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Last Call: How to Market Your Bar to Potential Customers

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Two guys walk into a bar…. Having “two people” walk into your bar is a great setup for a joke, but it’s no laughing matter if ONLY two people walk into your bar, right? The good news is that the bar and nightclub industry continues to experience an upward trend. The bad news? That means more competition for your business. Especially with the growing trend of breweries adding bars and tasting rooms to their businesses. If you want your watering hole to stand out and continually bring in a strong clientele, you need to make sure that your marketing is top-shelf.

Make a Claim on Your Bar’s Culture

Have you heard the old saying, “If you try to please everyone, you will please no one?” That is what can happen when you try to get everyone interested in your bar or club. Popular drinking spots are usually the ones that provide a certain niche, e.g. sports bars, Irish or English pubs, college bars, a local brewery, etc. If you haven’t solidified a culture for your spot, you will likely face an uphill battle with bringing in a consistent crowd.

Think of your bar or club as an extension of your personality. As long as you’re not an alien from outer space (and hey — maybe even if you are), there’s a good chance there are thousands of like-minded people that share your vibe and would share a drink at your establishment. Check out some of these intriguing bars that garner a lot of attention. Just remember, building an inauthentic brand is like serving watered-down drinks — as soon as your customers figure out what you’re up to, they’re gone.

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More Money with More Merchandise

Selling merchandise helps in two ways. You can make an extra profit by selling branded clothing and gear. Two, you get free advertisement when people desire to wear and promote your gear. Merchandise also works in conjunction with the previous tip of solidifying your brand. Wearing a shirt or showing off a bumper sticker that is branded to a specific bar or pub is a belonging cue that can be contagious when others see their friends or people they respect sporting your gear. They may feel the desire to pony up to the bar and join the cool club.

The type of merchandise you use is totally up to you. T-shirts are a classic merchandise choice, but there are many options. Check out this page on unique bar goods to help get the creative juices flowing for choosing your merchandise.

Get Precise with Your Promotions

There’s no harm in a typical “Happy Hour” for your spot. But that’s as common as ordering a Bud Light. The next step for making your bar a unique hangout is to make your promotions unique. tart by offering promotions that run parallel to the type of culture you have for your business. For the sports bars out there, having promotions for the big game can surely help bring in the sports crowd. You can even take it a step further with an outstanding drink special that is offered every time the home team scores.

Is Karaoke night lacking a courageous singing crowd? Promoting a free drink for every first-time singer can help get those classic tunes jamming all night long. Whatever idea you can come up with, just aim to keep it relevant to your bar’s culture.
Download Ferg’s Sports Bar Case Study

Increase Sales with Social Media

You’ve got the culture, the merchandise, and e enticing promotions. Where are you going to share all this stuff? If you answered with anything other than social media, then sit down for one more round.

When we say social media, we don’t mean one or two Facebook posts. We’re talking active social media engagement across multiple platforms. Sites such as Twitter and Instagram are awesome social media outlets because you can reach an audience more likely to be of drinking age, compared to Facebook. This can help better your chances that your social posts reach out to people that can indulge in your product.

Sites such as Twitter and Instagram are also the type of sites where guests can easily engage back to your business. Bar-goers can share their experience at your establishment with an Instagram post that includes an appropriate hashtag. Twitter users can also reach out to you in a more laid-back manner with a simple @ mention in their tweets along with appropriate hashtags. Be sure to look around to see what type of outlets other than just Facebook your bar can excel in. If you sell craft beer, your mentions might come from craft beer fans listing their pints on sites like Untappd.

Smart WiFi Makes Hospitality Marketing Easy For Your Bar and Club

Offering WiFi is Wise

Free WiFi has become a staple for many people when choosing a restaurant or drinking spot. There are many unique things you can do make your bar stand out. Depriving your guests of WiFi shouldn’t be one of them. If you are worried that offering WiFi will take away from the true experience of your bar, then fret not. A WiFi marketing platform can help get your WiFi guests even more plugged into your brand when visiting your establishment.

At GoZone WiFi, our Smart WiFi platform can help market your bar or pub with WiFi marketing tools such as a branded login page and a personalized network name so even passers will notice your network instantly. Our platform helps with email marketing and social engagement, too. Now your free WiFi is a utility for your business rather than a simple amenity.

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Custom Splash Page Builder

A custom splash page helps give a captive portal the branded look it needs to stand out from the crowd and give guests the peace of mind they’re accessing the network associated with the venue they’re visiting.

WiFi Payments and Vouchers

Offer premium guest WiFi access and promote WiFi upgrades with comprehensive payment and voucher modules. Payments can be used to offer guests varying speeds of WiFi access, while vouchers are great for venues that want to utilize a captive portal that also requires a voucher code for WiFi access.
WiFi payments and vouchers

Guest Plans

Venues can now offer multiple levels of guest WiFi access with our Guest Plan feature. Guest Plans are defined by specific upload and download speeds and session time limits. Brick-and-mortar businesses can offer guest WiFi access and promote WiFi upgrades with our new payment and voucher modules.

Versatile Form Builder

Create and display custom guest surveys on any splash page of your guest flow. Collect feedback and gather additional data points to create smarter marketing.

Enhanced Guest Flow

Guest flow gives venues complete control over the guest WiFi experience. Guest flows help keep a visually pleasing captive portal experience by preventing clutter of multiple marketing assets. Keep it simple, or turn your WiFi into a digital billboard.
WiFi splash page with survey social login

Integrated Ad Spaces

Ad Space Integrations is a powerful feature for venues who want to promote products, deals and specials, online shopping, loyalty programs and other signups, or third-party advertisers all on a pre-authenticated Splash Page.

Increase impressions and clicks for advertising opportunities by showcasing AdSpaces before requiring a guest to connect to WiFi.

Have an app that needs more downloads? The URL redirect function will navigate guests to the app store specific to their device as soon as they click on the advertisement/call-to-action button.

No more will guests have to wait to connect to WiFi to reach interactive ads. Ad Space Integrations takes Ads4WiFi smart advertising tools and places it our smart marketing environment powered by Marketing4WiFi.

Hotspot Scheduler

Determine the specific days and times that WiFi is available to guests. Hotspot Scheduler offers smarter WiFi control by allowing venues to run their guest WiFi during business hours.