Football fans make up a loyal and energetic fandom. So, it makes perfect sense to heavily market a tailgate sports bar. Such establishments revolve around sports as its theme. Therefore, falling within a niche market is a great outlet for creative restaurant marketing strategies.

If you’re the business owner or food and beverage director of a sports bar, you may be looking for technical restaurant marketing tips. These concepts may revolve around things like SEO or an email marketing strategy. Or, you may be more inclined to implement more creative tactics, such as game day discounts. Regardless of what you’re searching for, we’re about to cover it all. Now, read on for a dozen tailgating bar marketing tips.

12 Tailgate Sports Bar Marketing Tips

Tailgating bar promotions and marketing tips can be quite extensive. After all, there are so many creative routes you can travel when your business revolves around a specific industry. But even for those who exclusively operate football bars, the following tips can be quite valuable. See below for all twelve ideas!

1. Cater to Your Ideal Customer Profile

Unless your tailgate sports bar revolves around a particular sport, you probably have a diverse customer base. But if not, and you do center around a niche, allow all messaging and branding to revolve around that theme.

2. Offer Online Ordering Services

Leverage the power of marketplace order insertion by connecting your POS system to online ordering integrations. As a result, patrons will be able to order food and drinks from your tailgate sports bar via online ordering apps. As a result, you’ll increase your overall reach and sales. 

There’s so much more to off-premise dining that can elevate an entire tailgating bar and restaurant. If you’d like to learn about all the details, schedule a demo today!

3. Create Catering Menus for Important Game Days

Create festive menus full of hot and cold tailgate food. Just imagine how many sales you can capture for something like Super Bowl catering services. Besides, the capacity of your tailgate sports bar can only seat so many people. So, this would be a foolproof way to maximize revenue thanks to football party finger food.

4. Leverage Restaurant Loyalty Program Integrations

Let your most loyal customers receive rewards for their frequent patronage. Before you know it, your business will become the best sports bar to watch football and other games in your town.

5. Offer Game Day Drink Specials

Various types of alcohol have the highest markup amongst anything a tailgating bar can sell. With this in mind, sell an extensive selection of beer brands, popular cocktails, and original mixed drink recipes. This way, you have the potential to increase cart values across all in-house orders. If you really want to maximize profits, host happy hour or other types of drink promotions.

6. Cut the Price of Appetizers In Half During Halftime

A creative and enticing marketing tactic would be pricing all appetizers half-off during halftime. Promoting half time snacks for football games and other events is a way to retain customers all day. And if you ever implement Super Bowl restaurant promotions, this is a sure way to become one of the go-to sports bars to watch football. From the vegetarian Super Bowl food to classic wings, reduce prices for greater profits.

7. Create Team Spirit Discounts and Promotions

Offer customers a discount off the bill when they show up in team spirit gear. This can include team merchandise, jerseys, and colors. This idea will go over really well if you’re hosting something like a Super Bowl watch party. Plus, it’s one of the football party ideas that can enhance the atmosphere.

8. Take Part In Local Sponsorships

Consider the local teams and sporting goods stores in your area. Then, pitch cross-promotional efforts with their owner. This tactic is a way to increase visibility while supporting another local business or organization.

9. Conduct Restaurant SEO Efforts

Optimize your website to earn top spots on Google’s search results. From taking care of 404 errors to adding alt text to all the images, there are many things you can do to improve your SEO strategy. If you target the right key terms, you may eventually be able to grow your business organically.

10. Only Serve the Best Ingredients

Whether you’re cooking up healthy tailgate food or keto Super Bowl snacks, it’s always ideal to use fresh produce, dairy, and meat products. Doing so will result in the best aesthetic, flavors, and textures. Then, promoting these items in visual assets will be that much more effective. Pro-tip: use a restaurant inventory management platform to simplify orders and inventory control.

11. Take Advantage of the Power of Restaurant Email Marketing

Build a restaurant email list to promote your menu, discounts, and more. Send a restaurant email marketing campaign every couple of weeks to remain relevant. Don’t forget to capture more sales by adding links to CTA buttons. These can direct customers to the reservation system, online menus, and food delivery apps.

12. Don’t Forget About SMS Campaigns

Text marketing for restaurants and tailgating bar enterprises can be even more effective than email cadences. They’re shorter, more to the point, and are far more direct. As a result, business owners typically notice open rates upward to 98 percent. When you’re trying to communicate with your customers, these are the kinds of results you need!

Frequently Asked Questions About a Tailgate Sports Bar 

A tailgate sports bar is a fairly simple business model to operate and scale. However, there are so many sports bar marketing tips that can exist behind a successful bar. Check out the following questions that industry professionals often consider regarding the topic.

What Is a Tailgate Sports Bar?

A tailgate sports bar is very similar to other sports bars, but focuses on game day festivities. These are the bars that are more likely to have pregame specials, team spirit discounts, game day parties, and more.

What Makes a Bar a Tailgate Sports Bar?

Some of the things that make a bar a tailgate sports bar are pregame festivities and game day specials. They center a lot of their promotions and operations around important sporting events. This is especially the case during football season.

Is a Tailgate Sports Bar a Profitable Business?

Yes, opening a tailgate sports bar can be a very profitable business venture. If you run operations efficiently and price menu items properly, it can generate a ton of revenue. As a result, the business owner can make a decent income in the process.

Where Do Sports Bars Make the Most Money?

Sports bars make most of their money from drink sales. The reason for this is because of the high markup on alcohol. Believe it or not, alcohol has a higher markup than all the other types of inventory in a sports bar.

Do Tailgate Sports Bar Owners Make a Lot of Money?

Yes, tailgate sports bar owners can make a significant amount of money. Most of their revenue will likely come from liquor sales. So, it’s vital that any tailgate sports bar has an extensive drink menu.

Now, Let’s Get to Marketing Your Tailgate Sports Bar!

Do you have to implement all twelve marketing tips for tailgating bars? No, not necessarily. But we do recommend testing only a couple at a time, or whichever ones seem to fit your business model. Then, over time, you’ll be able to see what works best for your tailgate sports bar. The goal is to complete a 360-degree restaurant marketing plan that suits your business’ needs and restaurant budget. While using this post as a guide, we think you can do just that!