The world of marketing has flipped dramatically in the past decade and with new avenues opening up to connect with a new consumer or keeping in touch with a fan of your brewery is easier — and sometimes more complex — than ever before.
Julia Herz, formerly of the Brewers Association, spoke to breweries during the Sell More Beer Virtual Conference late this past fall and gave insights into a variety of topics, including a checklist of quick things that your brewery can do to help generate more sales and marketing your brand to consumers.
The digital space is usually thought of like your website and social media platforms, but there are other places to connect and strengthen brand awareness.
Push Notifications
Now that breweries are doing much more direct-to-consumer sales and a lot more eCommerce because of COVID, your brewery is probably getting lots of phone numbers to stay in contact with people. Use that as an opportunity to have consumers opt-in to send notifications on information on new releases, new protocols, even when you are open.
“If you’re not, it’s a huge opportunity,” Herz said. “This is where marketing will be also going in a much more robust way as the months and years continue to go.”
Subscriptions/Futures Sale
Herz noted that the reason subscriptions are powerful, and a game-changer in helping your brewery stay afloat is because it’s guaranteed revenue each month that goes into your bank account.
Wine clubs are standard practice, feel free to borrow from the wine world and create that sort of need. It doesn’t have to be special releases even. And it doesn’t have to include shipping. Packaging a club for beer-to-go or extend your current mug club into curbside/pickup could become a way to help plan for future releases as well.
“It’s month-in and month-out revenue,” Herz said.
Audio
“Video we know,” Herz said. “But your websites eventually will be going to audio. Not word reading only. So in long-term thinking, once you get through this and you know you’re going to grow and thrive. I want you guys to pay attention to how audio is going to help you in the digital space on your websites.”
Herz said a podcast is just the start and not just an advertisement for your brand, but creates content through your brand as well.
She added that partnering with organizations that are streaming content already can be helpful in this.
“Then you can push to your audiences and they pre-purchase that content in advance,” she said. “That is a very powerful one to consider.”
Of course, emailed newsletters can still be a great way to connect as well and finding the fine line between informing and spamming a consumer’s inbox can be tricky. It can be a way to inform of not just new releases but creative outdoor space or seated dinners, smaller private events, even hosting a drive-in movie as temperatures warm. All of these can be pre-sold, which generates revenue quickly and takes the guessing out of tickets for some days.
Photo courtesy Indeed Brewing
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