Is your sports bar prepping for football already? Yea we know; it’s July. We just had the summer solstice. Why the hell would you think of autumn sports now? Because it’ll be September in a blink of an eye and it’s a lot better to get ahead of your marketing planning instead of playing from behind.
Now’s the time to start prepping for how you’re going to leverage and market football (both the NFL and NCAA) to your guests. Some prep now will make your life a lot easier later. So, let’s look at some ideas to consider this season.
What Marketing Programs Will You Offer?
First up is figuring out what you want to offer. What have you tried in the past that has worked and what didn’t work? What new ideas can you and your team come up with? What games/weeks brought the largest amount of traffic and what were duds?
Some common programs we see:
- Gameday menu (food and drink)
- Weekly Pick ’Em contests
- Watch parties
You’ll want to figure out how you’re going to start marketing all of these programs and offers to football games, too, such as email and social media as well as in-house marketing efforts.
You’ll also want to look at the overall NFL schedule and start highlighting what the major games are you’ll want to earmark before the season begins. When the season begins, the SportsTV Guide’s Q-Score will help you find the best games week to week.
Build a Fantasy Draft Package Experience
Sports bars used to be the HQ for fantasy football drafting parties, but that’s changed since the advent of online drafting software. However, we still think there’s a spot for sports bars to leverage fantasy football draft parties. The key is being more than just a place to host a draft. Sports bars need to build an entire fantasy football draft experience.
What you can offer will largely depend on your space and expertise, but here are some ideas to get you started:
- Private room function for the draft party with drinks and a special catered draft menu/buffet.
- Offer special, season-long discounts to leagues that run their draft at your sports bar.
- At-home catering specials for those who still rather draft at home.
You may even want to consider running your own fantasy football league with various prizes and special offers throughout the season.
Contact Local Fan Clubs
One of the best ways to get bodies through the door is by teaming up with local fan club(s) to host watch parties during the season.
While you may just want to focus on only your local NFL team, college football and alumni groups presents a much wider group to select from, especially as alumni move away from their alma mater.
Regardless of who and how many, now is a good time to get in contact with alumni and fan club leaders about scheduling watch parties and any other special events you (or they) may want to run during the season. Treat it as a partnership where both sides get some value from the arrangements. What would make for a great viewing experience for them? What do you need out of the deal? Etc.
If there are no football fan club groups in your area, you may want to consider creating one. Now’s the time to get started with that, too.
Leverage Your SportsTV Guide Subscription
Your SportsTV Guide subscription does a lot more than just tell you and your staff when the games are and on what channels. It’s also a fantastic marketing tool you can use to show that you are serious about sports, and to get guests to make regular visits to your location.
STVG Web Widget. This is our embeddable schedule widget that allows you to add your sports TV schedule onto your website. This lets anyone visiting your site see what games you can show and when. It also allows you and your online visitors to share those games via Twitter, Facebook, and email, turning the widget into a social media marketing app. You can see a sample of what the STVG Web Widget looks like here.
STVG for Digital Signage. Our latest feature addition. This lets you display up to six games directly to your TVs and digital signage via our three customizable schedule templates. You already have eyes on your TVs, might as well use it to market your events to them instead of boring commercials.
Don’t Wait
Don’t wait to start marketing football. The NFL preseason is a smidge over a month away and then kickoff will be here before we all know it. Now’s the time to start planning, organizing, and executing.
Let us know how you’re going to market football this year in the comments below!
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