Promoting Nightclubs

Nightclub promotion is vital for the success and upkeep of a club. With so much competition from other clubs, any good nightclub needs to have something special to offer to survive. Some promoters offer discounts and freebie nights to attract visitors, but what keeps people coming back is when your nightclub offers a product that your audience wants. Whether you're a promoter for multiple nightclubs or own a nightclub or two, the general tips for promotion are the same. Promoters need to know what the owner knows to be successful in promotion.

Instructions

1. Figure out what demographic you're promoting to. It's certainly true that you can't please everybody, so narrow down what type of people you're hoping to attract to your nightclub. College students, Latin music lovers, sports fans? Figure out who's in the area and what demographic you'll have the most success with.

2. Make sure the inside of your nightclub, both decor and music, fits with what your demographic likes. If you're attracting sports fans, put up big screen TVs everywhere and some sort of manly sporty decorations, as most sports fans are men. Use DJs that will play the music you want them to play to cater to your demographic.

3. Have good musicians and bands play at your nightclub. If you have live bands play some nights, make sure they're actually good. Screen all the live acts before you let them play and make sure your demographic likes the music each act plays. Famous names automatically attract lots of people, at least for that night. This is a good technique to get a crowd to come to your club.

4. Start a promotion campaign with expensive promotion like print and radio. Take out ads in newspapers, magazines and on popular websites. Let all the locals know that your nightclub is there. This campaign should last for a few weeks when the nightclub starts up and taper off as you start attracting an audience.

5. Hire a promoter to have on your staff that can go out and promote your club by word of mouth, especially if you have a lot of competition. Word of mouth is the best way for promoting nightclubs, hands down. Give fliers and business cards to your promoters to hand out advertising the club.

6. Have your promoters go to locations where your demographic hangs out. Coffee shops, colleges or certain areas like Little Italy if your demographic is a particular ethnic group. Your promoters should be easy to talk to, energetic and enjoy meeting new people. A promoter's job is to convince your demographic that this nightclub is the place to be.

7. Make sure your promoters follow through and actually bring audiences to the club. Keep track of the number of people that come to the nightclub because of promoters. If your promoter is ineffective, hire another to compare. Promoters who are good at what they do should bring in a good amount of traffic.

Tips & Warnings

• When hiring a promoter, make sure she's not working for a ton of other nightclubs. Some promoters try to play the field, but you want to find one that's loyal to your club only.