How to market your brewery in 10 easy steps
We live in the age of craft beer and we are happy to be a part of the growing establishments in our town and in yours. In 2018 Craft brewers sold 25.6 million bbls, a 3.9% pickup from the prior-year. There is little doubt that the age of crafted beer is here, and the statistics support the anecdotal evidence.
While this growth is a big win for the industry and our economy, the crowded marketplace is making it increasingly vital to differentiate yourself, the beer and brewery and find authentic ways to grow your brand loyalty.
You can no longer push your product or service onto customers, instead, there must be a focus on cultivating relationships, value, and emphasis on standing for something more than the beer you craft. To help you out, we’ve put together, how to market your brewery in 10 easy steps.
- Invest in branded glassware. Part of your marketing strategy should involve how your beer is being represented, this includes glassware. Where does your craft live when you’re serving it? In the glass and in people’s hands. Branded glassware lets people know you’re serious about what you do. It creates an experience that adds value to your craft and hard work. It doesn’t hurt to talk to a glassware specialist here at Dejabrew about what types of glassware work best with your beer type. To see our top 2020 glassware picks go here!
- Partner with local businesses. Widen your organic reach through partnering with other businesses in and around your region. You can cross-promote with like-minded businesses because two audiences is bigger than one. Word of mouth is king and can be very powerful and keep your marketing costs down. Consider partnering with local vendors to host events as well. A great way to cross-promote is to share logo space on the glass! This allows you to print one glass and again, double the exposure at events and at your establishment.
- Consider hosting events – If you’re launching a new beer consider having a beer release party! (Give away a select number of branded glassware to promote your new release) Other ideas range from wine and beer or food pairing events. Two audiences are better than one – share in the promotion so that you can have double the exposure. Consider having a themed weekly event like Trivia night or a national holiday. There’s enough of those and even if you can’t find one, you can most definitely make one up! Any reason to come to drink with friends is good enough. Get creative think about hosting events that are unique and fun! You can use SMS (text message) to announce new beer releases, promos and event info. The open rate on SMS text messaging marketing is over 85% in some cases compared to other forms of marketing.
- Do Giveaways. Consider printing giveaways such as tasting glasses at your events. This might be the tiniest piece of advertising you could do but the best. If you give away glassware at your events, people take them home, at some point in the week either they are looking at them or a group of friends or family are. Staying top of mind with the customer is key to driving brand loyalty and return customer engagement.
- Invest in memorable designs. From your logo to your packaging – it must be unique, stand for something, and consistent with your marketing materials – such as your website, business cards, etc.. All designs should be a clear representation of what your craft stands for. We recommend a favorite partner of ours, Novus to help with great, memorable design – after all, she did ours!
- Leverage Social Media. Whether you’re creating ads or posting organically, it’s important to remember these four things.
- Use hashtags – Make your own that is unique to your business and craft.
- Tag other people and businesses in your posts as much as possible – with their permission.
- Engage with your audiences. This means hold contests and giveaways. Be sure to include the winner in the post. When leveraging contests – have your audience tag themselves and 2-3 other people in the post in order to win.
- Take professional photos of craft beer and branded glass and post on social. A professional photo adds more value to your brand and customers expect to pay more for branded products or services.
- Set up Google My Business Account. If you’re just starting your brewery, you’ll want your business to be recognized by google. Once you do this, now google knows you exist. Yay! You’ll want to optimize your profile. Add photos and content. This is where you’ll also want your raving fans to leave reviews! The more positive reviews, the more Google likes you and your search ranking could increase by doing so and you’re building trust with potential customers. Check out this fun infographic on how online reviews are more effective than most advertising.
- Build a community of like-minded people. When you’re marketing you should be going after a specific demographic of people, you’ll want to understand what they value, their likes, dislikes, needs, and challenges in order to best serve them with your establishment and beer. Our blogpost featuring Rohrbach’s explains how to build a legacy brand – check it out!
- Launch a newsletter. This a great way to keep in touch on a regular basis with your current and potential customers. Remember to keep it light and link back to your website for them to read more about topics. Inside the newsletter is where you want to advertise your events, partnerships and fun ways to engage your audience.
- PR. Getting your name out to the public can let people know who you are and have a nice newspaper clipping on your wall to hang up in your brewery! Any kind of PR can drum up business and awareness for your brewery. If you’re just starting out, you can be printed up in the local newspaper. Be sure to send out the press release to all local and national publications. If you’re not just starting out other newsworthy hits are – expanding your space or product line, an award or a newly awarded grant.
We hope you enjoyed how to market your brewery in 10 easy steps. This is just the start of developing your marketing plan.
