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How to Connect to Sports Fans

By Julia Nikolaus, Contributor As our culture becomes ever more remote -- remote work, remote family gatherings, remote friendships -- sports have become a point of invaluable connection. Whether it’s rooting for the same team or playing in a community league together, watching and participating in sports fosters friendships, connection, and camaraderie. And it’s important for sports-themed restaurants and bars to tap into that valuable connection sports offers and establish your business as a point of connection, community, and cultural bonding. Diversify Your Offerings If you’ve only ever had your local football team’s games playing on TV in your bar, it’s time to click out of the local listings and find the bigger picture. Many sports bars make their name specifically on “niche” viewings, like The Sports Bra in Portland, OR, which only shows women’s competitive televised sports. While you [...]

By |2023-04-27T09:37:00-04:00April 27th, 2023|Guest Management, Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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WANTED: STVG HQ Beta Testers

Join our beta-testing team and get free emailing marketing for a whole year! We’ve been saying it for years – email is your sports bar’s best marketing tool. You own those addresses and, unlike social media, no third-party is able to suppress you from your guests’ inbox. But a lot of email marketing services out there just don’t understand the restaurant and sports bar industry. We think sports bar operators deserve something more tailored and specific to their marketing needs. So, we’ve created the SportsTV Guide HQ (STVG HQ), our email marketing service built specifically for sports bars and restaurants. And we’re looking for some beta testers to give it a spin, so we can get it primed for a wider launch. STVG HQ Beta Features The STVG HQ is built to cover all your sports [...]

By |2023-04-06T12:34:50-04:00April 6th, 2023|Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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So, Who are Baseball’s Biggest Fans?

Last week, the 2023 MLB season began with new rules for players and new hope for fans everywhere. Many of these fans will be your sports bar’s main source of guests during the slower summer sports season, especially after the NBA and NHL playoffs wind down. But just who are these baseball fans and how can sports bars market and cater to them? Recently, Statista published several reports on the MLB and baseball fans. Let’s take a quick trot around the diamond to see who the average US baseball fan is. Baseball Fans are Old & Aging Fans of America’s pastime are old and only getting older, which might create a bit of a problem for the MLB down the road. As the following chart shows, Baby Boomers are, by far, the biggest baseball fans in the US. 65% of [...]

By |2023-04-03T10:53:42-04:00April 3rd, 2023|Guest Management, Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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3 Undervalued Sports Your Sports Bar Should Be Showing

The NFL. NBA. MLB. NCAA. The NHL and even the MLS. We’re pretty sure your sports bar has these leagues in heavy rotation on your TVs. And so does every other sports bar around the country. So, what makes your bar stand out from the rest? One way is to show sports and games your competitors either are incapable of showing or not willing to show. There’s a myriad of other professional leagues out there, and the increased ability of streaming games online has made it even easier for sports bars to give their guests something unique to watch. Here are three leagues and sports we think sports bars should start showing on their TVs on the regular. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, but hopefully it’ll start as a springboard for elevating your business to something more than [...]

By |2024-01-09T12:22:12-05:00March 6th, 2023|Alternate Sports Programming, Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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Tips for Cross Promoting Events at Your Sports Bar

Be it a watch party, eSports event, or just showing the local, big games, for it to be successful you need bodies in your seats. And like anything, folks can’t come to it if they don’t know it’s happening. With upheaval in social media recently making getting the message out there dicey, sports bar operators should expand how they’re promoting their bar and events. One way is to cross-promote your events. In this context, cross-promotion is getting the word out about one event you’re running through another event you’re already running and have an audience for. This way you don’t need to build interest from a standstill but can take the momentum from event into the next. Here are a few ideas to get you going. It Starts with Your Email Email is one of your sports bar’s most powerful [...]

By |2022-11-08T09:11:39-05:00November 8th, 2022|Guest Management, Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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6 Alternative Ways to Market Your Sports Bar

According to one report, there are 70,000 bars in the US, and more than 1,200 label themselves as a sports bar. But make no mistake, any bar is a sports bar as long as they’re showing sports on their TVs. And that makes them a direct competitor to you. Great service and a fantastic fan-friendly atmosphere are obvious ways of winning over fans and guests in the long-term. But, short-term, you still need a plan to get new bodies at your bar tops before you can turn them into regulars. The key to that is marketing. And while you should continue to work through your digital marketing campaigns, operators should also try to think of creative, outside-the-box ways of promoting their business and getting in new guests. To get you started, here are six alternative ways of marketing your sports [...]

By |2022-10-18T09:58:11-04:00October 18th, 2022|Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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3 Ways Sports Bars Can Shore Up Their Slow Nights

With the end of the NBA Finals and NHL Stanley Cup Finals comes a dearth of mainstream sports to show. Sports bar operators are basically down to just baseball for nightly and weekend events, plus golf and tennis on the weekends. As a result, the summer can be a little slow for sports bars. But it doesn’t have to be. It just takes a little thinking outside the box and a little research. In this post, we’ll look at three ways to minimize sports bars' slow nights, plus how to market these ideas to make sure guests come visit. Show Non-Mainstream Sports Since the summer tends to be low on traffic-driving gimmes like the NFL and NBA, sports bar operators need to look outside the norm to bring in new sports fans and get regulars back during the off season. [...]

By |2022-07-20T10:35:31-04:00July 20th, 2022|Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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How to Create ‘Stickier’ Customers in 4 Easy Steps

You want “sticky” customers. No, not customers who have doused themselves in honey or glue, but those who continue to return, whether that’s for wing night, game night or just to enjoy a meal with friends or family. Retaining your bar’s guests is generally cheaper than acquiring new ones, so it’s important to have a robust retention strategy. If you’re thinking about creating a new strategy or modifying your sports bar’s current retention strategy, look no further than this blog post. We’ll walk you through four steps to get you closer to the perfect plan of action. Enroll Patrons in Loyalty Programs Loyalty programs are a great way to keep people coming to your sports bar. What’s great about loyalty programs is that you don’t need to have a complicated, digital solution! If you want to get started right away, [...]

By |2022-06-07T11:55:46-04:00March 18th, 2022|Guest Management, Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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4 Ways to Grow Your Customer Base

When it comes to marketing, complacency means stagnation, and stagnation means no new customers. No sports bar wants to see their customer base dry up. That means that even after you have a core group of regulars, you have to continue marketing to bring in new customers. So, how do you do that? For starters, keep doing what you did to get those regulars. What worked once will work again. But if you want some fresh ideas, keep reading. Generate More Reviews For many sports bars, reviews function as critical drivers of customer acquisition. A high percentage of positive reviews attracts more business for you — but getting those reviews can be incredibly difficult. The best moment to ask for a review is when the experience is still fresh — and you can use your TVs to make your request. [...]

By |2022-06-07T12:02:57-04:00March 7th, 2022|Guest Management, Sports Bar Marketing|0 Comments
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4 Ways to Drive More Revenue at Your Sports Bar

Everyone knows that profit margins are slim in the restaurant industry. As a result, owners are constantly looking for ways to reduce overhead and drive more revenue. At first, this can seem tricky. Sure, you could raise prices, but you risk outpricing your customers. Maybe you want to cut back on employee hours, but with today’s labor market that’s just asking for trouble — you don’t want to be short-staffed on a busy night. So how do you strike a balance between revenue and cost? By leveraging what you already have: your in-venue television screens. If you’re only using your in-venue TVs to run cable news and sports events, you’re missing out on a lot of revenue. In this blog, we’ll take you through four messages any sports bar or restaurant can put on their screens that increase customer engagement [...]

By |2022-06-07T12:19:26-04:00February 24th, 2022|Sports Bar Marketing, Sports Bar Technology|0 Comments
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Introducing the SportsTV Guide for Digital Signage

We have been in the business of supporting sports-themed operators for nearly 30 years, but that doesn’t stop us from aspiring to bring you more every day. Which is why we are so excited to announce our newest innovation for accessing the data your subscription provides -- The SportsTV Guide for Digital Signage. This new product is made possible via our collaboration with the best-in-class digital signage and customer engagement platform, UPshow. Together, The SportsTV Guide and UPshow deliver the ultimate guest sports entertainment experience possible at your restaurant. Giving You New & Exciting Ways to Connect to Your Guests Where do we begin? It all started several years ago, when we launched our Web Widget that allowed users to embed their sports-on-TV schedule directly on their websites. This enhancement is so simple and has been widely embraced by [...]

By |2022-06-07T12:23:10-04:00February 11th, 2022|Sports Bar Marketing, Sports Bar Technology, Sports TV News|0 Comments
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Instagram Sports Bar Marketing Trends in 2021

Andre Oentoro, Contributor If you're running a sports bar, having loyal customers from local fandom can be challenging. With so many bars and restaurants offering a similar menu with great ambience, it's indeed tough work to invite more customers to visit yours. However, as a sports bar manager, getting members of fandom to experience your place is nothing but an exciting job. Since sports events are held almost every season, the sports bar business is undoubtedly profitable. You just need to be a little bit more creative in designing your sports bar marketing to attract sports fandom. After all, the one that offers interesting experiences (and menus) will hook more people into visiting your bar. Use popular social media platforms like Instagram to promote your sports bar. With billions of users on Instagram, you can reach out to a broader [...]

By |2022-06-07T12:23:52-04:00August 5th, 2021|Sports Bar Marketing, Sports Bar Social Media|0 Comments
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