In London alone, there are over 1000 live music venues alone, and the UK itself contributes £1.3 billion to the live music economy. With a lot of that money spent at music venues and festivals, we'll be back to rivaling these figures in 2022 once more, which means the best-dressed venues will get a piece of the action.So how do you stand out as a venue? We decided to take the hard work out of figuring that out. Here are our top six tips:

1. Deals, deals, deals

Most people who go to gigs tend to drink – a lot. But many of those people also enjoy coming to gigs early to check out the warm-up acts and mingle with mates. So make it worth their while by providing drink deals to get them into your venue early. If you have a kitchen you could also offer cheap pub food, which is also a great way for people to try your food if they’ve never been to your venue before. They’ll tell their mates, who will then tell their mates and before long people will be coming to have a feed even when there aren’t any gigs on.

2. Pimp up your social media accounts

If your socials have fallen by the wayside, then it’s time to log back in and start promoting your upcoming events. Facebook events can be found by location so it’s an easy way for people to find out what’s happening nearby or what their friends are going to. Post some pics on your Insta page of past gigs and people will start to check in when they’re at your venue for a gig. Social media is a cheap and easy way to get your business out there and it's easier than ever to do so by incentivising customer interactions.

3. Use music streaming to your advantage

Another way to reach music fans is via Spotify or Soundcloud links, by creating an account for your venue. There are heaps of music lovers on there looking for upcoming gigs of their favourite artists. Using your Spotify account you can share content, promote upcoming events and show people what your venue has to offer. Spotify sends out emails based on people’s music preferences of local gigs so you should get on Spotify to get your gigs included.

4. Search Engine Optimisation

Think about how your venue stands out in a Google search. Google ranks websites based on hundreds of factors but ‘keywords’ and words related to those searches are one way to get your website placed higher in the queue. Imagine how many hits come up when you type in ‘gigs near me’ – too many to name. So how will your venue stand out? It’s best to think about the clientele who frequent your venue and what they are coming there for. Maybe you’ve got a kick-arse rooftop with a sick view of the city, or your band room’s floor is so sticky people joke about getting stuck to it (in a good way). Whatever your vibe, you should think about how to drive traffic to your venue’s site.

5. Data is gold

People say data is the new oil – and it’s true. If you’re not collecting data as a marketing tool, then it’s time to start now. It’s worthwhile hiring someone to do your marketing work if you haven’t got the time, but if you don’t have the money there are some simple tools such as promotional tracking links and guest check-in apps to discover where you should focus your budget. Let’s say you were running an online ad for an upcoming gig, you can look at analytics to tell you how much traffic is being sent to your website. Then you know whether this is money well spent or if that money should be spent on other campaigns.

6. Music apps are your friend

There’s an app for everything these days so it shouldn’t be any surprise that you can use an app to find up-and-coming artists to perform at your venue. For example, Surreal Live is an online marketplace that helps venues find talent and local artists can look for gigs to play at. Surreal Live has helped thousands of artists to link up the venues on our platform, from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane all the way to the U.K. So jump on your phone and start booking undiscovered talent who are waiting for their big break.If you want to stay up to date with the latest trends in live music and events and get events and promotion ideas, strategies, tips and templates sent straight to your inbox - sign up to our mailing list.

Joining the next generation of venues taking local music to the forefront of the U.K. entertainment scene? Check out our Complete Live Music Rundown for Venues to help you get started.

‍

Discover the benefits of our venue management software at Surreal.Live.