The day after your party is no time to relax: There is stuff to be done to build on your success. Pic: Second Life
It’s the day after. Your event went off well, you had a packed venue, the music was phenomenal, photos were taken, new fans were made, and you made a good impression.
Whether or not you have another event coming soon, don’t lose your momentum! Too many in the past have simply fallen lazy at this moment and thus lost key opportunities to build upon their success.
Today we’re going to explore what you should be doing after your event. Small things you can do simply to make your brand even stronger and build a foundation for future endeavours.
Post your media from the event
Don’t get lazy on this. The very next day, go through all the photos that were taken and pick out the ones you want to post online. Pick the ones with good looking people, packs of pretty girls, the DJs, interesting looking folk, gogo dancers (if you had them), staff, crowd shots, and just anyone that was fun. You should also set aside copies of any photos you think would look good in online ads and flyers. Do this now before shrinking down all the photos for online use.
If you’ve taken a large amount of photos, then stay within 50 to 100 photos that you end up posting online. You don’t want overkill, but you don’t want to leave anyone out. You should also add an image of the flyer or online ad in with the photos, just as a reference. In the end, make sure the photos you select will portray the marketing image you have of your events and your company.
Get your club and crowd photos up on your Facebook Page or even better your own site, nice and fast, while they're still hot.
If you’ve recorded any of the DJ sets or even video, look to get that online within the week. If you didn’t think of doing this, plan for it the next time. Live DJ sets, even of the unknown guys who opened your evening, can do a lot in promotion. Plus it shows the DJs you are helping them, thus they’ll work harder you for. In terms of video, you can post them raw as you shot them, or edit them down into a “highlight reel” using simple software even like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker.
You should post photos and DJ mixes on your website or the website you might have created for your promotion company. If you have neither, then try social media, but make sure all can access them. You might also want to try posting those DJ mixes on the various free services open to DJs like Mixcloud and MixCrate.
Video is the same deal. Post them on YouTube, Vimeo, or both. Just make sure the profile page is of your promotion company and there are leads to draw newcomers to a central spot for your promotions. (This is why I think you should have a website to lead people to.)
Promote the posted materials
As soon as you’ve got your media somewhere online, promote that. Let your fans relive the night again, with the result being they share those memories around the internet. You know many people will use a good photo taken of them as a Facebook profile photo? Often those photos are from promoters.
If you’re doing email marketing, then send out a blast with links to the media.
If you’re doing email marketing, then send out a blast with links to the media and a thank you message to all who came out. If you have another event coming up in the week, toss in a blurb about it. If not, then just leave it as a thank you. Fans and followers will never ridicule someone for being humble. This also helps you connect with them more. Make sure you have links to your website and social media. It will be the invitation for them to connect.
Think about press releases
This is an overlooked item among many promoters outside of those looking to get the tourists and office workers who normally don’t go out. Many club and even rave promoters usually just push flyers, online ads, and nothing more.
Listings magazines are always running what's on guides, club round-ups and recommendations: Make a press release and you may end up included in these.
What is a press release? It’s generally a one-page document telling of your event. You can send one as a preview type of material and then another one after the event telling of your success. You should include an image of the flyer and a few event photos if this is a post-event press release.
This might sound silly, but bear in mind a lot of people aren’t “in the know” about the scene. They turn to local newspapers and online sites that more or less tell of weekly bar events, festivals, and restaurant openings.
A press release previewing your event does the work of writing copy for this publication, and they might just put your event on their list of “things to do”.
A post-event press release can also help because readers will see some cool thing that happened, and thus want to know more about you so they can make the next one.
If you need to learn to write a press release, head over to this tutorial on eHow.com.
Wrapping it all up
This whole series is pretty much what I know and have learned from promoting. The mistakes I’ve made in the past and the success stories in my neck of the woods have taught me all of this stuff that I’ve tried to share with you here.
Any DJ who isn’t deeply going the music production route should try to learn promotion.
I honestly think any DJ who isn’t deeply going the music production route should try to get into and learn promotion. It gives you real perspective on how things are run, and why things happen. I might at times come off as a “music snob” in my disdain for Top 40 music, but my time as a promoter did show me why so much of the nightclub scene is centred around catering to this crowd, as opposed to just pushing the musical landscape.
It gives many a DJ a lot of grounding in terms of how they should approach their work. This is how you learn to give a service, and seek out that happy medium where you can love what you do and get a crowd in there with you. I know that whenever I talk to DJs who promote versus those who just spin music, it’s like night and day they way they look at it all.
I know there are probably many questions and possible items not covered in this series, so I invite you to join on on the forum and share your opinions and questions. I’m on there every day, and am happy to provide answers and discuss issues and scenarios.
So how have your promotion efforts gone? What do you like to do when your event is still “hot”? Let us know your triumphs, disasters and tips in the comments.
Now go to:
How To Promote Events & Throw Your Own Parties: Part 5
How To Promote Events & Throw Your Own Parties: Part 1″
Your Questions: How And When Should I Use A Microphone?
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Another task I think is important is to speak to as many of your clubbers as you can personally. Twitter, Facebook, a forum on your site – they all give easy access to one-to-one contact and they help to keep your club front-of-mind between gigs. Of course, clubbers find each other, and you can often kickstart the conversation then leave them to it! Club nights are only on a few hours a week, so it’s good to have some way of letting people continue to “club together” the rest of the time.
Great, series, BTW D-Jam – loved it!
[ link ]I agree…this pretty much comes down to using Facebook effectively, as well as other social networks.
[ link ]great read. planning an event in the coming months with a business partner and this series really gave us confidence. keep it up
[ link ]Thanks for another great series, though some of this is obvious a number of times i went doh should have done that…
[ link ]… its surprising how often we can forget the simplest of things, which also can have great impact.
[ link ]Great series. I am in the process of trying to land and promote some events in Chicago. It’s been tough but this has opened my eyes to things I never would have thought about in the past. Thanks again.
[ link ]Good luck. Hit me up on your events so I can get an idea of what you’re doing.
[ link ]Another great article in the series. I’ve found that after the first event, everyone involved in the production is happy and upbeat, more or less no matter what. After the second event, people often times feel a let-down, even if there was a slight uptick from the previous event. I think that as humans we can say we don’t expect overnight success but deep down we really do… especially if so much time passes between events (since events are usually weekly or monthly).
[ link ]This is why this site is the best DJ site on the net. Great articles
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