What are good ideas for happy hour?

Almost all bar owners face the challenge of drawing in customers during slow business hours. Spiking sales during those quiet times isn’t the primary goal of happy hours; it also makes it so enticing that customers stay back and enjoy dinner at your bar. 

This 2 to 3 hour bracket is the perfect opportunity to create buzz about your bar and excite customers about visiting you. Here are a few strategies to spread the word about your bar’s happy hour and boost revenues.

1. Creatively alter your menu

A great happy hour means more customers in the seats and higher earnings, which is every business’s primary motive. It costs a lot more to get new customers than it does to keep your regulars coming in, so offering some changes and additions to your existing menu may be one sneaky way to get people through the door. 

Use your crowd’s favorite as the ultimate customer magnet such as small portions of your most loved items – think sliders, wings, nachos, and bruschetta! Another way to spice up your happy hour menu is to create dishes exclusive to the hours. 

Consider offering your popular drinks, like signature cocktails or mocktail specials, at discounted rates during happy hours to excite people to buy a quick drink. However, watch the portion sizes if you don’t want your happy hour to appear gimmicky. For example, if nachos are on the main menu for $7 but for $4 during happy hour, you surely wouldn’t want them to be the same size, so portion control is crucial. 

2. Happy hour promotions

Special discounts on cocktails, beer, or even beer buckets aren’t desirable because they are overly done. Promotions during happy hour are often overlooked, but food is actually a great way to sell more drinks.

Selling more drinks is the main goal here because, in the bar business, the highest margin comes in on drinks, and the more drinks a bar can responsibly sell, the more money it makes. You can do this by offering Buy One, Get One (BOGO) Deals on select beer and food items. 

BOGO deals are often a hit among audiences since they make them feel they are getting more for less. Reward returning happy hour customers by offering loyalty rewards with a free drink or appetizer. Mystery Discounts are another fun and creative way to keep the buzz going.

You can use PosterMyWall to design attractive marketing material that excites people. Design various materials, like flyers, posters, and social media graphics from the platform’s happy hour templates, helping you save your time and energy for those buzzing hours. You can even create posters on your chalkboards using PosterMyWall’s poster maker!

3. Fun and engaging themes

What makes happy hours at your bar different from the rest? What crowd-pulling factor will convince people to drop regular bars and consider coming to yours for drinks and food? The more relaxed and fun the atmosphere is at your bar, the more likely customers will be drawn to you.

Themed days are a fun idea to keep things interesting and changing at the bar. Offering different themes for different days of the week, like Throwback Thursdays or Ladies Nights, can help you get the attention of varying customer subsets. 

Doing so can also keep the environment at your bar lively and engaging. You can even leverage sporting events to attract sports lovers by offering free screenings of basketball or football events can be a successful crowd-puller, so look into that. 

4. Interactive and social activities

Make your happy hours talk of the town by offering interactive activities to keep the audience engaged. Games and competitions exclusive to happy hours can be a smart way to get people through the door by promising them a good time, fine drinks, and delectable food, all under the same roof. 

Let customers compete for prizes by showing off their singing skills at Karaoke. Offer board games and dedicate a day of the week to host a game’s happy hour, ensuring it is thrilling. Jenga is a board game that has been gaining popularity in bars recently, and it can help keep the atmosphere light yet competitive. 

You can also play the local matchmaker and host happy hours with speed Dating or a Singles Mixer. Such activities can be fun and attract young professionals looking to socialize. During the Halloween season, hold costume-themed parties and give added discounts to the most creative and fun costumes.

Final Thoughts

The real success factor in making your happy hour a roaring success in your locality is providing a customer service experience that remains unchallenged. Even the best marketing strategies would fail to suffice if any aspect of your service is substandard, from the food to the activities. So it is crucial to ensure that your service and menu are top-notch, and then get down to marketing your happy hour. Happy promotions!