Will ‘Growth Marketing’ Save Your Beverage Business?

To say it’s been a challenging couple months for craft beverage would be an understatement. The industry is maturing. Decreases in production. Flat market share. Closures and consolidations. Tariffs on inputs and outputs. Rising prices and lower margins. Alternatives and changing drinker behavior…

It’s a lot. We get it. And you’re in our thoughts during this weird time. If there’s anything the team at Market Your Craft can do to help, don’t hesitate to ask. Everyone’s busy trying to keep the lights on and ramp up for the summer selling season, but we’ll always make time for the conversation.

As marketers we like to keep up with all the latest technology, trends, and tactics to help beverage producers drive traffic, build engagement, and capture new sales. It’s what we’ve been doing for 8 years as a company and collectively for our entire professional lives. Which is why we were surprised last fall when we came across a new marketing term: growth marketing. Advertising, marketing, and public relations outfits were repositioning themselves to be more holistic solutions providers. Proposals started offering comprehensive service packages to help brands struggling with business development efforts. The lines were being blurred between Sales, Marketing, and Operations in order to create efficiencies for companies trying to do more with less. A renewed sense of customer focus reminded us that without them, we are marketing to ourselves. And the measures of success were rooted in quantifiable sales growth versus softer awareness and engagement metrics.

Objectively, this is a great approach! No one would argue those things aren’t important. But what is it about this point in time that warrants rebranding marketing and sales best practices as a new service offering for agencies? Clients asked us to help them evaluate proposals like this and what we found is a slightly more technical, more thorough version of what we as marketers have been practicing since the 90’s – integrated marketing communications. It’s a holistic approach to marketing that takes all departments, all inputs, and all outputs into consideration when planning strategically for growth. The difference between yesterday’s integrated marketing pitches and today’s growth marketing proposals is data accessibility and value. Today, tracking and preference data pre-purchase (customer journey); conversion/sales funnel data; and post-purchase [lifetime] value are far more straightforward to calculate (notice we didn’t use the word ‘easy’ – it’s rarely easy!).

You and your team may have received similar proposals to help with sales development. Or you’ve read in the trade pubs about growth marketing, data-driven decision-making, or other catchphrases and found yourself scratching your head on where to start. Our team wants to help yours identify and prioritize the components of a high-performing growth marketing strategy. We’re happy to present those ideas in a webinar titled, ‘Will Growth Marketing Save Your Beverage Business,’ hosted by Andrew Coplon and Craft Beer Professionals. And you don’t have to be a brewer to watch – we hope our talk is valuable to all areas of craft beverage. Presentation attendees have access to 15 Complimentary Guides, with proven tools to attract new drinkers, build momentum and capture new sales in this environment.

Will ‘Growth Marketing’ Save Your Beverage Business?

When: Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at 4:00PM EDT
Streaming on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKAHijX8eDE
Summary: In the past, breweries doubled down on innovation, tasting room expansion, and winning new points of distribution to drive sales. Then there was the era of ‘eventing,’ where brewers scrambled to build brand awareness at festivals, store demos, and guerilla sampling. A myopic focus on social media followed, ushering in influencers and engagement metrics. Which leads us to today and the next big thing for breweries: growth marketing.

But what is it and will it help get us out of the mess we’re in right now?

What we’ve found may surprise you: the idea is not new, and it’s completely within your reach to execute. Your team just needs to take a bottom-up approach to capturing new sales:

• Steady Your Foundation
• Activate Your Markets
• Engage Your Audience
• Unlock Sales Channels
• Regionalize And Localize
• Integrate And Scale

The need for strategic, targeted sales is more important now than ever. Our goal is for brewery owners and managers to understand the components of growth marketing and where to prioritize time and resources. Presentation attendees have access to our selection of downloadable Guides, with techniques to keep fans engaged and proven tools to fuel excitement around your unique story.

Tomorrow’s presentation is hosted by Craft Beer Professionals and their partners. Craft Beer Professionals launched in 2017 simply as a Facebook group bringing together those working in the industry throughout the United States. Though craft beer is a highly collaborative industry, few opportunities existed for peer sharing and learning. In the three years that followed, CBP grew from a community forum into a rich educational resource serving the entirety of the craft beer community including the myriad of positions within a brewery and the support industries such as ingredient suppliers, equipment manufacturers and professional services. With an engaged online audience, CBP evolved to develop original and critical content to help the industry grow. Through virtual conferences, podcasts, videos and more, CBP has positioned itself as an industry leader while keeping resources 100% accessible to all at no cost.

Looking forward to seeing you online tomorrow at 4:00PM EDT. If you’re not able to attend but want to make sure to get your questions answered, simply send us a note at scott@marketyourcraft.com or schedule time with one of our team members.

MailChimp archive:
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