Bar Boosters: Marketing Strategies for SMBs

All business owners are always looking to boost sales, but with a lack of time under their belt, and ever-evolving marketing tactics, knowing how to do so can become a blur.
Here are some pointers to help you pinpoint a few basic steps towards getting on the right track…
Assess the data through your POS
Whether you’re a retailer or a restaurateur, a good point of sale (POS) marketing strategy can increase sales and drive the bottom line.
Providing in-depth analytics and business insights, POS marketing requires not only the ability to promote a product to customers, but also to make a compelling value proposition to retailers.
But, to get the maximum out of your POS, you can also utilise built-in analytics systems to assess what’s working and what isn’t.
Most POS systems offer analytics with a real-time dashboard so you can consume highly intuitive data around sales, inventory, staff and more. One of the great POS analytics platforms is Lightspeed, whose system covers everything from inventory management to promotional data.
Signage is your signal
In collaboration with POS analytics, it’s important to have great signage in and around your premise. A report from POPAI Australia & New Zealand has a number of key findings after a clinical trial was conducted in the UK and Ireland.
Some of the major details argued that female shoppers who were in-store for 60 or more minutes, bought more from POS displays than male shoppers. Men, on the other, hand were more susceptible to in-store promotions.
Floor graphics and walkaround displays worked best for food and snack purchases, whilst premium displays were the most effective for when people made a trip to food and beverage retailers in a non-premeditated manner.
Taking advantage of the Aussie sports scene
In Australia, there is arguably no bigger sport than AFL.
According to Roy Morgan, 8.4 million Australians tuned in to the 2017 Grand Final, whilst another 1.8 million watched some of the highlights. A 2015 study from Australian universities reveals that 87 percent of alcohol advertising during the day is done during sports broadcasts.
By utilising sports marketing ideas for your bar or restaurant, you can gain the attention of sports-goers who are looking for a hotspot that caters to their interests. Consider including campaigns to support local teams through sponsored evenings, social media promotions, and blog posts on your website. Additionally, running your own tipping competitions, sports-dedicated nights and viewings can help leverage new customers at your door.
If that doesn’t fly, there’s always the favourite marketing ploy of naming drinks after athletes, and hosting replays of classic games during slow periods doesn’t hurt either.
It’s important to know that the only way to publicise your event however, is through the implementation of a bonafide social media strategy.
Develop a social media strategy
A recent study from Maru/Matchbox shows that 69 percent of millennials photograph their food and post it to social media before eating.
In light of this, developing a social media strategy to take advantage of this trend is one of the greatest values to your business.
A five-point strategy is one of the best methods to employ, according to Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce. Below is one model to consider:
- Instagram: Some of the elementary advice is to not post pictures that look like ads, and do not rely on paid Instagram posts. It is important to set up a posting schedule by analysing market data and analytics, whilst employing basic media techniques such as “the rule of thirds” and “regramming”. One of the biggest winners is having a human touch; sharing photos and videos of your followers and their friends is a big win.
- Facebook: One of the best ways to nail your marketing on this platform is to set up an event and encourage people to share by running a promotion (you do need a reasonable following to achieve this). Other methods of increasing views are to undertake the “three for three” trick. Spend three minutes commenting or liking posts of three other major pages around your area and watch the extra likes come in.
- Twitter and Snapchat: Twitter is an easy way to grow but requires consistency and a lot of hashtags. On the other side of the coin, Snapchat is a great way to boost visual interaction through using a Geofilter. This tool gives you the ability to set a local tagline or graphic on your business posts that others can access and utilise.
Blogging and SEO: According to HubSpot, blogging is one of the best and most underutilised tools for small businesses. The research notes: “B2B companies that blogged 11 or more times per month had almost three times more traffic than those blogging zero to one times per month.” Blogging is a two-edged sword, as search engines use algorithms based on keywords to serve up relevant content to their users. Input the right words into your blog and you’ll have a higher chance of climbing search results and rankings.
With these tips in mind, consistency is the key for any content creation or content marketing strategy. Like all businesses, creating a successful brand requires time, effort and regular marketing efforts that are reviewed, assessed and updated.
By Timothy Buttery