Coin-Operated Amusements Attract Customers

Coin-Operated Amusements Attract Customers

If you own a bar, pub, or restaurant, an overlooked reality is that coin-operated amusements attract customers. And those customers generate an additional risk-free revenue stream. While advertising, promotions, and word of mouth are stables, alternative engagement revenue should be overlooked. So let’s break down the opportunities, and the methods to promote them. 

Choose the right location

When you are choosing where to host activities in your venue, consideration of customer movement is paramount. You want to attract customers to engage in fun memorable experiences, but you don’t want to create a bottleneck that disrupts non-participating customers. 

Obviously, this will change from venue to venue. Some have wide spaces, others have multiple floors or nooks within the space. It is important to make sure that aside from the entertainment activity they are engaged in, they — and the non-participating customers have a clear path to reach the bar, and have access to servers for food and drink.   

Types of Activities 

• Amusements are attention grabbers that spark excitement. People are always frequenting bars and restaurants that they like; whether it’s for the food, the drinks, the people, or the atmosphere.  Patrons like amusements — maybe they come alone to meet others engaged in competition, groups, and teams that compete in tournaments, or just friends stopping into the photo booth for a nostalgic way to make the occasion memorable. In an article in The Digest Magazine,  they listed amusements among the top 3 entertainment values. 
• Tournaments in your venue can be arranged, promoted, and managed by Club Lucky, for things like skeeball, and arcade games such as Golden Tee Golf, and Big Buck Hunter. 
• Concert Bites, provided by Emerson Amusements and AMI, was launched in 2021 to rave reviews. Learn more here. 
• Trivia Nights are a fun way to provide an engaging night out for patrons, with a chance to win something. And everyone loves winning prizes. 
• Live entertainment is always a draw, with different performers appearing weekly or monthly. 

The best part about coin-operated amusements is that it is RISK-FREE

Coin-Operated Amusements Attract Customers

Improve your promotion skills 

The old adage “build it and they will come come” is no longer a viable strategy in the hyperactive digital promotion space. Promotion takes a marketing strategy, time, and commitment to deliver successful results.  So whether you’re promoting specials or trivia nights. live music, dancing, or amusements (i.e. photo booths, arcade games. pool tables) you need to work out the narrative first. We call this the “brand bible”. This is a document to work out a consistent set of messages about who you are, what you offer, and how to pitch it in easy-to-remember taglines.  

Just as important as the promotion itself, is the brand-building that is derived from the consistent messaging.

Promotion methods to consider 

Promotion can take many forms. This may include: 

• low-impact methods such as distributing flyers in the neighborhood. This too requires thought and planning. Perhaps consider subcontracting content management, design, and printing to streamline your efforts.  
• restaurants should build email lists for newsletters. MailChimp is a good free resource that allows people to sign up from your website or social media pages so that you can broadcast to customers what’s new for the week.
• social media is a must. Post daily or multiple times weekly to build up followers. The more followers you have, the more likely a potential customer may give your venue a try. Automate your social media posts and then review reports to see what is working and adjust accordingly. A great tool to post once and broadcast to all your social media pages is this tool. It’s cost-effective and will save you hours of time. 
• there are many location-based directories, such as Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Yelp, CitySearch, and 70 more. With this tool, you can build one profile and auto-sync the listings and updates in one dashboard.   
• advertising can be distributed online via search ads, video ads, and/or social ads. Consider where your customers like frequent, and target your promotions to those platforms. Or speak with a consultant that can assist you. 

Online Presence

An online presence should be fully integrated, and structured. This includes the following:

• Website. Your website needs to convey what you do, and why it’s valuable to the consumer. It should be:
  • informative, easy to navigate, and integrated with all the tools you use,
  • have links and/or feeds from all your social media platforms, such as Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter, youTube, and possibly Snapchat
  • be ADA compliant. Just as you now need to comply with disability ramps at your venue, your website needs to be website compliant.
  • links to 3rd party online ordering (there are many to choose from) or an onsite eCommerce to process payment and orders.
  • events calendar (if you host tournaments, live entertainment, trivia nights, casino nights, or other specials.
• Social Media.  Build your pages with consistent messaging, and imagery. Then set aside time to work it; post at least three times a week to build followers — who can be your biggest evangelists!

If you need help with your website and/or marketing (ads, social, SEO) talk with these guys. If you need expert advice, implementation, and a fresh pair of eyes, talk with a restaurant consultant.

Conclusion 

The above are a few ways of promoting your venue. We hope this provides some insights and resources to help you ignite new excitement in New York City metro venue. Our specialty is coin-operated amusements.