Bar Marketing Do’s and Don’ts

Investing in bar marketing is essential for establishments to expand their business, aiming to attract more customers and improve their sales.

But how to implement a bar marketing strategy? For those who are starting in this field, there will certainly be some doubts and difficulties in directing these strategies assertively.

That's why we've selected a few bar marketing do's and don'ts that can be key to increasing your audience and, consequently, your profitability.

Set up a digital marketing campaign for the bar

To start, we selected the idea of ​​putting together a digital marketing campaign. As its name already indicates, digital marketing is nothing more than traditional marketing, only directed to digital platforms.

Within a good bar marketing strategy, especially for spaces available on the internet, you should implement, for example,

• Use of social networks;
• Creation of blogs;
• Design of a website;
• Disclosure of products;
• Creation and promotion of your establishment on Google My Business;
• Advertisements and sponsored links;
• Improved service on these channels.

Of course, implementing a quality digital marketing campaign goes far beyond these topics that can only serve as a foundation.

A good marketing strategy for a bar can considerably increase the publicity of your establishment, correctly using the digital tools that exist in the market, attracting more customers and retaining customers who already consume at the bar.

Using Facebook Ads

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Social networks, such as Facebook, must be allies for bars that want to expand their business. To begin with, it is important to understand the context of access to this social network.

According to surveys, the people who most access Facebook are between 18 and 34 years old, with more than half of the public on this network. 

At the same time, a survey shows that 63% of people who go to bars in the UK are between 18 and 40 years old.

That is, it is possible to understand that the profile of bargoers and the primary Facebook users are similar, at least in age.

Understanding this, it becomes easier to think of bar marketing ideas that address the use of this social network. One of the strategies is to use Facebook Ads, which is Facebook's ad manager.

With this tool and the boosting of ads on this network, which is the most used in the world, the entrepreneur can promote the page, increase website traffic, increase conversions, reach people close to his business, and improve participation in events, among other benefits.

Promotions on Instagram

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Another social network that your bar should use is Instagram. After Facebook, it is the most accessed social network in the UK and the world, and it also has an audience profile similar to those who usually frequent bars.

Instagram's main features are photos and videos in newsfeeds, stories or Reels. 

Therefore, this is an excellent platform for attracting more customers through posts in different formats, photo, video, text and ads calling customers to the bar, taking advantage of promotions sporadically. 

Google My Business

We cannot talk about bar marketing and not address Google My Business, one of the essential exposure and dissemination tools on digital platforms.

Google My Business works for all areas of business activity. But for establishments such as bars, restaurants and snack bars, for example, it is even more critical.

Its primary function is for bars to be able to register their establishments on the Google platform, the leading internet search engine. With the registration containing information such as location, hours, contact, social networks, photos of the establishment, and directions to websites and blogs, among other options, you make your bar increase the chance of becoming known.

In this way, the idea of ​​using this platform, one of the main ones for bar marketing, is for people to find your establishment in the region where they live or are looking for an establishment to visit.

For example, a person is looking for a bar to spend the night at but still needs to learn more about the area and know which establishments are nearby. So she searches Google Maps, looking for bars near her. 

By registering with Google My Business, your bar will appear to that person in the first search fields, containing all the information necessary for them to find your establishment.

Google Ads

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Finally, Google Ads is one of the platforms that can be very well used for bar marketing strategies. 

With its use, you can generate ads for your bar, considering the segmentation of the public you want to reach, controlling the expenses that will be paid for the ads, monitoring the results, etc.

Google Ads is Google's ad manager. Do you know when you do a search, and in the first posts on the site, there are pages with the sponsored links brand? Well, that's exactly what this tool does.

Google Ads is also a bar marketing strategy that, like other advertising platforms, has the advantage of being able to program and segment the ad; that is, it is possible to choose the days, times and frequency that the ads will be promoted, in addition to of being able to choose the age profile, the language and the region in which the ad will be applied.

Despite being tools with excellent bar marketing characteristics, they also have the advantage of being low-cost tools with a very high cost-benefit ratio.

By boosting ads on these digital platforms, which are among the most visited in the digital environment, more people will know about your establishment, increasing the chances of new customers appearing.

Marketing in Bars: What not to do?

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Marketing for bars can save your business or improve it by increasing sales. But have you ever wondered why I don't sell enough for my bar to be successful? Or why don't I have clients? And if I have them, why do I lose money?

Some factors why a client chooses another place (and not yours) to go eat or have a beer are the quality of the food or drink that you offer in your cocktail bar, the friendliness or empathy of your personnel and the price at which you handle your products.

In business, we are always going to make mistakes, but the important thing is to learn from them and make corrective decisions in response to them. As an owner, everything you do or stop doing will directly affect you. And you are exposed to all kinds of good things, like having a successful bar and bad things, like going bankrupt and closing your business forever.

Surely you are afraid of failure, even more so when we invest money, time and effort in business.

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The 4 most important objectives that we must achieve with clients are:

1. Getting the customer to the restaurant/bar. 

2. Get the customer into business. 

3. Get him to stay and consume. 

4. Get clients to come back and invite their friends. 

In this way, we will achieve effective advertising for bars, marketing being an important factor that must be considered, especially today with social networks, and in this post, we will tell you which are the most frequent errors in the marketing of bars.

Is your business well-located?

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By placing it in a place where the market is not suitable, for example, an international bar in a 'small town' that is difficult to access or in a place where there is no money, in this way, the public will not arrive.

Poorly prepared food or drink

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Poorly prepared food or drinks, without flavour and presentation, is a very bad decision to serve the customer, and this is surely due to a bad purchase or poor quality food/drink preparation, generating a bad reputation for the business.

Bad Customer Service

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The "soul" of any business is the charisma and good attitude of the staff; correct and professional service creates a pleasant atmosphere appropriate to the type of public you want to attract.

This is achieved with the right music, a suitable name (that is memorable), decoration (theme) that creates an atmosphere, attractive clientele, events and parties that make a difference and build customer loyalty, in general, everything that makes your different and competitive restaurant or bar, because businesses without a "soul" are the first to fail.

Do you have the necessary permits to open your bar? 

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In the case of bars, for the sale of alcoholic beverages, operating licenses are required, and submission to legal and social regulations. As a piece of advice, try not to go to war with the neighbours for not respecting the hours you drive by making annoying noises or generating antipathy for any reason, but rest assured that soon you will have enemies in the neighbourhood and with the authorities, who They can make your life miserable.

Lack of Training for Your Staff

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Suppose any of these problems occur in your bar, and you want to avoid total failure or improve your business's administration. In that case, we recommend hiring professional training for restaurant staff so that you will be a responsible businessman, with yourself, with your employees and with customers.

Conclusion

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In this article, we saw bar marketing strategies that can be used to make your establishment attract more customers, generate engagement and retain these consumers. But, of course, for them to be functional, you need to explore their features to the fullest, understanding how they can help your bar grow.

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