We often get the question whether we’ve got tips on how to get more out of a Gigstarter profile. That’s why we’ve analyzed dozens of profiles and tried to deduce why some artists get more bookings than others. We’ll share 5 of our findings today. Pay attention: following these tips may get you more gigs!
1 - A good video
Your profile is intended to be your sales pitch. You have to make sure your profile stands out from the crowd. We recommend that you use a representative live video that is of good quality. This way the booker knows what he’s getting when he books you. Why is this important? We often hear from bookers that the video is the decisive factor in choosing an artist. This goes for all types of acts and genres, from rock bands to DJs.
2 - Use Gigstarter for all your bookings
Gigstarter uses a ranking algorithm that determines the order in which profiles appear in the search results. The three main factors that we take into consideration is 1) the number of reviews, 2) the average rating by reviewers and 3) the time since the latest reviews. In short, the more bookings and reviews you get, the higher you’ll appear in our search results. So, how can you collect reviews? You can send confirmations to bookers, even if the booker hasn’t initially approached you via Gigstarter. Check this out by going to the Confirmations tab in your artist dashboard, and create a new confirmation. You’ll summarize the agreements concerning the gig, and send this overview to the booker. If the booker then accepts your confirmation, then he will receive a review request the day after the actual gig.
In addition to having a strong positive effect on your ranking, reviews are also very important for bookers. That 5 star review may just convince a booker to choose to book you.
The Bitches in Bitterzoet
3 - Social media
To give bookers a good impression of your act, we recommend linking your Facebook page and your Youtube channel. Certain bookers, especially professional bookers, find it important to know how many fans you have. They most likely assume that this will have an impact on how many people you will be able to attract to the event.
4 - Fair price
Ensure that you have a good price-quality ratio. We recommend you ask a fair compensation, but keep in mind what others are asking. Remember that a high price might scare bookers away. If you don’t have a fixed price, but are willing to charge a lower price for certain kinds of events (e.g. for gigs that have more promotional value), then also indicate this on the profile. You can indicate this by either specifying a price range, or by mentioning that the price is negotiable in the comments.
Daniel Gueli Trio live at the FunkMis, organized by Gigstarter
5 - Contact with a booker
If you’re invited to respond to a call, there’s a chance you might bring home the gig. In general multiple artists respond to a call, so you just have to convince the booker to pick you. We strongly recommend to reply with an enthusiastic, personal and personalized message. We see that artists who take this approach are more likely to be chosen by the booker.
We hope that this blog will help you get more out of the platform. Do you have other tips you want to share with us? Send us a message at info@gigstarter.co.uk.
To gigs,
Mark
