The nightlife industry is notoriously BAD when it comes to online marketing.  Only a few players in the game know what they are doing online, the rest are trying their best to keep up with the Jones’s.  Starting an online marketing department, and subsequent campaigns, isn’t easy. Most nightclub owners do the marketing for their business on their own, and that can breed a lot of challenges. I’ve consulted many nightclubs BEFORE and AFTER they open.  Most nightclub owners don’t have a business degree, let alone a marketing degree, and marketing online can be a tricky task.

Many of the most common mistakes that nightclubs make online are based on making what sounds like a good decision. They have the wrong people talking in their ears.  Marketing directors jump from one club to the other bringing their mistakes along with them.  Unfortunately, these “good decisions” can easily backfire into a huge problem.

Is your nightclub guilty of any of the following?

Bad SEO

Chances are you’ve received a phone call or a visit from someone who claims they can get you to the top of the search engines for $100/month.  RUN AWAY!!!!  Or you’ve browsed around the net and saw “Click here, and we’ll submit your website to 100 search engines!” DON’T DO IT!

Bad SEO is almost always a matter of not understanding how important SEO for your website is, or how to do it properly. Anyone that promises quick results isn’t looking out for the best interests of your website or business. SEO takes time, but it’s always worth the effort and wait.

One-sided marketing

Back in the days, you would put out a flyer and wait for the people to come to your venue.  You MIGHT send out an email blast and hope for the same return.  So you figure you can do the same thing online.  WRONG!  You can’t just throw up an event online and hope for people to come.  Online marketing doesn’t work that way. It’s not a one way street, and as a nightlife marketer, you need to not only present your marketing message, you also need to listen and respond to what your customers are saying. You need to open up the conversation if you really want your online marketing campaign to be a success.

Silencing Critics

Don’t you hate it when you visit a business’s website and all you see are GREAT testimonials.  You know they are so full of crap.  Not everyone is perfect, and that’s FINE!  People will appreciate your honesty.  That’s why I love that you can’t delete review on Yelp.com.

You would think it makes sense that if someone critics your business online, the best way to solve this problem is to just delete the comment or otherwise get rid of the critique, right? No. If you delete negative reactions to your business, all you’re doing is opening yourself up for more problems. What you need to do is address the concerns publicly; respond to the negative comments and do whatever you can to solve the issue. Give them a free drink, invite them for champagne, DO SOMETHING.  But don’t delete the comment.  Other customers (and potential customers) are watching; prove that providing excellent customer service is important to you.

Biting off more than you can chew

(social media/blogs that don’t get regular updates)

Blogs and fan pages are all the rage these days.  If you’re starting a business, someone has probably told you that you need to blog or be on Facebook.  Having a blog and active social media account is super important to having an online presence for your business. In fact, there is only one thing worse than not having a blog and social media profiles for your business, and that’s having them and not updating them regularly.  We’re all probably guilty of not updating our site regularly.  Letting your account sit inactive is bad for an online marketing campaign, especially if social media was a part of your plan. Online marketing requires conversing with your fans and customers. Ignoring the best ways to do that, especially after you’ve set them up, shows that you don’t value the people following your business.

Poorly thought-out campaigns

Who is your online marketing team?  Is it some punk promoters who don’t have skin in the game telling you what to do because they are young and energetic?  That’s the worst thing you could do.  You need a TEAM!  The best ideas take a lot of planning. Weeks of planning. And research. And more planning. Just because you had a great idea for marketing your business online at 2:30 in the morning while you were smoking pot doesn’t mean you should start implementing it at 9:30 in the morning, no matter how perfect the idea may seem. If you don’t take the time to plan and research your new online marketing campaign before you start it, you’re setting yourself up for some serious problems. Make sure everything is legal, and that it doesn’t cross any copyright lines. Anticipate any problems and have a plan to solve them. Finally, make sure that the ROI of your campaign is going to make it worth the initial cost.

Fortunately, even if you have made some of these mistakes, you can still fix the problems and move on, with a much stronger (and more successful) online marketing plan.

Contact Alex Miranda at alex@thecreativecomplex.com if you need some consulting for your nightclub’s online marketing.

What are some of the mistakes you’ve noticed other businesses making online?