Marketing your pub: Blow your own trumpet

It used to be a bit of an afterthought for most pubs, but good marketing and promotion - both in your pub and beyond - is now essential if you want to pull in the punters.

Whether it's getting your staff to promote your products and services or using something as simple as the building your pub is in, there are many things you can do to promote yourselves to your customers and boost sales.

Use your building

Nick Pettit is a creative director at Simmer, a design consultancy that specialises in working with food and drink brands. Having worked with a number of historic pubs in Nottingham, he says that licensees who shout about their heritage give themselves something unique to attract customers.

Simmer worked with two pubs in the city, the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem Inn and the Bell Inn, to give them a brand identity. This meant establishing an identity for the pub and then basing advertising, marketing material and even a brand for the pub's own beer around it.

For Ye Olde Trip, which lays claim to being England's oldest inn and attracts tourists, that meant creating its own merchandise range. In the month following the rebrand £13,000-worth of merchandise was sold.

"So many pubs have a real story to tell," says Pettit. "They have been there for a long time but never really build on that history. But punters love it. Obviously pubs have to have great service but you need to top it up with points of interest that drive footfall."

Pettit recommends researching the history of the pub and pulling out any interesting facts, such as famous writers who used the pub or important local events. Use these as a meaningful selling point by putting up well-designed plaques in spots where people have time to read them, such as on the back of toilet doors.

"People tend to come back to their friends and say 'did you know that…?' It's a great way of getting the message across about your pub. Saying that you're the oldest pub in England doesn't sell it. You need to tell people more about the history. It's amazing how cheap and simple it is to then produce something like a guidebook, which you can sell for £3.50 over the bar."

Use your staff

Maxxium UK offers comprehensive barstaff training on spirits through its Mixxit course.

On-trade marketing manager Scott Dickson says staff are your biggest and most powerful marketing tool and you must invest in helping them reach their potential.

"From the research we've done, we know that the atmosphere and ambience in pubs is an important consideration for consumers when choosing where to drink, and your staff are pivotal in creating this atmosphere," he says.

"Enthusiasm is infectious. You need staff to be enthusiastic, know what they're talking about and feel confident. People respond well to educated suggestions and reassurance from a bartender who is passionate about his drinks and appears knowledgeable.

"It is therefore essential to train your staff, enabling them to prepare and serve quality mixed drinks to maximise customer satisfaction and repeat business. A small amount of time and investment in staff training can result in a much bigger reward profit-wise as staff encourage sales and up-sell effectively."

Use a brand

Jeff Suthons and Dean Turney, the creative partners behind brand strategy and advertising agency Brandpool, believe the pub industry can learn lessons from their experience of the alcohol industry.

The pair have worked on a number of high-profile drinks brands campaigns. They argue that the key to success lies in switching the focus away from the simple proposition of content and price to a more complete brand identity that would appeal to the target audience.

This was a change that was partly enforced when Jeff and Dean were briefed to create a campaign for Hobgoblin Ale but were not allowed to base their ads on the beer's alcoholic strength. Their highly successful solution focused on flavour and carried the slogan: 'What's the matter Lagerboy, afraid you might taste something?'

The pair also worked on Thatchers' Green Goblin cider. In response to the controversial tax increase on cider they created a campaign with the tagline: "Had Alistair Darling tasted this, he'd have slapped on a flavour tax as well!"

How does this relate to pubs? Dean says: "Bars need to start advertising their 'flavours'. That is, they need to market themselves as brands. There's no reason a bar can't have a brand personality as distinctive as Diesel, Nike or Ralph Lauren. We would just target the advertising at a smaller group than these global brands.

"Word-of-mouth has already built brands for certain cool clubs.

"With guerrilla advertising, word-of-mouth, Twitter and other social media, we believe you can build a bar brand that will increase footfall, without needing to resort to drinks promotions."

Use technology

WalkinWiFi is a new service available to pub owners nationwide. It is a data capture and marketing system which uses free-of-charge wi-fi as a hook to get customers into public locations, such as pubs and restaurants.

WalkinWiFi captures the data of customers who register, allowing licensees to build and maintain an opt-in database of customers with whom they can communicate directly. The system has a marketing suite so that customers can be contacted by text or email with details of any offers.

Customers who sign up get free-of-charge access to the internet from any pub nationwide on the WalkinWiFi network, with no time or data download limits.

WalkinWiFi's HotSpot Finder features all the pubs on its network and customers can search for WalkinWiFi HotSpots in their area before setting off from home. Every location gets its own page on the WalkinWiFi website, which drives awareness even further.

Research shows that customers are happy to receive a limited number of offer-led marketing messages in return for convenient access to nationwide free usage. But only the pub where the user registers and WalkinWiFi are able to use the contact details.

Importantly, data is gathered, stored and protected accordingly in compliance with all data retention regulations.

Training at Apotheca, Manchester

Staff at Apotheca received Mixxit training on the rum category and Brugal Anejo. They were incentivised to sell Brugal through a reward system. Barman Steve Booth won the incentive and when asked how he managed to sell so much, he said: "The majority of it was through up-serving by offering customers an alternative to our pouring rum. After the training, it was easier to sell Brugal as I had knowledge about the brand and was able to talk with confidence to customers."

Maxxium's Scott Dickson adds: "Creating a drinks menu of simple mixed drinks which use seasonal fruit and flavours is also a great way to promote your drinks and boost sales. Using well-written, informative and entertaining drinks lists can help put customers at ease and encourage them to order something different. Not only will the customer have a more memorable experience but mixed drinks also offer excellent profit margins."

Wi-fi in D-Fly, Cheltenham

The owners of D-Fly, a popular bar and restaurant in trendy Cheltenham with plenty of competition around the town centre, wanted to increase customer footfall and spending in off-peak periods, especially Thursdays. They also wanted to create a buzz around the bar with a unique promotion.

Within four months of D-Fly launching the WalkinWiFi service 167 clients had signed up, with many more completing a customer registration form so that they can be included in future marketing drives by the bar.  

With WalkinWiFi, D-Fly had an instant data capture of customers who were willing to receive a limited number of promotional texts from D-Fly, in return for using their free and unlimited Wi-Fi service whilst at the bar. When