Marketing: Putting it about

Like to market your pub but can't afford a big budget? Punch lessee Alison Smith shares her solution - grassroots marketing.

Grassroots marketing is about being creative, it is about using something other than traditional media, and is synonymous with not spending too much money. It is about giving people something to talk about so word-of-mouth spreads quickly. It is also about focusing on every part of your business.

We have two main tools we consider "grassroots" that work for us. First comes the simple act of consciously and proactively using every opportunity to act as ambassadors for our business. Second is using PR effectively in local publications. There are many others, of course - using your physical premises is important too. No matter what sort of marketing you use, however, it is vitally important to have a clear view of the bigger picture. Any effort expended is only efficient if done with an end goal in mind. So start your marketing campaign by asking what it is you wish to achieve.

We started with a run-down bar with a bad reputation that we wanted to turn into a cosmopolitan café-bar and bistro. We have a high street location, but a relatively low level of passing trade in a town where a high percentage of our target customers prefer entertaining at home to going into the high street where they live. Our market segment was visible, but not easy to communicate with.

Our marketing objective involved acquiring new customers from identified target groups and we have experimented with a wide range of methods to attract them in a cost-effective manner.

The single most important tool has been through the simple act of proactively finding and using opportunities to talk about our business. You have the best possible chance to sell your business when talking to people face-to-face.

You are always an ambassador for your business. Everything you do provides an opportunity to "sell" what you do. Any individual walking into your bar for the first time is a potential advocate.

People "buy" from people - if you can find common ground with someone, you are more than halfway there. When we promote our business, we always look for this common ground. So know your business well, and always have something ready to say about it.

Be selective about how you target groups of people and look for your customers in these groups. Membership of a local business or traders' association or the Chamber of Commerce can give you an excellent platform for communicating what you do. Local traders have contact with a huge number of potential customers and are a great source of word-of-mouth advertising.

Hosting meetings of local groups will encourage people into your pub. Involve yourself in community events, local council steering groups and so on. Use each contact as a method of communicating to a new circle of potential customers.

Remember that this process begins, of course, with your staff. If you are unable to make advocates of your staff you will find this becomes a barrier to making advocates of your customers.

We know that editorial coverage has proved exceptionally effective in attracting new customers, so make full use of free publicity and be newsworthy. Local newspapers or community papers are always keen to receive stories from local businesses - particularly success stories or news of new initiatives of benefit to a local area.

There are three rules we use to gain good publicity:

• Plan your press releases, giving just one piece of information at a time. Regular pieces of positive PR in the paper will reinforce your credibility with customers over time - people don't always respond to the first story that goes in
• Write your press release in newspaper-ready format by mimicking the journalistic style of the paper you are sending it in to. That way it is easier for the paper to run your story
• Target different sections of the publication - the features pages, letters page, the newsdesk - and build up a list of contacts in the local media.

Examples of stories about your business might be:

• Starting up your new pub. Many publicans arrive in the trade from other industries and it makes a human-interest story
• If you are making major changes to your business or have sucessfully turned a business around to the benefit of the area, this offers a good deal of community value and it is very newsworthy
• Launching new and useful features at your pub - introducing baby changing facilities or disabled toilets, for example.

All this takes planning. Create a marketing timeline showing what activities you have undertaken, what success you have had and what activities you plan for the future.

Make sure each activity builds on the last, sending out the same good and consistent message in everything that you do.

Talking up your product​

Getting new customers through the door is just the start of your grassroots marketing strategy.

The focus then turns to the remainder of your business. Marketing sets out customers' expectations of your service and product. You have to meet, or preferably, exceed, these expectations. You then move them through the customer "lifecycle", turning a new customer into a regular, and, finally - the most important stage - into an advocate for your business.

It is now that investments made in your employees and into the customer experience become part of your grassroots marketing toolkit. So the customer has given you a go, you've met (or exceeded) their expectations (expectations that you've set). From here or in a new customer turns into an advocate of your business. Your salesforce just increased.

Publicity and all that jazz​

Alison and her partner, Richard (pictured)​, run Bar One Nine in Keynsham, Gloucestershire. In their first nine months there they used a grassroots marketing strategy to generate a new set of customers, quickly gaining a reputation for their jazz and folk club nights.

Bar One Nine frequently appears in the local and regional press, which has told the couple's story of switching from city desk jobs to a life in pubs, latched on to the pub's ban on daytime smoking, announced a series of special dinner evenings and publicised its music events.

Next month, the Smiths should make their mark in the community even stronger by hosting the Keynsham Music Festival.