Marketing to old customers

[dmiles1983]

Hello,

I wanted to start a thread to ask for some creative ways to market to old customers.

Mass emails are affective if done correctly, but there is a fine line between offering deals and spamming. We can also do facebook promos, but I am afraid of facebook farmers liking the post instead of people in the local area.

I am talking with a client who is looking to hold some type of special events to showcase new menu items. How can he get the word out better?

Thank you,
David Miles
Lavu iPad POS

[Floor Malted]

Define old. Better yet, define the target market. Old doesn't mean anything. Is there a specific reason "old" customers are needed for this special event?

I'm not sure what a "Facebook Farmer" is. Are you sure you are not confusing "Like Farming?" I wouldn't put too much emphasis on how many likes my facebook posts get. People will "like" just about anything. However, social media can be a great marketing tool. You can pay for advertising through facebook. You can get fairly precise in who you would like to see the ad.

[dmiles1983]

Define old. Better yet, define the target market. Old doesn't mean anything. Is there a specific reason "old" customers are needed for this special event?

I'm not sure what a "Facebook Farmer" is. Are you sure you are not confusing "Like Farming?" I wouldn't put too much emphasis on how many likes my facebook posts get. People will "like" just about anything. However, social media can be a great marketing tool. You can pay for advertising through facebook. You can get fairly precise in who you would like to see the ad.

Thank you for responding. I guess "old" should be replaced with returning customers. Or even "regular" customers. They are looking for good ways to market to them. Facebook is a great way to get the word out, but paid promotions do seem to get "liked" by individuals that are not in the area and wouldn't go to the event. The precision - I've found - is not there yet.

[Floor Malted]

Thank you for responding. I guess "old" should be replaced with returning customers. Or even "regular" customers. They are looking for good ways to market to them. Facebook is a great way to get the word out, but paid promotions do seem to get "liked" by individuals that are not in the area and wouldn't go to the event. The precision - I've found - is not there yet.

I see. Are these returning customers coming to your clients brewpub/restaurant?

[MikeS]

As I understand it, what you are fishing for are ideas to keep existing customers coming back, correct?

Are you a brewpub? Production brewery with tasting room? Straight up restaurant? ("showcase new menu items"... beers? food?)

Mug clubs, trivia nights, cribbage/poker tournament, (either of those last two - offer a $50-100 gift certificate to the winner,) dart/pool league... The cynic in me says "just make good beer and they will keep coming back" but I know it takes more than that these days. I work at a packaging brewery with a tasting room and we have great success getting folks in the door with casks. Buy a few pins and a quaint beer engine and you get the opportunity to do small runs of your "regular" beers as one-offs. Make a porter? Do up a cask with cold press coffee or cinnamon or chocolate. Go to the homebrew shop and buy a bunch of different hops and showcase a cask of your IPA every Thursday night with a different variety of dry hop. Then send out an email ballyhooing your unique creation and let them know that it's a one-off and this is going to be the only time and place that they will have a chance to try this awesome beer. Make an event out of it!

Folks love love love unique/limited beers!

Here are a few recent threads on this very subject. Good ideas here:

<http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?23723>

<http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?40372>

Cheers- Mike

[dmiles1983]

As I understand it, what you are fishing for are ideas to keep existing customers coming back, correct?

Are you a brewpub? Production brewery with tasting room? Straight up restaurant? ("showcase new menu items"... beers? food?)

Mug clubs, trivia nights, cribbage/poker tournament, (either of those last two - offer a $50-100 gift certificate to the winner,) dart/pool league... The cynic in me says "just make good beer and they will keep coming back" but I know it takes more than that these days. I work at a packaging brewery with a tasting room and we have great success getting folks in the door with casks. Buy a few pins and a quaint beer engine and you get the opportunity to do small runs of your "regular" beers as one-offs. Make a porter? Do up a cask with cold press coffee or cinnamon or chocolate. Go to the homebrew shop and buy a bunch of different hops and showcase a cask of your IPA every Thursday night with a different variety of dry hop. Then send out an email ballyhooing your unique creation and let them know that it's a one-off and this is going to be the only time and place that they will have a chance to try this awesome beer. Make an event out of it!

Folks love love love unique/limited beers!

Here are a few recent threads on this very subject. Good ideas here:

<http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?23723>

<http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?40372>

Cheers- Mike

Hi Mike,

This is great. Thank you. I think the trivia idea is great. Geeks who drink or the Exchange is a fun way to bring in customers for a night, then showcase some new products. I know what you mean about "make good beer and they will keep coming back." That's definitely the best way to go!!! Quality products = loyal customers.

I will check out the discussions you listed and get some good ideas. Thanks for taking the time to post those!

[headspace]

Thank you for responding. I guess "old" should be replaced with returning customers. Or even "regular" customers. They are looking for good ways to market to them. Facebook is a great way to get the word out, but paid promotions do seem to get "liked" by individuals that are not in the area and wouldn't go to the event. The precision - I've found - is not there yet.

I would echo the fact that Facebook is very effective for marketing to both old and new customers. With regard to targeting, have you tried fine tuning the demographic and location settings?

You can easily promote a post to only folks in your immediate area (or any specific area you choose) whether you choose a list of cities or a radius (I prefer the latter), you will make sure your paid promotion budget only reaches those in the area you choose.

Aside from paid advertising on Facebook, it shouldn't matter if you get likes from people out of your area. The total number of likes each post receives, actually plays into the algorithmic factors which keep your post visible for as long as possible. In other words, definitely add Facebook into your marketing regime.

[mashpaddled]

You can avoid a lot of the paid advertising on Facebook if you post good content that people will like and share. The more content is shared and liked the more likely it is to show up in the top stories feed (for people who do not use most recent feed) without having to pay anything for it. Also think about using different social media channels for different purposes. Facebook is great for advertising events but as stated above if you post too frequently people will take you out of their feed or just gloss over your posts. Twitter is far better for posting your little quips and pictures. Let people choose which channels they want to follow.

Something you can do is harvest ideas directly from the mouths of your regular customers. Train your taproom staff, especially at the bar, to ask people if it is their first time. If it's the first time the staff should offer to explain the beers. If they are repeat customers then the staff should circle back around after they get a beer and thank them for returning and ask what those customers would like to see on their next visit. Make sure the ideas are logged.

[wlw33]

Ha! So I'm glad I read the other posts because I was about to write a short novel on targeting an older audience lol.

Brand loyalty when it comes to craft beer is kind of like mixing oil and water because of the very nature of the craft beer enthusiast - namely the fact that they rarely stick to any one brand because they enjoy a lot of variety. It's the reason the app 'untapped' is so popular. People actually go out of their way to tell the world about the different brands/varieties of beer they've tried. The first thing you need to realize is that you'll very rarely have the brand loyalty that the macro's have - where people come in each week and pick up a case of your beer., so keep your expectations realistic.

Still, there are a number of ways to improve the frequency of your customer's patronizing your establishment. Here's a few ideas:

1) Facebook isn't as nearly as effective from a commercial standpoint as people think (especially over the long term)...why, because the average craft beer enthusiast has already 'liked' almost every brewery within a 50 mile radius. It means their newsfeed is crammed full with the latest brewery happenings. If you're lucky, they'll spend a second or two reading your ad latest post, so keep them short and sweet with something that grabs their attention.

2) While short and sweet is good, catching them by surprise is better. There are some true masters of marketing out there when it comes to facebook. I've liked hundreds of things since opening my account, yet I typically click on the same peoples articles/information over and over(the loyalty you're looking for). Usually, it's because their posts come completely out of left field - yet tie it back into their product. You have to be creative with your posts. If you just post 'Event X at the Brewery!' every week, people will just gloss over them. But if you do something like 'Bigfoot wins cornhole tournament', you'll have a better opportunity to tell people more about whatever message you want. An important note is that whatever you come up with - it just can't be outlandish for the sake of grabbing people's attention because they'll eventually lose interest. In the above example, maybe you have a guy in a bigfoot costume that actually plays in a cornhole tournament at your brewery.

3) Here's a pearl of wisdom for you when it comes to social media. Your customer's don't follow you, you follow them. This is the #1 best way to build customer loyalty. Everyone that comes into your brewery should end up being your friend on facebook - not your company's friend. Interacting with them through facebook by acknowledging their posts - commenting on their pages - etc is the number one way to build brand loyalty. They 'like' your company as a show of support for the relationship they've setup with you and your company - not so they can hear about the latest events. Talk to every person that comes in. Ask and take a genuine interest in their opinion's on your brewery and beer and just craft brew in general. Never talk bad about the competition. The legwork that you put in when interacting with your customers will go 10x as far as your company page. When they friend you on facebook, I guarantee they'll follow your personal posts 10x more than your company page's posts. It's a blessing and a curse, because you have to remember with every post you make, you have the ability to destroy that relationship - so avoid posts on things that bring out strong emotions in people - like religion, politics, etc.

4) Keep the novelty. I mentioned earlier that craft beer enthusiasts are harder than most to build brand loyatlty with because they love variety. So provide them with that variety. Everyone's touting 'our flagship is..blah, blah, blah'. The most popular brewery in my area is a small batch brewery that has about 30 different beers on tap at any time. They never have the same beer menu. It's a nightmare when it comes to printing beer menus, but people are forever seeing the brewery reinvented. It never loses it's novelty because it's never the same. Special releases, small batches, seasonal brews should be your flagship brew - then you can tie that into your company's posts and have people take a genuine interest in hearing about your latest off the wall brew.

That's all I got off the top of my head. Hope it helps

~Jeff
BreweryBusinessPlan.com

Awesome post. This is how we gear our social media stuff. Some people add me as a friend on FB (I can't keep track of everyone who comes in to add them personally) and definitely do not post controversial stuff when you have a customer base following you. I also get a lot of friend requests on untappd. It may seem tacky to check in your own beer but if you do it enough, people will see your checkins and recognize your name and want to add you. Then you can "toast" and comment on each other's checkins. Can't lose. Social media is a god damn blessing, for all its faults. We have spent exactly $0 on advertising. That's something you can do when you have the dough and want to expand. We're a nano. We have no dough!