Best Practices - Social Media Marketing for Pubs

Today, having a pub marketing strategy is an absolute must for pub, bar and brewpub owners, no matter the size of their establishment.

Pubs need to have an online presence. In other words, if you don't engage your audience online, you're missing out on a golden opportunity to grow your clientele.

You don't need to be a professional pub marketing person. Well, just follow the tips that we are going to show you here, and you will already be able to reap the rewards that a digital marketing strategy for pubs provides.

5 pub marketing tips

Studies show that pub visits are fully influenced by online marketing activities. 

So, without a pub marketing strategy, your pub could lose customers. So try to implement at least 2 of these 5 pub marketing tips:

Create your profile

The first thing you need to do when joining social networks is create your profile. Your profile is also the first thing a customer will see when they search for you on social media. 

Therefore, your profile is the chance to make a great first impression and also provide all the necessary information to your future clients.

So, here are some best practices to follow when creating your social media profile:

• Clearly mention the name of your pub, as you may not always get the exact name in your @ (your social media handle).
• Provide relevant information such as opening hours, address and contact details to help people get in touch with you.
• Add an interesting fact to your bio or a catchphrase; this is your chance to make a good first impression.

These are the things you can add to your profiles on different social media platforms. 

However, on Google My Business, you can add some extra options. 

For example, there you can add "popular hours" to your bar in addition to the opening hours. You can also add a button allowing table reservations and a menu.

Use search engines for marketing your pub

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Optimizing your pub to be found through Google and other search engines can help bring new customers to your social networks. 

Here, you have 2 options:

• Display Advertising: Ads served on other websites.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): High-quality content with keywords that help your bar rank higher in search engines.

Now, if you don't feel safe doing these two things, hire a specialized agency. Pubs need to spend money before they start to see a return on their investment. 

However, in search engine optimization (SEO), you don't have to spend money on ads. 

But it will require you to create a continuous content stream like blog posts, articles, recipes, and more. You may not have the time to create content yourself, and the cost of having someone else do it for you can be a bit expensive.

Promote events, offers and new product launches

If there's something new happening at your pub, you can use social media to announce it. 

Do you have a faucet with a new draft beer? Promote it on social media. Are you opening a new bar? Use social media to build buzz about the launch and invite people to the grand opening.

If you have something interesting that you want to promote, bar marketing is a good idea for that. You can also promote any ongoing offers or discounts to get more visits to your outlets. 

In fact, 61% of people may make their first purchase after seeing a discount on a brand's social media page.

Invest time in marketing your pub

It may sound difficult, but maintaining a strong social media presence is absolutely essential for business today. Well, pubs have a great opportunity when they invest in bar marketing.

After all, your customers are already using social media to find new places to go, and one of those places could be your pub.

Possible social media channels to invest in include:

• Facebook: Facebook serves more than 1 billion users and is a great network for sharing promotions, photos and other high-quality content.
• Twitter: A real-time network for sharing content in a nutshell, marketers have discovered fascinating ways to put Twitter to use. Many companies, large and small, can make a huge impact on this network of potential customers.
• Pinterest: Predominantly aimed at women aged 25-44, Pinterest is a very focused network. Therefore, if this is your target audience, invest in this social network.
• Instagram: Photos can be a strong emotional trigger, especially when it comes to beer. Instagram is one of the most popular photo-sharing networks, and it is constantly growing. 

Before choosing which social media channels to follow, carefully research your audience and decide which mediums will bring you the most return.

Use the hashtags #

One of the best bar marketing resources that you can leverage to broaden the reach of your posts is hashtags. There is no shortage of food and beverage hashtags to choose from. The trick, however, is selecting the right hashtags for your brand.

There are some extremely popular hashtags like #beer and #chopp that are followed by millions of people. You can use them to reach a large audience and increase the reach of your posts. However, it is extremely difficult for your post to rank well for these popular hashtags. 

So you need to add some less popular but more relevant hashtags into the mix that you can realistically rank for. For example, if you only serve a certain type of Drink, you can search for hashtags related to that. 

You can also narrow down your target audience by location. If you only have a restaurant in a specific location, you can use location-specific hashtags. 

For example, if your pub is in Leeds, you can use a hashtag like #LeedsPub. It is much easier to rank a hashtag with around 15k posts than several million posts.

An effective hashtag strategy is to use a mix of extremely popular, less popular, but relevant, and super relevant niche hashtags. 

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Develop the Tone and Style of Your Brand

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Your restaurant's brand contains its identity, personality, and purpose, which should be reflected in your social media activity. Write in the same way that you would interact with your ideal client. Using lingo and keeping up with social media trends is OK if you're a hip coffee shop. A family-run company might provide endearing details, such as a college-aged son returning home for the summer to work.

Visually, your social media profiles should mirror the design of your eatery in the same way that its interior design may include colorful, on-the-go photographs. A fast-food restaurant might do the same. A dark and neutral color palette would be appropriate for the social media sites of a farm-to-table, rustic restaurant that offers various regional beers.

Influencer Marketing

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It has been shown that ambassador programs are an efficient and effective social marketing method. To reach more people in your town and appeal to a specific demographic, consider partnering with a credible organization to spread the word about your eatery. Partners that share your core beliefs and project an approachable image to your customer base are ideal. Don't focus too much on the number of people who follow an influencer; instead, look at how many people interact with their postings. An interested audience strongly indicates that the influencer's audience values and respects the influencer's opinion.

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Conclusion

For pub owners, having a marketing strategy is crucial when it comes to staying relevant in today's digital age. Having a strong online presence can significantly increase your customer base. Even if you're not a marketing expert, you can follow these five tips: create your profile on social media, use search engines for marketing, promote events and offers, invest time in marketing your pub, and use hashtags to expand your reach. By following these tips, you can establish your pub's brand, attract new customers and maintain a loyal clientele.

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