5 Social Marketing Tips for Craft Beer for 2017
You already know that social media is an essential tool to market your craft beer brand (if you don’t, check out Using Social to Serve up Authenticity first) and you are regularly posting, tweeting and engaging with your followers. But do you feel like you are just talking to the same old people and that you aren’t getting the same UMPH! that you used to with your social efforts?
Unless you have recently updated your strategy, you are probably right. The social media landscape is constantly evolving. Keeping up can be a challenge but if done right, your social channels can become an even more powerful tool, and as suggested in the Forbes article, Social Media + Craft Beer Causes Euphoria And Evangelism for many brewers it is the only marketing tool they use to build their businesses.
Here are 5 tips to ensure that you’re making the most of these tools:
1) Organic reach is dead. No, this isn’t a 2017 revelation, but it is so important it still deserves the #1 spot on our list. Your social media efforts will be ineffective going forward without an advertising budget.
If you are new to paid social advertising don’t worry, you can do this yourself and there are plenty of resources to help. We recommend starting with Facebook since it represents 75% of all social media users and they have great resources to help you get started.
You can start small, measure results and grow into it. You can’t however, ignore this. Your competitors won’t.
2) Video. Video is dominating social media across the board and it’s growing. Video content has better reach, gets more shares is great on mobile and can help build your brand authenticity. You don’t need to be a professional videographer, research shows that users are more concerned about the message than the design or quality of the video. All you need is a smartphone and some good lighting.
Topics? Introduce your newest variety, Q&A with the brew master, events, pairings etc. are just a given. Check out some of these creative beer brand social videos (and note the number of views).
3) Capitalize on Custom Audiences (Tailored Audience on Twitter).
This is an incredibly useful tool where you can create target lists from your own customer list. A few examples of how to use this include:
- Create a social campaign targeting those on your customer list who didn’t open your last email.
- Create a very targeted campaign reaching out to just journalist and influencers to announce an exclusive preview tasting?
- Grow your social followers. While generally, you want to use social to grow your customer list, you can also target your current customers to get them to follow your social channels.
- Also, you can upload your current customer list and the exclude them from paid campaigns if you want to make sure you are only spending your budget to reach new customers.
- Target your top customers with special offers or content customized for this important audience.
4) Remarketing. If you have a website and social media accounts this is absolutely one of the most effective ways of advertising. Install the Facebook and/or Twitter pixels on your website and then once someone visits your website you can serve up your ads on their social networks.
5) Live Video. Once you have the hang of video, take it up a notch and do live video. Right now, live video gets an advantage on Facebook so you can really increase your reach.
With all these tips don’t forget the social media basics:
- You don’t have to be on every platform, but you need to post and engage regularly on the platforms you use.
- Be sure to stay consistent with your brand guidelines and messaging.
- Beer is fun, your social should be too.
Cheers, and be sure to call us if we can help.
