grassrootsy

Radical Marketing: How I Made 80 New Fans in 1 Hour!

Today’s post is a contributed article from Pittsburgh-based folk musician, Michael Yolch. I think this is one of the most intelligent, “Grassrootsy” ideas I’ve ever heard and I hope you’ll read it all the way through. It’s not only a great idea, but it’s a good read!

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Today I had a rather radical marketing idea and followed it all the way through. I wanted to share it. It doesn’t matter what your genre is; this can work for all of you! It went just like this:

Chris Smither is an international folk, acoustic, singer/songwriter.  My music pretty much fits in the same genre as his. It turns out that Chris Smither played in Pittsburgh tonight at a very intimate and well-known venue. For a few weeks I wasn’t sure if I would even attend the show because, even though he’s great to see, I had seen him before and I didn’t know if I felt like driving over an hour through really crappy weather into downtown.

And then it hit me. The audience that is going to see Chris Smither is EXACTLY the same audience that “should” like my music too! Since I don’t have the distinct honor of opening for Chris Smither just yet, I can at least promote myself to him and his fans! Why not?

THE PLAN PART 1:
First of all, I assumed that Chris would be eating at his favorite place across the street from the venue. I would find him and very kindly offer to pay for his dinner for just 5 minutes of his time. I would be incredibly respectful and not intrude if he was with other guests etc. But Chris is very down to Earth and very accessible that way. That helps.

THE PLAN PART 2:
Since I have just finished up my brand new album “Smiles and Tribulations,” I have nearly 1,000 of them sitting here ready for my upcoming LIVE shows. Plenty of those are ear-marked for promotion purposes (being sent off to radio stations, reviewers, promoters, coffeehouses and the list goes on). Bottom-line-wise, these CD’s only cost about 80 cents to be professionally reproduced by DiscMakers at this quantity. So… I grab 80 CD’s and head out to the show with the intention of GIVING every single one of them away for FREE to Chris Smither’s fans. The actual (cost) to do this? $64.

THE REALITY:
I park near the venue and hop out of my car all excited… only to see that the restaurant I assumed Chris would be at has been closed down for good. Ugh! No problem. Surely he’s nearby! So now I’m walking up and down the streets like a weird stalker looking for Chris Smither through the windows of every eatery I can find. Lo and behold, I eventually peek inside the winning window and see Chris and his opening act, Ellis Paul, seated at a table together appearing to not yet have eaten.

I walk in smiling and head toward their table while maintaining a very unthreatening distance. Chris looks up to me and I say “Please forgive me gentlemen, but I was just hoping that one of tonight’s audience members could just say hello before the show starts.” Chris smiled, shook my hand, then motioned for me to pull up a chair. We spent a good 15-20 minutes talking about all of our music, his life on the road and things of that nature. I thanked him kindly for his inspiration to my own music and he was just incredibly gracious the whole time. I gave Chris and Ellis both a CD and headed on out of their way. Before I left, I let them know that their dinner was paid for and it was my pleasure to treat them. Cost? $40.

Now I head to the venue and the doors don’t open for another half hour. There are no less than 40 people standing outside waiting to get in. Perfect time to start handing out free CD’s! I begin smiling and handing out albums. Every single person is incredibly gracious and appreciative. I talk to everyone and make them laugh and before you know it, everyone’s in on the fun. They ask a lot of questions. “Where are you from?” “Will you be playing around Pittsburgh?” “Did you write all these songs?”

Notice what’s happening here… I am (personally) in front of A LOT of (potential) fans and they really enjoy it. All the fun ends when I walk in the door to buy my ticket. The lady selling tickets says “Sorry, we’re completely sold out.” She even refuses to sell me a standing room only ticket after great persuasion!

THE PERSEVERANCE:
I head back to the restaurant and Chris Smither is just putting his coat on to leave. He sees me and smiles. I say “Chris, it’s tragic! The show is so sold out that they won’t even let me in to stand there!” Chris smiles and says “Don’t worry about it; you’re a friend on my guest list. Follow me.” WOW! Thanks man!

Chris tells the crabby lady at the door “This is my friend Michael. He’s on the guest list.” Crabby lady actually replied “Is he REALLY or did he just talk you into it?” Chris says “He’s ON the guest list.” And we waltz inside. The venue was packed to the max. There were even people sitting on the stage! As people kept pouring in, I kept shaking hands and handing out CD’s. Fortunately, a lot of the people that came were couples. Otherwise, I would have needed a couple hundred CD’s for everyone to get one. As it turned out, I handed out my 80^th CD after a great show on my way out the door.

THE REWARD:
For me personally, this entire plan was a great success… even if just for the experience of it all.

• I hung out with a rather legendary musician while putting my name, face, and music in front of him
• I met a lot of great people and saw a great show!
• As far as finding fans, it’s a matter of odds. Some of those people will invariably not care much at all for my record. But I have no doubt that some of them will enjoy it very much.