Digital Marketing for Bars: How to Market a Bar Online
Implementing digital marketing for bars is vital for any bar to be successful.
Every day, venues are competing and coming up with new and innovative methods to draw customers to their business.
Although more traditional marketing tools like billboards and posters are probably never going to go away, we’ve seen an increasing number of businesses shift to digital marketing.
This isn’t surprising as the efficiency and versatility of digital marketing make it a prime choice for most businesses.
As technology evolves, bars and venues are exploring new and innovative ways to increase their profits.
During 2020, COVID and the pandemic simply accelerated this move as most companies were forced to shift their services online due to the lockdowns.
Online marketing gives you the ability to reach a large range of people without having to sink a lot of spend on marketing that doesn’t necessarily work or is hard to track.
Digital marketing for bars can be especially important because most small businesses can’t afford more flashy marketing methods.
It can be difficult and time-consuming to come up with huge marketing plans when you’re working on a small budget.
Another reason why this type of marketing is so important is that it allows you to flex your creativity. Many online platforms have inbuilt tools to help companies promote their businesses, but you need to know how to use them well.
So how do you develop a good digital marketing strategy for a bar?
Well, the first step that you must take is to create a well-organized strategy.
Planning out what you want to do in advance will allow you to work systematically.
Note down your goals for the strategy and the number of resources you’re willing to allocate to this plan.
After you’re done with this, you can start to design your ideal strategy.
Let’s go over six ways you can use to give your bar an excellent online presence and start driving more people to your venue. You can use the links below to jump to the section you want to read:
1. Use Bloc for a unique way to attract customers
2. Keep posting interesting content
3. Optimize your website
4. Interact with your customers online with the help of social media
5. Encourage user generated content (UGC)
6. Make fun videos to show off your team’s skills
1. Use Bloc for a unique way to attract customers
Most digital marketing for bars tends to be tricky to get right on the first try.
You may not get the reaction you were hoping for and you could be worried that those impressions and clicks haven’t accounted for anything.
The primary issue with digital marketing is that you need to figure out how to optimize your page to make it attractive for viewers.
On top of that, you’ll also have to convince these users to come and experience what your bar has to offer.
You also need to be able to analyze the analytics to see if the digital marketing is actually working for you.
Bloc allows you to draw customers into your bar without much effort.
All you have to do is sign up, enter some of the main features of your bar, and you’re done. Bloc then pushes your bar to every Bloc user within 10 miles of the venue.
The most unique feature of Bloc from a marketing perspective is that you only pay if someone actually attends your venue (tracked via geo-location).
So, you don’t pay for impressions or clicks, they are free. Instead, you only pay for your perfect result, someone in your bar spending far more than the small fee Bloc charges.
You can trial Bloc today with £150 free ad credit.
2. Keep posting interesting content
Social media sites work with thousands upon thousands of posts every single day.
People are constantly going on these platforms to share their thoughts, post a few beautiful pictures, and, of course, market their business.
Going through this much data manually is an impossible task, and users are only going to stay on an app that they’re interested in.
That’s why all of these companies use a specific algorithm to give every user the posts they’re looking for.
To make your bar stand out, you’ll have to use this algorithm to ensure that your posts are recommended to users.
Start by making sure that your posts have a high PR rating. Certain keywords, phrases, and tags will help the algorithm recommend your posts to the right crowd.
Next, begin to produce content that makes people stop and look.
Maybe you could post some pictures of the event you had last night or some highlights from the previous month.
You can also get creative with your posts by posting a picture of a special event drink and asking your viewers to guess your newest event.
The sky’s the limit when it comes to social media marketing, so brainstorm ideas with your team to figure out how to keep your audience enthralled.
3. Optimize your website
Digital marketing for bars wouldn’t work without a beautiful website to direct people to.
A business’s website is the main online presence that they have on the internet. This is because you can customize everything on your website from scratch.
However, when you’re dealing with social media accounts, there’s a certain template that you need to follow. Some companies have specific ad strategies that you can use to your advantage, but this takes a bit of time and effort to get used to.
You have a limit on what you can change, which means you’re not allowed to give your potential customers all the information they want.
Your website, on the other hand, can be built to cater to your customers. However, to get customers to use your site, you’ll have to create a site that is easy to use, well-designed, and has a smooth interface.
Remember that the ultimate goal of your site should be to attract people to your bar.
Try to structure your website to give your customers all the information they need to come to your bar and contact you for any questions that they might have.
You can do this by giving details about any upcoming events on your site’s main page, or you could have a section on the site dedicated to going over the unique drinks and menu items that you offer.
Remember to add plenty of images to showcase the amazing experience and atmosphere that your bar has to offer to your customers.
4. Interact with your customers online with the help of social media
Bars are meant to be a relaxing place for people to go to as a way to get away from their hectic day-to-day lives.
Part of why owning a bar is so fun is that you get the chance to bond with some of your loyal customers. You get to create a local establishment that gives people a place to hang out with their friends.
Loyal customers are essential to running any small business, so you need to figure out how you can build trust in your customers.
One way to do this is to interact with your customers by using these platforms.
When a bar takes the initiative and answers questions about their business or hosts a Q and A session, it gives customers a rough idea of how your bar is run.
You can also go on review sites to respond to criticism or positive comments.
Interacting with your customers is a great way to make your social media accounts more personal and interactive.
As a bonus, doing this will also boost customer engagement, which will, in turn, improve the amount of exposure your account gets.
Do keep in mind that the responses you give will form your bar’s first impression to many potential customers.
A bit of witty humor mixed in with your professional comments can go a long way, so be sure to maintain a balance.
5. Encourage user generated content (UGC)
UGC or user generated content is, as the name suggests, content that is created by the user.
When you’re looking at a social media platform, this type of content usually involves pictures that a customer took at your bar or a comment that they made about the bar.
All of this content is extremely valuable because you can use it to market your bar.
A way that you can use to encourage customers to create this content is to simply make your bar look as attractive as possible.
People love clicking pictures of a beautiful-looking place to fill their timeline, so this is sure to increase your UGC.
Another area to consider tweaking is your drinks and food section. Try coming up with a drink that uses a few fancy elements to put on a show or maybe a drink that has bright, vibrant colors.
This is sure to encourage people to whip out their smartphones and start recording. You can use tags to find the posts made about your bar and then give these customers a shoutout.
This shows your user’s real experiences, which might be just what you need to increase profits.
6. Make fun videos to show off your team’s skills
We talked about how important it is to have interesting content in a previous section, and videos can help you do just that.
Although creating fun and interesting posts is a great start, a few videos can help break up the monotony so that your customers have something different to watch.
Videos can allow you to show a bit more of your bar. It can also open up various new possibilities for you as coming up with new content for your social media can become quite tough.
So, what videos should you post?
Well, there are a few different types that you can create. As a bar, you want to give your customers a glimpse into how your staff creates and designs the menu.
So, one idea for a longer video is to allow your chef to show how they make one of your special menu items.
You could also post short videos that have snippets of the top events of the month at your bar or a quick run-through of the most popular drinks at your bar.
Remember to look at which platform you’re posting on before you make the videos. Instagram generally favors quite short, catchy videos which users can browse through to pass a bit of time.
On the other hand, you can post more lengthy videos on YouTube as this is a video streaming service.
Mix it up a bit and try to create content that is fresh and exciting. This is the key for digital marketing for bars to work.
Summing up
We hope that these tips have given you the boost of inspiration that you need to get started on your own digital marketing strategy.
Remember that digital marketing for bars can be quite tricky, so you’re going to need to figure out how to navigate all the pitfalls of this field.
Every bar has its own local audience that they cater to, so you’ll have to figure out what works best for your audience.
A good way to do this is to make a list of plans and collect data about each one of them.
Ask yourself, ‘Is this drawing more traffic to my website?’ ‘Are my retention rates high?’ ‘What can I do to convince my online followers to come into my bar?’
Over time you’ll get the hang of it and figure out which strategies get the best responses and which ones simply don’t work.
If you’re looking for a bit more inspiration to enhance your overall marketing strategy, then feel free to browse through our blog page. We have a ton of useful articles that will help you learn more about this intricate field.
Also, consider checking out Bloc for an exciting new marketing strategy that actually works.
Bloc gives you a simple way to market your bar without having to do much. If you’re curious about how it works, then why not sign up for a free trial? After that, you’ll have to pay on a per-customer basis, which means that you’re going to be getting your money’s worth.
