The 5-minute weekly email newsletter that keeps your bar ahead of the curve

It's the busiest time of the year. Do yourself a favor today and check each of your online profiles to make sure your business's basic info is correct and up-to-date.

You'd be shocked how many businesses have the wrong hours listed, don't have their website linked, or maybe forgot to add their address on Facebook, Google, Instagram, etc. Don't let yours be one of them.

Why? It's pretty self-evident: if prospective customers get far enough along in their search that they're looking at your hours or location, you're basically at the goal line. Don't fumble by letting someone trek to your business on a Monday only to find you aren't open (even though your profile says you are).

As Rob Austin, who runs marketing at Leader Bar in CHI says, it's the easiest, most important marketing thing you can do today.

Check out the interview clip to hear more from Rob on this as well as his advice on which online platforms you should be active on:

👉 And if you'd like to hear more from Rob about marketing for the bar and restaurant industry, check out this playlist on the Brave New Bar Youtube channel.

❓ Why?

Because prospective customers often check out your website to decide whether or not to come in.

They'll click the "see website" link on their maps app, they'll click the link in your social media bio, or maybe they'll just run a google search for "bars near me."

Regardless, they're getting to your website, and if all they see on your website drink menu is "we have specialty cocktails and craft beer," it's easy for those folks to say "uh, no thanks."

And to be clear: you should keep all your menus—including your rotating beer list—up-to-date on your website.

Even if just a couple people each month are drawn into your place because you're website menu hygiene is on-point, that's totally worth it.

❓ How to do it?

Manually is an option (though not a great one—see below). Here's how the manual flow could work for your team:

1. Create a menu page (or different menu pages for your different items) on your website. Most website builders offer an easy-to-use and professional-looking menu template that allows you to avoid using a PDF, meaning your menu will be mobile-friendly.
2. Add your menu content. Be sure to include all your menu items and descriptions.
3. Include an "Updated on" timestamp so that visitors can trust what's up there (sooo many places have out-of-date menus on their website).
4. Make sure everybody who needs it has access and the know-how to update the menu when items change.
5. Every time your menu changes, go to your website and make the updates. Don't forget to change the "Updated on" timestamp.

• Yuengling comes to IL. 195 years after its founding, Yuengling is bringing its beer to Illinois. It's part of a multiyear distribution expansion for the old timer brewery. Used to be if you wanted Yuengling in the Midwest you'd have to wait for a Snowbird to bring some back from their winter in FL.
• Chi-Chi's is back! The son of the co-founder and Hormel Foods struck a deal to open an undisclosed number of restaurants in 2025. The last one closed in 2004. Wild to get a resurrection 20 years later.
• Sazerac buys Svedka. The deal comes after Svedka's former owner—Constellation Brands—saw significant drops in sales volume for the spirits side of its business throughout this year. (Their workhorses are Corona and Modelo.)
• Miller High Life's Dive Bar perfume. Seems like every holiday season MIller LIte releases some quirky dive-bar-related product. This year it's a perfume that, according to their claims, actually smells like a dive bar.