Making a SMART bomb

As pubs compete more for their share of the leisure pound, a well-executed marketing strategy has become essential, says Geoff Brown, marketing director at Punch Taverns

1 Research - Start by making a marketing plan to develop an understanding of your marketplace. Even if you've been at a pub 20 years, the local landscape will change dramatically, so learning everything you can about your customers, your area and other stakeholders in your business (such as the local council and available suppliers), can give you the edge over other pubs in the area.

2 Objectives - Creating clear business objectives not only provides focus and direction, but also allows you to measure the effectiveness of your plan in the future.

Short, medium and long-term objectives should be SMART. This stands for specific (what exactly are you trying to do), measurable (how will you know when you've done it), achievable (can you actually do this?), realistic (are you capable of delivering this) and time-specific (set a date for completion). For example, you might aim to lure 20% of pub-goers within a 10-minute walk of the pub into visiting at least once a month, within one year. Your plan needs to outline how you're going to achieve this.

3 Strategy - Once you've learnt more about your locality and its people and know what you want to achieve, you can decide which group of customers are key to your success and plan to position your pub's offer to ensure it fits that type of customer.

If you're a mid-market local in a residential area, you might want to focus on families or individuals aged 35 to 60 with a moderate income. If so, then position what you do to fit those groups by providing facilities for children, car parking and good-value food.

A large, food-led pub could target people with more disposable income and offer a more upmarket environment at a premium price.

In other words - aim for the right product, in the right place, at the right price, delivered by the right people and promoted properly.

Whatever the positioning, the focus should always be on maintaining high levels of service and retail standards, so that your customers want to come back again.

4 Customer database - Retaining customers is as important as attracting new ones. Having open, two-way communication helps keep customers get involved in the business. You can manage customer relations effectively by establishing a customer database, using it for everything from sending birthday wishes to posting announcements on weekly events.

Personal information can be collected in many ways, such as running competitions or having in-pub forms for customers to complete if they wish to be kept up-to-date with news from their local. But don't forget that data protection laws regulate how such information can be used.

5 Basic approach

l Entertainment-based events - relatively straightforward but can bring people in on weekday and weekend nights. Traditional ideas include theme nights, karaoke, tribute and quiz nights. Less traditional ideas, such as comedy and casino nights, are on the rise.

l Food/drink-led events - one year into the new licensing regime and coffee mornings are proving incredibly popular, while beer festivals, pig roasts and BBQs can draw the crowds and be a lot of fun.

l Public relations - whether it's the local newspaper, consumer magazines or internet sites, using PR to get your business into the media can be a cost-effective way of communicating with customers. Find out who the key journalists are in your area, invite them to your pub and keep them updated with news of appointments, awards, events, fundraising efforts and refurbishments.

6 Targeted approach

l Loyalty cards - set yourself apart by using a loyalty or collector card. This can be particularly effective with students, as cards can be used for free food, soft drinks, pool or even a guaranteed seat at a big sports game being shown in the pub.

l Active events - these might require more organisation, but can give you a great competitive advantage and attract people who might not have thought of visiting your pub before. Events might include fashion shows, pub Olympics or family fun days. Get the best use from your outside spaces.

l Radio and print advertising - it's not as expensive as you think and can have a great impact if you choose the right publication. Keep messages simple and straightforward.

If people are only spending a matter of seconds reading or listening to your advert, make sure they know the one thing you're trying to tell them.

l Function open mornings - if you've got facilities to host weddings and general parties, plan a Saturday morning viewing for people to visit the pub, meet you and sample your food and drink.

7 Advanced approach

l Product drops - if you're confident in your food offer and want to attract local business trade, whether for your lunch, takeaway or delivery service, it might be worth taking your product to the customer. Take samples to offices and shops, together with free menus and pre-order forms.

l Website - a website can be a valuable tool, as more people are online and the technology continues to improve. Ensure that your web address is on every piece of communication and keep your site updated with news, a "what's on" calendar and your latest menu.

l E-marketing and mobile marketing - once you've set up a database, send regular bulletins and promotions via email and text.

Make sure the information you're sending customers is relevant to them, including forthcoming events or any special occasions. Gestures such as birthday messages should be well received.

8 Evaluation - Having set your SMART objectives, it's vital to assess the impact of your strategy with regular evaluation.

Customer feedback and looking at profit figures are obvious and useful measures, but others could well include staff performance and satisfaction, levels of awareness and the size of your database.

If you're implementing a marketing strategy for the first time, don't be disheartened if you haven't achieved your targets.

Use all the feedback to see where your strategy needs to be altered - look at what has worked and what has not, learn from it and build on that

knowledge.