If you thought mobile marketing was a thing of the past, think again. While social media platforms and other internet marketing strategies are growing, mobile marketing is growing fast too, and presents its own unique set of benefits.
But what makes marketing on mobile devices so effective? And what mobile marketing techniques do you need to implement to tap into this marketing niche?
Let’s look at what mobile marketing for bars means, the right mobile marketing strategies for your restaurant, and how to dominate the mobile marketing game.
What Is Mobile Marketing?
Mobile marketing refers to marketing that targets customers on their mobile devices. Whether it be through text messages, local searches with geo-tagging, or mobile-friendly ads, mobile marketing takes advantage of the fact we spend so much time on our phones.
If we look at traditional marketing strategies, almost all marketing can fall under this umbrella.
However, the goal is different. Mobile marketing aims to target customers where they spend most of their time – on their phones – and tailor the marketing experience to the apps they most often use on their mobile devices.
Types of Mobile Marketing
As you can imagine, there are many different types of mobile marketing – with more innovative formats being introduced every year. To give an idea of what mobile marketing looks like, let’s examine popular forms of modern mobile marketing.
SMS Marketing
When we think of mobile marketing, the first thing that comes to mind is SMS marketing – and with good reason. SMS marketing refers to promotional material that is sent via SMS to consumers' mobile devices.
SMS marketing has been around for decades and was one of the first and most effective forms of modern marketing.
Today, SMS marketing still holds powerful sway among consumers, more so than even unflappable marketing strategies like email marketing. SMS marketing has a click-through rate of 36%, whereas email marketing’s CTR is only 6-7%.
Mobile Ads
Mobile ads are mobile-friendly ads that appear on mobile games and social media platforms. Like SMS marketing, mobile ads are popular for a reason – mobile ads are the most effective form of marketing on the internet.
Push Notifications
Push notifications are notifications that pop up on mobile devices, usually from an app or an opt-in SMS marketing campaign.
While similar to SMS marketing, push notifications allow you to partner with apps and businesses in your area. If you partner with a food, beverage, or tourism app, they can send your bar information to all their clients via a push notification.
Push notifications also offer rich graphics, meaning you can send everything from plain text to full-on banner displays with discount codes.
Mobile Games
As the name suggests, mobile games are games available on mobile. Big corporations often build their apps, some of which are game apps aimed at engaging customers. But this isn’t a viable option for most small to mid-sized bars or restaurants.
In the food and beverage industry, you’d have more luck partnering with a game app that focuses on food or tourism. For example, “Play London” uses geotagging to gamify visiting tourism hot spots in London, including eateries and bars.
QR Marketing
QR code marketing refers to QR codes, small squares of code that users can scan with their smartphone cameras.
While initially not very popular due to difficulties with iPhone cameras and confusion about how to use the codes, QR codes are gaining traction for their ability to share information, smart payment methods, brand websites, review pages, and much more with a quick scan from your camera app.
Why Use Mobile Marketing for Restaurants and Bars?
With so many marketing options out there, choosing where to focus your efforts can be difficult – but you should still focus your efforts.
Here are just a few reasons why you should consider mobile marketing for restaurants and bars in your area.
Powerful Geo Tagging Features
Geotagging is the process of adding geographical metadata to content to show the content to people in the same location.
Geotagging is an extremely powerful feature for places like bars and restaurants because you are a physical establishment. You need people to physically visit your store. Showcasing your food and drink in Google searches on the other side of the country won’t translate into real-world leads and sales.
When you use geo-tagging, it focuses its efforts on local search results and shows your bar in “nearby restaurants” or “nearby bars” searches. It’s targeted and very effective.
Target Customers Where They Spend Their Time
46% of Americans spend 4 to 5 hours on their smartphone every day. That’s a lot of time for people to spend on a device, but it also informs marketers where to find their customers. By utilizing mobile marketing, you can target your marketing to where you know consumers are.
Faster And Better Service
You’ve likely heard of 5G, the newest generation of fast mobile networking. Well, 5G is great for mobile marketing.
Slow connectivity led to slow load speeds, glitchy code scans, and other frustrating mobile marketing issues. Now, with 5G, we’re seeing faster and better mobile marketing.
As we continue to develop our connectivity capabilities, bars, and restaurants that utilize mobile marketing will be able to reach more customers and engage food clients faster than ever before.
An Affordable Option
Last, but not least, is cost-effectiveness. Marketing can be expensive, especially if you are using a marketing agency. And while we don’t suggest limiting yourself to only mobile marketing, it is a great budget entry point.
Compared to traditional marketing, mobile marketing has a low entry cost for a high return on investment.
What makes it even more impressive is how targeted it is. Whether you're creating ads on social media or using geotagging to tap into local food clients, you can narrow down your pool of customers to those with a genuine interest for much less.
All in all, considering its effectiveness, mobile marketing is a cheap and targeted alternative perfect for smaller businesses that can’t dedicate massive funds to other physical forms of advertising.
Top Mobile Marketing Strategies for Restaurants and Bars
Choosing the right mobile marketing techniques depends on your unique needs. Browse the below tips and adopt the ones that suit your needs and your budget.
Ensure Everything Is Mobile Friendly
Mobile marketing doesn’t mean much if your content isn’t mobile-friendly. Imagine opening an ad or a QR code link only to find overblown content slow to load, or both.
Mobile-friendly content is also a ranking factor, as non-responsive content will cause people to leave your content quickly. This will negatively impact your CTR and content engagement, and waste your money.
So, ensure all your content, from ads to web links, leads only to responsive pages that adjust to mobile screen sizes.
Craft a Social Media Presence
Part of the mobile marketing handbook is crafting an online presence which can then be used to further your mobile marketing efforts.
For example, a social media presence and an interior that is photo-op-worthy will encourage customers to take photos and tag your bar. Geotagging the content will also help your socials show up when people are looking for photos in your area.
To craft your social media presence, create a theme or interior that people will want to photograph. Engage with people who post about your restaurant and actively encourage customers to tag your business.
Use Local SEO
As mentioned above, geotagging is a new and powerful method of utilizing local SEO. By geotagging your content and using local SEO, you can climb local SERPs and show up on search results when people Google “bars near me” and so forth.
To improve your ranking, implement SEO practices on your website. This means using relevant and targeted keywords. Also, mention your location where possible.
Next, put your bar and your location on review websites, and link all your socials together. This creates a web that works together to increase your reach.
Remember, Google’s SEO practices are always evolving. So, keep an eye on local SEO practices and continue to learn as you go.
Utilize Mobile Adds
Mobile ads are a natural part of mobile marketing. Not only are mobile ads responsive and made for small screens, but they’re much cheaper and easy to create.
Google allows users to post ads on Google search results, websites, and mobile apps. Policies and costs with Google will differ depending on your advertising needs, and it’ll be a bit more expensive considering the huge pool of potential customers you’re advertising to on Google.
Beyond Google, you can also use social media mobile ads. They’re easy to set up, allow you to target your ideal customers, and are cost-effective.
Gather Contact Details From Existing Customers
If you’re an avid bargoer, you’ve likely been asked for your contact information for a loyalty card or membership. This is done to gather customer contact details – a practice you should also consider taking advantage of for mobile marketing.
Gather contact details in exchange for a small discount. Offer a newsletter sign-up with a QR code at the bar entrance and ask for their details.
Then, use the contact details to send SMS marketing for limited-time offers or deals, like a 20% discount on the day of the message.
This is just a small example of what you can do with the information you gather. Combined with CRM software, you can build a large network to share discounts, upcoming events, specials, and more with customers.
Partner With Local Tourism Apps
Local tourism apps can be a great way to market your bar to relevant customers, and they take many forms.
A quick example is the Explore London app mentioned above, which gamifies the travel experience. There are also options like Tripadvisor, where you can add your business and have people review it.
Both of these options are larger platforms. They have a lot of competition. That’s why it’s better to also look for local explore apps that narrow down your competition to just other local bars and eateries.
Advertise on Food Delivery Apps
More than 2.85 billion people used food delivery apps in 2023. Almost all eateries, restaurants, and bars, from large franchises to small mom-and-pop diners, are now available on delivery apps. It should also be a priority for your bar.
Why? Because food delivery apps also provide effective mobile marketing. Not being on delivery apps can negatively impact your brand visibility.
Food delivery apps, which are overwhelmingly downloaded onto mobile phones, function as delivery apps but also as small social media platforms for restaurants and bars. Users can search and browse bars in their area, including your bar, and see reviews and menus.
Get your bar’s name out there and ensure you market yourself by joining food delivery apps.
Work With Local Food and Travel Influencers
Influencers have a lot of sway and are a great addition to any mobile marketing strategy. In exchange for discounts or free items, the influencer or blogger reviews or promotes your bar to their followers. Because influencers are inherently trusted by their audience, the marketing is very effective and has a high ROI.
If you feel like influencer marketing is beyond your reach or budget, don’t fret. Many micro-influencers have smaller audiences but a higher ROI. They’re also more affordable to work with.
To make the most of your influencer campaign, partner with someone local, who is involved in the food and beverage industry, and who has a good reputation with their audience. You can also entice their audience to visit by offering free add-ons or discounts.
Conclusion
Mobile marketing, the marketing technique of tailoring marketing efforts to mobile devices, aims to target audiences where they spend most of their time – on their phones. It’s easy to manage and more cost-effective than most forms of marketing.
While similar to traditional marketing, there are a few practices that differ: make sure all content is responsive; gain a social media following; partner with local apps and influencers get on food delivery apps; use mobile ads; use local SEO; and utilize text messaging for limited time deals.
Another way of increasing bar sales is by hosting events, but keeping track of them can be a hassle.
Fortunately, Perfect Venue is here to help. Our event management software helps you get organized, increase profits, and party more. Get started with Perfect Venue today!
