Sioux Falls Mobile DJ Blog | BPM DJ Productions

I just finished moving back into Sioux Falls from Brandon.  It sure is nice to be close to everything again!  My new address is:

BPM DJ Productions

2809 S Summit Ave

Sioux Falls, SD 57105

Well……my website has.  Jim Weisz, a DJ and contributor to Mobile Beat magazine has reviewed www.bpmdjproductions.com in one of his articles.

Read the review here:  http://www.mobilebeat.com/archives_content_template.php?ArchiveArtID=486&CatID=7

Not a bad review, considering I designed the website myself.  I appreciate Jim’s suggestions and am planning on making the changes that he suggests.

Anyway, it’s pretty cool to see some nationwide traffic coming to my site as a result from this article.

One of the reasons that I enjoy DJ’ing so much is the fact that it allows me to travel to new places throughout the Midwest.  This last weekend, I ventured deep into Northeastern, IA for a wedding reception at Cherokee Country Club in, you guessed it, Cherokee, IA. 

Due to an equipment trade-off scheduled in Storm Lake, IA (about 20 minutes away from Cherokee,) I left pretty early on Saturday.  I believe it was around 12:30PM.  I made a quick stop in Sioux Falls to drop off my daughter with my in-laws, and off I went on my journey.

I followed the directions I received from Mapquest, and I was taken on a curvy tour of Northwestern Iowa.  It was a beautiful day for a drive.  The sun was out, there was a slight breeze, and there was plenty of beautiful scenery to keep my attention.  I made a couple pit-stops along the way for gas and goodies.  Soon, I arrived in Storm Lake to pick up the latest addition to my DJ arsenal, the infamous Rane TTM-56 DJ mixer.  I originally had planned to sell my Pioneer mixer on eBay, and then use the profit from the sale along with some money out of my pocket to upgrade to the Rane mixer.  Well, I was contacted by a guy in Storm Lake that had a Rane mixer and was looking for a Pioneer mixer like mine!  I pulled my mixer off of eBay and agreed on a trade.  It just so happened that he lived 20 minutes from where my gig was!  So, I made the trade and continued on to the reception.

I arrived at the country club fairly early and was able to slip the new mixer into my Odyssey case and everything worked just fine (I brought a backup mixer with me just in case it didn’t.)  I was very impressed with the sound quality of the Rane mixer, and it performed exceptionally well.  I was set up in no time and had everything tidied up before the guests arrived.

After dinner, we got the party started with the usual wedding dances, and kicked it into high gear with some great dance music.  The guests were very lively, and we kept giong strong until the dance ended at midnight.  The big hit song of the night was “Sweet Home Chicago” - guess where one of the families was from!  The rest of the music was a nice mix of classic rock, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and a little Country.  There was no Hip-Hop at this reception, which was perfectly fine - even though I really enjoy it when I have a chance to play Hip-Hop at a gig. 

After the reception, I was loaded up and ready to go in about an hour.  As pretty as the trip down was, I knew there had to be quite a few deer roaming around the fields an hills, so I chose to take the highway home.  I pulled into my drive around 3:15AM and hit the sack.  Another successful gig in the bag.

Since the Cherokee reception, I have already been contacted by one of the guests about DJ’ing another reception for them in 2008, so hopefully I’ll be able to help them out.  This coming weekend, (tomorrow) I have a reception in Mitchell, SD, which will be the third one I’ve DJ’ed there this year.  It should be a fun time!

This past weekend, I DJ’ed a wedding reception in Crooks, SD at the Crooks Community Center.  Not only was it a fairly short trip from my home in Brandon, SD, but my setup and tear-down time was significantly reduced thanks to a new case I purchased. 

The Odyssey case holds my two turntables, my mixer, my Serato interface (DJ computer program,) and has a sliding platform for my laptop.  Before I purchased this case, all of the above equipment was transported seperately, and it took me about 15 - 20 minutes each gig to wire everything up.  Now, all I have to do is roll the case in, put it on the table, take of the lid, plug it in, and start spinning!  It is pretty heavy, but the extra physical effort is well worth it.

The speedy setup that results from this case has a number of benefits for my business.  First of all, less fatigue for me so that I can keep the party going longer, and the seemingly endless string of Saturday events takes less of a toll.  Secondly, a quicker setup allows me to take even more time to perfect my setup so that it looks professional and preforms perfectly.

This last weekend, I had two Proms, one in Canistota, SD and the other in Parker, SD.  I love DJ’ing Proms and school dances, so I was very excited about both events.  However, I was little nervous about DJ’ing on Friday the 13th!  Turns out, I should have been more afraid of Sat the 14th!

The Canistota Prom was on Friday, and everything went off without a hitch.  The students were very lively, and I had plenty of requests to go off of the entire night.  The big songs were Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne (which I mixed Footloose into - it goes really well,) Glamorous by Fergie, and 2 Step by DJ Unk.  Of course all of the “classics” were big hits as well:  Baby Got Back, Cha Cha Slide, Cotton Eye Joe.  I loaded all of my gear up at the end of the night and started to head home.  My trailer lights did not come on at first, and I started to get a little worried, but they soon flickered on and stayed on the rest of the way home.

After getting about 3-4 hours of sleep, I was up the next morning working my other weekend job - being a dad!  I was able to sneak in a nap later in the day, and then it was off to Parker, SD, which is only about a 45 minute drive. 

I left my main lights assembled on the T-bars (the top part of the light stands) so my setup time was a little quicker.  I was set up in no time on the gym’s stage, and was able to start organizing a song list in Serato.  I was also able to get Audacity ready to record the night’s mix.  The dance began and everything was going great, but then I started to hear voices coming over the speaker.  I was puzzled at first until I realized somebody’s cell phone or radio was bleeding over on my mic frequency.  I switched to a corded mic and everything was fine - no one even noticed.  Later on in the evening, I unplugged my headphones to plug into my cd mixer, and to my surprise, only half of the mic plug came out!  Half of it was still lodged in the mixer!  I was able to plug it back in and make it work for the rest of the night. 

The rest of the dance went great and I loaded up at the end of the night.  The usually trailer light flicker happened again, and the lights came on.  I was almost home when I smelled a burnt wire and my dash and tail lights went out completely!  I made it the rest of the way home on the back roads (I couldn’t see how fast I was going,) and put my daughter to bed.  Sunday was going to be a nice, relaxing day!

Sunday I was able to chill out all day.  I easily removed the headphone jack with a long screw, and I located the short on my truck/trailer.  This coming weeked I have another Prom in Parkston, so I have to make sure everything is ready to roll………….I can’t wait!

As most of you already know, being a mobile DJ means that you have to be ready for anything.  And the worst “anything” that could happen is equipment failure.  It was a cold Winter’s evening when I faced this obstacle at a High-School dance.

It was a dance in Missouri, at a local High-School.  If I remember correctly, it was a Homecoming dance.  Anyway, I was just starting out as a DJ along with my friend Norman Dalager.  I was at the dance setting up while Norman was driving back from his day-job in Independence, MO.  Everything was going fine, I had set up the speakers (no telling what they were at that time, I think we used MTX’s), the American DJ CD players, our limited light show, and our fancy Gemini mixer.  I was putting everything through a trial run when I smelled smoke.

 It was coming from the mixer, and it was the only thing coming from the mixer - no sound or anything!  We had no spare, so I had to think of something fast, the dance was starting in minutes!  Well, I got rid of the mixer altogether, and put our American DJ CD Players side by side on the table.  I decided that the only way I could mix between the decks was to plug them directly into the amp, and plug and unplug between songs.

So that’s what I did.  I would cue up a song in one of the CD players (I couldn’t use headphones either), then unplug the current CD player from the amp, and quickly plug in the one with the next song.  Meanwhile, I had to hit “play” with my nose since my hands where tied up with plugging and unplugging the CD players.

Fortunately it worked, and Norman showed up later on that night so that I did not have to use my nose anymore!  The moral of the story - carry spare equipment!  At least a mixer, a small amp, and a couple of cheap CD players.  You won’t regret it!

Every article and every book that I have read on marketing DJ services advises not to do any TV advertising, unless you have about 20 rigs and 50 employees.  The constant complaint is that it is too expensive.  Well, it can be, but it can also be very affordable.  Here is how to effectively purchase TV advertising for your DJ business.

Stand out from the DJ crowd.

The nice thing about promoting your DJ service on TV is that no other DJ’s are there.  Think about it, you see tons of auto dealers and restaurants, but no DJ’s.  The benefit of this is that you can do more with less.  Another auto ad will get lost in the clutter, by a dynamic ad for a DJ service will stand out from the crowd.

Promote your business with sight, sound, motion, and emotion.

No other form of media can really effectively do all of these.  The internet is getting close, with rich media ads, but TV is still the king of dynamic, engaging advertisements.  Just imagine what you could do with a :15 or :30 TV commercial.  How about some upbeat music and video of a recent dance or of your light show.  Most TV stations will produce a commercial “spot” for you fairly cheap, and will also take care of writing the “script” for you if you are not the creative type.  

Contact the TV Station’s Sales Department

In most markets there are numerious TV stations to choose from, so lets narrow down the search.  I would recommend broadcast TV over Cable.  Broadcast TV is television broadcasted over the airwaves to a large area.  Your ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates are all most likely broadcast stations.  Keep in mind, the exact same station can also be available through cable, but the broadcast station’s commercials still air.  So if you purchase a commercial on your local CBS station, that commercial will air on channel 3 (just an example) through the broadcast signal, and channel 11 through the local cable provider.

Now, unless you know which station is the best in the area, you will need to request an “avail” from each of them.  Basically, an “avail” is a list of programs, their respective ratings, and the rates.  I recommend choosing only one of these stations to work with in the end, so that you can concentrate all of your money and effort on a single outlet.  Just pick the best one based on the criteria explained below. 

Cost Per Point (CPP) and Cost Per Thousand (CPM)

In the media advertising world, almost everything is bought and sold on a cost per point or cost per thousand basis.  Cost per point is basically the cost for one rating point.  TV ratings usually come from Nielsen media research and are basically a percentage point.  For example, our market area is 255,000 households.  If a program has a 10 rating, it reaches 10% of those housholds, or 25,500. 

You can also buy based on cost per thousand, which is basically the cost of reaching 1000 people.  For example, if a commercial in a program is $40 and it reaches 5000 people, it is $8 per thousand.

I would recommend requesting your avail be in cost-per-thousand.  This leaves less guesswork than cost-per-point (you don’t have to go figuring out percentages and household numbers.)

Don’t Forget to Choose Your Demo

You are also able to choose your demo or “demographic”.  This represents who you are wanting to target with your advertising.  You could pick Adults, Women, or Men in any age group.  For example if you wanted to focus on weddings, you might want to target Women 18-34, the demo where most brides will be.  When you choose a specific demo, all of your cost-per-thousand information will be specific to that demo.  Afterall, the best program for your demo may not be the same as the best overall program on the station.

Frequency vs. Reach

This can be a fairly heated topic when it comes to advertising.  Should you buy a lot of cheap commercials and have more frequency (reaching a smaller number of people multiple times), or should you buy 1 or 2 expensive commercials that have a large reach (reaching a lot of people one time.)  Well, considering the average person needs to see a message three times in order to recall it, I would say that it would be wise to go with frequency.  Yes, you can reach a ton of people by running a commercial in ”Prime” programming (like CSI), but then you would blow your entire budget on a single opportunity to gain the viewers attention. 

Be smart and buy programming based on the cost per thousand of your target demo.  Choose something with a decent cost-per-thousand (in our market I would consider this to be between $5 and $10 per thousand), and also has a small to medium reach in your demo.  It is wise to “dominate” a program, meaning that you buy that program and that program only.  So if there is a program that your demo watches often, advertise there and nowhere else.  This will give you credibility that you are on TV “all the time” when in reality, you are only in that single program. 

I also recommend chossing a few days out of the week to run your advertisements, and sticking with that schedule.  Statistics have shown that services do better by running advertisements earlier in the week, and retail businesses do better running them later in the week.  So, if you were to choose to run only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays every week, you are reaching an audience dedicated to watching that program on those days.

If you would like to have a constant presence on TV (which is definitely recommended), you might want to run two weeks “on” and two weeks “off” a month.  This has been proven to give the illusion of always being “on” while saving you money.  Afterall, you will only be paying for 26 weeks instead of 52.  The exception to this may be the busy booking times like earlier in the year, then I would recommend running all four weeks of the month.

Another tip is to run :15 second commercials instead of :30 second commercials.  :15’s are usually cheaper, and by running more commercials for the same dollar amount, you will achieve higher frequency.  You may want to also consider running “bookends.”  This is where two :15 commercials are placed in the same commercial break, one at the very beginning, and one at the very end.  This is a great way to hit the same viewer twice in a row with your message.

Creating Your Commercial - The 14 Rules of The Guru 

Jim Doyle, an industry expert in TV advertising, says that there are 14 rules to follow in order to create an effective TV commercial.  You can find them HERE.

In Summary

There you have it, TV advertising can be a complicated process, but if you follow these basic rules, you should be ok.  Here is a quick list to summarize the buying process.

1. Contact the TV stations in your area, speak to the Sales department and request an “avail.”  Make sure to tell them what “demo” you are trying to reach.
2.  Look at the avails from each station to find which one is the best, or in other words, which one has the best programs for your demo (low cost per thousand with a medium reach.)
3. Put together your schedule.  Work closely with your TV rep to choose a schedule that has a high frequency and reasonable reach in your demo.  Try to run two weeks on and two weeks off if budget is a factor.  Consider :15 commercials to gain even more frequency.
4. Create your commercial.  Many stations have script writers on hand to help you with the process, but still be involved in its creation.  Afterall, you are a DJ, so you’re obviously a creative individual!
5. After your schedule starts running, make sure you monitor your results.  Ask your leads “where they heard about you” and keep track of the responses.  If your TV commercial doesn’t appear to be working, do not give up on TV.  You may just need to choose a new program or make a different commercial.

Remember, TV wins elections and creates icons and rolemodels, so I’m sure it can work for you too.

I have always liked the idea of having a gobo projector to project my DJ logo onto a wall or something, but the projectors that I have seen have all been too expensive.  Plus, you have to have the gobo itself made, which is also somewhat spendy.  Here is how to make your very own for very cheap!

You will need:

• A holiday projector-one of those that go in your lawn and project holiday images onto your house.
• Transparency sheets - those clear sheets that are used for overhead projectors, you can find them in the printing supplies department of any major store.
• A computer with some sort of image editing program - Photoshop is preferred, but Microsoft Paint or Publisher should also work.  
• A scanner
• A printer for your computer
• Scissors

From reading the list of supplies, you can probably figure out what we are going to do.  First, grab one of the holiday gobos that comes with the projector and scan it on the scanner.  Once it is scanned into your computer, replace the holiday image with your DJ logo, make sure you keep the size the same as the original gobo.  Print out the new gobo on one of the transparency sheets, then cut it out.  If you would like, you could use the exisiting cardboard gobo ring and just cut out the old gobo and paste in your own.  Or, you can just use the new gobo without a ring - depending on the projector, this should still work.  Then, all you have to do is put your new gobo into the projector, rig up some sort of stand or bracket, and you have your very own gobo projector for around $20!  It’s not as bright as a commercial projector, but it will work nicely for smaller applications.

Most Mobile DJ’s employ direct marketing as a method to reach potential clients.  Even though direct mail typically has a response rate of 1-4%, many DJ’s do find success with this tactic.  Jerry Bazata from DJ Times has a few useful tips that will come in handy when planning your next direct mail campaign.  Check out his article HERE!

Let’s face it, one of the greatest opportunities you have to market your business to new prospects is during gigs.  It’s like your very own bridal show!  But you have to be careful and not be too intrusive.  This is were your very own DJ sign comes in handy.  All you need is a simple sign stating the name of your business, and if you would like, some contact information.  There are a variety of sign materials, and a lot of companies that will gladly put a sign together for you.  I decided to go with Coroplast for my sign - it’s basically like a plastic/cardboard combination.  The lettering is vinyl, and it is light-weight - so you can easily mount the sign with some velcro strips.  The place that I found online is called http://www.signsus.com/ . They have an online design studio, so that you can create the sign yourself.  My sign (pictured below) only cost about $40.  It’s definitely a smart investment!