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http://www.biglemoncreative.co.uk/blog/brewery-website/
The perfect recipe for creating and running a modern brewery website Posted by Owen Richards
Building the new website for Beerd’s new Craft Beer & Pizza joint in central
Bristol was a new challenge for us – a challenge we absolutely loved. I
mean, the research bit was easy (and perhaps too short), but actually
getting stuck in and building the site was really fun too.
This is one of our only recent projects where the site changed completely
throughout the wireframing and planning process, and then a little more
whilst in development. This doesn’t normally happen, so now that the dust
settled we wanted to jump in to why, and see what made the Beerd site so
special.
http://www.biglemoncreative.co.uk/blog/brewery-website/
Go BIG or go home This was one of the first things we had to learn – no one is interested in a
brewery without personality. You simply have to have something quirky and
interesting about you, or frankly, no one cares. And this is true for your
boozer customers to drink your ales and pubs to stock you.
However, thankfully (and as an ideal customer myself) the craft beer
industry is now brimming with character and attitude. Hindsight is a
beautiful thing, but it really feels like the entrepreneurial rebels of the 80s
and 90s have left school, grown up and thought “to hell with this, I want to
make beer and work for myself”.
http://www.biglemoncreative.co.uk/blog/brewery-website/
This has lead to an amazing IPA-volution (patent pending), which means
that conservative colours and beiges are totally out, and the kick-ass, punky
and rustic styles are in. See Tiny Rebel as leaders of the charge.
This doesn’t mean that the wealth of traditional ales need transition to the
new wave of craft beers flooding the UK; they just need to make sure their
heritage and personality is really shining through and visible in everything
they do.
Know your own product I’m sure this is obvious, but most brew-chasing fans see themselves as
being pretty clued up on their ales. PRO TIP: You can totally tell from that
face everyone pulls when trying a taster of a new brew.
http://www.biglemoncreative.co.uk/blog/brewery-website/
So why are breweries making it hard for fans to show their favourite beer
some digital love? Give them the VOL %, show them the colour, describe
how it tastes – hell, even throw the ingredients at them. Not literally. Fans
are craving this information and want to share it, or at the least know it.
Don’t make them starve.
All of this totally helps tell and sell the brewery’s story too and can be tied
in with why the brewery exists and what makes it special. The brand and the
product need to work together to build a story, so there’s no sense in
stopping fans sharing the story even more.
http://www.biglemoncreative.co.uk/blog/brewery-website/
Is the design up to scratch? Now, as a backend developer, you won’t often see me harking on about this,
BUT I know the incredible value of a good design. We’ve all used the
internet before and we know how crappy crap websites are – torturing fans
with a rubbish 90’s website isn’t good.
This is a similar point to the one I made above about making it easy for your
fans to buy your beers – what use is a rubbish website in this digital age? I
literally can’t see any argument for it, especially with the plethora of readily
available and free (or cheap) tools out there.
Even traditional breweries with an olde-style logo can benefit from good
design and there’s no excuse for having the same site for longer than 4
years or so. The web moves on so quick, it’s guaranteed that the old
technology is now outdated and probably doing more harm than good (feel
free to hook me up on Twitter @OwenTheTwit if you want some
advice/tips).
You want to sell beer – and your customers want to buy it It’s sometimes too easy to throw up a site with a bunch of your beers and
rave about how great they are, but is it just as easy for someone to buy
them?
http://www.biglemoncreative.co.uk/blog/brewery-website/
Picture this: I love your American Pale Ale, I’ve read everything about it, my
mouth is watering and I want to go get three sheets to the wind at 12pm,
but how the do I get my hands on this magical ale? Everything you do on the
site needs to give a digital footpath for your customers to find you, and this
will always be true. Or at least until users can consume beer digitally.
But seriously, there’s nothing more frustrating than having to try to find an
address or find out if you have my favourite ruby on tap with no avail. I
literally want to throw money at you, stop making it so damn difficult!
http://www.biglemoncreative.co.uk/blog/brewery-website/
How do you sound? Marketing experts will know the importance of a good tone of voice, but
most of us are definitely not marketing experts. This is especially true in a
small brewery where it’s all hands on deck.
We perhaps sometimes fall into the trap of making incredible products with
an awesome brand, but pair it with ridiculously out of reach messaging on
the site and social media. Whatever you say, whenever you say it, is always
tied to your brand. Every little Tweet. Every online ad. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.
I love the brewing industry right now, mainly because it’s as far away from
corporate crap as Trump is from reality (and I like to think that we’re in a
pretty similar position). I don’t ever want to see “We at Badass Brewery
value our customers and they are one of our key assets”. NO! I want “Our
customers are the sweetest god damn bunch of beer-loving loonies we’ve
ever come across!”
The worst thing you can do is distance yourselves from your customers and
hide behind a digital wall with a tone that’s not the right fit for you. Be open
and personable with them and they will show you love forever.
http://www.biglemoncreative.co.uk/blog/brewery-website/
It’s not just about the website I know, I know. This article is about building a website, but with social
media as big as it is today it’s important to bring this all in.
We had to clock on pretty quick that the average craft beer sipping Joe is
quite a social and sharing kind of Joe. Using clever web stuff, it was really
important that the site integrated Instagram and Twitter, which let Beerd
carry on the conversation beyond the site. This might seem like obvious
advice, but it’s more important than you might think. There’s nothing a beer
lover loves more than telling their friends about the beers they love. Make it
easy for them.
http://www.biglemoncreative.co.uk/blog/brewery-website/
As an extension of this, Untappd is an amazing app that’s literally just set
up for people to shout about what they’re getting half cut on – and loving! It
makes obvious sense to tie this into the site and show site users that people
are drinking your beers right now.
Fan recognition + social proof = a load of thirsty new fans.
My Two Cents If you can trawl through my ramblings and safely say you’ve addressed all
of these nuggets of pure gold then I’m pretty sure your brewery is going to
do amazingly.
http://www.biglemoncreative.co.uk/blog/brewery-website/
Look, at the end of the day it all comes down to whether your beer is damn
good. Once you have that, sorting your online presence is important, then
there’s no reason why your fans won’t keep loving you forever. Your average
target audience’s age has probably dropped significantly in the last couple
of years, and guess what – they’re all on the line and doing internet things
with their gadgets. Go to them.
To get some one to one ideas or for me to give your site a quick look over
and break down of why it’s awesome/crap, drop me a line on Twitter. We’re
also offering some great website packages for breweries right now – click
here for for prices and more info. See you on the other side, amigo.
PS. Free beer goes a long way xoxo
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