It's VITAL to Do a Show Analysis Sheet for Every Show

As a band, it is vital that you constantly know how well you are progressing toward your goals. If you are not consistently tracking the results of your promotion AND tracking the results from each show that you play--you will easily fall into a groove of doing the “same old things” and will not be able to maximize the effectiveness of each show that you play. The Show Analysis Sheet allows you to track the details of each show you play, so that you can actually see what promotion worked and how effective it was, as well as see a clear picture of what you accomplished at the show as far as CD sales, new fans, etc.

Essentially, you will have a Show Analysis Sheet for EACH show. We recommend that you keep all of these sheets in a binder so that you can see your progress and refer back to them later. This will help you see over many shows what works and doesn't work as well as how far you've come in reaching the type of success that you desire. You will start a Show Analysis Sheet as SOON as you book the show--since you will be keeping track of all promotion that you do in advance for the show.

There are three parts to your Show Analysis sheet.

PROMOTION DONE:
This is the section that gives you a true, unbiased picture of what promotion you actually did for this show, how effective each type of promotion was, and how many hours you spent promoting. It's also useful to keep track of which band members have done what, so that you can easily delegate different responsibilities to different band members. This portion allows you to honestly see for yourself if you did actually promote as much as you thought you did--as well as allow you to see which promotions actually yielded results. There is nothing worse than an artist thinking that they did twice as much promoting as they actually did. Thinking that you did two or three times more promoting than you actually did only sets you up for disappointment because you'll be expecting two or three times the results. So actually tracking what you do to promote AND how much time and money you spend on each promotion type is important.

Remember to TRACK the results of each type of promotion you do! For instance, if you want to test the effectiveness of your MySpace bulletins (and you should, to ensure that you're not wasting your time and/or counting on results that won't actually be realized)--tell fans in that bulletin if they mention the bulletin at the show they get a FREE sticker, button, or 1-song CD. That way, you can actually see the results of the bulletin you sent out--because fans will mention it to get the free item if that's why they came to the show. Make sure to mark down each person night of the show that came because of this bulletin so that you can accurately log your results in the Show Analysis Sheet. By testing your promo tactics, you can improve your tactics or just stop wasting your time on the tactics that aren't working! You may find it's just not worth putting three hours into a certain promotional tactic when it only yields one or two fans actually coming to the show because of it!

AT THE SHOW STATS:
These are the stats from the show that allow you to see the actual results of your promotion. It also allows you to see total attendance. Knowing YOUR draw, and the total attendance is important. This allows you to see how many potential new fans were at the show. For instance, if 200 people came out, and 45 were there for your band, then you know that 165 potential fans were at the show. That is the number you compare your “Number of New Fans Made” results to. Knowing how many potential fans were at the show and your “conversion rate” of making those potential fans into new fans is good to know so that you can look for improvement in this number. By tracking what you do and the results of what you do, you can better understand how your band is progressing and what is working and not working. Any data that you can collect that gives you a truer picture of what your band accomplished at each show will help you make the most of each show and will help you achieve your desired results much more quickly.

EXAMPLE: This is an example of one of the ways the Show Analysis Sheet can give you a clearer picture about whether you did well or poorly at attracting new fans at the show. For instance, if you know that the show had 100 people in total attendance, and you know that YOUR draw was 70; then by filling out the Show Analysis you will see that the number of “potential new fans” was 30. This means that if you got only 15 new fans from that show, you actually had great results since you converted 50% of the potential fans into new fans! Conversely, if 100 total people came to the show and you only drew 20 people, then there were 80 potential new fans. In this case, if you only made 15 new fans you actually didn't maximize the effectiveness of this show for gaining new fans, because you essentially only made 18% of the potential fans into new fans. In either scenario, if you had not filled out a Show Analysis Sheet, you may have been happy with scenario two when in reality you didn't really maximize the effectiveness of that show for gaining new fans. By doing the Show Analysis Sheet for each show you can start to see details such as this so that you can truly see if what you are doing is helping you reach your goals.

POST-SHOW ANALYSIS:
This section is the “reflection” section. This is where you honestly look at the data and ask yourself questions such as “Are we satisfied with the results?” “Did we do everything that we could have to promote this show?” “What should we do differently next time?” “What was ineffective and should be eliminated from our promotion strategies?” This allows the group members to discuss their answers so that they can find out how to optimize each show and make the next one even better. Without looking at each show in this way, it's hard to actually see how you are progressing and IF you are seeing the results that you want. Also, sometimes artists are doing well without realizing it. They can get discouraged but once they start filling out Show Analysis Sheets they can start to see that they are actually making good progress. Also, Show Analysis allows the group to see which members are achieving the best results from their promotion efforts and learn from what they are doing to make everyone else's efforts as effective as possible. By keeping track of EACH show in it's own Show Analysis Sheet and keeping them all in a binder, you can see what worked and what didn't for each show as well as see a clearer picture of how you are progressing at accomplishing your goals!

Be creative! Only you can decide what data you need to be tracking and what questions you need to be asking yourself after the show. For an example of a Show Analysis Sheet in PDF format, click here. Feel free to use this version when you analyze your shows, but it will likely be in your best interest to create your own custom sheet that can change to improve over time. Also, for ideas on which types of promotions can yield great results check out the following links, these are some of the strategies that have worked well for other artists and are probably worth considering. If you try them out, be sure to track the results and modify as needed to maximize the effectiveness of your time.

For links on how to Most Effectively Expand Your Fan Base so that you have people at the front of the stage every time you play, visit:

Fans, it Takes One to Make One
Keep Friends Close & Your Fans Closer
Missing Pieces of the Live Show Puzzle
What Temperature are Your Fans?

For information about strategies that have proven for most to be much more effective than fliers and posters, visit:

Fliers They Can Hear