MicroBrewr 092: Email marketing for breweries

Alex Standiford in Akron, Ohio started Fill Your Taproom to help breweries attract more customers. He does that through website development, social media management, branding, and email marketing.

“It’s not about trying to get people to buy your stuff. It’s about building the relationship and then providing the information that empowers them to make a decision.” [Tweet This]

Email isn’t dead and it’s not just for online digital businesses; email is important for “brick-and-mortar” real world business, too. In fact, email is an ever more important part of your overall marketing plan.

Ninety percent of email gets delivered to an inbox whereas just 2 percent of your Facebook fans will see your post in their news feed.

“You don’t have to think about email as generating sales directly,” says Alex. “If you think of marketing as getting someone to know, like, and trust you, and then making sure you’re top of mind whenever [that person] goes into a grocery store, you’re doing fine. That’s really most of the goal.”

Your brewery can use email to:

1. Build relationships and learn more about your customers.
2. Educate your customers and empower them to make a decision.
3. Fill your taproom by offering special deals or promoting events and beer releases.

RELATED: 51 things your brewery can do with email

“Especially if you already have a decent sized following online,” Alex advises, “it would be wise to start trying to migrate these people into your email list.”

Focus less on where you get people to sign up to your email list, and more on what you do to get people to sign up. Offer them a reason to give you their email address, which many people keep very private. “People don’t give away their email address for no reason anymore,” says Alex.

Alex advises you start growing your email list 8-12 months before opening your brewery. You can use the Facebook call-to-action button or a simple website that says “coming soon.” Then offer something that’s worth the exchange of their email.

A couple ideas are:

• A PDF to teach customers about tasting beer
• The promise of VIP access to events

Book recommendation:

• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen.

Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.

An upcoming beer style:

Gose and lighter beers

Other resources:

• Easy Beer Lister WP plugin.
• Easy Age Verifier WP plugin.
• Brew IO free WP theme for breweries.
• 5 reasons every brewery needs and email list by Alex Standiford, MicroBrewr, August 1, 2016.
• 51 things your brewery can do with email by Alex Standiford, MicroBrewr, August 17, 2016.
• How to build a healthy email list for your craft brewery by Alex Standiford, MicroBrewr, September 2, 2016.