Section 1 – About Market Your Craft
What does Market Your Craft do? Market Your Craft is a strategic marketing communications firm built exclusively for beverage brands. We help producers tell a clear brand story and become more discoverable through brand strategy, content, public relations, email, social media, and AI search visibility. Our goal is to hand your internal team the tools to drive traffic, build engagement, and capture sales.
Does Market Your Craft only work with alcohol brands? No. We work across the full beverage spectrum: beer, wine, spirits, RTDs and hard seltzers, plus non-alcoholic and functional beverages, wellness and energy drinks, and specialty coffee and tea. The fundamentals of brand storytelling translate across every category; what changes is the audience, the regulatory landscape, and the occasion that prompts action.
Do I need a specialized beverage marketing firm, or can a general agency handle it? A general agency can execute tactics, but beverage is a culture, a regulatory environment, and a set of distribution realities that take years to learn. We’ve stood on taproom floors, walked vineyard rows, and worked hand-in-hand with founders, so we start from fluency instead of a learning curve. That means less time spent explaining your world and more spent growing your brand in it.
Do you work with pre-launch or startup beverage brands? Yes. Whether you’re months from your first release or already on shelves, we start with the fundamental building blocks of a strong brand story and scale the work to fit your stage and budget. Early-stage producers often get the most leverage from this work, because the story you build now shapes everything that follows.
How does big-brand experience translate to a brand my size? Both established and growing brands struggle to engage fans and attract new customers, so we start every engagement with the same fundamentals – a clearly articulated brand story – then scale the strategy to what’s most effective and affordable for you. Brands of any size can see the immediate and long-term value of their marketing spend.
Do you only do beverage marketing, or do you work in other industries too? Beverage is where our fluency runs deepest. That said, the building blocks of brand storytelling apply to almost any business, so if your industry is adjacent or your story is compelling, we’re happy to explore the fit.
Where are you based, and do you work with brands outside your region? We’re based in Denver and do our best work across North America, coast to coast. Members of Market Your Craft are available for in-person and virtual client meetings, workshops and launch events as dictated by the project. Understanding how the brand performs (and is perceived) in key geographies is vital to designing high-performing efforts for those markets. This function best falls under consumer insights and research – two areas that help inform growth strategies and targeted marketing efforts. Necessary business travel will be built into the project plan at the start of the engagement.
Section 2 – AI Search & Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
How do I tell my beverage brand’s story in a way that stands out? Start with what’s true and specific to you – the founder’s reason for starting, the decision behind the flagship product, the community you’re built for – not the industry’s worn-out storylines. A strong brand story leads with the human before the product, and it becomes the foundation everything else is built on: your website, your packaging, your press, and how AI describes you. Helping producers find and tell that story is the core of what we do.
What is the BRAND VIBE methodology? BRAND VIBE is our proprietary approach to unlocking the story trapped inside your liquid and carrying it consistently across every touchpoint – your packaging, your tasting room, your website, and your marketing. Rather than starting with tactics, it starts with who you are and why a drinker should care, then builds outward so you don’t look like every other producer on the shelf. We’ve built it into a series of Workshops and Workbooks your team can work through directly.
How do I figure out who my customers actually are? Start with the data you already have – sales patterns, tasting-room observations, and how people behave on your website and social channels – and use it to build a clear picture of your core drinker. Most producers think they’re for everyone, which is exactly why their marketing doesn’t connect with anyone in particular. Knowing who you’re really for sharpens every message, channel, and dollar that follows. Our Persona Snapshot Session is built to get you there quickly.
How do I outsmart bigger competitors on a smaller budget? You won’t outspend a conglomerate, so the goal is to out-position one. That starts with understanding exactly how your competitors show up: where they’re strong, where they’re generic, and where there’s an opening you can own with a sharper story and a tighter focus on your core drinker. A clear-eyed competitive audit turns their size into your opportunity by showing you the lanes they’ve left empty.
Section 3 – What We Do
What services does Market Your Craft offer? We provide brand strategy, content marketing, public relations, email and social media strategy, award submissions, and AI search visibility (AEO): the full communications toolkit a beverage brand needs to grow. Every engagement starts with your brand story and scales to the mix that’s most effective for your stage and budget. We also publish self-serve Guides for producers who want to start on their own.
How do I write a press release for a new beer, wine, or spirit release? Lead with the genuinely newsworthy angle, not a product description, and write it for the journalist who has to decide whether it’s worth their readers’ time. A strong release pairs a clear hook with verifiable detail and a boilerplate that works as a brand snapshot. A consistent cadence of earned press is also one of the signals AI treats as authoritative, so it does double duty.
What should a craft beverage email strategy include? At minimum: a reliable way to grow your list, a welcome sequence that introduces your brand story, and a consistent cadence that mixes news, events, and releases without wearing out your audience. Email is the one channel you actually own – no algorithm decides who sees it – which makes it one of the highest-return tools a producer has. Driving traffic through email also fuels more reviews, more social activity, and more of the signals that make your brand discoverable. Our Email Guide walks through it step by step.
How do I build a social media presence for my beverage brand? Pick the one or two platforms where your drinkers actually spend time and commit to them, rather than spreading yourself thin across every network. Lead with content that’s visual, human, and worth engaging with – the people behind the liquid, the moments your product belongs in – not a feed of promotions. Consistency beats volume, and a simple monthly plan keeps you from posting in fits and starts. Our Social Guide gives you a framework to work from.
How do I plan events that actually drive traffic to my taproom? Start with the outcome you want – new faces, repeat visits, a sales bump on a slow night – and choose events that serve it, rather than holding events for their own sake. The strongest activations give people a genuine reason to show up and a reason to come back, then get documented thoroughly so they keep working for you in search and AI long after the night ends. Our Events Guide covers how to choose, run, and measure them.
How do I market a non-alcoholic or functional beverage brand? The story-first fundamentals are the same, but the occasion and the audience shift: non-alcoholic and functional buyers are often choosing your product for what it lets them do, not only how it tastes. The winning brands lead with that benefit and the moment it serves, while staying clear of unsubstantiated health claims. We help you find the line between a compelling benefit and a regulatory risk.
How do I sell my beverage directly to consumers online? Direct-to-consumer lets you own the relationship and the margin, but it comes with real considerations – shipping rules vary by state and product, and your storefront has to make buying genuinely easy. The brands that succeed treat their online store as an extension of the tasting-room experience, not an afterthought bolted onto the website. We help producers assess their DTC readiness and build a storefront that actually converts.
How do I submit my beverage for industry awards? Start by identifying exactly what the judges are scoring, then lead your submission with your most compelling, verifiable differentiator and match the tone to the prestige of the award. A well-built submission is as much a strategic exercise as a creative one. We help producers choose the right competitions and make the strongest possible case in each.
How do I protect my beverage brand during a product recall or PR crisis? The brands that come through a crisis intact are the ones that move fast, communicate transparently, and have a plan before they need it. We help producers build crisis-communications protocols ahead of time and manage live situations: from the first statement to customer-service responses to press handling. For example, we led crisis communications for a recall at a top 5 global craft brewer, issuing a press release resulting in 1B reach, 1,400 articles, and 90% positive sentiment.
Section 4 – AI & AI Search
How do I get my craft beverage brand to show up in AI search results like ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews? AI tools recommend brands they find credible, relevant, and well-documented, and they pull from sources that answer specific questions directly. The fastest gains come from a structured FAQ page, richly documented event and location listings, a steady cadence of third-party press and reviews, and a brand story told clearly in your own voice on your own channels. We call this Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and it builds directly on traditional SEO fundamentals.
What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and does my beverage brand need it? Answer Engine Optimization is the practice of making your brand the answer AI gives when a drinker asks for a recommendation. When someone asks ChatGPT or Gemini for “the best winery near me,” the brands that appear aren’t paying for placement – they’re the ones AI has determined are credible and well-documented online. If your customers are starting their search with an AI assistant, your brand needs to be discoverable there.
Should I be using AI in my beverage marketing at all? Used well, AI can take routine marketing work off your team’s plate – drafting, organizing, planning – so the people behind your brand can focus on the human moments that make a tasting room worth visiting. Used carelessly, it produces generic content that makes you sound like everyone else, which is the opposite of what good marketing does. Our position is to use it judiciously: as a tool that supports your team and your story, never a replacement for either. Our AI Workshop and our Responsible AI Use statement lay out how we think about it.
Do you use AI to create our marketing content? Strategy, judgment, and brand voice are human-led; AI assists with organization and drafting under our direction, and every piece is fact-checked before it reaches you. The strategic frameworks and methodologies behind your work originate with Market Your Craft. Please see our statement of Responsible AI Use.
Section 5 – Working Together
Are you accepting new clients? Yes, we’re actively engaged with a number of clients and take on new ones selectively to protect the quality of every engagement. We work with multiple brands at once, sometimes in the same category, and your proprietary information and assets are never shared outside your project team. The best next step is a short video call to see how we can help.
How do I start a conversation about working together? Reach out and tell us about your brand – we’re always quick to audit your current marketing and identify the opportunities that will set you apart from your peers. Start with a video call and we’ll take it from there. Email scott@marketyourcraft.com or call (224) 999-0547.
How much does it cost to hire a marketing firm for a craft beverage brand? Engagements are priced by the time invested and resources used – billed hourly, per project, or on retainer – and scoped to the budget realities of a small or growing producer. If you’d rather start on your own, many of our Guides can be purchased and downloaded individually. Every price is agreed upon upfront, with any third-party or pass-through costs flagged before the work begins.
Can I hire you for a single project, or only on retainer? Either. We work hourly, per project, or on retainer, depending on what the work calls for and what fits your budget. Many producers start with a single project and move to an ongoing relationship once they see the value; others begin entirely on their own with our Guides and Workshops.
Do you offer Guides and Workshops I can use on my own? Yes. Alongside hands-on engagements, we publish a library of do-it-yourself Guides and Workshops covering storytelling, email, social, events, press, AI search, and more. They’re built for producers who want to build the skills in-house and move at their own pace, and they map to the same methodology we’d use working alongside you.
Who is the owner of the business? Scott Kolbe filed for an LLC with the DBA of Market Your Craft in February 2018.
Do you have people working with/for you? Our virtual organization is easily scaled to meet the needs of any client, established or growing. In most cases, those resources assigned to your project will have a 1099 relationship with Scott Kolbe unless we decide that a direct relationship is more beneficial. If we’re not the right partner for the project, we’re happy to connect you with a specialized marketing services provider that better matches your needs.
Will any of my brand’s information be shared with other businesses or competitors? The information you share about your brand and business is important to us. Once we have entered into an engagement, any details shared will be covered by a standard non-disclosure agreement for the duration of the engagement.
Is working for multiple brands in the same industry considered a conflict of interest? We want our clients to have the confidence their intellectual property, sales, operational processes and other information will be kept confidential for the length of the relationship. All signed engagements follow standard terms and conditions and include a non-disclosure statement.
How will we be invoiced and billed? What are the terms of payment, etc.? Invoicing, billing process and payment terms will be agreed upon at the start of each engagement. Many of our Guides can be purchased and downloaded using a secure checkout process. Other work may start with formal acceptance of an estimate and finish with an invoice, usually payable Net 30 by ACH, PayPal or check.
Is your site secure? Is my information safe? We have a SHA-2 level SSL certificate issued by GoDaddy.com and second-level trustmark certification through McAfee for marketyourcraft.com. Issued to individual websites, this level of certification ensures that any personal information like email and credit card information is only captured using 2048-bit encryption.
Do you have any references that we can contact prior to doing business with you? We are happy to provide the contact information of current and past clients with their permission. Together we’ve worked for some of the most iconic beverage brands, including:
