How I promote live shows, a 10 point list (#2 is most important)

There’s a sentence that will ALWAYS make people listen to you:

One of the things I teach in the Ethically Persuasive Communication workshops I run for companies is that, when you can tell someone at work, “I will save you time in your day”, they’ll be interested. In the spirit of that: instead of today’s mailer being a lot of paragraphs you need to wade through, it is a bulleted list.

HOW I PROMOTE MY LIVE SHOWS — ten steps

**side note: are you in Toronto? If so, come to (free!) Parachute Club tomorrow night (Tues) at 6.30 in Christie Pits! And go to things all week at Toronto Games Week**

1. Post it online (socials and, ideally your website if that’s poss). Even if you don’t have a big following, you need a digital storefront window where people can learn about.

2. Wherever you share it, ALWAYS include these details:

• Name of Event
• Date of event INCLUDING DAY OF THE WEEK(so many people leave this off, but if you put the day, it’s so much easier for me to be like “Ah, Tuesday, a day I can usually do”)
• Time of event
• Venue name
• Venue first line of address (eg 1197 Dundas St West)
• Nearest cross street (eg “@ Ossington”)
• How much it is, whether they need to get tickets and, if so, from where (eg “Tickets $15 advance from truestoriestoronto .com” or “Free entry, just show up!”)
• If it’s not obvious from the name (True Stories Told Live / All Lady Gaga Dance Party) then one line saying what the event is (“live poetry about chairs” / “funny variety show”)

3. If you’re on Facebook, make a Facebook event and click “hide RSVPs”. Even if no one responds, it’s a place to point people to.

2. If you can, make a webpage as well (ditto)

3. Put posters up in coffee shops and on community notice boards. Mine are made on Word and are ugly as sin, but info>sexy design ALWAYS

4. Have a mailing list and send things to it. You can start with people you know WHO HAVE SAID THEY WOULD LIKE TO BE ON IT (in Canada you have to legally get their permission! But it’s also annoying to be non-consensually added!)

5. Send several emails — maybe 4-8 per show over 2-3 weeks. Add value in every email so people want to open it and won’t resent you emailing them six times. how do you do that? (i) Include a story or a link to something fun. (ii) Make the subject line informative (“next show on Thurs”) AND intriguing (eg by relating to that link “the coolest video I saw this week”)

5. Don’t be offended when people unsubscribe. We’re ALL busy and overwhelmed in our inboxes. Let them go with grace. Even better: don’t check who left*.

6. If you’re using a ticketing website, weigh out the pros and cons of each. Eventbrite will help get the word out (if you have descriptive keywords & categories) because people might be searching for that kind of event, but they charge and arm and a leg in fees. I know people like Luma. I’m devoted to ti.to because their customer service is excellent, they’re easy to use, and they charge very little.

7. If your event costs money, consider an accessibility clause. Set aside a number of free or very reduced price tickets. The way I do it is, on my mailing list (for my Ghost Stories shows), I say, “If $15 is a stretch, hit reply with the words STRETCH PARTY and I’ll add you to the free guestlist. No questions asked, I trust you”. This doesn’t help promote the show but it’s just a cool thing to do, and if you’re reading this, you must be cool.

8. Send info to local press. They pretty much just want the details outline in point #2, along with maybe more like a paragraph of what it is, and names of anyone performing. You can find their emails by googling or searching their site or guessing.

9. If not many people come, make it SUPER-special for the people who are there.
My storytelling teacher Sage Tyrtle once put on a show during a snowstorm, and was feeling bad about so few people showing up for it. Then (as i later discovered), she thought, What would Marsha do? She’d make this into a special thing. So she spun it as like, “We’re the secret awesome people who made it out!” Then, one by one, all the storytellers did the same, including details they wouldn’t usually share. I’m sure everyone there still remembers that show, just like I do, 10 years later!!

10. Ideally, you’re gonna do all of this weeks in advance, but even just the day before is good. As is evidenced by… me sending this email less than 48 hours before Parachute Club at Christie Pits (Tues, 6.30-7.30pm! S-E corner!)

Ok, so which of these were most helpful/interesting/surprising? Lemme know in the comments!

Thanks for reading! You rule,

x x (Yes Yes) Marsha

PS Want my free guide to the magic bullet for captivating storytelling, along with free coaching via email on storytelling and writing captivating presentations? Join the Yes Yes Family — it’s FREE! Just pop your details in below and I’ll ship the guide over**:

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