There was a time when hanging posters and securing radio spots were enough to fill venues. Now, successful concert marketing is equal parts art and science. These days, the only sold-out concerts are those that benefit from a well-orchestrated promotion strategy.
Modern concert promotion requires a sophisticated mix of digital strategy, authentic engagement, and precise targeting—all executed with creativity. Here’s how to promote a concert and generate buzz for an unmissable experience.
How to Promote a Concert in 10 Simple Steps
With 69.9 million tour tickets sold in 2024, live music proved its enduring draw. Capturing your share of this massive audience takes more than luck. Here’s what’s working now to fill seats.
1. Start Video Marketing Early
Powerful concert promotion should transport potential attendees to the experience. Video content proves indispensable here, offering a preview of the energy they can expect. Like any component of an entertainment marketing strategy, video content needs to pack a punch:
- Behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage creates a sense of intimacy.
- Quick cuts of past performances build anticipation ahead of the show.
- Artist interviews provide a personal connection they can’t get anywhere else.
- Venue walk-throughs offer a chance for attendees to visualize their experience.
- Exceptional production value and editing demonstrate overall value.
The key is creating content that feels less like an advertisement and more like an invitation to be part of something truly special. The earlier you can start teasing video content, the better.
2. Plan Interactive Experiences Onsite and Online
Static announcements are great for offering critical details and keeping your event top of mind. Interactive elements, on the other hand, can turn everyday viewers into engaged audience members. This engagement can create emotional connections long before the first note plays. Consider these tips:
On the Site: Offer things like virtual venue tours, countdown timers, and custom playlist builders featuring potential songs from the artist’s setlist.
On Social: Create polls, duet challenges, and interactive AR filters that let fans preview different parts of their upcoming concert experience.
On Their Phones: Create SMS-based quizzes and Q&As, send mobile-exclusive BTS content, and offer text-to-win contests for free merch or upgrades.
3. Run Geo-Targeted Advertising to Reach the Right People
Smart promotion makes sure your concert marketing budget works as hard as possible. Geo-targeted advertising is one way to help your concert promotions reach genuine fans, not just whoever is in the area. Make sure you:
- Target ads within a realistic distance of the venue.
- Adjust messaging based on local preferences.
- Focus on areas where similar artists have succeeded.
- Layer demographic data with location targeting.
- Test radius settings to optimize sales.
The key is balancing proximity with passion—sometimes your most enthusiastic audience members are the ones willing to make a journey for the experience.
4. Incorporate User-Generated Content for Authentic Promotion
Some artists enjoy a rare luxury: their fans become their most powerful agents of concert promotion. Even emerging acts can tap into this phenomenon. When fans feel connected, they naturally become ambassadors for the show.
User-generated content provides valuable social proof that paid ads simply can’t replicate. It resonates more deeply than polished promotional materials and builds a valuable community for concertgoers.
Encourage Fans to Share: Create opportunities for fans to share concert memories, whether photos, videos, or stories.
Group Tour Stops: Dedicate specific hashtags, artwork, or tour merch and materials for different tour stops.
Post and Highlight: Feature user-generated content as part of your overall marketing strategy, tying UGC to announcements and updates when possible.
Always thank, credit, and shout out creators for sharing their experiences, whether in a social media carousel, via personalized post-concert SMS, or tagging them individually on different platforms.
5. Promote Themed Merchandise to Ramp Up Excitement
It’s no secret that great merchandise essentially functions as walking billboards. Merch is a major revenue generator, but it’s also a solid way to deepen fan connections and elevate hype before, during, and after the show.
Here’s how to do it:
- Design limited-edition items for specific tour dates.
- Create collectible series that span multiple shows.
- Offer early merchandise access with ticket purchases.
- Develop location-specific variants.
- Use QR codes on merch to unlock exclusive content.
Pro Tip: When you combine strategic merchandise drops with SMS, you leverage both tools simultaneously to drive sales and engagement. Artist Maren Morris used her SMS channel to promote merch and even used her merch to promote her Humble Quest Hotline.
Need more concert promotion tips? Check out Our Guide to Concert Promotion: 8 Ways to Make Your Tour a Success
6. Drive Engagement with SMS Campaigns
Some marketing channels excel at building hype, while others drive direct ticket sales. Discovering how to promote your concert effectively involves dominating a mix of marketing channels, each acting as one piece of a larger promotional strategy. It’s making each work in harmony to create something bigger than the sum of its parts.
Text messaging is by far the most immediate and effective way to reach fans directly. With open rates at 98%, SMS prevents your messages from getting lost in algorithms or spam folders. Make sure your campaign includes opportunities fans can’t get anywhere else:
- Presale codes for loyal subscribers
- Last-minute ticket availability alerts
- Venue updates and important announcements
- Exclusive artist or backstage content
- Day-of show information
The Role of SMS: Think of it as your hotline for immediate action, like when you need fans to make quick decisions or engage in real-time. SMS is also a great way to alert and direct subscribers to exclusive content that can be found on other channels, like email or social.
Bottom line: SMS gets results. See how artist ROSIE used Subtext's auto-reply and segmentation features to promote her tour.
7. Use Social Media to Bring Fans Together
Not all social media platforms are equal, and each serves a unique purpose in your overall concert promotion strategy.
| Social Media Platform | Role in Concert Promotion |
| Your visual storytelling platform—perfect for behind-the-scenes looks | |
| TikTok | Viral video potential can help make an impact with wider audiences |
| Essential for event pages and community building via groups | |
| x (formerly Twitter) | Drives real-time updates and opportunities for fan engagement |
| Don’t overlook this one; it’s a gateway to industry networking |
The Role of Social: These platforms build the universe around your show, each adding its own layer to the world fans can step into. Social media acts as the living, breathing concert atmosphere, adding texture, movement, and life to the experience—and bringing fans together space by space.
8. Become a Resource with Email Marketing
Email is not as immediate as SMS, but the channel’s long-form nature allows for deeper storytelling. Think:
- Show Details and Planning: Detailed venue information, comprehensive FAQs, etc.
- Engagement Content: Artist background, behind-the-scenes narratives, etc.
- Strategically Timed Updates: Early bird announcements, mid-campaign boosters, week-of teasers, etc.
The Role of Email: Email is great for sharing logistics and in-depth content in a way that can paint the complete picture of the concert experience. It can help craft the story of the show through rich visuals, comprehensive guides, and detailed concert information that offer fans the “what,” “where,” and “how” of the event.
9. Amplify Your Messaging with Creator Partnerships
Professional content creators can produce content that doesn’t feel like traditional advertising. Creators know how to speak the language of their specific fanbase—and their audiences are already primed for music content. Instead of building an audience from scratch, you join conversations already in progress.
- Go local. Connect with creators in the local scene. Team up with popular venue reviewers and small record store owners alike. The goal is to collaborate with local voices with strong community ties.
- Find storytellers. Forge partnerships with genre-specific, music-based accounts. This could include commissioning diary-style content or working with niche creators like guitar technique channels for gear talks.
- Engage culturally. Contextualize your event for audiences. Creators and journalists with a background in culture and theory can offer expertise in your headlining act’s musical influences, place in current music trends, and artistic evolution.
The Role of Creators: Trusted voices supercharge your concert’s authenticity. While traditional promotion tells people about the show, creators help people feel like they’re already part of it. Creators know how to promote a concert through engagement, touting announcements as full-bodied stories and ticket sales as investments in a rich experience.
10. Increase Visibility with Local SEO
Your digital presence can be critical for turning searches into sales. When potential attendees look for upcoming concerts in their area, yours needs to be front and center. However, local SEO is as much about showing up online as it is about making a convincing case.
Craft venue-specific keywords that align with how people actually search. Area-targeted meta descriptions and schema markup help capture high-intent searches. Remember, most concert discovery happens via mobile, so optimize accordingly.
Keep in mind that different markets require different approaches. Market research should guide how much to advertise a concert in each specific location, but also where to focus your SEO efforts.
The Role of Local SEO: Like a digital street team, local SEO works 24/7 to catch people exactly when they’re looking for something to do. It works like billboards placed at digital intersections, capturing those high-intent moments when someone is on the hunt for entertainment in the area.
Harness the Power of Multi-Channel Concert Marketing
Mastering how to promote a concert means managing many channels to create a campaign greater than the sum of its parts. Each promotional strategy plays its part—from discovery power to community building—but in the fast-paced entertainment world, SMS functions as the linchpin that holds your strategy together.
SMS offers a path to a packed house—it's the closer that can mean the difference between "I should go to that show" and "I just bought tickets." Success requires a strategy backed by powerful technology. You need a platform that can scale with your ambitions and facilitate real, results-driven fan engagement.
Ready to rock your concert marketing strategy? Book a demo with Subtext today and see firsthand how our powerful features unlock the kind of promotional power that fills venues. Let us help you deliver authentic concert promotion that cuts through the noise!