Craft beer marketing tips from Portable Bar Co.

Marketing is always a big topic here at Craft Brewing Business because without a well devised marketing plan, it is tough to differentiate your brand or pub apart from all other craft brewers in this booming industry. This week, we saw that the folks at the Portable Bar Co. posted a blog on what they are calling Four Essentials for Craft Beer Marketing.

Brewers will be happy to note that the first essential is great beer, or what the Portable Bar guys call “baked-in marketing.” It’s maybe an obvious point, but it’s extremely important.

 If you have a great product, your customer acquisition costs will go down and the long term viability of your brewery will go way up.

It’s expensive to convince people that crappy beer is good (ever wonder why Budweiser and similar brands spend so much on advertising…). If you’re making great beer, the marketing gets a whole heck of a lot easier.

Maybe to emphasize this point, you could specifically allocate your expenses for brewing experimentation or quality control under your marketing budget.

Another of the essentials listed in the post is a compelling story, and not just some of the crazy folk tales that many of you create for the beer brands themselves. Being a craft brewer is already an inherently interesting story — that of a small business trying to make a great local product and share it with  the world.

As Simon Sinek relates in his book, Start with Why, people make buying decisions based on emotion, not logic. This especially true with products like craft beer – authentically conveying your a compelling story about your beer doesn’t just sell beer, it creates loyal customers and brand advocates.

Marketing is too often boiled down into the tools —What sites should we advertise on? What’s our social media strategy? Should we sell t-shirts? — instead of the story. Focus and believe in the brand essence and message first, and then strategize the various ways to spread the word.

Speaking of spreading the word, Portable Bar recommends focusing those efforts as much as possible, specifically on the craft beer influencers, whether that’s locally or on a more national scale.

This incredible trust that we invest in people we know is something that you can leverage as a craft brewer by targeting people that are “mini-influencers.” These are people that are seen amongst friends, family and colleagues as “the craft beer guy (or gal).” People trust them to make those kinds of recommendations. These are the types of people that you can reach at tastings, festivals, on-premise promotions.

Portable Bar a leading supplier of (you guessed it) high-quality, innovative mobile and portable bars. The company is located in San Diego. Definitely check out the full marketing tips post on the company’s site, and while you are there, take a look at their portable bars. Pretty cool.