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Small soundco advertising


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I would like to see what you all have experienced in terms of publicizing/marketing your services as a small soundco. I am interested to see what has worked and not worked for getting jobs in the range of up to about a 1000-2000 person show - Either outside or inside. Add a small amount of lights, etc. I have ideas about advertising locally but want to see what this board's population thinks, especially if you serve in a rather rural area.

 

Thanks,

 

B. Holt

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Well, there's the obvious stuff:

 

1) Yellow pages listing. No fancy (expensive) ad is really needed, just a listing so folks can find your phone number.

 

2) Website that shows the services available.

 

Beyond that, there are a few web based referral services as well as a couple of publications.

 

I suggest preparing a promo pack, then hit the bricks. If there are music stores in the area which are not running competing services, drop promo packs off with them and talk it up with their staff. Folks seem to contact music stores to line up production services. Then I'd hit the convention centers, booking agents, the fair conventions, catering companies, equipment rental outfits, clubs, arenas, convention centers, performing arts centers, schools, churches, chamber of commerace, etc...

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Word of mouth is my biggest gig-getter. I don't exactly run a "sound company" more or less I'm "that one dude with a PA that does a good job", so I don't exactly advertise my services. I've just been running sound for my band and a few others, people seem to like my work and the word just spreads, I guess.

 

If I were to turn this a real business, I'd do what mark said. Put together a promo pack and give it to EVERYONE that is involved in putting on an event of any kind. Offer to do shows for free for a while, not all of them, but like, fundraisers and non-profit events, it's great press. You could get a big banner made up to hang at events you're running sound for, with a phone number and a website, so it's obvious who exactly is doing this wonderful job and how people can call you to find out how to get you at their event.

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Offer to do shows for free for a while, not all of them, but like, fundraisers and non-profit events, it's great press.

 

It might generate too much of the wrong kind of press. You've gotta really be careful with giving it away for free, and you need to be ultra conscious of what that is costing you. At a minimum, figure your costs will be:

 

1) At least 1% of the replacement value of the equipment used, plus:

2) 30 cents to $1 per mile of travel, plus:

3) Whatever your time is worth (you can probably make $10/hr. doing something else that doesn't involve as much back breaking work and liability). I don't think I've ever worked a show that didn't involve at least 16 hours for everything involved.

4) Out of pocket expenses and damages.

5) The cost of running a legitimate business. Business insurance alone will run at least $2,500/yr. for a basic policy regardless of how minimal your gross is.

 

So... hauling out $20K worth of gear and doing a show is going to cost you at least $400 in expenses and displaced employment income. $400 will buy you a good chunk of conventional advertising. Also, especially in rural areas, the general public generally has ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE what production COSTS. No frikkin clue... but their general impression seems to be about 1/10th of the reality of the situation... so doing work for free will confirm their preconceived concepts on this matter.

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Word of mouth is what I have used for 25 years. It works very well provided you do what you say you are going to do and willing to stick it out for the long haul. It takes time to develop word of mouth referrals. Remember, word of mouth can go both ways.

 

A small yellow page listing like Mark mentioned is essential too, it shows creditability.

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A small yellow page listing like Mark mentioned is essential too, it shows creditability.

 

I'd like to mention that a few (many) Yellow Pages listings might serve you well. Chances are regular citizens might not know sound reinforcement is called Sound Reinforcement, so it's a good idea to place additional Yellow Page listings where the regular citizens will possibly look, like under:

 

1) Music

2) DJ Services

3) Equipment rental

4) Catering

5) Bands

6) Balloons (seriously)

7) Ballrooms

8) Convention Services and Facilities

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I partly owned and operated a small SR company in the 80s (Breathless Sound CO.). The vast majoriety of business we got was through networking (new name for word of mouth). We did do a few mailers specificaly targeted to Agents, Casino marketing and special event departments, government Special event depts, Dance schools and public schools. This did lead to a few jobs which expanded (through word of mouth) into more later. We also made ourselves avalable to a couple of much bigger SR companies in the area who would occasionaly give us "spill over" gigs during the busy season (we were famous for doing the low and mid level gigs $200 - $1000 that nobody else wanted to do (of course sometimes we found out why:freak: )). Conversly we would turn over business that came our way that was beyond our scope. We even got a comission a couple of times.

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