The Gigging Musician Podcast

The Band Showcase Funnel

April 27, 2021 Jared Judge
The Gigging Musician Podcast
The Band Showcase Funnel
Show Notes Transcript

In this message, Jared shares a creative strategy one wedding band in Chicago uses to literally get hundreds of engaged couples to hear their music live and book them for their weddings.

So the big question is this, how are gigging musicians like us who don't make any money streaming? Who are spending money from our own pockets? How do we treat our music careers as online businesses in a way that lets us get our music and the things we believe in out to the world yet still remain profitable? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Jared Judge and welcome to the gigging musician podcast. Hey, guys, it's Jared. And today I want to tell you about conversation I had yesterday that I'm super excited to try out. So the conversation was with a bandleader in Chicago, I'm going to keep the name protected for an anonymity sake. But she was telling me about her wedding band. She's been a Wedding Singer for years. And I was telling her like, you know, a lot of my bands that I work with are looking for some creative strategies to book more weddings. So how do we book more weddings? And how do we get people to experience our music? Because, well, we typically don't open our performances up to the public because weddings are not public. Unless you're what being a wedding crasher, where gatecrasher for us in England? And so how do we get people to experience our music? Which is the number one way for them to fall in love with us? And imagine us at their wedding? And, of course, how do we do that? In when we don't, we've got recordings on our website, but how do we do it in a way that's better than recorded music, better than videos on YouTube. And so she was telling me like, when her band first started in Chicago, they also had that same problem. They were playing a lot of music, and they loved doing it. And the problem for them was that they just had no way of getting the word out there about their band. And so they felt like they were hitting a wall, they just kept practicing and kept recording things. But they didn't see the number of bookings for weddings increase. So then somebody told them about showcases, where they could actually go to a restaurant or a bar that has a stage and a PA, and, you know, showcase their their work put together like a one hour show that demonstrates the different elements of their band, and what it might sound like at a wedding. And then they would drive people to that showcase. So put a link on their website, share it on social media, create a big deal out of it, you know, share it with wedding planner, share it with venue saying, Hey, we're a new wedding band in Chicago. And we're putting on this showcase. And we'd love to have all of you come and experience what our band is like, you'll get to hear the full power of our horn section. And it'll be amazing. And so she told me, she did that. And then it was amazing. Because their first showcase they had a packed house. And at the end of the showcase, they actually had a line nearly out the door of brides and grooms who were interested in having them at their wedding, that they wanted to ask questions and really asking these intelligent questions that demonstrated they were really seriously interested in booking them for the wedding. And then, of course, the call to action, you know, what do they do next, after they attend the showcase, they drove them to their booking optimized website. And so once they started showcasing they started doing an incredible amount of weddings. And it really was a game changer for them and their business. So I'm really excited because that's something that I am planning on starting as soon as I can, you know, as soon as COVID. And everything dies down a bit where people are more comfortable going out, which you know, some people already are. And that's awesome. And so I'm going to start doing that too, and see how showcases could impact my band. So that's just a quick story. This was a really awesome conversation. I really appreciate the band leader who shared that with me. And I hope that it helps you too, because at the gigging musician, podcast and BookLive Pro, we're always looking for more creative strategies, to get people to book our music so that we can share music with the world and make a living doing what we love. So if you're interested in strategies like these and more, head on over to BookLivePro.com and there is we're doing a training you can check out the booking optimized page training. So that's BookLivePro.com/booking-optimized-page, or just check out our ecosystem because that's what we love to do join the gigging musicians Facebook group, we're all in this together trying to get our music out there in the world. Thanks for listening, guys, if you found this valuable or if you tried to implement a showcase with your band, I would love to hear how it went. Just leave us a comment like this podcast, share it on Facebook, and we'll see you next time on The gigging musician podcast.