Focus on Nightlife

MarketWatch recently reported on Zoom Media and Marketing’s push into the nightlife industry. According to the article, Zoom has “expanded its digital footprint to over 500 installed billboards in nearly as many venues throughout the nation’s top 10 DMA markets including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Dallas”.

Building on the traditional poster ads found in club restrooms and other high-traffic locations, Zoom’s digital signage features a “mix of paid advertising messages and promotional content that Zoom’s venues use to highlight their menus, events, and specials” on 37″ to 50″ LCD panels.

So what does this mean to the actual venue owners? Obviously, a chance to create revenue through advertising with a steadily growing marketing company. On the flip side, there are a few things to keep in mind when considering bringing outside media into your venue. For example, how significantly is your club’s aesthetic affected by a hulking 50″ panel? Also, would there be any conflicts of interest with the type of advertising your club promotes vs. the image you want your club to promote? How will your customers react?

While the possibilities of revenue options abound in the nightlife industry, it’s important to always step back and evaluate the overall trade-offs before diving in headfirst. Even if you’re getting a wide-screen LCD out of it.

Rookie nightclub owners (and vets alike) often ask how they can better organize and manage their VIP and guest list reservations. It doesn’t take long to realize that a no-show or a booking error can significantly impact your revenues on any given night. How do you make sure you’re bringing in the most business you can and maximizing your profits on reservations? The truth is, there are many different ways of staying organized though most build upon the same fundamental principles.

Get a system in place. It can be as detailed or loose as you’d like but make sure you have a system you and your staff can follow so that everyone is on the same page. For example, do your VIP reservations have a minimum spend? Do you have cancellation or no-show charges? Do your guest list customers get perks like no cover or queue jumps? Do all of your staff understand how these policies are applied on different nights of the week? By keeping these policies in place, you’ll always know what to expect and your VIP customers will understand that you take your reservations seriously.

Get the most out of taking reservations. Sure, a reservation can just be a name and a date but with today’s technology why not get as much as you can out of it? When someone calls to book a reservation, you should add that person to a customer database and grab as much information out of them as you can (without seeming overbearing). Get their email address, their cellphone number and why not ask them if they’d like a bottle waiting for them on their table when they arrive? Keeping a credit card on file for VIP guests never hurt either.

Make sure to confirm and remind. If you know how much a lost reservation costs your business, then you know how important it is to make sure your guests arrive. By getting customer contact info (see above), you’re greatly increasing your chances of avoiding a no-show or a cancellation. Send a confirmation email a few days before a reservation or a text message reminder a few hours in advance - and automate this process as much as possible. You can even up-sell with a confirmation by letting your VIP know what your club has to offer. Confirmations reassure your guests that you are on top of their reservation and that you value their business. Plus, when you tell your guests that they’ll receive a confirmation email with the details of their reservation, you have a legitimate reason to request their email address — and they have a reason to agree to giving it to you! With the ever-growing importance of good email lists in nightlife marketing, this is a key benefit.

Keep your staff informed. Nothing is more frustrating for staff and customers than a mix-up at the door or with a food & beverage order. Make sure you have a way of notifying your staff about important reservations. Nothing says VIP like your club’s bus boy asking your customers, by name, how their evening is going. Nothing turns a good customer off faster than the customer turning up at the door, their own guests / friends in tow, and finding their name missing from the list.

Always follow-up. Checking in with your VIP customers after a reservation is critical. You can make sure they had a great time or, if they didn’t, find out why and make sure it’s fixed for next time. You can also take the opportunity to invite them back and let them know of any deals or theme nights they might be interested in.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, of course, but making sure that even just these core systems and processes are reliably in place can make a huge difference to the bottom line.

The idea of an ecologically-friendly nightclub is coming to fruition in London. Dubbed the “most ecological dance venue on the planet”, Surya has started multiple initiatives to keep their venue and patrons environmentally aware, while creating a self-sufficient club. Here are a few of the things owner Andrew Charalambous has implemented to keep his club green:

• Customers who can prove they arrived by foot, bicycle, or public transportation are granted free cover (as opposed to paying a £10 cover).
• They will be asked to sign a pledge promising to help curb climate change upon entry.
• Surya sells organic spirits in polycarbon cups.
• Charalambous has started plans to start a recycled water system.
• The dancefloor is being designed to generate energy from customer movement.
• Plans to erect a wind turbine on the roof are on their way.

While this is just one example of a “green” nightclub, a few others have started pushing an environmental message to help clean up the world and, just as importantly, drive customers through their doors. For example, Greenhouse in New York collects rainwater, is built from Earth-friendly materials, and uses lighting that will last for 20 years. Hollywood’s first eco-friendly club, Ecco Ultra Lounge, offers free valet for hybrid cars, has power supplied by the LA Department of Water & Power’s Green Power resources and provides superior organic cuisines and liquors.

Of course, there are costs associated with ‘going green’, and every club owner has to look at the financial impact on the business. Luckily, “green” is increasingly becoming a lifestyle issue for clubbers and, within reason, they are often willing to pay a premium for eco-friendly solutions. Building legitimate eco-friendly characteristics into the marketing plan can be a useful point of differentiation and can drive new business through the doors. Done right, going green can be an investment, not just a cost — while also making a real difference on the environment.

Any club owners interested in environmental tips for their own clubs should visit these sites:

club4climate.com

greenhouseusa.com

eccohollywood.com

Sense Networks recently debuted two highly sophisticated software tools that will give businesses and their clients a new perspective on nightlife. The new technology uses mobile location data to pinpoint high traffic locations in real-time, allowing consumers to see what location is popular on any given night. Essentially, if your cell phone is turned on, you’re anonymously contributing to your location’s “traffic”.

“Just as Google indexed pages on the Internet to optimize web discovery, Sense Networks has indexed the real places in a city and characterized them by activity, versus proximity or demographics, to better understand the context of consumers’ offline behavior,” said Tony Jebara, Chief Scientist and co-founder of Sense Networks.

Described as a social navigation and nightlife discovery application, CitySense will show BlackBerry and iPhone users nightlife hotspots in real-time. Clubbers will now have the option of dropping in on the hottest party of the year or spending some quiet time at an old haunt, without the guessing.

MacroSense is the flipside of Sense Networks’ technology. Businesses can use the software to analyze, in real-time, consumer trends and adjust accordingly. Put to good use, business owners won’t have to rely on dated facts and figures. One quick look will show them where their target market is spending their money at any given moment.

For nightlife venue operators, this technology should change the way businesses adapt to a rapidly-changing industry.

Club owners must constantly adapt to stay competitive in the nightlife industry. When you focus too heavily on one aspect of the business, you can be losing out on another important area. That’s why balancing your responsibilities becomes so crucial.

One quick (and free) way of promoting your business is by creating Facebook events. By creating a company account on Facebook you can easily gather information on your customers and let them know what’s happening by creating events.

Here’s why you should consider using Facebook events to market your nightclub:

• It’s free and takes very little time. If you are hosting a certain DJ or a theme night you just plug in the details.
• Guests can become “fans” of your club. This will show up on their Facebook profile and inevitably spread to their friends.
• You can instantly send your guests updates about a specific night.
• It’s a great excuse to engage in conversation with your guests. You’ll get to know them.
• Posting flyers was never so easy. Just post them to your profile and invite your customers to do the same.
• It’s the start of a great database of information.

Once you start using these events, you’ll get a better understanding of your customers and learn when heavy online promotions are useful or when you should hold back to really drive another night.

With the advent of social-networking, blogging, and straight email marketing, the value of physical flyering as a form of advertising has certainly come into question. Is the labor, cost, and time of distributing flyers still worthwhile? Is the age-old method still effective? If you’re a club owner or a promotional manager, you should know that the answer is yes.

Many clubs have embraced technology as the new way to get the masses to their venues. Facebook events have become a staple for effective promotions. Potential customers can get online, RSVP, discuss, and even add photos related to your club’s events. Today, if you impress an influential blogger with your lavish venue, you can reach thousands of people. Just take a look at Down By The Hipster, an NYC nightlife blog run by Scott Solish. Hundreds of daily readers visit the site for info on New York’s hottest clubs and a good chunk of the content is provided by reader tips. You can’t ignore the effectiveness of the net as a promotional tool - but is it the be all and end all of advertising?

The fact is that online communications will never replace the direct method of passing out and posting flyers. Let’s get one thing straight: dedicated clubbers don’t spend their nights on Facebook, chatting (does IRC even still exist? Google thinks so), or scouring Flickr for pictures of digital flyers. They’re walking the walk amongst the nightlife crowd. This fact alone puts value in flyering. You’re target market will definitely be walking past (or hopefully right into) your club tonight.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here are some tips for managing your flyer distribution:

• You can use a generic template for flyers if you want to save money and get flyers out on a regular basis. It’s good advertising for slower nights and it gets the name of your club right out on the street.
• For large scale events you should put some money into a good graphic artist. You can’t argue that an attractive flyer won’t attract eyeballs.
• If you manage your own promotions, get your staff to distribute close to the club. It doesn’t take long and can easily be implemented as a regular task for bar opening.
• To extend your flyering radius, hire trustworthy high school or college students. Payment can be a low fee or free tickets to a club event if they’re of age.
• Track flyers. It’s easy to find out if that “trustworthy” kid lives up to his or her description by quickly passing by a random spot you had on their target list.
• Use tracking codes to find out who worked hard at passing out handbills and offer them incentives for keeping it up.
• Stay on good (or great) terms with your neighbors - offer them a free drink at your club. You can’t beat the effectiveness of a big flyer in a nearby storefront’s window.

While the cost of flyering can be a larger marketing expense than free online methods, you should never underestimate how beneficial a well-placed flyer can be.

Here’s a quick tip for bar owners and goers in New York City. Brothers Eric and Will Stephens have cataloged 364 beer menus and 1625 types of beer at beermenus.com, a site that allows bar owners to easily add their club’s entire beer list. The result is a handy tool for NYC’s beer enthusiasts who are looking to find venues that serve their favorite drinks.

Nightclub and bar owners would be wise to jump on this type of initiative. Getting a free online company listing that targets your exact market is only the start. Savvy owners will get the most out of researching types of beer that other venues are offering, as well as comparing price tags.

Here’s a tool that can instantly tell thousands of your customers what is happening at your club and it only takes about three seconds. Twitter is an online service, thought up by Jack Dorsey, that tells your friends, co-workers and “followers” what you are doing in 140 characters or less. You can post and receive comments via mobile texting, instant messages, or the web.

So how does this work for a nightclub owner? It’s all about getting the word out. Post some flyers near the door saying “Follow [your club name] on Twitter” with a link to your Twitter updates. While customers wait in line they can instantly join your updates with their mobile device. If your club has an online reservation form or just a contact page, you can add your information there too.

Updating your status to say “queue jump for Twitter users” or Guinness price drop” is sure to send more customers your way.

Nightlife industry professionals all agree on the importance of impeccable service in nightclubs. Where VIP guests are involved, there can be hardly any margin for error as one bad experience can cost a nightclub a very expensive client. Because nit picky service errors can occur from time to time, it’s crucial to minimize them to keep your customers satisfied, while avoiding any negative publicity. One of the best ways to improve service is through proper communications. Has your nightclub implemented an effective communication system? Let’s find out.

Even the smallest reservation modifications can affect each member of your staff. Because on-the-fly changes occur so often due to customer requests, it’s difficult to keep every member of your team in the loop. For example, a VIP client might call an hour before a reservation to add an F&B requirement and change their planned time of arrival. On a slow night, this might not be too difficult to manage but it gets tricky when you’re running at full capacity. Depending on who’s answering the phone, this small change will have to go through a number of people. This is when effective communication becomes very important.

Most changes have this direct effect on your entire staff. The example above requires the person who is answering the phone to properly notify the kitchen, the door staff, the VIP host, and possibly the owner if he or she requires a report on nightly revenues. Many nightclub owners who crave numbers want to see these changes at the end of a busy night. Selling one extra bottle can mean a big difference in the night’s revenues. If this line of communication breaks down, you can bet that problems are on the way.

Assuming that your staff are generally comfortable with their role in your business and motivated to create a great experience for all your customers, there are a few different tools you can use to boost communication in your club. Technology is shaping the way we communicate in the workplace. Automatic text-messaging solutions can keep a nightclub productive. Imagine sending out instant notifications to each member of your staff that is directly effected by a reservation change. New computer software packages are making sure that employees are always in touch while on duty as well.

The sooner you implement a strategic communication system in your club, the sooner you’ll notice an increase in revenues… and guests, of course.