10 Low Cost Ways To Get More Bar Customers

Posted by barblog on Feb 18, 2010 in Bar Management, Bar Marketing | 0 comments

We’re getting more and more requests for ideas on how to increase business in these difficult times. One thing is for certain: The game has changed and it’s time to start thinking differently about how to grow your business. After all, doing the same thing over and over again without signs of growth is not going to keep you in business very long. These 10 Low Cost Ideas will help you get the ball rolling.

“Become a Bartender” Night
Make the most of the quiet nights by offering bartending classes. More suited to city center locations and areas of higher populations, running a bartending class could include showing “students” how to pour a pint, how to make certain cocktails, learn a little about serving wine etc. You could charge a small fee to cover the costs of all the drinks and the chances are that your “class” will stay afterward to enjoy a few more at full price!

Free Menu Tasting
Advertise a free menu tasting when introducing a new menu (or simply when you re-introduce your current menu…). Have taster size portions of your menu available on trays around the bar for a few hours and mingle with the customers getting feedback about the food while your bartenders keep the drinks flowing. Your regular customers will love it and you’ll introduce some new customers to your menu and bar, all for the cost of a few trays of food that’s already in your fridge.

Beer Tasting
Most of your beer drinking customers will be accustomed to their regular pint and won’t “chance” a different variety very often. Make it easy for them to broaden their horizons by hosting a beer tasting event. Include regional and microbrew varieties, especially those served by the bottle which will normally have a higher margin than your draught products. You might find that some of your customers will switch their allegiances to other varieties after the event and you will also have had the chance to bring new customers into the bar with this promotion.

Television Nights
Make the most of midweek by identifying a popular television show and making an event around it. Bring in popcorn (salty foods make people thirsty…), arrange the chairs like a living room around the tv, offer table service so the customers don’t have to leave their chair and make sure everyone can hear and see the television. Your bar could quickly become the place to go to see favorite tv shows.

Charity Events
Offer your bar up for a fundraiser or any event your local charity would like to host and throw in a few free trays of food and tea and coffee. Ask that your bar details be included on all of the charities literature so that you can benefit from the cross promotion. Choose the charity carefully so that you don’t end up hosting an underage childrens event in a bar at night. The bigger the charity, the more members likely to turn up and buy from the bar…

“Reeling in the Years” Nights
Bar Owners in Cork, Ireland have joined forces to create and run www.decadesfestivalcork.ie which means that on different nights during the festival, all pubs will have a theme for a past decade such as the 50s or 60s. On those nights all bar staff will dress in the attire of the era, music from that era will be played, the bars will be suitable decorated according to the decade. Bars outside of Cork could replicate this idea easily in their bar and encourage customers to get involved.

Running an off the wall sports tournament
Consider hiring a foozball table or air hockey table for a week and run a tournament for your customers. Ask your suppliers to donate a prize or two. Run the tournament midweek with the final at the weekend. The more unusual the better!

Beverage Familiarization Week
Team up with suppliers to run events around their particular line of drinks. For a certain week, create cocktail specials, menu items using the beverage, tasting events and giveaways to get more people through the door. Most suppliers will be happy to provide the beverages to cover the promotion as long as you come up with a unique enough set of promotions and ideas to promote their drinks.

Get Online – Today!
Get involved in all of the social networking sites on the Internet, and then use these sites to generate interest in upcoming events or in upcoming drink specials. It is not necessary to create your own website because the major search engines will find your social networking sites very easily, but it can enhance the experience for your customers if you do have a fully interactive website. Let customers post pictures on your website to remind everyone of the great time they had in your bar, create a message board forum that allows you to interact with your customers, and create an email list that you can use to keep your customers updated on upcoming events. The internet allows you to stay in constant contact with your customers, and you should use this to your advantage.

Try to Break a World Record
A bar in the UK recently garnered a significant amount of press attention by trying to break the lesser known record of the most smurfs in a bar at any one time by asking all of their customers to dress up in smurf costumes. What crazy world record could you try to break? Let your local radio and tv stations know about your efforts and you might find a bar full of smurfs makes a lot of financial sense for you too!