There are no two ways about it, the competition to gain customers and get them to give up their hard earned money is fierce among bars and restaurants. If you aren’t creative and think up ways to pull them in, you might as well pack your shit and close up shop because your job as a bar/restaurant owner is to provide an experience that exceeds your guests expectations, and if their experience at your bar involves watching a Tuesday night tennis match on the tv while the bar across the street is rocking Tuesday night blues (cue crickets here), pour yourself a beer to cry in because you won’t have guests for long.
With that said, customer service is still top dog in keeping your guests coming back for more, but here are the top bar promotions that I’ve seen work in multiple bars over several years. In other words, they are tried and true and will turn people’s attention your way like sharks to blood.
Customized engraved mugs membership program. This one takes some involvement on your part, but it is as badass as it gets when it comes to bar promotions. I’m talking a Viking-like kind of badassness, which is exactly what you’ll feel like when you hoist your personalized copper or tin mug to the sky to toast your comrades while discussing village pillaging and horned helmets. I’ve seen this work best for a draft beer club, but you can use it in anyway you want. Basically after a regular drinks 100 draft beers (or whatever you decide) they get their name engraved on the mug and they leave it at the bar. Every time they come in, you pull their mug off the shelf and fill it up with their favorite frothy draft or grog or whatever else makes them feel manly. This promotion creates a deep customer loyalty unlike any other bar promotion I’ve seen, similar to frequent flier miles for an airline.
Host a weekly or monthly tournament. This is best to do during the beginning or middle of the week to draw people in. It could be anything that appeals to the competitive: darts, poker, pool, corn hole, beer pong. As long as you have an organized, energetic person running it, tournament night can turn huge.
Flip off Mondays (or whatever day). This is for the laziest bar owner in the world who’s idea of promotion is to stand on the sidewalk out front and yell, “Hey! Come here!” This promotion requires you acquiring a coin of some sort and getting the word out. That’s it, but people love it. When guests first come in, you flip a coin for them which they call in the air. If they’re right, their first drink is $0.25, if not, full price. So simple a bear on a unicycle could run it.
Bartending classes. In case you haven’t noticed, commoners secretly fantasize about being a bartender, even if only for a weekend. Like going to rock ‘n roll fantasy camp. Of course you’ll need to have someone on staff capable of delivering dynamic lessons and who actually knows what he/she is doing, but like the engraved mugs, this particular promotion is a differentiator that people won’t forget, not to mention all the people they will mention it to.
Trivia or karaoke night. Sure, it’s cliché, but then again so is denim and look how long that’s been around. This falls under the category of “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
Amazing Race. Putting on an Amazing Race can be a colossal task, but the rewards are worth it because the word of mouth lasts for months after, which means your bar is on the tongue and lips of local yokels for a long time to come. The best way to go about putting on such a race is to scour the internet for competition ideas and then set up a small race in your area. A good thing to do is work with other bars and set up some of the competitions in their bar. This creates good camaraderie with your fellow bar owners, and your guests will love it too. The only problem you’ll have is the former competitors will keep asking you when the next one is.
Giant games. For whatever reason, the novelty of gigantic chess pieces, Jenga blocks and Connect Four pieces gets people more excited than birders spotting a red-breasted, web-footed merganser.
Sex night. It sounds better than it is, but there’s no reason why it can’t turn into what you’re imagining after you leave the bar. It’s best if you have a sex cocktail list made up with all the drink specials printed on there: Blow Job shots, Screaming Orgasm, Sex on the Beach, Panty-droppers, etc. The subliminal power of the cocktail list alone will save you the pain of embarrassing yourself with horrible pick-up lines, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Industry night. In general, bartenders love industry night because it means people who work in the bar and restaurant industry in the area will come in and get discounts on drinks, and tip gargantuan amounts of money because it is one of their own. The main criteria for this is to get a paycheck stub and ID for anyone you don’t know so it proves that they indeed do work in the industry.
Sports pools. Whether you love them or hate them, sports make the world go around when it comes to leisure time activities, and if you want to take advantage of that all you have to do is gasoline that fire by doing some football squares, March Madness Pools, etc, etc, etc. Better yet, if you can pencil in the time, run a fantasy football league and give discounts to those who are in the league when they come in to watch the games.
Animal races. Animal races are fricking awesome, assuming of course no animals are harmed during the production of the promotion. You can use anything, from hermit crabs to turtles to (my personal favorite) goldfish. Just make sure that you give the animals a good home during the days they aren’t competing and that you don’t invite any PETA members because they will go all Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction on you (except they won’t boil your bunny of course).
All of these promotions still rely on the same age old factor: customer service. If your staff isn’t going to be enthusiastic, energetic and supportive, forget about it. And then fire them and hire a new staff.
Best of luck.
Cheers, until next time.
The RB