Fans and follow-up
Get the next date into their phone before they leave the room
People who enjoyed tonight's set forget your name by Tuesday. How to put your next gig in their calendar before they go, and bring them back next time.
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Eleven o'clock at a wedding. You're halfway through packing down when one of the guests comes over. "Do you do work parties? We're sorting our Christmas do." You've got a cable in each hand and no cards on you. You tell him to look you up online. He means to. On Monday he searches your name, finds an old page with an email address that bounces, and books whoever answers first.
That booking was yours. He'd heard you play for three hours and walked over to ask. The only thing that went wrong was the next ten seconds.
Who in the room books acts
Most gigs have at least one person who could book you, or knows someone who could. They rarely announce themselves.
- The venue manager or landlord. The easiest rebooking there is. They've just watched the room react.
- Wedding and party guests. Someone at every wedding is planning their own, or a fortieth, or a leaving do.
- People who organise things at work. Christmas parties, summer events, launches. Someone gets handed the job and has no idea where to start.
- Other musicians. Bands need deps and support acts. Solo players need someone to hand a gig on to when they're double-booked.
- Bar and events staff. They work in more than one place and get asked for recommendations.
None of them will chase you hard. If enquiring takes effort, they'll book someone else who made it easy.
Make enquiring possible before they leave
Business cards still work, if you have them on you and if the person keeps the card. Both are big ifs at the end of a night.
A QR code on the mic stand or a table card that opens your page, with a short enquiry form on it, gets round both problems. They scan it while they're still in the room, fill in three or four fields and send it. You have their details before they've found their coat.
Keep the form short. Ask for what you need to reply properly and nothing else:
| Ask for | Why |
|---|---|
| Name and a way to reply | Email or phone, whichever they prefer |
| Date, or roughly when | You can check availability straight away |
| Where | Travel, parking, whether you've played there |
| What kind of event | Wedding, pub, corporate, private party |
| Anything else | Free text for set length, requests, budget |
Leave budget as optional free text. Asking for it up front puts some people off, and you'll talk money in the reply anyway.
For placement, a code on the mic stand catches the curious, and one on each table catches the person who's been meaning to ask all night. There's more on getting codes to scan in a dark room in QR codes for musicians.
Have the answers ready before they ask
Before someone books you, they check a handful of things. If they can find them in one place, they enquire. If they have to hunt, they move on.
| What a booker checks | What to have ready |
|---|---|
| Can they play? | A short live video, filmed on a phone with decent audio. Real room, real crowd. |
| Will they suit my event? | A song list, or a few songs you're known for |
| Who's in the band? | The line-up, with names and instruments |
| Are they still active? | Upcoming public gigs, so they can come and see you |
| Where do they play? | The area you cover, roughly |
| What do they bring? | PA, lights, how long you need to set up |
| How long do they play? | Typical set lengths and number of sets |
| Are they real? | Links to your socials, streaming and website |
Your live video matters most. A polished studio recording tells a booker you can record. A phone video of a packed pub singing along tells them you can run a room, which is what they're paying for.
The song list does a lot of quiet work too. A wedding client wants to see their first dance is possible. A pub landlord wants to see songs his regulars know. If you're putting a list together, building a covers set list that takes requests covers how to shape one that works on the night and on paper.
Listing your public gigs does two jobs. It shows you're working, and it gives a nervous booker the chance to see you before committing. A couple planning a wedding may well turn up at a pub gig to check you out first.
Reply the same day, and properly
A fast reply wins a lot of bookings on its own. People enquiring usually contact more than one act, and the first clear answer often gets the job.
"Thanks, will get back to you" isn't an answer. A good first reply covers:
- Availability. Yes, no, or "I'm holding that date for someone else until Friday".
- What they'd get. Set length, number of sets, what you bring.
- A price, or a range. If you need more detail first, say exactly what you need.
- One next step. "If that works, I'll send a booking confirmation and take a deposit."
Write a template for each type of gig you do, then adjust it to the enquiry. It takes five minutes on a phone between sets, and it reads better than something typed at midnight a week later.
If you're a band, decide who answers enquiries. The worst outcome is everyone assuming someone else has replied. Give each member their own login to wherever enquiries arrive rather than sharing one password round a group chat, so whoever's free can pick it up and everyone can see it's been handled.
Ask the venue before you pack down
The easiest booking is the one you're standing in. If the night went well, find the manager while the room's still full and the till's still busy. That's when your case makes itself.
Ask for a specific date, not a vague "have us back sometime". "Could we do the last Friday of next month?" gets a yes or a no. "Let us know" gets forgotten.
If a one-off went well, ask about a residency. A weekly or monthly slot is steady work for you and one less thing for the venue to organise. It also builds a crowd, which makes the next conversation easier. Getting fans to your next gig covers how to fill the room for the second one.
Find out which gigs bring the work
After a few months, you'll want to know which gigs lead to more gigs. Two simple habits help.
First, ask every new enquiry where they saw you. Write it down. Over a year, you'll see that some rooms keep producing bookings and others never do, and you can price and prioritise accordingly.
Second, if you use QR codes, give each venue or placement its own code. You'll see which get scanned. Treat that as a hint, not proof. A scan is someone curious, not a booking, and a click on your website link is a click, not a client. The enquiries you actually receive and where they say they found you are the numbers that count.
While you're in the room, the same page can take tips from people who aren't booking but want to say thanks. How to take tips without cash covers that.
Where GigTag fits
GigTag gives your act one QR code for the mic stand and tables that opens a page with a booking enquiry form, your upcoming gigs, your band's line-up and your links. Fans and bookers scan it with their camera, with nothing to download. Read the FAQ if you've got questions, or Create your act