Remington Begg
Marketing your craft beer brand is just like marketing any other small business, only it might be a little more fun. Craft beer breweries develop a loyal and passionate following, starting small with local consumers, then spreading outward as word or mouth and distribution grow. Social media is a perfect tool for craft beer brands because it harnesses and amplifies that word of mouth and does so at a low cost.
Craft brewers have broken into the big leagues of brewing — sipping up 11 percent of the U.S. beer market by volume in 2014. This marks the first time that small and medium-sized breweries have topped double-digit production levels in a market long dominated by a handful of large brewers. These numbers show us a rapidly growing craft beer market, but how do these brewers connect with their customers?
There is a simple formula is called RFM – recency, frequency and monetary. The goal is to get beer drinkers to buy, to buy more often, and to get them to spend more on each transaction. Craft beer breweries can affect each of these segments by taking advantage of the power of social media. Let’s look at how your brand can get more customers coming through your tap room door and purchasing more beer at stores by using social media.
1. Post your daily tap list on Facebook
Craft beer drinkers always want to know what your tap list and on-deck list is. Post a photo or even a video of your bartender showing off your tap list on Facebook and Twitter to help increase awareness of your current and future offerings. These daily photos and videos will keep your social community excited and engaged. Be sure to reply to comments and tweets, social media is a two-way communication engine, not simply a one-way broadcasting platform.
2. Get your customers to Instagram your craft beer
Craft beer lovers love to take photos of their favorites beers and their new beer discoveries. Hop Heads tap into nearly every social network available when boasting about their favorite beer – and Instagram is one of those networks.
Instagram is a growing social network that has some impressive numbers that your craft beer brand should be a part of:
- 90 million monthly users
- 40 million photos per day
- 8,500 likes per second
- 1,000 comments per second
That’s what I call a keg full of opportunity! Bad analogy? Statistics like these combined with proper and consistent use can extend your craft beer’s brand to thousands of new potential consumers.
For example, run a weekly contest for the best Instagram photo of your newest beer on tap or feature drinkers’ photos on your Facebook page! Create unique hashtags that your passionate brand followers can add to their posts, you can track effectiveness this way and followers can find other brand lovers to follow and engage with. For example, hashtags of your district beer names will work great; #BlvdWheatRules, #IneedGooseIsland or #PointYbelLove.
3. Tell your story
Every craft brewer has a story about how they got started and what makes their beer unique. It’s that story that people can connect to and help you build a passionate group of beer-loving fans. Sam Adam’s founder Jim Koch fondly tells his story on the back of the Boston Lager six pack. He found his grandfather’s lager recipe in his father's attic, brewed the first batch it in his kitchen, and with a little tweaking, Boston Lager was born and the rest is history. Use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to tell your story in fun and creative ways and you’ll see your brand's reach grow and grow.
There are many ways to promote craft beer using social media, leave us a comment and tell us about your most social media marketing tips. If you would like more information on how to grow your small business on social media, please download this free ebook.
