Public relations consultant Nicky Godding, who has helped to promote Swindon brewer Arkell's for more than three years, offers advice on getting your pub in the news.
Marketing can be an expensive and time consuming business. Advertising and promotions can be costly and leaflets are wasteful if they are not delivered - which often happens.
Good publicity is essential to attract and retain good customers, so how can you pull in the punters without breaking the bank? You might consider doing your own PR and publicity, which can cost a fraction of the price of advertising and doesn't take up too much time.
Start with some basic customer research. If you don't know who your customers are, you won't know how to target them.
Find out where your customers come from, which local newspapers or magazines they read, which radio stations they listen to and even which local websites they surf.
Were they recommended by other customers? Ask them why they like coming to your pub. Is it the atmosphere, the location or the events you put on?
Use this information to build up a list of local media that are likely to attract the type of customers you want. You'll probably know most of the local press.
It's important to understand what the media want. Local newspapers report local news. That's obvious. But what is news? It might be anything from a charity bed push to a new face behind the bar. What might not seem like a story to you could well fill column inches in your local evening paper, which means publicity for your business.
Something as simple as asking customers to fill an empty gallon whisky bottle with money for charity and inviting a local celebrity to smash the bottle is newsworthy.
Call the local paper and tell them when it's happening. They might send a photographer along but be prepared to take your own picture and send it to them as soon as you can with a short report on the event and who's in the photograph.
Tell the local radio station, too.
Think about tying a story to diary dates. If it's coming up to Hallowe'en, for instance, give the newsdesk a call and mention the ghost in your beer cellar. Even if there's just a sniff of a story (it doesn't necessarily have to be true), the local paper may be looking for an amusing or "feel good" seasonal story to report on.
A pub in Swindon decided to raise money by announcing, mid-summer, that Christmas had come early. The Swiss Chalet celebrated Christmas Eve on the Friday night, Christmas Day on Saturday, New Year's Eve on Saturday night and had a kids' party on Sunday.
Thanks to the - exhausted - licensee's ingenuity the weekend raised over £5,000 for a local charity, brought massive local support for his pub and, as he'd contacted the media in good time, it was mentioned before and after in the local press and on radio stations, raising awareness of his pub further afield.
The Globe near Gloucester discovered by accident that its pet Shetland pony Sparky likes real ale after it supped a customer's leftover beer.
A quick call to the local newspaper resulted in a photographer capturing Sparky's antics on camera and the photograph not only appeared in all the local papers but in media across the UK including the Sun, the Daily Telegraph, the Mirror, the Wolverhampton Gazette and Herald - even Hello! As a result, the Globe has reported a surge in trade.
Not every pub has a beer-loving pony but this illustrates that a nose for a story and a quick call to the local paper can directly increase sales.
I haven't mentioned local TV but, if a story is really good, call your local BBC or independent TV station - Sparky also made Sky News!
Sponsorship
Supporting the local football or other sports team is another way to promote your pub.
Finding a local team which needs support, buying the strip and getting your pub's name on the front might be time-consuming and cost you to begin with but those players will be advertising your business every time they step onto the pitch. They'll also drink in the pub afterwards and you'll get your pub's name in the papers when the results are reported in the local sports section.
Events
If you regularly invite local bands to play or even hold karaoke evenings, don't just rely on posters to promote the events. Let the local media know in good time and ask them to put your event in their listings section. Offering free tickets or a free drink to journalists may well encourage them to come and cover the event.Journalists
The key to getting your pub in the local paper or on the radio regularly is to work with the journalists. News editors see their local landlord as being a mine of useful information about who's doing what and where.
One regional journalist says: "It's useful to be able to telephone a licensee to get a local reaction to a news event in the town. If we know they'll have five minutes to talk about something that's happened and are happy to voice an opinion it can often give us a new angle on the story and we are happy to mention their pub.
"Or if they would rather we didn't mention their name, that's fine too. This isn't Fleet Street and few local journalists want to stitch up their sources. After all, they wouldn't buy our papers if we did."
Internet
If your customers are younger they are more likely to surf the net. There are lots of local drinking websites on the internet, many of them dedicated to students. For example, Pubs2000.com in Gloucestershire lists venues around the county with free message forums and if a pub is doing something interesting it will report the story. Last month Pubs2000.com clocked up 1.4 million visitors.
Tips for successful publicity
Get to know your local news editors and put their telephone numbers and emails in your address book. Make yourself available for a chat about a local event or story.
- Understand what a story is. A rule of thumb for local media is: if it involves animals, children or charity it's news! Unusual stories can also make it.
- Don't muddle advertising with a good story. If you want to promote a two-for-the-price-of-one menu or happy hour drinks that's advertising and if you send in a press release about it the news editor will pass it on to the sales team who will telephone you asking for advertising. This is fair enough as every paper or radio station has to sell advertising or it won't make money.
- When you send in a story don't ask when it's going to appear - that's not up to the journalists who picked up on your story and it irritates them. A newspaper or radio station places booked advertisements in first and then fits stories around the space available. Unless of course it's headline news, which will appear in the next edition - and that may not be the sort of coverage you want!
- Take your own photographs (digitally if possible - 300dpi is the best resolution for the press) and send them in with the story. Local press photographers can't always get to events but the paper will always welcome good, clear
- photographs. Tell them the names of the people in the photographs from left to right.
- Picking a worthy charity and adopting it for a year or six months will help you focus your fundraising and add to your chances of good local coverage.
- To make the most of a good story, plan ahead and give the local media time to cover it.
Pictured: Sparky, the beer-drinking pony, hit the headlines for the Globe. Pic: Western Daily Press.