15 Bar Promotion Ideas to Increase Customers Fast

Running a bar could sometimes be horrifying. When your bar is situated in the middle of a bustling city, next to jam-packed bars, and you look at yours with empty seats and bar counters, it can be tempting to raise the white flag. But have you ever thought of bar promotion ideas that can turn the situation around? These bar marketing ideas will surely get those tipplers through your door!

1. Share Your Story on Social Media
2. Advertise Theme Nights Through Flyers
3. Promote Your Best-Selling Cocktails on Facebook
4. Offer Loyalty Programs Through SMS or Emails
5. Advertise a Ladies’ Night Through Posters
6. Make Your ‘Happy Hour’ Viral on Social Media
7. Organize Themed Events
8. Make Your Billboard Stand Out
9. Cocktail Giveaways on Social Media
10. Bartender Battle
11. Support a Cause
12. Host Artistic Events
13. Host Game Nights or Trivia Nights
14. Work with Influencers
15. Offer Seasonal Cocktails

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1. Share Your Story on Social Media

Connecting with your audience on a personal level is essential. Some consumers choose brands or companies with their interests. Tell your story by sharing your head bartender’s journey, sharing the makings of your best-selling cocktail drink, or a recent funny experience in your bar.

This will create a social media buzz, excite consumers, and even entice them to visit your bar if they want in on the fun. Putting a face on that logo will also humanize your brand, like what Ticonderoga Club did on one of their social media posts.

2. Advertise Theme Nights Through Flyers

Some people visit bars to break the mold and relieve their stress. People who work nine-to-five can feel mentally and physically exhausted. A bar’s role is to amuse and comfort people after a long day.

Creating “theme nights” will give your customers something to look forward to. You can think of many different fun and creative events to attract your target market.

For example, organize a “Salsa Night” to invite customers to dance and drink the night away. Another amazing theme is “Trivia Night.” This will give your customers a new and exciting experience whenever they visit your bar.

3. Promote Your Best-Selling Cocktails on Facebook

With so many bars competing for every customer’s attention on social media, you want to make your online presence heard and noticed at first glance. Upload enticing photos of your best-selling cocktails or dishes. This blue martini looks enticing, I might just nip down to a bar and drink a glass (or two).

4. Offer Loyalty Programs Through SMS or Emails

The top bar promotion ideas involve connecting with your customers long-term. Loyalty offers a great way to build your regular clientele. Sometimes people hop from one bar to another because they don’t feel a connection with the place.

Offer a discount for regular customers through SMS or emails. This way, your customers will feel like they belong to an elite club and want to keep returning for the discounts and freebies! Check out Beer Head Bar’s Beer Club Loyalty Program.

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5. Advertise a Ladies’ Night Through Posters

A Ladies’ Night is among the most effective top bar promotion ideas. It’s a great way to attract a huge crowd. Women come for the free drinks, and men come for the women. As a result, men pay for more drinks to woo women.

Create inviting and eye-catching poster displays like Unlimited The Break Free Bar’s design. Poster displays are placed on walls, bridges, and other public places, so the design should captivate a passerby’s attention. But it needs to have the right design elements, including images, font, and colors, to name a few.

6. Make Your ‘Happy Hour’ Viral on Social Media

One of the challenges of operating a bar is getting more customers during the slow hours, usually the regular employee work hours. You want to tempt consumers to drop by during these hours to avail of discounted alcoholic beverages. Take a look at Ted’s Bar’s happy hour offer on social media.

7. Organize Themed Events

When thinking of promotional ideas for bars, the best bar advertising tip is to get with the season. People consider major yearly events or occasions important, such as Halloween, Valentine’s, or Thanksgiving. Getting with the season by organizing themed events like the usual Halloween costume party or Valentine’s speed dating event are excellent bar advertising ideas. 

Many people celebrate special occasions with their loved ones, families, and friends. And since most of these special occasions are national holidays, give your customers something special. Also, update your website’s event calendar for any upcoming occasions, national holidays, or significant annual events.

8. Make Your Billboard Stand Out

Outdoor advertising is an effective way to make your brand seen, especially in high-traffic areas. Investing in a good billboard design benefits your bar in the long run. A captivating billboard or signage design representing your bar and branding is the perfect “bait” for walk-in customers.

This example offers a unique old-school typography, with a green clover symbol that screams an Irish charm.

9. Cocktail Giveaways on Social Media

The best form of marketing by far is through word of mouth. Create a buzz on social media that will expand your following and make people want to visit your social media network occasionally.

Creating regular online contests will make you stand out on any social media platform. Century City Walk’s ‘Cocktail Giveaway’ is a customer favorite. By asking a customer to tag a few friends, you’re already effortlessly creating infinite marketing for your bar. I’m sure a free cocktail drink or two won’t drive your sales down. But your online contest should be accompanied by interesting social media posts. You need your images to stand out, or people will scroll through them.

With Penji, you get to have unlimited graphic design for social media. You can leverage that and post regularly. Make noise online, and you will gain traction sooner or later.  Here’s how unlimited graphic design works.

10. Bartender Battle

Make it exciting for booze lovers and give them a show. If you have enough bartenders, organize a bartender battle. If not, you can partner with other bartenders from other bars and provide them with an offer they can’t resist.

Chances are, some of their loyal customers will support the event and visit. And who knows, you might win some new regular customers. 

11. Support a Cause

Bars tend to have that fun and playful vibe. After all, it’s where people flock to whenever they need a breather from work or life in general. So change that stigma instead of making people see that you’re all for fun and games.

One of the top bar promotion ideas that people tend to overlook is supporting a charity. Support a charity or a cause and build an event around that. Mention that the proceeds go to a cause. That way, people try to cough in more cash.

12. Host Artistic Events

Catering to a broad demographic is one way to get those tipplers through your bar door. And hosting artistic events will reach out to creatives, which comprises a big community in most geographical locations. You can do an art night, where customers can paint and showcase their talents. Another idea is to do a poetry reading event one night a week. This is an intimate gathering for people who want to go out, have a good time, and still immerse themselves in art and literature. 

Here’s an example of a poetry reading event in Loop Bar, a Melbourne-based bar where music, film, and arts flourish.

13. Host Game Nights or Trivia Nights

People go to bars to socialize outside work or meet other people. You can host game nights so customers can team up and engage with other people. Hosting game nights will also let people look forward to something every week. Of course, game nights like trivia nights mean enticing prizes are at stake. Offer a bottle of expensive rum, whisky, or wine on top of cash prizes. You may even include vouchers from other partner stores, cafes, restaurants, etc. Offer exciting prizes so people will come! The Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood is known to host the best bar trivia nights in that area. 

14. Work with influencers

One of the fastest bar promotion tips that will get your new bar traction is through influencers. Choose an influencer with a substantial following and offer a rate they can’t resist. One post about your bar from a famous influencer will boost your local marketing strategies. It’s also better to get the influencer to visit and host an event in your bar. This way, the influencer’s fans will also come to your bar for the event. Above is an example of a digital creator and luxury lifestyle and events host doing a bar takeover. 

15. Offer seasonal cocktails

Offering seasonal cocktails is one of the most appealing bar marketing ideas that will get more customers. If your bar is located in an area that goes through all four seasons, leveraging local seasonal ingredients means patronizing other small businesses, too. 

Spring can get you more berries or herbs like cilantro, sage, basil, or mint. This will add brightness to your drinks, such as Spring Sangria or Moscow Mule. Summer also means refreshing and vibrant alcoholic beverages with seasonal ingredients like apricots, cucumber, cherries, or peaches. 

Once the temperature drops, fall can offer you fresh ingredients like persimmons, pumpkin, or pomegranate. You can also concoct fall drinks with apples, butternut squash, or pears. Finally, winter keeps fresh ingredients limited. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create cocktails from dried fruits and warm spices. How about a ginger snap cocktail, a peppermint martini, or a gin with hints of anise, cardamom, and juniper?

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you attract customers to your bar?

With tried and tested marketing strategies and SEO, you can definitely have visitors turn into patrons. You may have the same offerings as other bars in the area, but one way to attract customers to your bar is through events. For example, you can hold events like office parties or wedding parties.

How do I promote my bar?

There’s no one way to promote your bar. Diversify your marketing strategies to ensure more people flock to your bar, not your competitors. Here are some examples of how to promote your bar:

• Social media
• Flyers
• Website
• SEO
• Posting on listing sites like Yelp and Angie’s List

How can I make my bar fun?

Aside from the traditional happy hour and trivia night, why not try paint-and-sip events? This one sounds fun because you’ll let customers unleash their creativity while sipping wine or other alcoholic drinks. And it’s one way for people to get together in one venue and get to know each other.

Another way to make your bar fun is through charity events. You want to show that you have a philanthropic side to you. It will be fun because you’ll have like-minded people show up for a cause. Whether there are drinking contests or trivia games, you’ll know your customers will have fun while doing a good thing.

Request Unlimited Graphic Design From Penji 

As you can see, multiple ways to promote your bar exists. But all of these methods will require graphic design. Sure, you might plan to do all the visuals, such as posters, flyers, social media posts, or invitations using free software. But it’s not as easy as you think. Graphic design for business is a fusion of science and art. Not knowing the principles might make your marketing collaterals less effective.  

Now, if you want to get unlimited graphic design done, the best team to reach out to is Penji. They have created an outstanding platform where getting a design is as easy as 123. And it literally takes three simple steps!

1. Create a New Project

After logging in to Penji’s platform, find the ‘Create New Project’ button where you will be routed to a simple form. This form will ask for all the necessary information that the designer might need for your design. To be more efficient, supply even the littlest details of the project. If you can provide inspiration from different websites, that will also help. 

Once you send your request, the best designer for your project will be assigned to you. They will reach out if there are points for clarification. 

2. Review and Improve 

As you focus on other areas of your operations, your designer will do the hard lifting. And after 24- 48 hours, you will receive the first draft. More often than not, there are a few points for improvement before the final output. 

We designed our platform where you can click, point, and type your comments directly on the image. That way, your designer can quickly identify areas needing change. 

3. Download the Final Output

And lastly, without having multiple email threads, you can now download your file source once you are satisfied with the design. Feel free to use it wherever you want, and promote your bar to generate more customers.  

Final Thoughts

Considering the number of bars and the competition, it is high time to be aggressive with your marketing. To ensure that people will appreciate and be enticed to go to your bar, use the power of visuals tailor-fit for your market. 

Hire a team with extensive experience in graphic design such as Penji. You already have an overview of how it works, it’s time to take it to the next level and watch this demo. If you’re ready to sign up and get a 15 percent discount, fill out this form to get you started.