Pub Advertising: How to Advertise a Pub
Great pub advertising is necessary in today’s competitive market.
Pubs are where people choose to visit when they want to unwind after a long day or simply to have fun with their friends.
There are so many options available that people are now looking to hang-out in unique places rather than just their local pub.
As a pub, you have to make a conscious effort to stand out amongst hundreds of competing venues.
You don’t want to pass off merely as an ordinary pub, especially when you have a lot more to offer your customers.
To increase your visibility and to leave a mark on history, you have to think of out of the box ideas for great pub advertising.
Before you head to researching how to advertise a pub, have a look at the ideas we have compiled to make your job easier!
You can jump to the section you might be interested in reading by using the links below. Read on to find some interesting pub advertising ideas:
1. Get on Bloc
2. Get reviews
3. Work on your social media presence
4. Create a fantastic website
5. Bring the music
6. Collaborate as much as you can
7. Host themed nights
8. Take advantage of email marketing
9. Link up with the press
10. Organize simple yet fun games
11. Introduce happy hours
12. Work on your ambience
13. Introduce a loyalty program
14. Boost influencer content
1. Get on Bloc
Bloc is a marketing platform where you can advertise your pub for free until a user actually attends your pub.
Here’s how it works:
1. A Bloc user sees an ad of your pub on Bloc
2. The user checks into your pub on Bloc
3. The user attends your pub and is tracked via geo-location
4. The user is rewarded 6 stars for attending your pub, which they can exchange for real money
5. You are charged £2 inc. VAT because a Bloc user attended your pub
Bloc is a pay-per-result advertising platform, so you’re not charged for impressions, clicks or even check-ins. You’re only charged if they are tracked to your pub.
It’s risk-free pub advertising and very budget friendly.
There is also a free trial where you can get £150 ad credit, which is 75 free customers.
2. Get reviews
There is no stronger pub advertising medium than word of mouth. Word of mouth publicity is the best way to let the world know that your pub is the ultimate place to have fun.
Everyone looks to the internet before they head out to eat or drink.
84% of people trust online reviews like Google’s, and therefore the first step towards making yourself visible involves having an impactful online presence.
Most customers leave negative reviews whenever they have a bad or unpleasant experience. All you can do is work on those aspects to get better while requesting your loyal, happy customers to put out positive feedback.
Now the big question is – how to get your customers to leave a review?
Simply incentivize them! Offer them a discount or a voucher that they can redeem on their next visit to your pub.
Not only will this encourage them to drop in again soon, but it will also give them enough of a reason to leave a happy review.
3. Work on your social media presence
If it’s not out there on social media, it practically doesn’t exist!
Physical marketing activities have an impact, without any doubt, but with social media, you get a reach that’s beyond your locality.
Using Instagram or Facebook, you can market your USPs to people beyond your immediate locality. In no time, you will see a bevy of customers from far and wide lining up to experience the uniqueness of your pub.
Here’s what you need to do – create a social media account and keep posting regular updates on it.
Events, theme-parties, collaborations – you have planned something, let the world know about it!
Post mesmerizing pictures of the drinks in your bar, the lovely food, the ambiance, your staff, and yes, don’t forget the witty captions!
Along with impressive photographs, having a strong caption-game on social media is super important!
4. Create a fantastic website
Apart from a social media account, you also need to create a website and keep updating it with relevant content every now and then.
Share photos, menu information, and contact details on it. Have an option via which people can make reservations online.
Make sure your content is search engine optimized so that you have better visibility and a higher search engine ranking.
When people search ‘best pubs in New York,’ you want the name of your pub to pop up in the first ten search engine results. This explains the emphasis on SEO content.
Make sure the website has a section that talks about how you started and where you are today – keep the story raw and honest to make it even more impactful!
Include blog posts revolving around drinks– about different wine recipes, the foods that go best along with beverages, or the best breweries across the world.
Give exciting and intriguing information out to your patrons. Remember, the more useful and relevant the information, the better it is for the publicity of your pub!
5. Bring the music
Swooning to soothing music while sipping on your favorite drink is an inexplicable experience, which is exactly what you have to bring in for your customers.
Calling in an upcoming band to play in some popular songs is a crowd-puller that works like magic.
Set aside a day of the week, preferably weekends, to have your acoustic band perform – and watch the number of people dropping into your pub rise!
If the setup works in your favor (it always does!), try calling in the band often so that you have a steady flow of customers throughout the week.
When you sign up for a local band to perform at your pub, you not only give them a good amount of exposure but also leave your customers beaming with the experience they just had.
A little research and you will find a band right in your town. This is definitely one of the budget-friendly yet effective marketing ideas for your pub.
If you can’t really bring in a band, try doing this! It works amazingly, as people respond really well to music.
Music releases dopamine in the brain – the feel-good hormone, which works as an instant mood-lifter.
When someone feels good in a particular place, they tend to hang out there for a longer time.
This is exactly what you need to do – make your pub a place worth hanging out for hours!
To achieve this, all you have to do is turn up the music! Peppy music, romantic songs, or a mix of both are perfect.
If you’re willing to take it a step ahead, host karaoke nights – people love singing their hearts out on such platforms!
Once a week, karaoke nights are a wonderful idea to keep your patrons engaged in the pub for longer hours.
6. Collaborate as much as you can
Collaborations are the perfect win-win arrangement for both parties.
You don’t really have to pay each other anything, but instead, you cross-market your customer base with each other.
Host tasting, sports, or charity events, as they are the best places to market yourself without being too pushy.
If you have the budget, simply sponsor a local event.
However, if you don’t, collaboration always works! Make sure you display your banners and other interesting features of your pub at these events. This works as the perfect marketing gimmick!
7. Host themed nights
When you have the liberty to bring in some spice, do it!
People love themed-events, and you definitely need to consider capitalizing on this fact.
Think out of the box, and come up with unique themes that aren’t offered by other pubs. If you know Wednesdays are slump days for you, try bringing a themed night and a couple of discounts to ensure you have a good number of people dropping in.
Be consistent with the themes you announce so that people know they have something to look up to every week in your pub.
Make sure you keep updating your social media profiles well in advance so patrons can hit the pub on these particular days.
Also, as you target the mainstream crowd (couples, youngsters), try making your bar space for people of all age groups and types.
Don’t shy away from hosting a singles night, a single mom’s night, or even a senior citizen’s evening!
8. Take advantage of email marketing
This is the best way to reach out to people while they are relaxing in the comfort of their homes.
Use email marketing to let people know about your pub, the services, discounts, and other fun things you offer.
You don’t always need to outright market yourself – simply wishing your patrons Happy Holidays works as a reminder, too.
dd in the schedule planned for the holiday season and warmly invite customers to drop in and enjoy. This way, you market yourself without being too pushy.
You can also have a ‘one drink, one email’ policy, where you can ask customers to turn up at your bar within a month of receiving the email from you.
Getting the email IDs of your customers may be a task – but hey, where there is a will, there is a way!
Get creative and find ways so that your customers submit their email IDs without giving you a questioning look!
9. Link up with the press
The national press may be difficult to tie up with, but the local press is an option always available.
To get yourself into newspapers and magazines, your pub first needs to have something newsworthy.
For example, winning awards is something the press feeds off, which is why you need to sign up for different competitions as a pub and try winning the awards, too.
Likewise, if a certain celebrity and their group of friends hit your pub frequently, tip off the press. This way, the press gets what they want – photographs of the celebrity, while you get the publicity you deserve.
10. Organize simple yet fun games
You don’t always need to spend money on marketing – you can try doing it in simple ways, too!
Host games such as quizzes or spot prizes and watch patrons have the time of their lives! You can get creative and also try hosting innovative games such as ‘guess the drinks blindfolded.’
These are fun little events that won’t really need a lot of money either. Plus, you will find your customers lingering around for a longer time, simply because they are having fun!
Who doesn’t love gifts, after all? Either offer drinks as gifts or team up with local stores to give out cute gift hampers as prizes.
A mini-cheese basket from the local dairy or a cupcake hamper from the bakery in your lane would be perfect options, too! If you run out of gifts, offer discount coupons!
Keep in mind, when guests spend a longer time in your pub, they will also have the urge to order another round of drinks or food.
This is exactly why you have to bring in the fun elements- simply to make your guests stay in longer and your revenues to surge higher!
11. Introduce happy hours
Happy Hours literally translates to happy customers! And happy customers is the key to good pub advertising.
Who doesn’t love this concept? In fact, people are on the lookout for reasons to enter a pub during happy hours.
So, here’s what you need to do – offer huge discounts on food and drinks during these specific hours. Word will spread soon, and you will find customers thronging your bar during these happy hours.
Happy hours have been a traditional marketing technique to publicize a new pub or eatery. Making most of it even now makes complete sense because patrons never get bored with this concept!
12. Work on your ambience
The services you offer in your pub are what make it worth the visit. However, did you know ambience matters a lot, too?
Try revamping the look of your pub, making it more crowd-friendly and appealing.
Incorporate games such as carrom or dartboard, a pool table, and some board games. The ambiance of your pub will make guests want to stay in longer.
You could also host tournaments in your club – this gives a lot of teams and players a reason to visit your club often.
While your patrons are inside your club having fun, don’t forget they will be ordering in lots of food and drinks to keep them company, too!
13. Introduce a loyalty program
For effective pub advertising this particularly works well if you notice that your pub doesn’t really have regular customers.
Try convincing customers to sign up for your loyalty program and let them know about the benefits you will offer if they visit your pub often.
Do make sure you work up the numbers so that you don’t drain away your resources chasing after customers! That’s a drawback of loyalty programs, but if you work it out well, it will definitely prove to be a huge success!
14. Boost influencer content
If you’re already using influencer marketing, or even if you’re not, you might know that using influencers on their own isn’t very effective.
This is because most followers aren’t active, followers may not care and may not live within the right radius of your pub.
Instead boosting influencer content is far more effective.
This is a called a brand partnership ad on META and a spark ad on TikTok.
The influencer posts their content as normal on their account, then they can share a code with you to boost their content to your exact audience.
The benefit of this is that you only pay for people who are relevant e.g. those that live within 1km of your pub.
And the ROI is great because the ad is coming from the influencer (who people trust) and not you as a brand.
Summing up
So, there we go, with simple yet super effective pub advertising strategies. Do try these crowd-pulling marketing tips for your pub, and we hope you reap the benefits of them soon.
