Most bar and nightclub owners are quick to put online marketing in the “too hard basket,” feeling it is an unnecessary marketing tool that adds limited value to their business, preferring to concentrate on traditional forms of marketing.  Whilst the majority of venue operators acknowledge the importance of a website, more often than not, over time websites are rarely maintained, eliminating any value they may have provided at one stage, and in instances, damaging the venue brand.

Whilst at first glance it may seem that online marketing requires years and years of experience, and is inherently quite complicated, there are a few very simple, yet powerful things that can be implemented for virtually nothing.

1.    Contact Details
Prominently place the contact details of your venue on the top right hand side of your website, on every page.  The longer it takes someone to find your venues contact details, the less likely they are to make an inquiry. By making these details immediately available, you can rapidly increase the volume on enquiries to your venue (in particular function enquiries)

2.    Video
Integrating a video of your venue into your website provides two powerful outcomes.  Firstly, this allows patrons to experience your venue before attending, which in marketing speak, reduces perceived risk associated with trialling your venue.  The second benefit however is a little less known, and that is the importance that search engines place on video.  By embedding a Youtube video in your website (which is literally a 5 minute job for any web developer), search engines are likely to rank your website higher in their search results, generating more traffic to your website.

3.    Dedicated Function Page
Creating a standalone function page is a cost effective way of improving the number of function enquiries your venue receives.  As a general rule, you should include at least 300 – 400 words of text, create relevant title tags and ensure the page URL is www.yourvenue.com/Function-Room-Details This too will provide you with search engine ranking benefits, as well as increase the likely hood of converting website browsers to enquiries.

4.    Facebook
Integrating a Facebook like button is an extremely cost effective way to ‘start a conversation’ with your patrons.  Once you acquire a reasonably large number of followers, Facebook can be used to communicate with them quickly and non-intrusively.   Many bar and nightclub venues successfully use Facebook during midweek and slower periods of the day, by offering “Facebook only” specials to encourage people through the door.

5.    Directory Listing
Almost all cities will have at least 3 bar and nightclub directories.  Listing your venue with them (which is usually free) is a simple and effective way of increasing awareness of your venue, but in many instances, improving the SEO of your website, as most will provide a backlink to your venue.

www.barsandnightclubs.com.au