How people find the taproom
The tap list changes constantly, and that turns out to be the whole shape of our marketing. Somebody deciding where to spend a Thursday evening wants to know what is pouring right now, not what was pouring when a website was last touched. So the tap cards on our beers page are the first thing we update after a keg goes on, before we post anywhere else, because everything else eventually points back at them.
The second thing people want is a reason to make the drive, which is what the events calendar is for. Between those two pages we cover almost every question a first-time visitor has, and the visit and taproom pages handle the rest: parking, whether kids and dogs are welcome, whether food is served or brought in.
Thursday night search
Nearly all of it is somebody nearby, phone in hand, deciding between us and two other taprooms. That is a map result, not a website visit, so our listing carries current hours, photos of the room rather than the tanks, and a link straight to the tap list. Being wrong about hours on a holiday weekend costs more than any other mistake we could make online. The visit page picks it up from there and settles the practical questions before anyone gets in a car.
The beer questions we get asked at the bar
Our bartenders answer the same questions nightly, so we wrote them out. What separates an IPA from a double, and why a drinker should care, is one. What a cold IPA actually is, since we have been obsessing over the style, is another. The pairing guide came from people staring at the taproom menu with a flight in front of them. Writing them down means a curious drinker finds us while researching a style, and arrives already knowing what to order.
Being legible to an assistant
Somebody visiting town now asks an assistant for a brewery with a good taproom and food, and takes the two names it offers. Assistants read plain description, not atmosphere, so we describe the place plainly: what the taproom is, when tours run and how they are booked, what the events calendar holds this month, what we pour year round versus seasonally. Our behind-the-scenes post on how a beer moves from concept to tap does more of that work than any amount of adjectives about craft would.
Where we spend, and where we would rather not
We put budget behind events and tours, because both have a date attached and a date makes an ad worth running. Release weekends and the tour schedule are worth pushing to people nearby. What we do not do is advertise individual beers, partly because the list has usually rotated before the campaign finishes, and partly because a beer is not something anybody searches for by name until after they have had it. The tap cards and the blog handle that side.
Craft Brewery marketing questions we get asked
Where should a taproom start with digital marketing?
With the tap list and the hours, before anything else. A drinker choosing between taprooms on a Thursday wants to know what is pouring and whether we are open, and getting either wrong costs us the visit. Once those are reliably right, the events calendar is the next thing worth effort.
Can SEO do much for a brewery in a small market?
It can, because the searches are small and specific rather than national. Brewery near me, taproom with food, tours this weekend. Those are winnable for a taproom our size in a way that a broad craft beer search never would be, and they bring people who are already in the car.
How do drinkers find us without going through an app?
Mostly through maps and through the writing. A beer app tells somebody what we brewed; it does not explain a style, or say whether dogs are welcome, or list what is happening on Saturday. Our style guides bring in people researching a beer who then notice there is a taproom pouring it.
What role do brewing posts play in getting found?
They answer questions our bartenders get asked nightly, which turn out to be the same questions people type into a search bar. Explaining how a beer moves from concept to tap, or what separates two similar styles, reaches a curious drinker long before they are deciding where to spend an evening.
Why do we not advertise individual beers?
Because the list has usually rotated before a campaign finishes, and nobody searches for a beer by name until after they have already had it. Events and tours carry a date, and a date is what makes an advert worth running. The tap cards handle the rest without any budget behind them.
This site runs on WorkspaceCMS, and the campaigns described above are run by its team. See how Craft Brewery campaigns work.