This post is part 2 of a 3-part series on craft beer marketing.
“I’ll have another” is what every craft beer bar owner or brewer wants to hear after a customer tries a new draft like Evolution’s Lot No6 Double IPA … my new sleeper DIPA! And, I hope that you said the same thing after you read the first in a 3-part series on using social media for craft beer marketing to promote your craft beer bar – CraftBeer Marketing | How To Use Social Media To Promote Your Craft Beer Bar
I want to review three more social media tactics that every craft bar, or any other retailer, needs to consider when promoting their story via social media.
Four-pack Of Craft Beer Marketing Goals For Your Bar
There is a four-pack (we are talking craft beer now) of ways that craft beer bars or brewers think about their business:
- Leads. How do you get people to consider your bar?
- Conversion. How do you get people to try your craft beer bar?
- Transactions. How do you drive multiple visits by your crafty customers?
- Average Dollar Sale. How do you customers to pour on the purchase during each visit to your bar?
It is important to understand how to use social media to address each of those four-pack of goals. Following these goals to you can get more people into your craft beer bar, get these customers to return multiple times and get them to increase their tab with each visit!
3 More Ways To Use Social Media To Develop Your Craft Beer Marketing For Your Bar
Lets’s talk about 3 more ways to get your customers to say “I’ll have another!”
1. Write a blog post to get found by people searching “best craft beer bars in [insert your area here]. Every time I visit a new city I use Google and enter “best craft beer bars in the city I am visiting. I recently did this to my trip to a trip to Phoenix Arizona and found a list of general beer blogs. The blogs were written by multiple publications. However, not one beer bar had their own blog, even though they all had web sites! Why not?!? Hubspot reports that 55% of small businesses, like craft beer bars, blog. So, get to it, you crafters! By using your web site or your own blog. Can you imagine if your craft beer bar or brewery added a started blog with a keyword-rich post like “Top 5 Things To Do In [insert your city here]? What a great place to position your craft beer bar as a must-visit establishment? Use search terms as a magnet to draw in hop heads and craft beer fans from through out the country visiting your area.
Blogging is also a great strategy for bars as well as upstart breweries, like Connecticut’s newest brewery, Shebeen Brewing Company!
“I’ll Have Another” Social Media Idea For My Craft Beer Marketing
2. Use Twitter to amplify your crafty story! Whether your story is the daily tap list in the form of a photo to an announcement of a tap takeover, Twitter is one of the best communication platforms to help you reach your goals to reach your leads and customers! Pew reports that Twitter usage has doubled since 2010, driven by the adoption of smart phones.
Unlike Facebook, where too many craft beer bars count on as their marketing hub, Twitter is an open network. With Twitter and relevant hashtags your message can reach your followers and non-followers who are searching on keywords and hashtags, like #PlinyTheElder. Also, you need to tweet a picture of your daily draft list, even though you list it on Facebook. Remember that you need to fish where the fish are …, and it’s not just one social platform!
Pliny The Elder
3. Be An Active Part Of The Yelp Conversation (because it’s happening already). Your customers are on Yelp whether or not you are. Yelp is like sitting at the bar with other beer enthusiasts who are talking when you are not there. They are trading stories and noting what they like and don’t like. Yelp is a way that you can be a part of that conversation! Yelp had a monthly average of 86 million unique visitors in Q4 2012 who had written 36 million reviews on businesses like your craft beer bar. This high usage makes Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from restaurants and craft beer bars.
“I’ll Have Another” Social Media Idea For My Craft Beer Marketing
Use Yelp to monitor, respond and have a conversation with your best and worst customers. If a patron leaves a positive comment, thank him or her! If someone thinks yours suds are duds, then try to address the issue. It’s always best to respond quickly and authentically. As you can see from the example above from Quotations in Media, PA, this opportunity was missed! (I have to say I visited Quotations about 5 times over the past two weeks to have my share of Bells’ Hopslam!)
Also, Yelp’s mobile application was used on 9.2 million unique mobile devices on a monthly average basis during Q4 2012, so your customers are activating this social media channel and you need to be part of the Yelp conversation!
Do you have examples of blogging, tweeting or Yelp you use for your craft beer bar? If so, please leave a comment below or reach out to me directly on MarketingThink.com. You can also find me on Twitter @GerryMoran.
Learn the basics of blogging to get your craft beer found, activate your Twitter stream to reach and engage current and future imbibers and pay attention to the conversation on Yelp to build and deepen your relationships!
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