How to promote pub events: quiz nights, live music and more

To promote a pub event, announce it two to four weeks ahead with the date, start time, price and how to book, then remind people every week with a Facebook event, a poster by the bar and an email to your list, and post again on the day. Weekly nights like quizzes need a fixed slot, the same look every week and a winners' photo afterwards.

#How far ahead should you promote a pub event?

Further ahead than you'd think for one-offs, and every single week for the regular nights. My rough guide:

• Weekly quiz or open mic: launch it properly once, then post every week, two or three days before and again on the day.
• Free-entry live music: two to three weeks out.
• Ticketed comedy, a tasting or a supper club: four to six weeks, because people need to plan and pay.
• A big one-off (a charity night, New Year's Eve): six weeks or more.

A single announcement post three days before, followed by silence, isn't enough. A post that goes out once reaches a slice of your followers, and even they're left to remember it on their own. Plan four or five touches per event instead, spread out, each with something new to say.

#How do you announce a pub event so people turn up?

Put the five facts people need in the first two lines of the post: what it is, the day and date, the start time, the price (or "free entry") and how to book. Then add who it's for, because "a quiz for teams of up to six, with a kids' round at 7pm" fills a different room to "a quiz for serious quizzers, no phones, £50 jackpot".

One strong photo beats a busy graphic. If you've run the event before, use a real photo from last time, like the band mid-song or a table of quizzers arguing over an answer. A poster-style graphic works for the details, but make it readable at phone size and use the same template every time so people learn to spot it. There are more ideas in our list of pub social media ideas.

Then make it findable outside your feed:

• A Google Business Profile event post, which needs a title, start and end dates and times. Google says businesses in regulated industries such as alcohol can post but shouldn't include content about those products, so promote the quiz and leave the drinks offer out. Our Google Business Profile guide goes through it.
• The what's on page of your website, if you have one, updated the same day.
• A Facebook event, which gets its own section below.

For the weekly stuff, Venuesmith can take a one-off post typed in a line ("Quiz night Thursday 8pm, £50 jackpot") or fold the quiz into a six-week plan, drafting each post in your branding for you to approve before anything goes out.

#Are Facebook events worth it for pubs?

Yes, especially for anything that repeats. People can share an event or forward it to the group chat, and Facebook's help centre explains how to create a Page event and how to make it recurring when it runs on more than one date. A weekly quiz becomes one recurring event instead of a new one every week. Our guide to Facebook marketing for pubs covers the rest of your Page.

A few habits make them work harder:

• Write the event name the way people would search for it: "Thursday quiz night at The Hollow Oak", not "Brain Drain #47".
• Put the price and booking details in the first line of the description, because that's often all people read.
• Ask the band, comedian or brewery to share it, or add their Page as a co-host, which Facebook lets Page owners do. Only add people you trust.
• Post updates inside the event as it gets closer ("Kitchen open till 9 for quiz teams"), so there's something new each time someone checks it.

#Posters, the bar and the people already in the room

Your best audience for next week's event is sitting in the pub tonight. A poster by the bar, one in the loos (people read them, whatever they say), table talkers and a chalkboard by the door all catch customers who never look at your Instagram. Put a QR code on the poster that goes straight to the booking page or the Facebook event.

Then brief the staff. "We've got a quiz on Thursday, want me to put your team down?" at the till does more for a quiz than a week of posts, I reckon, and it costs nothing.

#Email: reaching the regulars who don't follow you

A monthly what's on email gets your events in front of the people who already like you enough to sign up, and some of them won't follow you anywhere. Send it at the end of the month with every event for the month ahead, then a short reminder before the big ones. Keep each event to a line or two with a link to book.

Marketing emails come with consent rules, so read our guide to GDPR and PECR for UK venues before you import a list of old booking emails. For what to send and how often, see our guide to email marketing for pubs and restaurants.

#How to promote quiz nights, live music, comedy, open mics and tastings

Each type of event fills for slightly different reasons, so the posts should say slightly different things.

#Quiz nights

Consistency is the whole game: the same night, start time and graphic every week. Post the jackpot or prize, the team size and whether the kitchen's open, and after the quiz post the winners' photo (with their permission) and a teaser question for next week. The teaser gives people something to answer in the comments, which is about as easy as engagement gets.

#Live music

Name the act and say what they play ("a four-piece doing 90s indie covers" tells people far more than a band name they've never heard). Tag the act, ask them to share it with their own followers, and give exact times: doors, first set, finish. If the act sends you a short clip of themselves playing, post it with their permission; a few seconds of sound sells a band better than any poster.

#Comedy nights

Comedy is usually ticketed, so give it longer. Reveal the line-up act by act in the weeks before, say clearly if the material is adult, and post "last 10 tickets" only when it's true.

#Open mic nights

Open mic needs two audiences: performers and the people who come to watch them. Tell performers how sign-up works (a list at the bar from 7.30pm, say) and what gear you provide, and encourage them to bring friends. Then post the performers' names afterwards so they share it.

#Tastings and supper clubs

Limited places are the selling point. Say how many seats there are, what's included and who's hosting (the brewer, say, or your own chef), and take payment when people book. Photograph the table setting the day before and use it in the "few places left" post.

#Which licences do pub events need?

Less than you might fear, thanks to deregulation since the Live Music Act 2012, which the Home Office's section 182 guidance describes. Under the Licensing Act 2003 as amended (which covers England and Wales), no entertainment licence is needed for amplified live music between 8am and 11pm on premises licensed to sell alcohol for consumption there, as long as the audience doesn't exceed 500. Unamplified live music needs no licence between 8am and 11pm on any premises, and recorded music gets the same 8am to 11pm, 500-person exemption as amplified live music on alcohol-licensed premises. DCMS sets out the same rules on gov.uk's entertainment licensing page.

The same guidance lists stand-up comedy, and games such as pool and darts, among the activities that aren't licensable at all, and says karaoke will generally be classed as live music. A quiz isn't one of the types of regulated entertainment the Act lists. After 11pm it changes: entertainment activities before 8am or after 11pm always need authorisation unless another exemption applies, so a late band or DJ has to be on your licence or covered by a Temporary Event Notice.

The council can still step in. The guidance says a licensing authority can add conditions at a licence review if an event causes trouble, and gives the example of limiting the microphone on an open mic night after customers got noisy later in the evening.

The music licence is a separate thing, and most events with any music need it. Gov.uk says you usually need a licence to play live or recorded music in public, including in pubs, and PPL PRS says TheMusicLicence covers live music, open mic nights, karaoke and comedy shows. It also says your council's entertainment licence doesn't replace it.

This is general information, not legal advice. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own licensing laws, so check with your licensing board or council, or a licensing solicitor.