The idea of marketing a nightclub event with flyers is something that will never get old. That’s true no matter how many social media platforms are out there selling you data on the young millennial demographic that sits on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp making plans to go out next Friday and Saturday night. Why? Because handing out flyers pushing the next nightclub promotion or local concert still works really well.

Think about how people are feeling when they’re out and about and looking for the hottest club in the area to check out. They’re likely to be with friends having a few drinks. They might be single and looking to mingle with somebody attractive who’s looking for a good time. They’re ready to spend money on tickets, cover charges and of course, more drinks. They’re nicely dressed with their hair done and might entertain the idea of staying out late enough to watch the sun come up in the morning if things get really crazy.

All these potential outcomes and experiences indicate that the prospect of catching the average club goer on the street and enticing them to pick your club over all of their other options can be a very lucrative endeavor. That’s why employing a strategy or set of tips for marketing your nightclub with flyers is so important. Besides, the most exciting radio and social media ads in the world aren’t going to work when your target prospect is walking right passed you.

So without further ado then, let’s go over tips for marketing your nightclub with flyers.

Picking A Busy Area for Marketing Your Nightclub with Flyers

Any major city in the Greater Toronto Area outside of the downtown core has a few nightclubs in it, but the downtown core obviously has the most concentrated, diverse and robust entertainment district across Canada. Most of the action is centered on King Street West between University Avenue and Spadina Avenue. The district isn’t just home to nightclubs, the area also hosts the Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Blue Jays as well as several performing arts theatres. This is where you’ll find most of Toronto’s nightclubs, but to be fair, there are many street corners with bars and clubs downtown where a street team can hand out flyers.

More on the History of Toronto Nightclubs

This may come as no surprise to you, but the first nightclubs in Toronto were actually modelled after similar clubs in New York. If you’ve ever been to New York, then you know that it’s like Toronto times 10. Toronto’s first ever nightclub was actually located at 185 Richmond Street West. It was called the Twilight Zone. The place quickly became popular with a young audience disco, techno and hip hop and featured a $100,000 sound system developed by a New York-based engineer. The owners of the club brought their underground styles and affinity for a cool interior design with them from Brooklyn. This all took place at the beginning of the 1980s.

A short time later, Roy Thomson Hall opened at King Street and Simcoe Street in 1982. It opened up another option for entertainment and is now the home of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The entertainment district was born. Nightclubs in the city continued popping up throughout the 1990s and today with more and more condominiums popping up in the city, the scene in Toronto is absolutely booming.

Making a Cool Design for Your Flyers

Think about the nature of your nightclub. The music and the sound system that plays it has to be off the charts without a doubt. The lighting has to set the mood. The bars need to be fully stocked with bartenders pouring drinks quickly and extravagantly, commanding attention from partygoers. The VIP booths need to look sleek, a bottles need to be popping, because those VIPs are worth a lot of money to the club and they’re looking to be the stars of the show. Not to mention, all of these people are young and energetic, and a lot of them are showing up in their best outfits with their hair done up trying to enjoy being single and mingling.

Think about all of that, and remember that you need to sell all of those things on an engaging flyer that’s going to get people in the lineup paying cover charges and buying drinks.

A small-time nightclub promoter might want to get some samples of cool graphics made that match the branding that the nightclub is trying to push out to the public. Hiring a professional graphic design service to come up with some mockups to choose from.

Generally speaking, the concepts that work usually involve bright colours, often times fluorescent ones that really pop. There’s also got to be some cool scenery and design involved. That’s why it’s better to hire someone. Remember, if people have already had a few drinks and they’re just walking by, your flyer is the only chance you get to make an impression and convince those people to walk into your establishment even though they weren’t originally planning on it.

Let’s look at some cool designs for inspiration:

The Nightclub DJ

Here’s a cool design with splashy font in the front and the DJ prominently displayed. The lights in the background give off the impression of some electronic dance music hero performing in a big stadium. Even if the venue is small and the artist is little known beyond the local club scene, this will entice people to check out what’s going on.

Glow in the Dark

Remember the fluorescent lighting we talked about earlier? Everybody likes the glow in the dark theme at a nightclub. Even if it’s not explicitly a glow in the dark night, there’s just something about mixing all those colours together with some black lights and popular music that gets everybody going.

Retro Night

Retro nights are really popular for nightclubs and a great excuse to come up with a cool, unique flyer. Promoting an 80s night is a great idea, because it brings up all sorts of nostalgia for a target audience in their mid-30s and 40s. These people are still young professionals, but no longer entry level, which means they know what they like to do and they have money to spend on it. The drinks will be flowing during a retro 80s night and this poster helps get the job done.

The Mardi Gras Theme

Who doesn’t love Mardi Gras? Throwing beads around at the club is something we’ve all done (if you were a regular bar star in your college/younger years) Mardi Gras is a hugely popular them in the club scene and anybody serious about promoting their club will eventually through one of these parties. There are of course many of these themes.

Sexy Sells

Part of the ambiance and vibe in a nightclub is about all the attraction and crazy things that can happen when people mix, mingle and party. There’s a reason guys put extra effort into their looks when going to the club and girls put on their best heels. People go to clubs to meet other people and have a great time. Featuring human beings in any sort of promotional item works, especially when the backdrop is fun and excitement.

Employing A Street Team

Now that you have a whole slew of designs at your disposal to consider, it’s time to distribute. Hiring some young guys or gals for the night is the best way to distribute nightclub flyers. They need to ideally dress, walk, talk and be the same age as your target audience. Remember, somebody standing outside a nightclub with a bunch of flyers only has one shot to get the attention of walkers by. Hit them with a street team they can relate to, and all of a sudden putting that flyer in their hand is a lot more powerful.

Promote a Themed Party or Special Guest

We’ve already touched on this, but if a hot local DJ is spinning at your club next weekend, you must promote, promote, promote! Whether it’s Mardi Gras, 80s night, or DJ Premier, people need cool reasons to keep coming back to the same place. Restaurants and bars entice people by changing the menu or offering a promotion. If you run a nightclub, you’ve got to switch up the vibe sometimes. Give people reason to keep coming back.

Offer Free Cover, Especially for Women

This is a classic nightclub promotion strategy, and you’ve got to promote it in your flyer marketing. “Women get in free before midnight!” OR whatever the deal is. Men of course, still have to pay. But when is the last time a man had a problem with that. Women LOVE to get in free, and men will pay cover and buy those women drinks just for the opportunity to talk to them.

Do this regularly and use your flyer marketing strategy to promote the heck out of it!

Hopefully now you’re aware of how important it is to get your nightclub flyer marketing game going. Now print off those flyers, get your street team outside and start promoting.

Nightclub posters courtesy of PosterMyWall.com. Featured image by Daniel Monteiro on Unsplash. 

Jack Choros

Jack has been in the internet marketing space for 10 years. He enjoys writing and watching the Toronto Raptors.