Magma Music

Posters posters posters!

January 5th, 2009

Posters for essential for promoting a band. Most of the time, there isn’t a direct correlation between posters and people at shows.  A lot of the time, they’re simply a large business card for a band.  Until a band is really sought after, they might only have 1% effectiveness for getting heads in the door.  So 100 people see your poster and 1 of them come to the show, or tell someone about the show.

THE VITAL MIGHT is heading on a tour in January and February and I just spent about an hour marking up some posters, packing them in envelopes, and writing addresses on the packages.  This simple hour of work will go a LONG way for the band, but as I said, not directly related to people streaming into the shows because they saw a poster.

Then what do they do for the band?

1. They show professionalism to anyone who sees them. Club owners, managers, booking agents, bartenders, patrons, other bands, etc.  Anyone involved with the bar or venue (whose job is to get people into the venue and potentially buy booze) will see that you’re making an effort to develop a following at the venue or in the area.   If you’re trying to get heads in the door (to pay covers & buy alcohol), you’ll always be the venues’ friend.  This goes a long way towards booking more and better shows in the future at the venue.

2.  They create some subtle name recognition. If you send them every time you head through Philadelphia, and you play similar clubs, the people who go out to shows will start to see the posters a 2nd and 3rd time and subconsciously think, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of those guys.”  In some cases, just by seeing good looking posters several times, people will have a positive impression of the band, even if they haven’t heard a note.  There are SO many bands out there and so many ways to hear about them.  Any name recognition edge you can get may help.

A few tips on posters:

• I highly recommend creating a somewhat generic poster (that is very compelling visually, 11×17 if you can afford it) and leaving a block of a light color somewhere on the poster where you can write in details of the show.  For instance:  Sat Jan 17th at Dr. Watson’s Pub.  That’s all you need.  The posters will be in or around the venue, so people will know what you’re talking about.  For example:
• Reuse posters and buy them in larger quantities. They’re cheaper and you don’t have to deal with the hassle of remaking, reordering, and paying for more shipping, so they’re cheaper.  We’re still using 2007 posters for THE VITAL MIGHT (that have a silhouette of a band member who’s no longer in the band and that says “Aught Seven” on it).  But as I was putting these guys up one day in 2008, I bumped into a guy at the Sound Museum in Brighton who said, “Hey, nice poster!  I do screen-printing if you ever need more.”  I said, “Yeah, I might since these say Aught Seven and have an old band member in them.”  He said, “Who cares!  They look great!  No one will notice that!”  So we’ve continued to send them and post them and no one has said a word.
• Make specialty posters for special shows. This one sort of goes against the last bullet, but I think it’s important to change up the posters from time to time.  If you keep posting and sending the same design over the course of a year, people might tune it out and think it’s the old poster.  At LEAST make a specialty web flyer, since those are free to make. For instance:

• Packaging. Try to stay cheap.  You don’t need to buy poster mailers or giant 11×17 envelopes.  I have catalog envelopes that work very well.  You can fold the posters the long way (without creasing them) and push them into the envelope and tape up the opening.   Also, mark the envelope well so the club owner or whoever gets the mail knows that there are posters for a show inside.  If you’re helping them promote a show and get those drinking mouths in, they’ll rip it open and get someone to put them up ASAP.  For example:
•  
  CD with the posters. Drop a CD in the envelope.  The club owner or bar manager might take it out and put it in the rotation of music that plays at the bar, or in the jukebox.
• Send them for every show and poster in your main cities for EVERY show. Even if you know you’re going to bring 200 people to the next show, send ‘em or post ‘em anyway.  The people who went to the show might see the poster and get even more excited and bring more people, or brag about it after the show.

That’s my take today on posters.  I’d love to hear what other people think or if they have different techniques than I do on postering.

Entry Filed under: Techniques