2. Your contact information: your name or your band’s name, area code with phone number, email address, and website address. Your address may be included or not, depending on how you intend to distribute your brochures. If the brochure will be a self-mailer, just print your return address on the blank side of the brochure, and there will be no need to print it elsewhere. Include this information on the front of your brochure, and even on several other panels of your brochure, for good measure.
3. Copyright notice. Put a © with your name and the year on the brochure, usually on the back of the brochure or in some inconspicuous place. This is giving copyright notice and will help to insure that your competitors do not swipe the printed information and artwork in your brochure.
4. The benefits of hiring you to perform. Review your competitions’ brochures to decide what to include. Not all of the benefits you list have to be uniquely your own. For instance, your competition may list that they provide amplification free of charge. It may be prudent for you to do the same, just so that your clients know you also have a sound system available. However, also add the unique benefits to hiring you. Your clients will believe they are getting more value for their money.
5. Testimonials. These are positive quotes from key people. If you are just starting out, you can use verbal quotes from friends, mentors, and your music instructor. If you have been performing a while, use quotes from the thank-you notes you received from past wedding clients. You can also include brief excerpts of quotes from reviews of your public stage performances and your CDs, but remember your target client, the bride. It will be most important to her that other wedding clients of yours have something positive to say about you. Be honest in all the quotes you provide and respect your client’s intelligence. People can see through boastfulness. If they think you are making stuff up and are full of boloney, will they hire you?
6. Educate your potential clients. What can you tell your future clients about your instrument and the kind of music that is your specialty? Do a little research and include a short paragraph. And if you have been performing for a while, offer brides suggestions about how to select their music, how to hire musicians, or any other kinds of free advice. Give them a little free information, just for picking up your brochure and showing an interest in you. Offering advice establishes you as an authority in your field.
7. Your experience. This is also known as your bio, and this deserves an entirely new blog posting . . .
Copyright © 2008 by Anne Roos, excerpt from "The Musician's Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings", published by Hal Leonard Books. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.
Hundreds of additional tips, are available for musicians (and all entrepreneurs) in my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides" available wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold: music and bookstores, and through online retailers including sheetmusicplus.com, amazon.com, Sylvia Woods Harp Center catalog, and of course, at my website at http://www.celticharpmusic.com/.
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