Over the past four months, I’ve been researching the strategies used by the most successful bars to keep their bar full. I wanted to know what promotions or tactics were being used by these businesses to remain profitable and full despite the downturn in the economy.

The results surprised me. Mainly because virtually ALL successful bars that I researched were using the same formula to fill their bar every night.

The formula is simple, yet highly effective and can be used by ANY bar, in any market anywhere.

I’ve put together this video to explain the formula in more detail. I hope you enjoy it.

Today I’m working from a coffee shop. I say a coffee shop, but to be honest it’s more like a department store. From where I’m sitting, I can see a Cigar Humidor filled with 100s of cigars for sale, a big display of homemade candles for sale, a large Gelato fridge displaying every kind of gelato you can imagine, a small kitchen that serves Belgian Waffles and French Crepes (but only on weekend mornings), there is a large energy drink display, the music playing has no relevance to any of these things, oh and yes there is coffee too.

The only thing that’s missing? Customers. I’ve been here for two hours and remain the only customer. It’s not a coincidence. I’ve been here before and it was the same story, except when they first opened, they didn’t have all these add-ons. They just had coffee and a dream to be a local coffee shop.

So what went wrong? Well, for reasons that are probably a mixture of poor branding, inefficient marketing and a lack of reach to the demographic they wanted to serve, it’s never been very busy and so the classic response to low customer levels is to start to offer more and more, because “surely that way we’ll appeal to more people…..”. Unfortunately, while you might appeal to a larger base of interests, you’ll attract none of them in sufficient numbers to sustain a business.

You see, customers have way too many choices today. There are ever more demands on their attention, money and loyalty. To the coffee customer, the cafe isn’t “purist” enough to get their business. To the cigar smoker, he’s unlikely to seek out his fine Cohiba in a coffee shop and to the gelato customer, well there’s no indication outside that this is anything more than a coffee shop, so the gelato probably isn’t selling.

As a customer, I want you to “get me”. I consider myself too smart to be won over by run of the mill signs and posters. I want to align myself with a business that matches my interests and motives. I want my coffee shop to be passionate about coffee and little else and I want to get my cigars from a store that deals in little else.

So if you do nothing else today, ask yourself, what is my main product or service and how well am I representing this? How passionate am I?

To those customers you attract, you’ll keep them forever and they’ll be your biggest raving fans and evangelists. Keep adding on to your product range in the hope of attracting more customers and you’ll end up knee deep in melting gelato trying to keep the cigars dry…..

I came across this great article in Canada’s Financial Post about how a new bar & restaurant grew their email contact list to over 1000 people very quickly and started building their list before the bar was even fully open.

In a few weeks we’ll be launching a toolkit of 365 Big Bar Promotion Ideas for your bar and a key part of the promotion planning and execution strategy is having a list of customers to promote your promotions to. Without this list, you might have the best promotions in the city, but it will be like shouting about it in the middle of a forest – nobody will hear about it!

Build, build, build your list. It’s the only way to fill, fill, fill your bar!

If you are looking for an email service for your bar, I recommend using Aweber.com. (affiliate link). I use them for all my email marketing and can’t speak more highly of them. You’ll get easy to use templates to send out an email to your list in minutes.

I had a great conversation with the legendary Bevinco Partner in Columbus, Ohio, Charles Deibel last week.

He was telling me a number of myths that he hears every day when working with Bar Owners assisting with their inventory control.

It never ceases to amaze him or me just how many different ways, ideas and myths exist around the calculation of selling prices, calculation of profit margins and the identification of theft. These are expensive myths. As much as 20% of profits is being lost because of an incorrectly held belief in a system!

As our conversation deepened we agreed that we had to share these myths, ideas and strategies on a webinar so that everyone could join in and find out for themselves if they are employing some of these tactics in their business and don’t realise it.

What would it mean to you to increase profits by 20%?

What would it mean knowing that you were getting the maximum profit from each drink served and that you could leave your bar in the hands of your managers knowing that you had a system to check their accuracy later?

We’ll cover all of this and more on our Webinar on Wednesday May 26th.

I think some of the Myths we’ve encountered are going to really surprise you.

In any case, we’ll have a solution to each myth on the webinar and you will leave the webinar armed with informaiton to increase your profits!

You will need to register to attend this online presentation which we promise to keep brief and informative!

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/718101264

I look forward to welcoming you to our presentation.

Title:           The Top 10 Myths That Cost Bar Owners 20% of Their Profits

Date:          Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Time:         4:00 PM EST

If you run a bar and have any intention of making a little money while you do, you’ll probably want to advertise your promotions locally in magazines/newspapers, online on social media channels as well as on your own website.

One of the most important things to consider with print/online advertising is the photography. In an age where we have become immune to advertising and scan pages quicker and quicker, it is even more important for your photos to pop and grab the attention of the reader. It’s one thing grabbing their attention and another thing to get them to visit your bar because of your photos.

I met with a bar photographer yesterday who gave me her top ten tips for making the photography of your bar convince readers to actually visit whether you take the pictures yourself or hire a professional (recommended). Here they are: [...]

I met with Robert Greenawalt from Bar & Nightclub Text Messaging Service TextBoom and asked him why bars need to be looking to text messaging as a means of getting more customers in the door:

Can’t see this video? Click Here

I came across this great idea this weekend whilst getting a well deserved fried American breakfast in our local diner.

What it is is a Digital Photo Frame that rotates between all of the diner’s different menu items while you pay at the cashier’s desk.

For under $40, you can do the same.  Make sure your photos are [...]

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. [...]

When businesses first put signs outside their door, they had a couple of goals in mind:

1. That passers-by would read what was written on the sign
2. That these people would then become customers based on what the sign was offering.

The first sign must have been a surprise to potential customers! Such a novelty!

But things have changed considerably from those days (whenever they were!) and we are now bombarded with advertising from every angle: radio, TV, internet ads, email, text messages, twitter, in the middle of movies, roadside signs, newspapers, beermats, glassware, etc to the point where we have now become blinkered to the messages being shot at us from every direction.

Our tolerance for advertising has lessened and it is taking more creative methods to get us to pay attention. With that in mind, what is your advertising saying that sets you apart? Are your methods creative and thought out or do you follow the same well worn path as every other bar or restaurant?

One area to consider is the signage you put up outside your bar or restaurant to entice customers in. Before I go on, I am going to take for granted that your spelling and grammar is correct….

1. Be eye catching and colorful. Don’t blend in with the surroundings. Stand Out!
2. Don’t write a long paragraph in a tiny font. Use short snappy phrases like: “Fresh fish caught this morning”
3. Avoid phrases like “Bar Food Served All Day”. It is neither informative nor enticing. I assume by now 90% of bars serve food anyway so be different.
4. Instead of the usual “Vacancies” sign, why not try something like: “For you, we’ll always have a room”
5. Be a talking point. Following up from point no.3, instead of offering “Bar Food” on your sign, offer “The biggest burgers you’ve ever seen” or “beer so cold you’ll get a headache”. If it’s not different or catchy, it won’t be talked about.

Any other suggestions?