The concert is over. Your marketing shouldn’t be.

Months of planning, rehearsals, emails, advertising and ticket sales go into putting on a concert, then suddenly it’s over. Everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief, packs everything away and thinks: We did it. That feeling is completely understandable, but from a marketing point of view, this is exactly when you shouldn’t stop.

The days and weeks immediately after your concert can be some of the most valuable marketing time you have. Your audience has just seen you, they’re talking about you, they’re engaged and hopefully they’ve had a brilliant experience. This is your moment, so use it.

1. Have a post-event plan before the event

Most organisations have an operational plan for what happens when an event finishes. Who clears the venue? Who returns the equipment? Who pays the suppliers? Marketing deserves exactly the same level of planning.

Before the concert happens, decide what you want your audience to do next, how you’re going to communicate with them and what success looks like. Do you want people to join your mailing list, become a Friend, make a donation, follow you on social media or book your next concert? Have a goal, have a target and have a plan.

2. Think about how you ask

Sitting in a concert and suddenly being given a lengthy appeal for money can interrupt the experience you’ve worked so hard to create, and there are better opportunities to make that ask.

Think about the messaging in your programme, what people see as they leave, the email they receive the next morning or an invitation to a Friends' evening a week later. The ask doesn’t always need to happen on stage, but it does need to be planned.

3. Don't disappear for six months

This happens far too often. In the weeks before a concert, organisations are constantly posting: Tickets are selling fast. Two weeks to go. Meet our soloist. Last few tickets. Tonight's the night! Then the concert finishes and everything goes quiet until six months later when suddenly: We're delighted to announce our next concert!

You’ve spent months building attention and engaging an audience, only to let that relationship go cold. Send the thank-you email, share the photographs and backstage moments, post audience reactions and tell people what you're doing next. Most importantly, give them a reason and an opportunity to stay involved.

4. Turn an audience into a relationship

The value of a concert shouldn't only be measured by how many tickets you sold. Perhaps 200 people attended, but how many joined your mailing list afterwards? How many became Friends, donated, came back to another event or brought somebody else next time?

Good post-event marketing means you don’t have to start from zero every time you put on a concert. You’re building an audience that already knows you, understands what you do and, crucially, wants to hear from you again.

Final thought

The curtain coming down isn't the end of your marketing campaign. Your audience's experience is fresh, their attention is high and this is one of your best opportunities to turn their interest into a longer-term relationship.

Plan your post-event marketing with the same care as your pre-event campaign. Know what you want people to do next and make it easy for them to do it, because after putting so much effort into getting people through the door, the last thing you should do is wave goodbye and start all over again six months later.