How to start your marketing plan for a successful event

Post 38 of Dream, create and make money in the arts.

However good your art, acting, new novel, short film, artistic endeavours are, if noone sees it they can’t buy it.. and you can’t keep making art without making an income from it (yes I now sound like my father ;-))

I started this series May 3rd thinking I would focus on my area of knowledge & mistakes made- putting on shows of music, comedy, cabaret & theatre, however just as I am now about to swing into talking about marketing & press, on & off line media & the steps from having a show, play, photographic or sculpting exhibition largely ready to go to actually getting the word out and getting press, tickets sales etc..,well I should have been doing a new series of cabaret shows myself at exactly this point. I say ‘should’ but a venue didn’t get built in time and I have become super busy with acting. However I now have a dance remix of a song of mine ”Londontown’ finished and we are doing the club edit later this week.

It has been a long time since I released music and in any case the dance music world is not something I know a great desk about from a record releasing perspective, from the dancing all night in Space perspective I have great knowledge 😉

In the past I tour managed a friend who was releasing a dance record but she had a big budget so we did indeed do Madrid, Verona & Ibiza as well as some personal appearances in London with a dance troupe.

I have realised though the same marketing questions & steps have to be followed though whatever you are ‘releasing’

If  you are releasing any of the following:

– a single or album

– a photographic event

– a play, cabaret show, readings of poems

– a night of music

– a night of history

– a novel

– a collection of sculptors or paintings.

– a DJ new night

– a comedy night

– a charity event or auction

– putting on a festival

– film premiere – whether its full length or a short

you still need to work out in every case:

– your audience,

– find out how to contact them

– market to them in a way that’s makes your event irresistible.

– find out the influencers or gate keepers & market to them too

– find the relevant press

– build a press pack/EPK, ideally with images, video, information

– build a social media platform to engage with the world – from building a website & blog to being in the right LinkedIn Groups

– write a great story that makes you interesting to the press

– think on relevant giveaways & competitions for more press & audience buy in

– have an event launch for press & buyers

– find a venue or venues that makes sense for your project, whether its a club for a guest spot, a web seminar, a tour

– work out prices, be it a digital ebook,  theatre ticket prices, or cost of your artwork

Budget your marketing efforts , production costs, release party costs, press ads, interview times & travel.

– your actual event – press, guest list, free drinks & possibly food, invite reviewers

– ensure your project is brilliant & the work as best as u can make it.

So I guess we are now swinging into the last third of the series and focusing on marketing, tickets, venues, sales, press, platform…. and as I start my research into the dance music world I will share that alongside my event knowledge which is already exhaustive. I am going to treat my dance single like a live market research tool 😉

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About this series – Becoming a Successful Creative – The Business of Creativity covering all the angles and issues of putting on a show, exhibition or event to showcase your art
This is a series of daily blogs for you on how to dream up, build, market and sell a creative event, gig, festival, book launch, cabaret night, exhibition of rude plastic cupcakes or whatever creatively inspires you. It is time to create and put on that play about your family, a series of drawings about hedgehogs, the album you have talked about making or the short film you always wanted to write and make. You can read the series in order  Part One or just pick and choose a topic that interests you.