Hitting the target
The following article is brought to you by Coors Brewers.
Targeting the right customers is vital to increase trade.
Understanding your customers is one thing, targeting them so that your loyal customers keep returning and attracting new customers takes time and effort. The most impactful way of advertising your business is often said to be by word of mouth. Building up a strong reputation through high standards, a good customer service offer, and attention to the basics help create a great atmosphere that make people want to enter your pub in the first place. It is absolutely vital that you focus your efforts on maintaining a welcome entrance, a well lit pub, basic levels of cleanliness and a clean car park to convince fickle new customers especially women to enter your pub. Other considerations include well made and relevant banners outside the pub to advertise forthcoming events and "A" boards to highlight brand promotions. Encouraging footfall into your pub is often the result of good planning. Look at the key events that are taking place and advertise early exactly what you are doing. There are excellent business opportunities around big sporting events, the bank holidays, Easter to bring customers flooding into your pub. Develop a calendar of key events that you want to focus on and then market your pub aggressively.
One way of communicating to a wider audience is through advertising, a clever ad in the local paper is often very effective. To gain even greater impact local radio can reach an even wider audience if you are looking to communicate an exciting new development within your business.
More businesses are now looking to the internet as a way of communicating to their customers, using the benefits of a personalised approach. Barbox has developed a tailor-made site where licensees can develop their own database of customers, and then communicate on a regular basis exactly what is going on in the pub. Even if you don't have access to the internet, a monthly newsletter of what is happening in the pub is another very effective way of targeting your key customers.
Targeting exactly the right consumers can be achieved through direct marketing. Coors Brewers believes that 80 per cent of the reason for a new visit to a pub is through incentives, 20 per cent though advertising. Once having read this article why not carry out some instant customer research? Challenge your existing customers to find out why they come to your pub, and then ask them what would make their friends come as well. The insight will be fascinating and thought provoking on how to generate more traffic into your business!
- Barbox website: www.barbox.com
