You got the big gig, but now it’s time to really get to work, not only with rehearsing the show, but promoting it as well. An act must remember to do many things long before showtime arrives, especially on the promotion end. Here’s a checklist of some of the more important items, in case you’re too wrapped up in nailing down the songs.

–Design, print and hang flyers. For a local show, this is how you put the word on the street. It’s also good to hang flyers for name recognition. People will remember you, even if they don’t come to this show, they might come to a future one. Plus, the club expects you to do this, so let them know you’re doing it.

–Compose and send an email to your email list. For your existing fans, don’t expect them to see a flyer on on a telephone pole or bulletin board in a coffee shop, or an announcement on a social networking page, because not everyone is always on the same page. Send them a pithy email to announce the show, and maybe a reminder the day of or before. But don’t send more than two per show or you may start to annoy them.

–Create an event page on Facebook. This is done not through you personal FB account, but through your fan page. Once it’s done, share it on your personal account as well.

–Tweet about the show on Twitter. But, like with the emailing, don’t Tweet too much, unless you’re saying something really funny or important beyond “We have a show coming up!” for the umpteenth time.

–Contact and invite the appropriate members of the local press. By appropriate, we mean the ones who are most likely to be interested in your show. This means doing a bit of research to find out who covers the local music beat for your genre. You should already know who this is in your town.

–Contact and invite the appropriate members of local radio. Deejays are a lot like music journalists, so everything above applies here as well, but, commercial radio deejays and programmers are usually much more limited in the kind of exposure they can give to a local act. Concentrate on public and college radio stations instead and you’ll likely have more luck.

–Contact and invite the appropriate local music bloggers. If you began your career before the early aughts, perhaps you don’t know that music blogging is a big deal now. Many local music bloggers now hold the same scene-making power that journalists and deejays used to hold. If you get an influential blogger on your side, it can mean more than getting good traditional press or terrestrial airplay.

–Double check everything with the venue to make sure you’re on the same page about start time, cover charge, guest list, etc. Nothing is worse than showing up with your guest list, only to not have it honored by the club, and then they tell you that you’re late.

Follow up with fans as the show date draws closer. Encourage them to share the event with others via word of mouth and social networking pages, but, again, don’t overdo it, lest you annoy them to the point that they decide it’s not worth it.