Is Influencer Marketing A Fit For Breweries?

Photo by Steve Gale on Unsplash

Influencer marketing is a “hot topic” in the marketing world if there ever was one. Just pop “influencer marketing” in Google and you’ll find ads for influencer marketing platforms and articles about optimizing your influencer campaigns from major publications like Forbes, Sprout Social, and many others. But is influencer marketing really all it’s cracked up to be, especially for a very localized business like a craft brewery?

Influencer marketing can absolutely be advantageous. Leveraging the right influencer amplifies your message AND helps it resonate with the right audience, creating an almost instantaneous desire for your product. The argument is not about whether influencer marketing works, as a concept. Instead, it’s about how practical influencer marketing is or isn’t for craft breweries (and many small businesses for that matter).

Here’s the truth… MOST influencer marketing you’ll read about is totally not practical for your brewery, but there is a way to tap into this powerful marketing tactic. So, let’s point out the stuff you should not waste your time on and highlight the stuff that you’ll actually get value from.

Macro-Influencers Are Not Practical For Breweries

Most of the influencer marketing stuff you read about is macro-level. These are influencers that have an audience that spans across the country. Many influencers represent a specific niche, which makes working with them so valuable for brands interesting in having an impact in such a niche.

However, the types of brands that actually benefit from a macro-influencer need to benefit from wide/national visibility. i.e. brands that can sell their products pretty much anywhere. i.e. Not a business that sells its products to primarily a 5 mile radius around a physical location.

Micro-Influencers Are Where The Gold is At for Breweries

Micro-influencers have smaller audiences, and many times, those audience members are more engaged. A smaller, more engaged audience may be totally great for a smaller business. Working with micro-influencers tends to be a lot more budget-friendly too.

There are 2 types of micro-influencer. Type 1 has a smaller audience, but that audience still spans across a wide geographic region. Type 2 has a smaller audience too, but it’s mostly localized. Let’s call type 2 a “localized micro-influencer” for the sake of this article. It’s the localized micro-influencer that makes the most sense for your craft brewery to work with.

Think about it… Someone with a 3000-10000 follower count, where most of the followers live nearby to your brewery, AND are interested in craft beer… It doesn’t take much explaining to see how that can be valuable.

How You Can Find Localized Micro-Influencers

First, you need to find some pig feet, the tooth of a coyote, and a small stone basin… Seriously, conjuring a micro-influencer isn’t magic. It will take a little bit of elbow grease though.

One of the best methods for finding your next influencer match is doing some hashtag searching, specifically localized hashtags. If you hop into Instagram and use the search bar, you can scroll through recent posts using certain hashtags. The trick for finding someone local is to use local, niche-relevant hashtags like #lasvegasbeer or #nvbrewery.

Sometimes, finding both a beer-focused and local influencer is going to be difficult or impossible. But consider other related influencers, like food influencers. Foodfluencers are way more common and, depending on the individual, may still be an excellent fit for your brewery.

Influencers aren’t always “influencers,” sometimes they are just other businesses that have a great audience. For instance, food trucks tend to have good followings. If you have a food truck schedule, chances are that you’re sitting on an untapped influencer resource too. For that matter, your brewery is sort of an influencer too. Consider collaborating with other businesses in your area by trading posts.

Finding Micro-Influencers Might Be Getting Easier Soon…

There are platforms being created that make finding micro-influencers a lot easier. In fact, we have a podcast coming up about this topic specifically. Look out for our interview with Cyrus Nambakhsh, founder of ainfluencer.com.