Episode Overview

This monthly edition of the podcast is all about answering YOUR questions on digital marketing and craft beer.

This month, we're talking about:

Marketing a brewery in a remote location
Tips for promoting a seasonal beer garden
Which website builder to use for your brewery

Want to get your questions answered next month? Shoot us an email at podcast@gethoptimized.com.

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Intro/Outro Music by ComaStudio from Pixabay

Episode Transcript

(AI-Generated, please forgive any typos)

All right. All right. All right. Welcome to the get optimized podcast. This is your host, Chris overlay, and this is a show all about craft beer and marketing and growth in this industry. And, uh, you have to forgive my, all right, all right, all right. Intro. I've been watching a true detective, my wife and I have.

So we started with the first season and uh, We skipped the second season. I already watched it. It's terrible. Um, but uh, We've been into it. So i've had my matthew mcconaughey in my mind But anyways, here we are And i'm excited to talk to you guys today We got another get answers version of the podcast coming at you on this one and I promise we've got some interviews coming I just had a great conversation with derek smith over at small batch standard That interview is coming up next.

That will probably get out, uh, before our next get answers podcast in about a month from now. So you'll look forward to that one. We've got a few other things in the works. That's some nice conversations coming. I was thinking about getting my dad on the podcast. I have to ask him. He is a guy who's got like 40 plus years in restaurant experience and.

I think that's some, some good experience. It might be valuable for you. So see if I can get pops out here, a couple more announcements and I will get into the answers for today. Uh, for you first, uh, next week, um, actually when you're listening to this, it might be already published March 26th. Um, I am giving a presentation for the craft beer professionals, a spring virtual conference, three high octane marketing strategies to fuel the Your brewery's growth.

So that is going to be an awesome presentation. I've been working on it the last few weeks, got some practice in again this week. It's sounding really good. Lots of value in that. So if you don't catch it live, go find it on the, uh, on the craft beer professionals, YouTube page. They put them all out there for free.

It's a great resource. Another one coming up is, uh, we are doing a presentation for the mass Brewers Guild, the Massachusetts Brewers Guild. This one is on the core elements of a marketing strategy and. Um, I'm not sure how they are going to publish it, actually. Uh, I know it's going to be published through the guild.

So if you're a member of the guild, you'll get access to it. Uh, they may have a public forum as well. So look out for it if you're in that guild or adjacent or whatever. Um, you'll also see, we'll probably post about it on our feeds too. So we'll try to link out to that. Uh, and then of course we have CBC coming up in April and we are presenting, they're, uh, doing a really cool talk on multi channel marketing, which should be very, very educational, especially with all the meta nonsense that's been going on lately with the blackout and all these things.

So it's going to be a good talk about. Ways to, uh, think about other marketing channels for your, for your brewing, your craft, your business. So, uh, last thing I'll say is before we get into it is if you have questions, this is the good answers version of the podcast. We want to field your questions, shoot them to us at podcast.

com. I'd get optimized. com and we will try to get them on the show. Now, enough, enough with the commercials. Let's get into the stuff. And I tell you what, um, I had a couple of questions come from the same guy this month, and I'm going to do both of them. Usually I try to be like, all right, we'll pick one, but both of your questions, Daniel, if you're listening.

We're fantastic. I love them. So we're going to answer both of those here and I got one more in here too. So we're going to talk about, uh, marketing for a brewery in a remote location. We're going to talk about a, uh, market branding strategy for like a seasonal beer garden, and then, uh, we've been getting some questions about website platforms and how to think about that.

So we'll talk about websites a little bit. Towards the end of this episode. Okay, first question looking for marketing tips for breweries in remote locations Daniel says that his breweries in the middle of the forest about 500 meters from the main road So that's a little over a quarter of a mile for the main road.

So really really great question And there's a two part answer to this and by two parts I mean two main parts and I've got a million things to say, uh, uh, within those, but, uh, I think that the two parts are you have to first figure out the what, what you're selling, what you're going to market, then figure out the how, and speaking for myself as well with this, I think it's very easy for us as business people, as marketing people to immediately go to the how.

Yeah. And, you know, you start thinking about signage and billboards and marketing and Facebook and all this kind of stuff. And I'm going to talk about the how in a minute, but I think in this case, especially in this case, really with all marketing, you should think about this, but especially in your case, and in this case of a remote brewery, uh, you have to figure out the what first.

And what I mean by that is you have to identify the value pieces that make the trip worth it for. Somebody and although you're not super far out of the way. It's a little bit out of the way You know, it's a little you have to take a side road to get out there or whatever it is. Um, it's not Super convenient to make the stop, you know, but that's okay.

You have to turn that on its head And figure out what it is about your experience because really you are selling an experience Uh, that is, is, uh, is valuable to your customers. And, um, I had this conversation. So I mentioned Derek a second ago, we had a great conversation about this and he put it perfectly.

He says, you're selling an experience in the tap room, not just beer. And it's the, it's everything that goes along with that. It's the seating, it's the environment, it's the music, it's the programming you have and all of that. And the context of our conversation was different. And I'll, I'll let you listen to that when we get to it in the, in the next podcast, but I think in this context, understanding that you're selling an experience is, is extremely valuable.

And thinking about this, I honestly. Where my mind goes is, uh, thinking about leaning into your brewery being off the beaten path and what that means for somebody. Like you get a chance to get away from everything pretty easily too. It's not like you have to do an overnighter. You're not, you know, going on a weekend vacation or something like that, but maybe it can feel like a mini getaway, a mini vacation, almost like a secret getaway in a way.

This could become your secret. It's your hiding spot. From the chaos of the world over here at our brewery. And there's an essence there. I think that is, that touches on a value and a desire within a lot of people, especially me, I'm a busy dude. I enjoy my time off and I love taking it, even during the week.

It's like, yeah, you know, we go on our date night, we do our thing, um, to get away from the stress of the world. And I think there's something there that I would be really interested in exploring, um, for, for a brewery. That's in a little bit more of a remote location, especially what you're saying. You're like in the middle of the forest.

That has to be super cool looking and feel really neat, um, to be in. So it's like, I would explore that. Um, something I would look at for inspiration is how speakeasies are marketing their place. And I don't know if a speakeasy type bar is, uh, popular where, where you're at, but here in Las Vegas and in lots of cities throughout the United States, these speakeasy kind of bars are pretty popular, popular enough, and they kind of have this like secret ambience about them.

You have to know where they're at. Some of them get really into it where you got to like knock on the door and have a password and stuff like that. Um, like the mob museum here in Las Vegas does that. But there's lots of these speakeasy spots and you know, their whole point is that they're not visible from the outside, but they do well.

You know, there's an ambiance in there. And I would look at how these businesses are marketing, what they do and maybe use that as some inspiration. And, uh, again, I'd lean into. Uh, your location as a strength in the, what, remember we're talking about the, what you're, you're trying to paint this picture for people.

Now the, how now we're talking mechanics and I'm an operational dude. I'm about the mechanics of the program. Things I think of are signage, big, important. You don't have the advantage of having, you know, people drive by and see you the front of your business all the time. So you have to make that happen.

Like, and I think of like a sign out at the front. Turn in very visible. Um, you know, to see that from there, it's got to be a nice color. People see it lit up all that. Maybe think billboard in the road leading up or, you know, in the adjacent areas, you got to have some kind of visibility to get it right.

You don't have it natural in your location, so you've got to make it content. You have to have content with this you got to show the landmarks to get there almost like picture like a video of Somebody taking that turn didn't going down the road to where you're kind of nestled in this forest you know spot you got to show that you really have to paint that picture and so people have a Familiarity with where the spot is so that it's easier for them to find other things you can do to To feel this kind of content or like showing your map location on your, on your, uh, on your marketing collateral on your definitely have maps on your website, on your landing pages, you're pushing to, I mean, Hell you could, if you really leaned into it, you could make the map position, some kind of minimalist version of this part of the brand.

And like, wouldn't that be neat? You have like the map turn off and a little squiggly line to the map location, like part of it, you know, wouldn't that be interesting. Right. So. You have to, my point though, is that you have to show this with your content, business listings, super important. You got to have your local SEO cranked up, Google maps, being Apple, all that stuff has to be locked in and very, very, uh, Easily accessible.

Um, your content has to really make this sellable. You know, you got to accentuate the experience here because you're not going to get the easy ones that are just like, Oh yeah, I'll stop by that place. I've been meaning to, I've been seeing on the way home from work. It's like, no, you have to make this like, Oh hon, I've been seeing this really cool thing they're doing over at this brew.

We got to go check it out. You got to make it, you got to make it juicy. So content is going to be a mega part of that email list. Mega, mega important. Once you get somebody there. You have to increase the lifetime value of this customer immediately. So how you do that in part is email and building a loyalty program and sending messages to your most valuable audience segment, which are people that have already been there and experienced the brand and opted in for the email, you know, so you got to have an opt in strategy in the tap room and you have to have an email marketing strategy.

And then on the advertising front, Definitely geotargeted, you know, you've got to look at your most valuable areas of where people are going to come from to come visit your brewery and, uh, and hit those places hard, you know, you're not just gonna be able to pop a one mile geo around your spot, depending on really how remote you are, you're going to need to say, okay, where are people willing to make the Saturday trip out to have some fun?

You know, um and uh, and look at that and run your geo targeted ads that way but hopefully you've got Some ideas of brewing in your mind here with with this and hopefully that was helpful Which kind of leads us into our our next question here and i'm gonna take a sip of beer really quick So hang on

i'm drinking a radiant international amour hoppy pilsner and it's pretty good. We picked it up at the old, uh, The old, uh, te uh, bottle shop, I guess you could call it, bottle one liquor store. Fancy liquor store that has cool stuff in it, but, um, it's a good one. I like the Hoppy Pilsners, man. I'm, I'm, I want to brew one of those next.

Uh, and I'm a fan of the lighter beer, lighter craft style, so. I'm all in on that and I'm making it known because I want more of it so that I can enjoy my beer in my thirties. And, uh, you know, I'm not, I don't got anything against the hazy hop bombs. They, they're good, but, uh, I can't drink, you know, three of them and then go to work the next day, you know, so, uh, got to have some of those light beers.

Anyway, let's get back to the questions. Um, next question, tips on a, uh, marketing strategy for a seasonal, uh, beer garden. Um, Weather is the issue here. Another great question. This is why you get the gold star, Daniel. You get the gold star, Daniel, because you hit two of them out of the park. Okay. So with this, all of the things that I just said before about the remote location are applicable here.

It's about the what first, and you have to sell that. And I'm not going to beat a dead horse here with, with that too much, but your experience that you're creating with the beer garden is, is mega, mega important. And you have to show that. Excuse me. Um, with this kind of seasonal thing, you have some built in dates that you can build around with your marketing.

You have an opening date, which is really cool because it's almost like you have a grand opening every year that you get to promote, which is an advantage. And with that comes a pre announcement. You could start that content leaking that stuff out even a month in advance or more and be like, it's coming.

You know, we're so excited. We're finally going to be able to hang out outside. Then you get to announce the opening. Now we're open. And like, these are things normally you only get to do for very big events or, uh, grand openings. Right? So you get this baked in every year. You get to do this. Then on the flip side, you have the closing dates baked in.

So, Oh, take advantage of it while you can. After this day, we're going to be, we're not gonna be able to do this anymore. So come in. Get, get your, get it hyped that you're going to, you know, got to soak up the sun and the outdoor ambience while you can. So you almost have an, if you could extend those out by a month each time.

So the month in the beginning, month in the end, you have the open and the close that are now like. That's kind of what leads your programming there from a marketing perspective. Um, you know, and content is king here. You have to hype up the experience. I mentioned that. Um, you know, people that live in these places, uh, that have weather and snow and stuff.

I don't know if snow is a super factor. I imagine so if it's totally closed. You probably have some cold weather. Um, they get hyped about going to the patio. I used to live in Wisconsin. I've lived in Wisconsin for like five years. Man, when finally, when the snow stopped falling, it was like, when can we get outside because I need to be outside or I'm going to kill somebody.

So, you have this like, innate desire that you get to tap into and content is going to help you do that. Even in your pre announced content, uh, you can show the place covered in snow or whatever and like, kind of make a joke of it and be like, oh, you know, we're sitting here waiting for the better weather and like, co miserate with your audience.

So, And like that's gonna get people's attention. It's going to buy them into the emotional connection with your brand. And I would leverage that a lot. Um, other things I think of just a couple of hot takes for you is I think influencers like local influencers. It could be really fun to get involved, get them out there early and, um, and leverage them.

You know, you have this space that again, it's like, you know, you get a built in PR activity every single two to at least two times a year. Um, but local influencers may be able to help email list mega important here again, get those emails out about coming soon, uh, now open closing soon, et cetera, last weekend, that kind of stuff.

And then your programming is a mega part about this, right? So. So what goes on in that beer garden matters a lot, but like, don't do programming just for the sake of programming. You got to look at this and keep ROI in mind. So you got to look at the cost associated with running and having that programming.

That's going to increase your fixed cost on the, on the weekend or the day or whatever. And you have to look at say, well, you know, is having that here and if we put some marketing muscle behind it, Are we going to win enough to make it worth it? Uh, and if you take that mindset to how you run the marketing campaigns, I think that'll be super helpful but I do think that programming is really really important and What things can you do there?

You almost have like a a way to Positions normal stuff that you would do anyways, but now verizon's version. Uh, So we're going to do a bingo night or a trivia night, but it's beer garden trivia and it's outside and it's fun because it's outside. Um, you got, uh, uh, the opportunity to kind of use the outdoor space maybe in ways that a tap room couldn't.

So. Uh, you have, uh, maybe yoga is a part of that. Maybe, um, you know, outdoor, maybe like pickleball, if that's a thing, or badminton or volleyball. Man, in Wisconsin, uh, bringing me back to my Wisconsin days, I fell in love with that state. And one of the things that I really, really loved was that there were these bars that had sand volleyball.

And all spring and summer long, we would play sand volleyball in the bar league. And man, that's so cool. Uh, not common in other places of the country, uh, here in the United States, but that is something I would seriously consider is like, how do we have some kind of like outdoor activity that we can have the whole time?

Can we turn it into a league and get people there regularly? You know, there's breweries that are doing cool stuff. Like there's a, um, what is it? A, a disc golf putting league. I saw the other day where I've seen a couple of these now. Where you've got it where you've got some disc golf stuff. It's a it's a weekly league or a monthly league You're coming in you're slinging this if you don't know what disc golf is go look it up.

It's really easy to play and um not hard to set up you could have something like that, but the league thing I like for this and again just lean into the outdoorsy piece of this as the experience maker. Um, and I think you've got something for sure. And one more note on this, you got to keep the pressure on all season.

Once this thing opens up, your foot is on the gas pedal period the whole time. Cause this is when you're making your money, right? Like you don't have all year to make it. So make it count. Uh, now, uh, all right. Hopefully they answered your questions, Daniel. Great ones. One more to get to and another sip of beer before we do.

Okay. Um, the question is, What platform should we use for our brewery website? And that is a question we've heard many, many times. And it's a good one to always come back to, uh, and I'll give you guys some thoughts and answers. So with a website, especially for a brewery, I don't think you need to get very complicated.

I think there is a, sometimes a tendency with anybody designing a website. It's like, Oh, we got to do this thing on WordPress. It's got to be totally custom. And like, we want it to look good. We don't want it to look like it came out of like a box. So therefore we have to go custom or WordPress and like, look, I, I think WordPress is cool, but it is a lot of work.

I would avoid it for a brewery for a couple of years. Really important reasons and there are exceptions but with a WordPress website You need a special set of talent to pull that off. You need somebody who actually knows something about Development and coding and that kind of stuff So that usually comes at a premium also you if you launch a WordPress website you are now handcuffed to a developer forever because somebody has to be in there updating plugins and You know Uh, making sure your website's secure because WordPress websites get unsecure very easily by the nature of the platform.

It's an open source platform, which means that anybody can build plugins for it, which means there's lots of malicious. It's the most popular platform too. So there's lots of malicious people out there that will figure out a hack your website. You don't want that. Now, the exceptions to that are, maybe you need something custom, you want something that looks very cool and very different.

Okay, you've got to go the WordPress route, or you're doing some very cool, unique kind of programming stuff on your website that you're just not going to get inside of another platform. Uh, maybe you want to do that, right? And make that decision wisely. And WordPress can be a great platform for you. But for all those people that just need a simple five, 10 page website with information on it, your location, map, menu, tap list, all that kind of stuff, honestly, we're big fans of Squarespace for this.

We build lots of websites on Squarespace. I'm a huge. Proponent of it because it's simple as heck to edit. I can train anybody on how to use the editor. And I literally mean that it's not that hard. As long as you know, a few things, a few tricks, you're pretty good on it. Um, so we like that and it's beautiful.

You can make a nice looking website on Squarespace and nobody would ever know that it was built there. Uh, Wix is not bad. I, I, I give Wix a bad time. It's come a long way. When Wix launched, it was not nice. It was terrible for SEO. It was very difficult to deal with. Now it's better. They got a lot of cool tools.

They're very popular. I made a lot of, uh, brand deals, have some cool interaction, inner, uh, integrations. That's the beer talking guys. I missed that one. Uh, cool integrations. It's not a bad platform. Uh, it's just a little bit, I just don't like the editor that much. Like it seems like it's over complicated and the backend and some of the weird quirks with it drive me nuts.

Uh, so although it's, you, a lot of people like it, it's pretty easy. It's a lot like Squarespace. It's just a drag and drop, no coding required. Uh, And, uh, it's not bad. It's pretty affordable. Uh, the other one that's making a lot of noise right now, and literally they have been for like the last couple years, is Webflow.

And some websites on Webflow are beautiful. It's kind of this hybrid between like a Squarespace Wix and a WordPress in the sense that there's some level of customization there. In my experience, Webflow is more challenging to edit than you think. And a lot more challenging than what they sell. Like, yeah, it's super easy.

You can make, anybody can do this. And you start opening up and you're like, what the f this is so much harder. Uh, also like sharing access to Webflow websites. I look, if anybody from Webflow is listening to this, I don't know why you make it so everybody else allows you to have lots of users in, on the website.

But if you have a Webflow website, they limit the heck out of you with. It's like we, us as a marketing agency, we can't even get into the website because of like a cap on users. And it's not, it's not just, Oh, you know, a small, it's like, just, it's a pain in the butt. I don't know why they do it that way. So that annoys me about Webflow.

If you're really into Photoshop and Illustrator, Adobe Illustrator, Webflow, maybe for you, that's how they've built their platform. It's a lot like that. So anyways, my key takeaways here. Keep it simple with the website. Don't overdo it. That's why we like Squarespace a lot. Have your, um, Oh, one more really important point here is you think of your website as an information hub for your new and your existing customers.

And what that means is you're going to have event pages. You're going to have your menus, your location, your tap list, all this stuff exists on your website. So you want to try to communicate that in the clearest and best way. To your customers. So do that and build a system that's, that's simple to do that.

And think of your website as that information hub. And, uh, hopefully that leads you in the direction of, of a place where you can build your website that fits for you. And my ramblings about Webflow and Wix and WordPress have, uh, Have helped. All right. I think that's going to bring us to the end of this episode.

I'm super grateful if you made it this far, I'm grateful if you didn't make it this far either. Appreciate the watches or the listens rather every single time. And Hey, if you want your, if you're thinking of a question, don't wait, send us an email podcast to get optimized. com do it right now. Let us know what you're thinking and we'll try to get it answered on the next episode.

Um, or you can, you know, go follow us on Instagram, send us a DM, whatever. We'll take it. And, uh, if you heard something that you think is somebody else would get value from one of your team members or your colleagues, your uncle, Fred, whoever, send this episode to them, please. We'd really appreciate that for now.

I'll let you get back today. I appreciate it. So yeah.