Traditional Marketing in Your Bar: Promotional Materials

So, your outdoor signage marketing campaign is a huge success and new customers are walking through your door more and more every day (if you don’t know what I’m taking about, check out my blog Marketing in Your Bar: Outdoor Signage). Your atmosphere, food, and drinks may be great but what’s stopping these new customers from trying out the bar across the street? It’s always important to be actively looking for ways to engage new customers, however it’s just as important, if not more important, to keep your current customers coming back – potentially turning them into regulars by building their loyalty to your establishment. There are many ways to use non-traditional marketing strategies to build this brand loyalty. One of these strategies could be running a promotion at your bar – here at Accel we think this idea is pretty genius!

When we talk about promotions, what we’re considering is something that lasts for a set period of time, let’s say a month, during which you allow your customers the opportunity to enter once each day for the chance to win a grand prize - something of value, like a new TV, a trip to Hawaii, or a new Jeep. While this takes an investment from you, many of your customers will want to increase their odds of winning your awesome prize and will therefore visit your location every day to enter. Once they are in the door what’s stopping them from sitting down at the bar for a frosty beverage or dinner?

It’s All About the Prizes!

When running a promotion, the prizes you decide to give out don’t have to be extravagant and expensive. Instead of giving out one grand prize to a lucky winner, another approach could be to give out several lower cost prizes to a variety of winners. A couple inexpensive marketing “swag” items you may want to consider for your next promotion include coasters, koozies, key chains and t-shirts. If this is the route you’re thinking about going, we suggest you partner with a trusted vendor who will help produce your items. Most of these vendors give you the ability to add your logo and branding to these items which we highly recommend. When a customer wears one of your t-shirts for example, they are basically walking billboards of your brand at very little cost to you.

Timing is Everything!

There’s really no bad time to run a promotion and give out promotional items to your valued customers. Do you want to recognize your customers and let them know how much you appreciate their business? Consider having a Customer Appreciation Day promotion. You could offer great food and drink specials and give your regulars a goodie bag filled with your promotional items. Is your bar a little slow during the winter months? Try running a couple promotions and raffle off prizes to see if that increases your foot traffic. Encourage your customers to spread the word about your promotions. Word of mouth is crucial and is a great way to get people talking about your location.

Accel Loves Promotions!

Here at Accel we love to collaborate with our establishments to run promotional giveaways. Interested in running a promotion at your establishment? Reach out to Accel, or post a question in the comments below. We are more than happy to provide our expertise and recommendations!