If success is a virus, you want to catch it. We’ll look at a few ways to do just that through text messaging and promotion platforms built for the next generation.

Let’s face it: the viral marketing and promotions technology available today to help sell your bar’s brand would make Don Draper’s head spin. And quite simply, only a mad man would put his head in the sand and miss out on the chance to put these tools to work.

YouTube may have made viral communication a worldwide phenomenon, but it started out in a simpler fashion, with word-of-mouth. And today, that is still one of the most powerful options a bar owner has. You have to get people talking, texting, and Twittering, and their Facebook, phone calls, and fashion should all be an extension of your venue. Social networking has become the virtual online tavern of this generation, where people go to “see” their friends (via photos), chat, and catch-up. If Facebook and MySpace ever figure out how to serve cocktails, the bar industry is in trouble. But for now, club owners should be using both sites (and Twitter) to keep customers—both current and potential—abreast of everything they can offer the discerning patron. Constant updates and key-word usage (“free drinks,” for example) are important in keeping your pages fresh and on the radar of thirsty cyber-surfers. Photos, promotions, and drinks specials should be changed, displayed and Tweeted often.

Another option is to create an army of walking billboards by selling or distributing clothing with your bar’s branding on it. Companies like barTshirt.com of Pine, Arizona (www.bartshirt.com) allow club owners to choose from hats, t-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, and even dog t-shirts, that they can then personalize with their bar’s name, logo, or any other promotional materials and images of their choice. Trust me—once you get people walking around with your brand on their back (or front), the viral marketing kicks in.

But for the most direct and tangible results, promoting your bar with text messaging remains one of—if not the most—important tools available. Companies like Textboom (www.textboom.com) in Newark, Delaware are dedicated to helping club and bar owners get immediate results and bigger crowds using just a few, strategic, digital words.

“This is still the most viable, direct, and instant access to bar patrons on the market,” says TextBoom President Robert Greenawalt. “Even though social networking sites are free, I think text messaging is the most cost-effective option when you consider the results. And it's personable—a direct interaction between a bar owner and a patron via a text message creates a kind of realtionship that is good for business.”

Jay Fairbrother is the owner of Magoo’s Bar & Bistro in Pittsburgh, and also the founder of EatDrinkText.com, a Web site dedicated to helping hospitality owners share, learn, and profit from using SMS text messaging to drive customers and increase sales. He has built a list of what he sees as the best ways bar owners can use this tool to build business:

Fill up a slow night by sending out a discount offer that expires four to eight hours later. Let’s say Tuesday from 9pm to 11pm is one of your slowest periods of the week. Offer a free drink to everyone who shows up at your place between 9pm and 10pm on Tuesday night. Let’s say you have 200 people on your “weeknight” list (more on list segments in a minute). Send out your free drink text offer Tuesday morning at 10:30am, right about the time people are starting to think about lunch (food and drink are on their minds), and before they’ve started to make plans for that evening. In my experience, you’ll get about a ten percent response, so now you’ve turned your near-empty bar into one that has some energy with 20 to 30 people. I’m a huge believer that in our business, nothing drives sales like warm bodies.

Stop product waste. If you have ten steaks in your walk-in that won’t make it another day, offer them at half-price for the first ten customers that night. Think about it—no more waste. Any time you need to use something up quickly, send a text blast and offer the first people to respond a discount on those specific items. Putting a limit on the number of discounts (first ten, first 15) is a great way to drive results; the fear of loss is the biggest marketing motivator of all. This is also a good way to spur sales of a new menu item as well. Tell people it’s new on the menu and you want their feedback, so it’s half-price for the first 15 people who order it.

Jumpstart an evening by offering free admission (no cover) for anyone that shows up with their text message alert before 9pm. Let’s say your VIP list has 500 people on it, and your club typically doesn’t get going until 10pm; send out a text that offers the first 50 people who show up by 9pm free admission. Now you’ve got a head start on the evening and your lines will start cueing earlier.

Click here to read the full article "How To: Powerfully Promote Your Bar"
in the July/August 2010 Digital issue of Bar Business Magazine