The Spirit of CraftCellr

Did you know we help our partners sell more than craft beer?…

Our vision is to support all crafts and artisan flavors. Anything dark, amber, tart, hoppy, or oaky. Served in a pint, neat, or on the rocks.

SPIRITS

Sure, we are known for craft beer, but we recently had our first success with Dry County’s first spirits release: Old-Fashioned 70 proof pre-ready cocktail. Dry County is one of the first Georgia Breweries to take advantage of new state laws allowing it to sell both beer and liquor, which is great for all us beer and bourbon lovers. The results of Dry County’s first spirits launch? Sold out online and in the taproom!

CIDER

Crisp, sweet, and refreshing doesn’t sound like your normal beer. That’s because its beer’s distant cousin: Cider. CraftCellr also partners with cideries, such as Atlanta’s first cidery, Urban Tree. By utilizing our mobile platform, Urban Tree was able to efficiently sell its limited-releases direct to consumer, while giving CraftCellr’s community of beer geeks an introduction to a new craft beverage category.

BOTTLE SHOPS

Why not just cover all the craft beverage bases by working with artisan bottle shops too…. Check. The Maltidudes at Maltitude Bottle Shop in Columbus Georgia drive sales and awareness of exciting new product drops from their distributors via CraftCellr. Maltitude customers can sign up to receive sms notifications about new drops and get first right of refusal to buy beer, wine, and spirits for pick up at the shop.

Basically the story goes: if your product is aged in a barrel, comes from a tree, has bubbles, or is served best with ice, CraftCellr can help you connect with your customers and maximize your direct to consumer revenues.

*Photo by Adam Wilson on Unsplash

Want to give CraftCellr a test run?  Sign up now for free!

2018: By The Numbers

Happy New Year everyone!  We took a few moments to pull some high level stats about the top performers on CraftCellr in 2018.  We hope you find some value in these results and we look forward to a big 2019. Cheers!

49 total beer styles were offered on CraftCellr in 2018.  These 10 styles drove the most amount of sales:

1. Double IPA

2. New England IPA

3. Berliner Weisse

4. American Pale Ale

5. Imperial Stout

6. IPA

7. Imperial Milk Stout

8. Sour Ale

9. Saison

10. Oatmeal Stout

9 different styles of packaging were offered on CraftCellr in 2018.  These 5 styles drove the most amount of sales:

1. 4-Pack 16oz Cans

2. 500ml Bottle

3. 750ml Bottle

4. 4-Pack 12oz Cans

5. 22oz Bomber

4 different offer types were utilized on CraftCellr in 2018.  We broke down the percentage of total revenue generated by each type:

1. Beer Release Pre-Sales:  73%

2. Bundled Offers:  12%

3. Memberships:  11%

4. Events:  4%

Want to give CraftCellr a test run?  Sign up now for free!

Is Technology The Future of Direct Sales?

Brewbound seems to think so! Chris Furnari and Justin Kendall discuss the industry trend of direct to consumer sales after an interview with Dan Kanery of Harpoon Brewing on Brewbound’s new podcast. Their conclusion? Technology is the future:

"Direct sales are here to stay...  The breweries that figure out how to do it effectively, whether there is some sort of technological advancements through an app that allows you to reserve your beer and come pick it up...  Those are the ones that are really going to nail it.  If you can take advantage of technology to help me get my beer quicker, I’m all for it!"

The future is now! CraftCellr has pioneered technology that allows breweries to sell beer direct to consumer via our turnkey mobile platform. Breweries like Creature Comforts, Monday Night, Three Taverns, and Pontoon Brewing are all utilizing CraftCellr to create an amazing consumer experience and of course… sell more beer.

You can check out the full Brewbound podcast here (discussion of direct sales happens with 2:40 left in the podcast).

Perfecting The Art Of The Presale With Pontoon Brewing

Want to know the secret formula to crushing beer release presales on CraftCellr?  We do too!  So we went directly to one of our experts: Sean O'Keefe of Pontoon Brewing.  We'll sit and listen, while Sean spreads the knowledge...

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Tell A Story

With every beer we create for our Serious Series, we try to do two things: tell a story and make it fun. Before you can successfully launch a presale, you need to make sure all the components of your release are complete.  The goal is to have all the components work together to tell the consumer a fun and compelling story about why they can't live without this beer.

Label Art

Marketing

Release Description

Details & Instructions

Create A Timeline

At Pontoon, we shoot to launch our presales 10-14 days prior to the release date. We have created a repeatable process that keeps us on target and gives us enough time to maximize our sales:

1. Teaser: The week leading up to our presale launch, we will tease our upcoming release on social. Post a picture of the ingredients, a sneak peek of the label art, or create a funny meme. Make sure to let consumers know what day and time pre-sales will go live.

2. Launch: 10-14 days prior to release day, we launch our presales. Make sure to hit up all your marketing channels: social, email, Reddit, and any beer communities you belong to. Don't forget to post the URL! You will miss out on sales if you don't.

3. Remind: About 5-7 days into the presale, we use our social channels to remind our consumers about the release. Many social channels, like Facebook, limit your exposure to followers, so don't expect to sell out off one round of posts.

4. Last Chance/Sold Out: The day prior to the release, we send out one more post to our social channels. If there are a few 4-packs left, we send out last chance messaging. If the release is sold out, we let our consumers know there will be a limited supply for walk-in taproom sales the next day.

Allocate Your Inventory

We typically start with a 50/50 split. 50% on CraftCellr and 50% reserved for taproom sales. Then we adjust up or down based on beer style, previous sales, and demand. At this point, we have a good understanding of when we should place more on CraftCellr to maximize our sales.

Pro Tip: Keep your CraftCellr inventory and taproom inventory separate and clearly marked.  Always keep a small reserve of beer in case something gets damaged or beer mysteriously walks away on you.

Prepare Your Taproom

CraftCellr makes the process of verifying consumer purchases and pick up very simple with its mobile platform. I would recommend you do the following to ensure your staff is trained and the consumer knows what to do:

1. Train your taproom staff about the CraftCellr mobile flow and print out and laminate instructions for behind the bar on how to verify a consumers purchase.

2. Make sure your staff marks each offer as claimed on the consumer's phone, so you will have an accurate accounting of who has picked up their beer.

3. Place signage near the pick up location reminding consumers of the URL and steps necessary for claiming their beer with their phone.

4. Create additional signage promoting sign ups for CraftCellr. It's a great way to capture consumer information and create a return visit.

If you made it this far, thanks for the read!  Cheers,

Sean O'Keefe - Pontoon Brewing

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4 Tips For Building Your Brewery's Email List

With new breweries popping up all over the place, its more important than ever to ensure you are building your email list and staying in constant communication with your consumers.  Here are 4 simple tactics for capturing email addresses from your consumers:

1. Place an information gate on your wifi.

Everyone loves free wifi.  So why not use it to your advantage?  With services like SocialWifi, you can ask consumers to enter their email address or connect with their social accounts in order to login to your wifi.  In addition to capturing your consumer's information, you can access demographic information, serve up discounts or special offers, trigger automated email marketing campaigns, collect customer reviews, and so much more. 

2.  Run social media giveaways.

The brewery tee is the new concert tee.  Run a few simple giveaways online, asking for consumers to submit their email for entry and watch the submissions roll in.  In the startup world, swag is currency.  You'd be amazed what people will do for a free t-shirt.  Just make sure your gear is quality and the offer is enticing.

3. Ask for newsletter opt-ins through your POS.

Are you asking for consumers to opt-in for newsletter or marketing communications through your POS?  Most major POS technologies like Square and Revel have turnkey solutions for asking for email opt-ins at checkout.  Make sure to turn on these services and let the POS systems do the work for you.

4. Use CraftCellr for bottle and can releases.

These days convenience is king and queen.  One-click purchasing on Amazon?  Yes please.  With CraftCellr's mobile platform, you can create an amazing consumer experience for all your beer releases.  Allow consumers to pre-order their beer and pick it up on their own terms.  Once consumers are subscribed to CraftCellr, you can easily download their information into a CSV file and import it into your CRM platform.