How to Promote Live Shows and Tours

A guide for artists on how to promote live shows and tours by blending modern digital discovery tools and growth tactics with traditional promotional strategy.

How to Promote Live Shows and Tours

You’ve booked the tour dates, drawn up the setlists, and packed the van — now the real question is: how the heck do you make sure the rooms are full when you get there? 

Touring isn’t just about showing up to play (unless you’ve got a team of pros behind you every step of the way doing all the work). If you’re an independent, DIY band, artist, or DJ, it’s crucial to think about how you’re going to build energy and anticipation in every city you hit, and make sure the right people know when and where to come experience it live.

In this guide, we’ll unlock the secrets to successful tour promotion, and break down the most effective ways to spread the word about your upcoming concerts in order to make the impact your music deserves. Whether it’s your first time hitting the road or your fifth, these tips will help you promote live shows, create buzz, sell tickets, and build lasting fan connections. 

Let’s dive in.

1. List Your Shows on Your Primary Discovery Platforms

Make sure your all of tour dates are featured on popular platforms like Bandsintown, which integrates with Spotify and YouTube on your artist pages, to notify fans and display events across profiles, and allows you to integrate a unified ticket link no matter where someone finds the concert listing.

You can also use a platform like Bandsintown, which is set up specifically for fans to discover live events with their favorite artists, to geo-target and email fans by location. To take it a step further, by monitoring real-time sales and budget trends, you can adjust your communication tactics over time and create paid campaigns where your fan base is most active.

2. Leverage Your Email Newsletter Strategically

We just talked about emailing fans through a third-party platform where your concert dates appear, but it’s even more powerful when you can build your own mailing list to notify your most loyal fans whenever you want. Email newsletters remain among of the most well-converting methods of communication between artist and fans, and can drive ticket sales powerfully for years to come.

While on the road, collect names and emails from every show and make sure to segment your mailing list by city/state/country, in order to be able to send both global emails (for record launches, big news, etc.) and targeted emails based on location. Bandsintown, Beehiiv, MailerLite, and Mailchimp all have free tiers for beginners.

3. Use Social Media’s Free and Paid Capabilities

What is it, 2005? You already know about social media. But are you making the best use of it?

Posting a tour flyer with all your dates is okay, but there are so many more ways to engage on macro and micro levels to get both your current fans and new listeners excited about your concerts for free. People respond well to:

• Selfie-style videos or live sessions
• Behind-the-scenes content
• Personalized, fun promos that showcase your personality 
• Contests and ticket-giveaways
• Polls asking what to eat and what to do in every city you’re visiting
• And don’t forget about creating Facebook Events

It also helps to align and coordinate any strategy with the venues and promoters in advance. Share promotional assets early, sync your ad and communication plans, and help amplify each other’s messaging. Collab-tagging, mentioning, and re-sharing posts all help cross-promote amongst various audiences. 

Secondly, paid social ads can amplify your message, whether they’re targeted to the exact cities you’ll be playing or a more general region. Invest a modest budget (e.g., $50–$200) in localized advertising on Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram) and offer calls-to-action that fit the campaign.

4. Use SMS and Audio Messaging

Although mostly used in major label marketing campaigns, SMS marketing — via services like Community or SuperPhone — can drive high-engagement, timely alerts, and contest alerts, if you have a way of collecting your fans’ phone numbers. Use it thoughtfully to avoid fatigue.

Additionally, if your music is on Pandora, you can use the free tools in Pandora AMP to gain insights and drop short, clickable audio promos between songs for listeners in your tour’s city.

5. Tap Into Local Media Communities

DIY artists don’t need to hire a full PR team if you’ve got a little bit of time to research local arts magazines, newspapers, entertainment blogs, and college radio stations. Reach out to local publications and media outlets with a simple press release that collects info on your project and your tour dates. That can help cultivate some localized excitement around your gig and build a grassroots promo list for future releases.

City-specific subreddits, Discord groups, local Facebook communities, Meetup.com groups, and dedicated fan forums can also help you spread the word in a hyper-local context.

6. Blend Digital With Tangible Promotion Wherever Possible

All this talk about digital outreach, let’s not forget to target people with physical, visual artwork in their cities whenever you can! Printing small flyers or full-sized posters is a smart idea when you’ve got a few months of runway time before heading out on the road, but it can be a wasted effort if done last minute.

Reach out to the venues, promoters, and any folks you might know locally, to send those in advance and ask them to hang them in coffee shops and local businesses nearby the venues. If your digital community is strong, it doesn’t hurt to make a call for “band ambassadors” to help hang posters in exchange for free tickets to the show or merchandise.

7. Capture the Moment During Shows & Track 

Last but not least, don’t forget to document your tour as it happens. Keep the camera rolling, and record moments during soundcheck, meals, hotel rooms, and in the van, to use for behind-the-scenes social media content. Or hold onto that material to create a music video or documentary in the future.

Photos and videos of the crowd while you’re on stage is also a powerful way to remind your fans that this is all for them, and that you appreciate their support in an authentic way.

Jeremy Young

“How to Promote Live Shows and Tours” first appeared on Hypebot.com