Raise the Bar: Valentine’s Day Custom Bar Coasters
Everyone’s got a story about a bar coaster. What’s yours? Maybe that cute guy wrote down his number on a bar coaster… and ended up as your husband. Or maybe one night, you stopped for a quiet beer, caused a creative lightning strike, and wrote down your idea on the bar coaster. Or perhaps you like to collect them — souvenirs from travels and places you’ve been.
Whatever the story, bar coasters are a quietly effective and undersung marketing tool. Not to mention functional, as they help protect your tables, bar, and other surface areas.
Are you properly utilizing custom bar coasters at your business? It’s time to think beyond marketing trends.
Best Bar and Restaurant Marketing Ideas for Valentine’s Day
For the bar and restaurant world, Valentine’s Day is a massive opportunity not to be missed. Not only do you have couples worldwide wanting to spend a night out, but single folks use it as an excuse to hit the town.
That’s a lot of people wanting to spend their money in your establishment.
Whether you’re a restaurant looking to maximize your dinner reservations or a bar embracing the singles crowd, Valentine’s Day can increase profit margins in the dead of winter.
Let’s look at how bar coasters can be involved in your Valentine’s Day marketing strategy.
Host Singles Night or Speed Dating
If you cater and market strictly to couples on Valentine’s Day, you’re cutting out half of your potential profits without even realizing it. Also, c’mon, it’s Valentine’s Day! Wouldn’t it be fun if someone found love in your establishment?
For an easy option, we suggest hosting a Singles Night or a Speed Dating event. For this, you can create customized bar coasters with your logo and a blank space for someone to write down their phone number. Then your custom bar coaster becomes a trading card for potential lovers. In other words, marketing that’s subtle, elegant, and fun.
If you decide to go this route, we recommend having the event run between set times (like, say, 7 pm to 9 pm) to ensure you’re not shutting out couples looking for a Valentine’s Day cocktail.
Personalize Custom Coasters and Take Home Flowers for Reservations
Maybe it’s your goal as a restaurant to fill the place with reservations so you can adequately plan your evening. Custom bar coasters can be an effective and easy way to encourage people to make reservations in advance.
How? It’s simple. If you have a special event day coming up with enough advance notice, you’ll create a special custom coaster to commemorate the date night. They’ll get this alongside a beautiful bouquet of flowers they are encouraged to take.
Boom. That’s an excellent little way to commemorate the perfect night out. Plus, it’s fun to imagine a couple finding their unique coaster in a few years and looking back fondly on that wonderful Valentine’s Day.
Create a Valentine’s Day Drink Special
This isn’t the most innovative marketing idea we’ve ever had, but sometimes you gotta keep things simple. Tap your bartender to come up with a few different options for a special Valentine’s Day drink, and create a custom coaster featuring the recipe to go with it. Or another simple idea is to have a 2-for-1 special, with your custom coasters as the tokens to get another drink.
In marketing, don’t forget to remind yourself that sometimes the KISS method is the best approach. (Don’t worry, we won’t tell your dad that he was right.)
Forget the Jukebox; Take Music Requests with a Custom Bar Coaster
Custom bar coasters offer a way to interact with your patrons physically. Beyond the functionality to help preserve surfaces, they’re also an excellent way to display the personality of your business.
On Valentine’s Day, everyone will have an opinion about music. A fun way to rethink the classic jukebox is to create custom bar coasters where patrons can write requests and pass them to the bartender, similar to a karaoke night. That way, the couple at the end of the bar can reminisce about their first date while listening to their favorite song — and maybe it’ll even generate conversation with other customers.
Remember, interaction like this is excellent for the bar's overall vibe — especially on a holiday like Valentine’s Day. This is how you should think about all of your different marketing ideas.
Embrace the Singles Crowd
Or, hey, maybe Valentine’s Day makes you sick, and you don’t want to miss your ex anymore. You won’t be alone in that! And if you market your bar as the “singles spot” on the block, you’ll separate yourself from all the competitors fighting over the same couples.
If you go this route, you can get really creative with custom bar coasters. Keep it funny and light, and people will get a kick out of it — and maybe even organically share photos of your coasters on social media. Negativity in marketing can elicit a robust response when appropriately utilized. You don’t want to overdo it, but there’s nothing wrong with being a little tongue-in-cheek.
Make This Valentine's Day One to Remember with Custom Bar Coasters
Again, we can’t stress this enough: Valentine’s Day is a massive opportunity for bars and restaurants. And don’t just assume you’ll have a good night. If you tap into the right marketing efforts, you’ll undoubtedly be surprised at the success. Design your ideal custom bar coaster for Valentine’s Day now.
- Nashira Edmiston
