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When marketing of any business you must know who your target market is before you doing anything and this of course is also true of bar marketing. The UK bar market can be very segmented, especially in London and its also hugely competitive. Some of the coolest operators in the business are competing for the lucrative bar trade.
Marketing bars requires a combination of solid branding, great price promotions, entertainment, food (if you serve it) and service along with a large variety of marketing schemes – from your windows to the local press. Your choice of drinks and drink suppliers will also be critical and many offer marketing help and funding for bars.
Many bar customers will more responsive to price promotions than say a fine dining restaurant. It is advisable to offer some kind of promotion early on in the week when its quieter than the weekends. Once you had decided on what form the promotion and the bar marketing will take then you must find ways of communicating this to your target market.
Your bar marketing will start in house with printed materials and move on to communicating the promotion to potential customers that have never visited your bar before. Bar marketing is more than just advertising and encompasses media relations, public relations, internet marketing, affiliate marketing and local marketing.
A combination of these will see an increase in custom and are well worth the small investment in both time and money. For the majority of bars the most important aspect will be local marketing ie communicating the offer and the bar in general in a favourable way to the local community.
This can be done in any number of ways from distributing fliers to local residents to providing posters for the staff notice boards at local businesses (you may have to give a few people a pint for this one!)
Don’t forget when marketing your bar that music choices, entertainment and even volume will affect people. Most customers are fickle and have very specific tastes. Always try and cater for a niche. Look at who is reviewing you online and what they are saying for clues.
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