10 Marketing Ideas for Pubs and Bars in 2024

There are several marketing ideas for pubs and bars to generate the desired traffic that will get you to profit. You require this information, and that is why you have visited this page. This article will help you identify promotions you can make for your bar to gain the needed traffic.

It is more critical now than ever to step up your marketing efforts and draw in new clients, especially if you work in the hospitality industry. For bars, it's easy to experience a drop in sales around the middle of the week when business is slow. How can you change this?

In this article, we'll go over our best pub marketing strategies to keep things interesting. With these strategies, you will also keep up with the neighbourhood atmosphere, and most importantly, attract customers to keep your establishment looking busy.

10 Marketing Ideas for Pubs and Bars to Boost Sales

Before we dive in, these ideas can be categorized into online and offline strategies. These online strategies help you achieve your marketing goals via online channels such as social media and the like. For the offline ideas, these are strategies you apply on-site to generate traffic and sales. Let us look at marketing ideas for pubs and bars to stay relevant.

1. Start A Blog

Starting a blog can seem absurd, especially for a bar. However, since the blog is to promote the bar, you can include things that you might not ordinarily see in a regular blog. By making your blog engaging and fun, you can advertise your bar while winning readers over.

Talk to your clients about your thought process and your ideas, share amusing events that happened in the bar, or introduce them to a new cuisine. You can gain regular readers and customers by starting a blog for your bar. It can spark discussion among your customers and increase your online presence outside of social media sites.

2. Themed Nights

A planned theme night will undoubtedly have an impact on sales. This strategy is effective because it is used at several clubs and pubs. When you give the evening a theme, you can provide your consumers with a unique experience.

This adds a fun aspect and takes them out of their usual routine. Create various themes that go with your bar's concept, use an invitation maker to create stunning invitations and then invite your customers based on those themes. Remember to promote the theme throughout all your social media platforms. If this is a less frequent aspect of your bar, you can even set up an event page for it. Also, send these invitations to your customers based on their preferred themes.

3. Ensure Efficient Customer Service

The success of your pub's marketing efforts, especially word-of-mouth marketing, depends on providing outstanding customer service. It might be as simple as having your bar staff smile and engage in genuine conversations when greeting customers.

Train your personnel to be kind and polite, and make sure they offer suggestions based on the desires and requirements of your customers. The goal of advertising is to sow the seeds for future business, and if you provide outstanding customer service, people will remember you and want to do business with you again.

4. Make Use of Social media.

The best marketing ideas for pubs and bars are never complete without social media strategies. Effective pub marketing can be achieved by utilizing social media, which is a powerful and cost-free medium. Social media aids in boosting sales at bars, raising brand recognition, and most significantly, maintaining repeat consumers.

You can set up a variety of platforms, and they are all free. Your bar needs a Facebook business page, an Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and perhaps TikTok accounts.

When everything is set up, you'll be able to display satisfied clients, highlight your staff, and give customers a peek inside your pub by using high-quality images and videos to sell your establishment.

5. Follow Your Competition

Benchmarking is the practice of engaging with other bars on social media. This is the method of evaluating other bars to see what they are doing successfully and improving those aspects further in your marketing plans.

You can get ideas for your bars by following pubs on social media that you admire. Some concepts you can improve on may include writing, design, or even marketing strategies. To get inspiration from your personal experiences, you should also go visit renowned bars.

6. Promoting User-generated Content

User-generated content is excellent for creating material and for developing relationships with readers. If your bar offers a photo opportunity or carefully selected props, people will take pictures and post them to social media without even asking.

A photo opportunity provides a skilfully designed backdrop that your customers won't be able to resist taking a picture of. There are several ideas you can come up with in this regard.

Due to the ability to re-post them, user-generated content is a fantastic way to boost engagement and establish a connection with your audience. You may save time and money by leveraging the content that your fans and followers post.

7. Host Special Events

By converting it into a rental event space, your bar will become more than just a place to enjoy a beer with friends. Create a room that people may rent for informal gatherings if you have the space, or rent out your entire facility for larger birthday parties, corporate holiday parties, or family reunions.

8. Set Up Loyalty Programs

A loyalty program can be worthwhile if you're having trouble getting repeat business at your bar. Rewarding your devoted customers with something special encourages new people to join the group.

In the long run, they will regard your bar as a second home, thus keeping your greatest customers coming back time and time again. You may look into ways to integrate loyalty programs with branded items, like takeaway mugs, t-shirts, tote bags, and hats.

9. Offer Unique Specials

Margarita Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, and Wing Wednesdays are all well-known specials. These are promotions that other bars provide. Why not don your thinking cap and come up with some specials that are one of a kind and that no other pubs are giving?

Find a strategy to make your existing menu stand out if you decide to remain with them. If you need new specials, you can engage the help of a mixologist. What makes it more enticing is when you provide raffle prizes or themed music for those who order the specials.

Utilize your social media platforms to share the message when you have new specials. Given that it is an addition to your current menu, this marketing tactic is simple to implement.

10. Broadcast Live Games

Have you ever considered how well sports bring people together? You can exploit the fact that drinks and sports go together to market your pub. Having a drinking contest centred around an upcoming sporting event is a way to make it more interesting. You can do this by setting up a huge screen and broadcasting live sports.

Bonus Tip: Networking

Since your pub is a neighbourhood business, you should "network" with your patrons, staff, and other bars. Local bars and pubs may be considered rivals, but if you perceive them as allies rather than adversaries, you may be able to grow your clientele. This consequently increases your revenue too.

You can promote each other to customers by cooperating with other bars. For instance, if you don't broadcast sports but a nearby bar does, you can suggest that bar. In the event you need recommendations in future from that pub, I believe you will get them.

Last Words

In conclusion, marketing plays a crucial role in the success of any pub or bar. In this article, we have highlighted ten marketing ideas that can help boost sales and generate more traffic. Starting a blog, organizing themed nights, providing excellent customer service, using social media, and hosting special events are some of the best ways to keep things interesting and attract new customers. By following these tips, pub and bar owners can stay relevant, maintain repeat customers, and increase their profits.