Why a Craft Distillery Needs a Digital Marketing Strategy in 2022

SEO, Content Creation, Social Media, Google Ads, and More: Why Your Distillery Needs Digital Marketing Now

The craft spirits industry is increasingly benefitting from the growing number of craft spirit distilleries. It's a booming market as consumers gravitate to the unique taste and experience of hand-crafted spirits while those distilleries find new and creative ways to make their products stand out in a crowded market. In order to grow a successful distillery, owners and managers must take advantage of opportunities to present their business online and communicate their unique value to their target consumers. Many of today’s distillery customers want to do research before committing to a new brand or product, which has created opportunities for businesses that succeed at digital marketing tactics such as social media engagement and paid advertising.

Craft Distillery Digital Marketing

Content marketing is an important element of a comprehensive digital strategy that will improve a distillery's website search ranking and drive more potential customers to their brick-and-mortar locations. 3Eighty Marketing suggests four basic steps when writing content for a local or regional distillery website:

1. Create relevant content for search engines by covering relevant topics and including relevant keywords and phrases to the craft spirits market

2. Write with the customer in mind so your content is engaging and easily digestible

3. Include relevant images to enhance the text and make information more visually appealing

4. Provide links to external resources when applicable

Using these strategies helps optimize a website for search engines like Google and Yahoo, and makes a business seem much more credible to prospective customers. Not only that, but you're teaching individuals about whiskey, bourbon, tequila, vodka, etc. With Google Ads, craft distilleries can highlight product promotions, events, and new spirits to drive more foot traffic to their establishments. Google Ads is scalable, meaning you can build up and cut back as needed, real-time. This is a huge reason why it's a powerful digital marketing tool for any budget and for any sized business. Business owners can start with a very simple, targeted search campaign and expand over time to include more services or products, and add more campaigns as needed. Additionally, by being active on social media, distilleries can show potential customers what they’re all about and engage with those incredible people who share similar interests. Effective social media marketing begins with a compelling Facebook page, Twitter profile, and Instagram account that encourages interactions from users. Social media allows businesses to connect with fans and potential new customers while presenting their unique brands and personalities to the public. For example, a whiskey distillery may offer promotions such as exclusive deals, or even use a page as a type of social media customer service where they respond to customer inquiries quickly, as opposed to people calling into your locations. Finally, platforms such as Instagram make sharing photos and giving sneak peeks into the production process easy for small businesses that want to build a larger following and increase engagement with their community. Creating a positive digital marketing experience is vital to the success of craft distilleries in the modern marketplace. This can be difficult to achieve without the aid of a well-thought-out digital marketing strategy, but with the right combination of inbound marketing techniques, any business can be successful in the digital world of today and beyond.