Since our inception in 2007, our goal at GigSalad has been to help entertainers connect with more clients and get more gigs. As our business evolved, our website has followed suit, growing from a simple online directory to a full-service booking platform. We saw that the more convenient we made entertainment booking, the more our members were getting booked. With that in mind, we’ve made improvements over the years that have helped us deliver an exceptional, affordable service for both performer and event planner alike. Today, a GigSalad membership comes with more benefits than ever. Here are the top 10:
1. Marketing features
GigSalad PromoKits are designed with photo, video, and audio capabilities, putting your best promotional material directly in front of potential clients right away. In addition to media, your dashboard shows all your leads, messages, and bookings in one place along with analytics like visitor stats, revenue earned, booking growth, and other important data to help you manage your return on investment.
But what if I only have a free membership?
Whether your GigSalad membership is free or paid, every PromoKit comes with the essential tools professionals need to market themselves online. If you’d like to learn how to optimize your PromoKit, feel free to reach out to us for a free profile consultation.
2. Connection
With GigSalad, you’re getting more than just a simple online profile. We do the work of finding event planners for you. Our platform allows you to list yourself in various entertainment categories, and with the help of our sophisticated algorithm, we can deliver gigs that are a perfect fit for your talent.
But how do I connect with people who aren’t already looking for entertainment?
With a GigSalad PromoKit, you don’t have to wait for potential clients to contact you. Your profile includes a feature for you to share your PromoKit proactively. Simply input the email addresses, add a brief personal message, and send! A link to your PromoKit with all your promotional material will be included in your email.
Along with this sharing feature, we also do a ton of marketing for you, putting your talent and services in front of the right people at the right time. Our reach covers all of North America through a mix of digital, event, and on-the-ground marketing. Now more than ever, people are seeing the value of experiences over material things. With our efforts, we’re able to reach a wide audience to show how booking entertainment is money well spent.
In addition to online marketing, traditional advertising, and good old fashioned networking, we strive to expand even further. In 2016, we aired our first ever national advertising campaign featuring our own talented GigSalad performers. (Check it out!) The commercial was a big success and continues to be used in a variety of marketing channels to show the wide range of talent available for booking.
3. Top-of-the-line booking system
When you’re tasked with marketing your business, networking, negotiating, managing your finances, and delivering your services, time is a precious commodity. Our booking platform helps you save time with automated processes so that you can focus on your talent. Send customized quotes, confirm bookings, accept client payments and more in just a few easy steps!
But what if I want to use my own contract?
Marketplaces are becoming the primary resource for finding and securing services of all types, and this is changing the way people are booking entertainment, too. This means that making payments and creating online agreements is now an accepted alternative to paper contracts and physical signatures. Though you may have a system in place already, you may consider updating your method to meet the expectations of today’s consumers. Our platform simplifies the booking process and provides both you and your clients benefits and protection you just can’t get anywhere else.
Is there a fee to use the booking system?
Yes, there is a service fee applied to bookings completed on GigSalad. This nominal fee allows us to offer guaranteed payments and cancellation protection, and helps us keep the website updated with the best security measures possible. Keep in mind, a service fee is only applied when you’ve been booked. You’ll never be charged for receiving leads or sending quotes and messages.
But why do I have to pay a service fee on top of my membership cost?
Simply put, your membership fees pay for the benefits and exposure for your profile, but the service fee covers the costs associated with bookings. The service fee for paid members is only 2.5% which is equal to or even lower in some cases than many standard credit card processors. So basically, we’re just asking you to help us over the cost of accepting card payments on your behalf.
4. Guaranteed payments
For online businesses, the most critical and demanding process for the consumer is typically the collection of funds. Based on our own data, we discovered that booking entertainment is no different. That’s why we’ve simplified the process for clients, allowing them to pay both deposit and balance in one easy payment. And when booking is made easy, clients will book more often.
Another benefit of accepting payments in full is that you’re guaranteed to get all the money that’s owed to you. No more waiting weeks for a check in the mail or hassling for payment at the event. We take care of the financials for you so you can concentrate on the gig and clients can sit back and enjoy their event (and tip you for the great performance!)
Speaking of tips, we added a bonus feature to help our members acquire tips from satisfied clients. When a client reviews your service after their event with a 5-star rating, we encourage them to tip you via PayPal. This feature comes in handy when few at the event have cash or if clients simply aren’t aware that it’s a customary practice. If you’d like to take advantage of this feature, make sure your payout method is set to PayPal in your PromoKit.
When will I receive my client’s payment?
Essentially, you’ll receive your deposit in advance and your remaining balance 1 business day after the event.
Within each quote you send, there’s a cancellation policy option for you to choose. Your chosen policy determines whether your deposit is refundable or non-refundable, and it also states whether you will be owed some or all of the remaining balance if a client cancels the agreement. Once a client books your services, we send the deposit to you depending on the timeframe of the cancellation policy you’ve chosen.
For example, if you’ve set your deposit as non-refundable, we’ll send the deposit payment to you right away. If your deposit is refundable until 7 days before the event, we will send the deposit payment to you once it’s no longer refundable (6 days before the event). All balance payments will be sent 1 business day after the gig is successfully completed. Read more about collecting gig payments.
But what if I need to pay other staff or band members before the event?
We understand that some of our members require payment in full prior to the event and for those members, getting balance payments 1 business day after the event makes things difficult. However, sending full payments before a gig is successfully completed means that we can’t offer our Worry-Free Guarantee to clients, a benefit that helps you get more bookings. It’s also important to remember that your deposit and balance is guaranteed so even if you’re receiving your payment later than you’re used to, you know you’ll get all the money that’s owed to you. When clients pay your total fee at the time of booking, it cuts out unnecessary steps for both parties and eliminates the risk of miscommunication.
If you’re concerned about paying other staff or band members, we recommend setting your deposit amount to cover any expenses that arise before the event. If there are other issues or expenses that deposits will not cover, feel free to contact us so we can learn more about your situation.
5. Fastest payout options
When you book on GigSalad, your sensitive banking information is highly protected, and all your funds are guaranteed and delivered to you in your preferred payout method. You can choose to receive funds by either direct deposit, which offers the fastest payout in the industry, or by PayPal, where we cover the fees they often charge when accepting money for goods and services.
Does GigSalad facilitate payments in Canadian dollars?
Yes! As of January 2, 2018, our Canadian members can now send quotes and accept payments in Canadian dollars, which eliminates the hassle of converting their rates to USD. Learn more about booking in Canadian dollars.
6. Review system
Reviews are becoming a crucial part of the buying process these days; 9 out of 10 online consumers will look at a company’s reviews before making a purchase. We understand the value of gigging in the review economy, which is why our platform allows you to collect and display reviews from clients and shows a cumulative star rating on your PromoKit.
For those of you who don’t have a lot of time to request reviews, when you book on GigSalad, we do the work for you. Starting the day after the event, we follow up with your client and request reviews on your behalf, freeing you up to focus on booking your next gig.
Can any of my past clients leave a review on my PromoKit or just clients who booked me on GigSalad?
The reviews that show in your PromoKit can come from any of your past clients, but the biggest benefit comes from clients who have booked you on GigSalad. When gigs are booked through our platform, we’re able to match the review to the correct booking and verify that it’s real. Verified reviews not only increase your chances for leads, but they also help you stand out among the competition.
7. Superior protection
We are committed to creating a safe community not only for our members but for your clients as well. That’s why we utilize the best security measures to keep personal information under lock and key. With top-of-the-line encryption, your sensitive data and banking info is safe, and we continuously monitor our system for potential threats.
Our platform also offers cancellation policy options that protect you in the event of a client cancellation. When these cases arise, you determine what happens to your deposit and balance, and we guarantee you get all the funds that are owed to you.
What if I suspect someone is trying to scam me on GigSalad?
Because security is one of our top priorities, we have systems in place to detect scams or fraudulent requests. But in addition to our security measures, we also give users the ability to flag suspicious messages and leads. If you encounter a message or quote request that raises a red flag, please contact us so we can investigate it further.
8. Recognition for Top Performers
Each month, we award our outstanding members a Top Performer status based on your bookings, response time, and reviews, and display a banner on your PromoKit for potential clients to see. As a Top Performer, you’ll see a number of benefits including an increase in leads and improvement in search rankings.
Can I pay to be a Top Performer?
The Top Performer status acts as an “award” given to the most active and responsive members on GigSalad. Because it’s based on meeting specific qualifications, members cannot purchase this status.
What if I don’t book on GigSalad, but my bookings, reviews, and response rate are great?
To achieve Top Performer status, we must be able to verify all three of these factors, so we make determinations based on your GigSalad activity. You may be getting a lot of work outside of our platform, but you can only acquire the Top Performer banner by being active on GigSalad. Learn more about the qualifications of a Top Performer.
9. Advanced design with your clients in mind
Not everyone is a web designer and few can afford to hire one. But with all the content on the web these days, if your online profile isn’t visually appealing, you risk losing potential clients. With a GigSalad PromoKit, you’re set up with a profile that has everything clients need, using the best practices for navigation and user experience.
Our platform is designed by a team of experts who not only understand the value of a sleek, mobile-friendly website but also know the importance of search engine optimization. We’ve worked hard to establish ourselves in the enormous, noisy world wide web, and we’ll continue researching and implementing the best strategies. By being a part of our community, you can compete with the rest of the content online and considerably boost your gig opportunities.
I think my website is better and I’d rather get gigs my own way.
If you’ve got a website for your business and you’re successfully getting gigs, that’s great! But if you’re ever looking for ways to increase your exposure, then you may think about giving our service a try. SEO is crucial and we work extremely hard to ensure event planners looking to hire entertainment and services are able to find GigSalad at the top of their Google search results. We’ve been very successful about this in many markets, so having a listing on our site can often bring you gig leads and opportunities you may not get through your own site.
10. One-on-one support
Our Customer Happiness team is devoted to our community, so when you need us, we’ve got your back. If a client dispute arises, our platform allows us to reference important details so we can work out any miscommunications and help find a solution. If you’re having tech issues and you need some assistance, we’re just a phone call or email away. Or if you’d like someone to look over your PromoKit and give you some actionable steps for improvement, reach out to us for a free profile consultation. We’re here to help our members and event planners in any way we can.
How do I reach you for questions or feedback?
We’d love to hear from you! Feel free to contact our Customer Happiness team anytime.
Who handles the taxes on the payments for the gigs? Do you take out taxes or file 1099’s on members, or file other reports on member earnings with state tax franchise boards and the IRS? Also, what is your relationship with Ascap and BMI?
Hi Jon!
Great questions! GigSalad is a booking/payment platform, not an employer, so vendors are responsible for handling their own taxes.
As for ASCAP and BMI, we pay an annual licensing fee to both organizations and direct vendors to search both libraries when they’re uploading audio to their PromoKit. Vendors are prompted to select if the song is licensed by BMI, ASCAP, or neither before it can be posted.
If you have any other questions, feel free to contact our support team here: https://www.gigsalad.com/contact
Since you deal primarily with musicians and entertainers how beneficial could your services be for an event bartender? If I will only get a fraction of leads (or quality leads) that a musician would get it would definitely not be worth paying the same membership fee.
Actually, bartenders are one of the most requested services on our platform! Clients on GigSalad are planning everything from weddings and corporate events to birthdays and holiday parties, so bartenders get a wide variety of bookings.