How To Promote Your Show - Things Are Gonna Get Flyer!

What a lot of independent theatre in Chicago is like...

You're a hard working producer.  You spent so much time putting together your show behind the scenes (and sometimes in front of them) to put on something people would actually pay money to go see.  The only problem is...

NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT THE SHOW!

To remedy this stiuation, here's what most theatre folks do:

1. Put together a graphic to correspond to the show.
   
   
2. Create a Facebook event and invite all of their family and friends even if they're out of state.
   
   
3. Print up a ton of postcards to pass out.
   
   
4. Spam everyone on Facebook, twitter, and e-mail to come out to the show hoping that enough begging and pleading will get them out to your show (begrudgingly).

 
The end result is that you've alienated your friends and family, ticked off out-of-towners with your Facebook pleas, and have a trunk full of flyers that eventually get trashed.   I've been a part of this scenario too many times to count.

Let's talk specifically about the most dreadful but ncessary form of promotion - flyers.

Should You Even Get Them?
The answer is "it depends".  If you care about your show, want a competitive chance of attracting audience members, and have a budget to print them up, then YES - GET THEM!  However, if you have a one-off show, don't have the money for them, or just aren't interested in having butts in the seats come curtain time, then you can stop reading this blog and visit this site instead.

If you're still reading, you've chosen to put up an actual professional production.  Good for you!  Think of flyers as your promotion card to supplement the "word of mouth" promotion your production needs to foster.  The best thing you can do when talking to someone about your show is to have a flyer handy to whip out after they ask more about it.  Not only does it feel good to hand someone something you've made and represents your show, but people who receive them think, "Hey, that cat's got his promotion together enough to hand me a glossy flyer! Maybe I should check his show out..."

Where Should You Put The Flyers?
Targeting where you put them is ideal in this situation.  Typically, people do not want to travel more than 30 minutes to see your show.  Being Chicago, it's at least 30 minutes to get anywhere so you've got a daunting challenge ahead of you.  Not only do you have to get random people to want to see your show, you have to make it so great they get over the idea of having to travel to your show.

Make sure you put your flyers at the venue if possible.  Believe it or not, people mess this up.  Many theatres in town have a place to put promotional material.  Make sure if you're having a show in their venue, EVERYONE WHO PASSES THROUGH THERE KNOWS ABOUT YOUR SHOW!  If you can make a poster from your flyer to post, even better.

Hit up all of the theatres and talent agencies in the the city that will allow you to promote your show.  Avoid coming off as unprofessional by dropping off flyers without permission in these places.  Ask someone there who seems to have authority to answer your question first for permission and then drop off your stacks.

Ask local business around the theatre if they will accept your promotional materials.  Many of them probably get hit up for it all of the time by other productions so walk in with a kind, cool demeanor and ask as adorably as possible.  Who know - they might let your show go up on their window just based on charms alone.  See if they would be willing to perform a cross-promotion with your group to entice them to have your material in their business.

Think about who you're targeting to come see the show.  Where do they hang out?  What kinds of business do they frequent?  What diversions do they enjoy?  Make sure you have flyers at all of those places.  Coffee shops and bookstores are a staple of many theatre goers.  Try flyering outside (or even inside) events that are similar to yours if possible.  The more planning you do at this stage, the easier it'll be to target where your flyers end up.

When Should You Put Up The Flyers?
You should plan to have these postcards around at least 6 weeks out from opening night.  Keep a list of establishments you posted flyers in revisit them every two weeks to make sure your materials are still there.  If they're not, ask the people working there where you materials have gone.  Hopefully they will say, "Our clients picked them up as they walked out the door!"  The truth is they may have thrown them out.  Again, build a repoire with business carrying your promo material to avoid this unfortunate case.  If they continue throwing your stuff out, cross them off your list.  Don't waste your time or money with them.  The longer the postcard is available, the better off you'll be.



Flyering is only a small part of your overall promotion strategy but it's one of the most personal and time-consuming.  Make sure your promotion team is motivated to passing them out and hyping up your show.  Do it long enough, you will definitely see a lot more smiling faces at your show!

E-Mail Marketing - Does It Really Work?

YES! It does! 

With the advent of "Web 2.5" (we're still in the middle of 2.0 and starting to head to a new revolution of 3.0 but are not quite there yet ;-) ), it's become a lot easier for people to use new social media tools to promote their shows and event.  Facebook & Twitter are by far the most use but there are other technologies such as Google+, Bebo, tumblr, MySpace, and LinkedIn gaining traction and providing even more features that give producers tools to reach many people across different demographics and interests.  With all of these tools, the one that I find to still be most effective at getting people to come see shows is good ole fashion e-mail.

The problem with social networking tools (we'll use Facebook as the example) is that they've become way too easy for someone to invite a ton of people they do not have a connection with.  It's a little too easy to add 500 Facebook friends to an invitation and send it out when many of the invitees don't live in your area to come see a show.  You can create a fan page and let people know about your show but along with all of the other noise on the timeline, your post may go unread or just be skipped over in favor of watching someone elses' YouTube video of someone falling off a roof.  You either get labeled as a spammer or just fade into the online noise.

E-mails provide a touch of personalization.  You as a producer have to work a bit to get someone's email address.  The communication between sender and receiver is literally 1-to-1.  The conversation can be customized to be relevant to the person being invited.  E-mail also has the added advantage of having an "old school" charm to it.  Just think about how excited you get when you get a personal letter from someone on actual sheets of paper.  You know someone had to put in an effort to put that together and you tend to appreciate it more.  E-mail can convey a similar feeling if done properly.

Have I convinced you to use email?  Good!  When sending your emails to your adoring fans, family, and friends, follow these simple tips to make them effective:

• Get permission to email your list - you don't want to be labeled as a spammer because once you're labeled as one, nobody will read your emails and will try to opt-out of your distribution list.  It's a good idea to have a double opt-in feature where once they sign up for your e-mails, they receive a confirmation e-mail with a link confirming who they are.  This reduces complaints and spam filtering.
  
  
• Send emails in multipart for maximum readability – Combine the best of plain-text and HTML email by sending in Multipart. For devices that don’t support HTML, they will show the message in plain-text. Conversely, if a device supports HTML, they will show it in HTML.  Make sure your show details are easily read and understood in plain text first then make them a bit fancier in the your HTML message.
  
  
• Keep the message brief and on-point - People typically want the gist of your email to be summed up in the first two paragraphs.  Leave out the extemporaneous stuff for the end or even on a webpage or blog somewhere if they want to read more.  Communicate what your show is about, who's in it, where it is, and what time it goes on right up front.  Tell them you want to see them at your show and why you think they need to be there.
  
  
• Allow someone to easily opt-out - Have a link at the bottom of your email that easily unsubscribes a user from your list.  Make sure it's clearly marked and visible.  It adds an air of professionalism to your e-mails in that it shows you care about their time and responsiveness.
  
  
• Schedule your e-mail blasts conservatively - Try to plan when you will have an e-mail blast go out.  As part of your show's marketing plan, select dates these announcements need to go out.  Try not to schedule more than two a month if you can.  The more selective you are with your email blasts, the more efficacy you'll see with each message you send out.
  
  

If you have a substantially large list, search online to review some of the more reputable e-mail marketing list providers.  If you're serious about promoting your show, be prepared to get a paid plan to make your message professional and get access to tools to make them more effective.  I personally recommend MailChimp, Constant Contact Constant Contact , and Get Response.

In fact, why don't we practice using one of them.  Sign-up for the NVDG newsletter and receive a valuable discount on your next graphic design order!

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5 Things You Can Do To Effectively Market Your Show!

You've booked the venue. You got the best director your budget could afford. You've been rehearsing twice a week for 2 months to get your original show up on is feet. You're ready to entertain the masses. Yet nobody knows a thing about all of this work, you've got rent to pay for 6-8 weeks, and a bunch of actors itching to get their time in the limelight! What are you going to do?!

Well, I'll tell ya! Follow these 5 easy tips to help get the word out:

1. Get great cast photos
   Place an ad online (Craigslist.org, PerformInk.com, Yesand.com, Chicagoimprov.org) looking for someone with experience to give you high quality photographs of your cast. If you can get pictures taken on the actual stage you are going to perform in, even better. Get some staged shots of the group as well as some action photos while the cast is performing a scene.
   
   Make sure the pictures you receive are at least 300 DPI (dots per inch) as that will allow you to use these in newspapers, magazines, and websites. Try to negotiate with your photographer to see if you can get them to edit the photos as well. Sometime they will do it for free as part of their service. Typically a lot of raw images you get need color balance, exposure correction, and some kind of editing to make sure they're at their best. Do not have them run any kind of special filters on the pictures as it could make them unusable to others looking to use them to help you promote the show. Also, make sure you credit the photographer. It gets you in good graces with them and may prompt them to spread the word about your production.
   
   
2. Pick a catchy title for your show
   This is always a fun exercise especially in the theatre world. Many groups write their own original material and don't have a definitive idea as to what to call their show until they've decided on what is going to make it into the show. Others just pick a title arbitrarily and shoe horn the title into their marketing materials. Others have the luxury of having a title as someone else wrote the material and made that decision for them (oh Rocky Horror Picture Show revivalists...you have it made!)
   
   For those of you who write your own material, if you've got the luxury of having time to tie in your title with your material, please do so. A popular title schema people use to generate title names is to take a pop culture reference (a movie, book, or TV show title) and spoof the name. For example, I'm currently in a show right now with Salsation Theatre Company, NFP entitled Textual Healing - an obvious spoof of the song Sexual Healing performed by Marvin Gaye. The material in the show deals with communication and relationships in our day and age of cellphones, texting, and social media. The title totally fits the material and has a twinkle of something familiar for people to latch onto when they see/hear about it.
   
   
3. Create an eye-catching flyer/poster
   Now that you've got your title, show logistics, and pictures, you can parlay those into a fancy postcard flyer. Again, you can post up online ads for this service. Have a face-to-face with them to communicate what you want in the graphic if possible. If not, at least talk to them on the phone. Get an estimate of how long it will take them to create your graphics and what restrictions you have when using it. There are many people willing to do the work for free or for very affordable prices (like us!). Try to find someone who has experience with marketing theatre shows as they will understand what timelines/pressures you face producing the show (again, like us!)
   
   
4. Publish a Press Release
   This is one of the easiest yet most overlooked aspects of promotion. A press release sets you apart from your run-of-the-mill productions as it implies your actually serious about what you're putting up. You will send these to anybody and everybody willing to listen/read. Your press release should include:
   
   
   • Who, what, when, where, why, and how much
     
   • Show graphic and/or cast photo
     
   • Contact information (phone number, email, and website)
     
     
   Try to keep this information limited to one printable sheet (called a one-sheet). There's no need to give extra information about your show unless it's requested :)
   
   
5. Get It Out of Your Hands ASAP
   Your press release needs to be in the hand of the press (newspapers, websites, and blogs) within plenty of time to increase the chances staff gets a chance to read about your awesome creation. Give yourself at a minimum 4 weeks before opening night to send out your press release to your contacts. I'd recommend sending it out 6 weeks in advance with a follow up email 2 weeks out from opening night. This ensures that you have considered their time to review the mountains of press releases they get every day while not being annoying about reminding them they need to come out and see/review/promote your show ;-)

That's it! Sounds easy enough, right?! Get crackin'!  There are more tips to come in the future.