Now I have covered how I would market a baker and a bike shop.
Today the topic is a little different and a bit wilder. I will focus on how I would market nightclubs and bars. I get a lot of questions and inquiries about this industry, and it is actually one I have worked in myself admittedly in my early youth, but anyway!
Again: we’re just scratching the surface here there’s not enough room to go much deeper 🙂
Let’s take a look! ⤵
I’m aware there’s a difference between an exclusive nightclub and a regular bar, so we will focus on something in between.
Of course, you can’t create a great nightclub experience based solely on your digital presence. You also need a venue with a good atmosphere where people enjoy coming.
A digital strategy can never replace the vibe your customers experience when they visit your nightclub or bar so keep that in mind.
Website
It’s not always necessary to have a website, but there are many great templates available on Themeforest if you want to create a cool site that reflects who you are.
If your nightclub or bar takes table bookings, I would definitely set up tracking for this:
✔️ Where are our bookings coming from?
✔️ Can we create a VIP club so we can sell tables in the future?
Facebook & Instagram
Avoid the classic mistake of sending out offers every Friday and Saturday. You need to build a great atmosphere and a relationship with your brand over time.
It looks desperate if you write every weekend: “LAST tables available” or “ONLY tonight.” Doing this every weekend won’t have the desired effect, especially if you want to position your nightclub or bar as an exclusive place in consumers’ minds.
Instead, create attractive content with great photos and videos.
Photos and videos are a big part of creating a good feeling of atmosphere in the digital space.
Also, you won’t reach far if you only post organically, and I would not use the boost button!
Instead, use Facebook Ads Manager and set up these target groups:
✔️ Visitors to your website
✔️ People who interacted with you on Facebook in the last 365 days
✔️ People who interacted with you on Instagram in the last 365 days
✔️ 5% lookalike audience in your city based on your Facebook likes
✔️ 5% lookalike audience in your city based on your customer list
Start your ads Wednesday through Saturday, promoting offers or simply reminding people that you throw the best parties in town and that there’s no way around coming to you.
When weekend photos come in, promote them to those who visited your website in the last 30 days and interacted with your Facebook and Instagram profiles during the last 30 days.
This way, those who were at the party might see the photos and start tagging friends, creating viral attention and general buzz.
Make sure to have control over your Instagram stories during the night and tag the location so the post gets fed into the city’s feed. Tag both the location and use, for example #aarhus.
Save stories from great nights so you can use them later in advertising.
The goal is that when people are sitting at home on the couch (speaking from experience), they should feel like they’re missing out on a great party.
Google ads
Google Ads is still a good idea if you are in a bigger city—also to catch tourists.
It could be local ads focusing on:
✔️ Disco Aarhus
✔️ Nightclub Aarhus
✔️ Going out Aarhus
✔️ Nightlife Aarhus
✔️ Party Aarhus
Make sure your contact details are updated and visible so party people can easily call on the night. This is also useful for lost & found, guest lists, and more.
If you use Google, make sure to use Google My Business and check which keywords your page is found for. Also, make sure everything is set up correctly on your GMB account.
SMS & e-mails
If you have the resources, there is great potential to build a customer base you can reach via email or SMS marketing. This is still a very effective channel, and I bet many nightclubs and bars take it for granted!
Don’t overdo this part of marketing for your nightclub or bar, but build a sensible strategy where you segment your lists, for example, all women on one list, VIP guests on another, and men on a third. This way you can send tailored offers and invitations to pre-events, among other things.
Content marketing
One thing many clubs forget is creating great content. You have the opportunity to produce a lot of cool material on your blog and push it out to relevant target groups.
Examples of blog posts:
✔️ Cocktail of the month in collaboration with Sobieski—also great for video content
✔️ The week that went wild, looking back on last weekend’s party with a blog post and cool photos
✔️ The week that’s coming up, building anticipation for next weekend with guest lists, table packages, or prize contests
✔️ Playlist of the month (made by the DJ)
✔️ Put a GoPro on a waiter or bartender and make some crazy videos (mute the audio if needed)
Again: only your imagination sets limits, but how often have you seen a nightclub in Denmark do something beyond the usual? (Tag me if you know any.)
You can also build a cool dashboard that tracks almost all of the above and imports Excel sheets for even more control over customers and data, helping you grow your business.
Which industry should I cover next? You decide!
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