Las Vegas, Ibiza, and Dubai are among some of the most popular places with a prevalent nightlife culture where bars and pubs nearly outnumber the coffee shops. There is more competition there and for that bar promotion become important.
Bars, pubs and nightclubs together constitute a vast industry with the US alone contributing $28 billion to it.
Marketing and promotion are a few indispensable factors required for a business to be able to reach masses and to establish a strong foothold in the market.
People will not approach a brand until they are cognisant of its existence, knowing that it offers something which might intrigue them.
This makes bar promotion and marketing essential.
Over the years, the demand has increased significantly resulting in the worldwide growth of the industry whereas the widespread competition in the market underscores the need for intelligent bar promotion ideas.
Hence being a bar owner, you need to smartly adopt ideas that facilitate in drawing your potential customer’s attention to you while influencing them to prefer your bar over a plethora of your competitors.
Effective and up to the mark bar promotion strategies can help in achieving greater foot traffic.
Without being able to reach its targeted audience a business is rendered useless.
Therefore, a definite budget for accomplishing successful marketing for nightclubs should be assigned by the bar owners for carrying out promotional activities that manage to pour in massive crowds in the bars, thus providing considerable monetary gains to the business.
Here are some of the best ideas for bar marketing that you must consider and implement:
#1. Hire a dedicated social media team
In this digital world, the need for a dedicated social media team that solely aims at uplifting a brand’s image cannot be undervalued.
Social media is the strongest tool of the digital marketing era.
Through platforms such as facebook, instagram, twitter and snapchat you can propagate information about the bar quite easily.
The power and reach of social media can be gauged through the fact that nearly 3.5 billion people in the world use social media with 2.6 billion people having profiles on facebook, 1 billion active users on instagram and 229 million on snapchat.
Fortunately at present, the dissemination of information does not require much effort.
Thanks to social media that is capable of transmitting information from one corner of the world to another at the speed of light.
However, the question of how to exploit social media for bar promotions still remains.
You can catch the attention of larger audiences by posting more and more online about the bar.
The more active your blog is, the more response you get.
Make sure to create interesting ads and upcoming events to post on social media in order to receive greater engagement from the users.
Not to forget, generate a unique hashtag that will help to advertise your bar a great deal.
Moreover, post videos and pictures on a regular basis to update your followers and stay connected with them.
The role of bloggers and influencers who have an immense impact on the public having the ability to influence their opinion, should not be overlooked.
Collaborate with these social media influencers to publicize the bar.
Also develop a website of your own enabling people to have a deeper insight of the bar and what it has to offer.
Omnia bar, one of the most famous bars in Las Vegas has all its social media pages well managed that keep its customers updated and informed.
This is a marketing strategy that all bars need to embrace.
#2. Come up with a unique feature
The idea of not being mainstream is appreciated by many and it is quite human to be intrigued by things that are exceptional.
Make sure your bar promotion stands out among the rest by adding some sort of peculiarity, be it in terms of food, music, dance, alcohol or interior.
You may also do that by launching a unique product that is the signature specialty of your bar and promote it to every extent possible.
If people enjoy it, it will give rise to the hype in the market causing a lot of people to make way to your bar out of curiosity.
People who are open to trying new bars will come and see what the hype is about.
Once you manage to satisfy them, your patrons will keep coming for more.
For instance, “minus5 ice bar” located in Las Vegas is a bar known for its unique feature of being made up of ice that allows one to experience the coldness of -5 degrees temperature.
Furthermore, the furniture and cutlery are also made of ice allowing people to have a pleasant and memorable experience.
#3. Never fall short of entertainment
Entertainment is the prime purpose behind a customer walking in any bar.
Providing an entertaining and cheerful environment to your customer should be your utmost priority, ensuring they are enjoying themselves well within the boundaries of your bar.
The atmosphere in the bar must be such that brightens their day by making them forget about all their worries.
Coming up with a variety of innovative ideas every now and then that keeps your patrons engaged can be beneficial for bar promotions.
Arrange different competitions, open mic nights, zen art performances, comedy nights and dance troupes providing people an opportunity to participate and have fun.
These brand promotion ideas will prove to be helpful in attracting more people, while turning most of them into your regular customers.
#4. Launch daily specials
Launching daily specials can be an interesting idea for breaking the monotony and keeping a customer from losing interest in your bar.
It is natural to be bored by something that lasts longer without a change.
Thus, the idea of change is always refreshing. If customers get to experience new things at your bar frequently their enthusiasm will remain intact.
Daily specials may involve offering a different dish or a drink on a daily basis.
Here’s a design template that you can use from PosterMyWall:
#5. Ensure consistency in Quality
Always endeavor to offer high quality service to your customers managing to make your bar’s name in their favorites list.
Quality is majorly what a customer looks for while approaching a brand.
Hence, ensuring consistency in quality each time is obligatory upon you assuring your customer leaves the bar fully satisfied.
Everything your bar offers should be value for money.
If consistency drops owing to compromised quality the number of customers at the bar will dwindle too.
As a result, the financial stability of the business will be jeopardized.
Quality has a lot to do with the professionalism of the staff as well.
The more committed the staff is, the better the quality you get.
Fully equip your bartenders with the techniques of how to tackle customers in an effective manner.
#6. Offer special discounts during happy hours
Offering special discounts is a smart move for bar marketing to heighten the flow of traffic towards the bar.
Your patrons must have this privilege of enjoying special discounts occasionally.
Initiate limited-time discounted deals that are hard to resist thus pushing more people to take advantage of it.
Announce happy hours at the bar during which customers can avail the maximum discount offers.
#7. Arrange engaging activities
An effective way to promote the bar and keep the crowd coming is to have interesting activities on board including bar quizzes, trivia night, fun games etc.
Organizing in house concerts ofttimes is also one of the activities that can encourage promoting the bar.
A customer should develop interest when they come across your bar via social media or otherwise.
The first and the foremost thing to attract a customer is to arouse interest in them and the rest follows eventually.
For example a well-known nightclub named Kervansaray Turkish Nightclub in Istanbul is popular for offering traditional “Turkish Night Show”.
This usually catches the attention of the tourists resulting in more people walking in the bar.
#8. Organize celebrity/DJ nights
Celebrities, influencers and public figures have an incredible fan base.
Hosting a celebrity night where your customers get a chance to meet and greet their favorite celebrity at the club can stir up remarkable responses from the public.
Moreover, inviting other notable public figures like famous DJs that can keep the crowd elated and energized all night can bring in larger audiences.
Back in 2016, the famous DJ Snake performed at the Encore Beach Club situated in Las Vegas.
It was a huge success as well as a houseful show, given the crazy fan following of the DJ cum celebrity.
At the same time the presence of influencers to hold a night full of fun might stimulate their fans to come in, hence promoting your bar constructively.
#9. Serve a wide variety of cocktails and food
Bars are the best places to go to for alcohol lovers.
Considering the diversity of customers, your bar must exhibit a wide variety of menu and alcoholic beverages to suit the demands of each customer individually.
Satisfying every customer is extremely imperative for promoting a bar.
Provide cocktail kits at the bar allowing customers to mix drinks according to their requirement.
Some of the must have cocktails in the bar include Whiskey, Negroni, Vodka, Cosmopolitan and Moscow Mule.
#10. Interior design has an important role to play
Providing the best atmosphere to your customers by creating a friendly and comfortable ambiance is a responsibility on the bar owners.
Hire a professional interior designer to do the job and transform your bar into a place that people would long to visit.
Interior design has a huge part to play in the bar marketing strategy as it is the first thing your customer will pay attention to.
Choosing the color scheme, lighting and seating wisely is fundamental as it impacts people a great deal.
Do not forget to add a pop color to give a lively look to your bar, for example, neon lights are very in these days:
Also consider the light should be good enough for the people to click pictures they can post on their feed later as this era is all about social media, especially instagram.
#11. Host special nights
By hosting special nights on a weekly basis you can target greater audiences offering something special for each category out there. This is considered as a great bar promotion strategy.
Special nights may include single nights where only singles can come and have a good time in the bar.
On the other hand, special nights like ladies night, couple night, group night, decade themed party night can also be great ideas for favoring bar promotions.
#12. Promote your patrons on social media
Take reviews of your sponsors and post them on social media to strengthen public opinion about the bar.
Also promote your regular customers on the blog by posting their overwhelming feedback as well as suggestions.
This will go on to show the bar’s commitment and dedication towards its customers which will positively impact people and promote the bar.
Positive reviews are vital in influencing public perception.
Majority of the people check reviews on social media about a certain place they intend to visit, and their decision is influenced depending on reviews.
The better the reviews, the more the customers:
#13. Value customer feedback
Get a feedback form filled from all the customers coming to the bar.
Also listen to customer’s suggestions carefully and be open to constructive criticism as it will help to improve the bar standards.
You may also conduct a survey to gauge your own customer service and to be able to ameliorate it.
This will undoubtedly build a sense of trust in your customers and will also make you strive to deliver even better to the people, imprinting a positive image of the bar in their minds.
Conclusion to bar promotions
Establishing a bar that is popular among people is not a child’s play. It takes a great amount of effort and hard work to gain desired results.
Adopting appropriate ideas as well as strategies for promotion is therefore highly crucial to ensure longer and successful sustainability.
Through the implementation of bar promotion strategies as mentioned above, you will not have trouble getting customers at the bar.
However, the job is not merely to attract a bundle of customers but to make them stay as well.
Your long-term loyal customers will also introduce your bar in their respective social circles that will give a boost to your patronage significantly.
You can achieve your goal by ensuring quality, fun, entertainment and variety at the bar.
This is all that majorly takes to attract a customer.
If a customer can find all that he demands at one-stop bar he will be elated to visit it over and over again.
Apply different bar promotion strategies and pick the one that works the best for your bar.