7 Tips to Help You Market Your Craft Brewery

The popularity of craft breweries has exploded over the past decade, making it an exciting and potentially profitable business venture. But it’s also a competitive space, so if you’ve decided to throw your hops into the ring, you need a way to make yourself visible.

Just last year, the craft brewery market in the U.S. alone was valued at $103.85 billion. By 2027, that figure is projected to exceed $200 billion. Whether you’re an established craft brewer or new in this space, things are changing constantly. To stay in the game, you’ll need to find ways to elevate your brand, attract more customers, and remain relevant. Here are seven tips to help you market your craft brewery, grow your following and elevate your business.

1. Invest in Memorable Branding

If you want your craft brewery to be a success, you need to start with a winning product and some killer branding. No one wants to drink bad beer, so the assumption is that you know how to create some interesting and flavorful brews. After that, your designs and story are just as important.

People absolutely judge new brews by their labels. Even if you aren’t bottling or canning your beer, you are going to have a logo that will go on tap pulls, signs, t-shirts, digital media, and much more.

Make sure you take the time to create exciting and appealing branding that makes you stand out.

Part of your branding should also involve telling your brewery’s story. How did your brewery get started, and what makes it unique?

2. Create an Engaging Website

Your craft brewery won’t be viewed as a credible contender by many consumers if you don’t have an attractive and engaging website. Your website is your business’s digital front door. Everything else you do online, such as social media posts, paid ads, and video content, will drive visitors to your website for more information about your brand.

Use your website to tell your craft brewery’s story and highlight its products. Let people know what makes you unique. You can also include features like an events calendar, a menu section (if you serve food), and a multimedia section that shows photos and videos related to your business.

3. Leverage the Power of Social Media

Consumers follow craft breweries on social media because they want to know about the latest product news, learn about upcoming events, and get a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes. Many also experience a sense of community with those who also enjoy the same products and services.

You should be using social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Untappd to post much more than just your hours of operation and photos of products. Use these sites to run contests, announce specials, profile products and employees, respond to questions, and feature user generated content.

4. Promote Beer and Brewery Events

An increasingly popular way to market your craft brewery is to create and host events. You can partner with other local businesses for these events, sponsor your own events, or lease out your space for things like corporate parties and wedding receptions.

If you decide to create your own events, you don’t have a spend a fortune doing it. You can promote the events on social media and online directories like Eventbrite. And these are excellent opportunities to capture photos of people having fun at your business so you can post them on your website and social media profiles.

5. Boost Local Search Results

By their nature, craft breweries are local businesses. Your target audience will be people who live and work in your local community, who will get in their vehicles and visit your establishment for unique brews, fresh food, entertainment, and camaraderie. Online visibility is essential for the success of local businesses like yours, which means you’ll need to invest in local SEO.

Local SEO will put your business front and center when someone searches for terms like “craft brewery near me” or “craft beer in {city}.” You can start by creating and optimizing your Google Business Profile and encouraging your current customers to leave online feedback. You can also include local search terms on your website and social media posts to improve your standing in local search.

6. Be Active in Your Community

Most cities have tons of community events happening during any given week that your craft brewery can get involved in. These might range from charity events to outdoor music festivals to food truck rallies to regular farmer’s markets. Check out your local chamber of commerce calendar, local paper, or local Facebook pages to find out what events are coming up.

As you become more active in these events, people will recognize your brand and start associating you with the city or town. You might also consider selling or giving away branded items, like t-shirts or stickers, when you work or sponsor these events. These items can provide additional exposure for your brewery around the area.

7. Measure the Effectiveness of Your Marketing Strategy

So, you’ve launched some of these craft brewery marketing ideas… what’s next? To ensure you’re getting the most out of your marketing efforts, you’ll want to measure your progress against some key metrics.

What were you hoping to achieve with your marketing efforts? You can align your goals with some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like Return on Investment (ROI), social media engagement rates, and website conversion rates. Once you identify these KPIs, you can begin tracking the effectiveness of your campaigns and make adjustments so they are even more profitable.

Ready to Market Your Craft Brewery?

Your area likely has several craft breweries vying for the attention of a core group of consumers who largely make their purchasing and brand loyalty decisions using online platforms. Unfortunately, a cookie-cutter approach to digital marketing isn’t likely to have the impact you need in this space. And it’s not something we recommend.

At Too Darn Loud Marketing, we offer customized, results-driven digital marketing solutions designed to achieve your particular goals. We take the time to learn about your business, its products, and the core group of customers you want to reach before recommending a plan that will get you seen and chosen by that audience.

Contact us today to schedule a free initial consultation to learn more about how our web marketing services for craft breweries can elevate your brand and produce the results you need.