and hours giving out hundreds of fliers. Then the night of the show, they are disgusted to find that all of the time they spent downtown or at the mall only ended up getting out maybe 1 or 2 more people to their show. Spending a lot of time giving out HUNDREDS of fliers, only to get a couple extra people out to your show is a crushing feeling.
WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THIS?
Most local acts are spending hours of their time giving out fliers to the WRONG PEOPLE.
The WRONG PEOPLE are the people you have no personal connection to, complete strangers, such as:
• People walking through the mall
• People you don’t know at the skate shop, at a show, or at a club
• Random people on myspace or facebook who you’ve never met face to face
• People walking around downtown or that you see on the street
The reason most local acts are spending hours of their time giving out hundreds of fliers and seeing little return is because they are giving fliers to the WRONG PEOPLE. It is 10 times harder to convince a complete stranger, someone who has no personal connection to you, to take the time to pay attention to you and your music or go to your website, let alone convince them to spend money to see you play. That is why fliers given to the wrong people usually end up in the trash.
THEN HOW CAN I GROW MY FAN BASE BY USING FLIERS?
Distribute your fliers to the RIGHT PEOPLE.
The RIGHT PEOPLE are your existing fans and the people you know and have a personal connection with:
• Your existing fans and mailing list
• Co-workers
• People you know from school
• Anyone else that you know or have a personal connection with
The BEST way to grow your fan base, and ensure that the time and money you spend on fliers is not wasted, is to send out your fliers through your fan base’s network of personal connections!
Your fliers will be much more effective when people you know, and existing fans, get your fliers out to people THEY know and can “vouch” to their friends that you are worth checking out. Word of mouth, through personal connections, is the fastest way to grow your fan base. This is WHY giving fliers to the right people is going to yield far better results than giving out fliers to complete strangers.
STOP spending hours of your time giving fliers to the WRONG PEOPLE and getting little to no results.
INSTEAD get your fliers out to the people you have personal connections with, so THEY can get fliers into the hands of people in their personal network.
The goal here is to distribute your fliers through a network of personal connections, so that each flier someone receives is coming from a source they trust!
You have limited promotion time, and your time is valuable. So MAKE SURE you are spending your time on the promotion strategies that will yield you the BEST RESULTS. If you distribute your fliers to the RIGHT PEOPLE, you will yield far better results than an act that gives out their fliers to complete strangers and people they have no personal connection with.