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SOR 60: Curtis Shepard On His Experience Finding an Audience As a Stranger In Town

Guest:
Curtis Shepard

the challenges in grassroots marketing when you come in from out of town

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A mutual friend introduced me to Curtis Shepard, and I’m very glad she did. Fringe festivals area a hectic time, and without that introduction I might not have made it out to see Curtis’s show Unmasked. (That’s marketing lesson #1.)

Curtis is a thoughful, articulate guy who doesn’t have a big marketing machine behind him. That makes him a fantastic candidate to bring on the podcast and talk about how he approaches promoting a show in a town where no one knows his name.

In this episode:

• promoting a debut – it’s a good idea to debut a new show somewhere you do have a following so you can establish some early success to build on
• pick up the phone – if you have a list of specific people and groups you think would love this show, why wouldn’t you reach out to them directly?
• your focus when you talk to people – there’s a subtle difference between asking people to spend money on your show and asking them to come see your show; people notice what your focus is
• get by with a little help from your friends – you don’t need to be a marketing rockstar yourself if you have friends who are willing to champion your show

Items mentioned:

• Curtis on Facebook – Curtis takes the unmasked idea very seriously and invites you to interact with him on a personal level – not just as a brand entity

Sharing your opinion helps me out a lot

An important part of being discovered by new listeners on iTunes – far and away the most pervasive podcast directory – is ratings and reviews from existing listeners like you. If you have found value in this podcast, it would mean a lot to me if you could bounce over to iTunes and give this podcast a rating (1-5 stars). It’s incredibly easy:

1. Go to the Sold Out Run page in iTunes.
2. Click the number of stars you think this podcast deserves.

Thanks to Curtis for taking the time to share his experiences with promoting an out-of-town show, and thanks to you guys for downloading and listening.