To be successful as an independent artist, you have to be able to grow. This might mean learning new skills and picking up new tricks, or it could mean shaking bad habits. Whatever it might be, we have to constantly be willing to take a hard look at ourselves and see where we need to improve as artists and as business people, since music is a business.
With January all but wrapped up, it’s still not too late to add some new tricks to your arsenal to help make 2020 your most successful year ever. With that said, let’s talk about five things you can implement into your booking process now to boost your efforts this year…
Before we get into that, be sure to check out our FREE 4 Day How to Book [Profitable] Gigs eCourse. Whether you’re looking to start a career in music, just starting out, or a seasoned pro, this free 4 day e-course is full of great tips and information on how to make more money as an artist. Click Here to Get it.
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1) Get Organized
When you’re not organized, you’re not really doing things intentionally. You might even end up doing things randomly and just hoping for the best. While when you are organized, you know exactly what you’re going to do, when you’re going to do it, and why you’re doing it. Being organized sets your intention and allows you to be more proactive. We have three easy ways that you can get more organized in your booking efforts.
The first way is to keep a Booking Log. A Booking Log can help you to keep track of who you reached out to, when you reached out to them, how you reached out to them (by phone or e-mail), why you reached out to them, what you asked them, etc. Sometimes you have to follow up with people 2 or 3 times, other people you might have to follow up with 5 or 6 times. A Booking Log will remind you what happened each time you reached out and most importantly what you need to do next.
The second thing to do to get more organized is to have a set of Booking Scripts. When calling a venue, a script reminds you of everything you need to say and ask for, keeps you from forgetting something important, and also keeps you from overthinking the whole thing. Scripts can be full paragraphs telling you exactly what to say word for word, or they can be looser like an outline or even just bullet points, which is what I personally prefer. You’ll probably need different variations depending on the situation. For instance, you might want one for coffee shops and a slightly different one for wineries, as well as different ones for local places and out-of-town venues. For e-mails you can use templates, which are nice because you can just copy and paste them into your message and then make a few minor changes as needed. Check out our post, 5 Elements to a Strong Booking Pitch for more ideas on how to stand out with an email inquiry.
The last way to get organized is to block out time every day for booking. Booking isn’t just something you can do for a few minutes and be done with it. It takes time. You might have to call 10 places in order to get 1 show. With that said you really need to reserve a block of time in your day to do booking activities. It’s one of those things where what you put into it is what you’ll get out of it.
2) Join more Online Platforms
There are tons of music-related platforms online where you can create an artist profile, upload your music, contact venues, and attract people who might want to hire you for entertainment purposes. Find and join as many of these sites as possible because the more accessible you are, the better. You can start with this list we created of 15 Online Platforms Musicians Can Use to Book Paid Gigs.
3) Forecast your Revenue
A Forecasting Table will truly change the way you approach booking, in a good way of course. It’s basically a calendar that shows you how much you’re projected to earn on any given month.. To start, you’ll need to look 3-6 months out, since that’s typically how far out venues tend to book. Next, determine how much you want to make on a monthly basis from that point onward. If for instance in 6 months you would like to be earning $2,400/month, and on average you make $300/show, then that means you’ll need to book about 8 shows a month. As you begin to secure shows, you add them and the projected earnings to your Forecasting Table and it will show you how close you are to your monthly goal. This can then help guide you on the types and number of shows you need to book for that month. Instead of just booking random shows and hoping you make enough for the month, you’ll now have a financial focus and purpose to your booking efforts.
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4) Expand Your Target
If you’ve mainly been performing in your hometown, try to expand out to some regional cities. Maybe you’ve got a good thing going in your city and are doing well. Great! Now pick 1-3 more cities nearby and start booking a few shows in these new cities as well. This will help expand your reach and will give you more opportunities for finding gigs.
5) Strengthen Your Booking Pitch
By Booking Pitch we mean everything you share with venues when trying to book a show with them. This can include all of your promo materials like your videos, promotional images, bio, testimonials, etc. Take a look at these things and see if they need to be upgraded to be more relevant or to help you stand out more. You might even need to totally overhaul all of your materials to better sell yourself. Ultimately you want to see how you can better position yourself so that you’re unique and stand out among the many other artists these venues come across everyday.
There you have it folks! If you can add these 5 things to your bag of tricks this year, you will upgrade yourself and transition to a new level of booking. Hopefully, you will earn more money in the process. Also, don’t forget to take our free 4-Day How to Book [Profitable] Gigs e-course. Click Here to Get it.
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