By Arryved

A true point of service empowers your brand with a seamless experience for both your guests and your business, on-premise and online. Your guests keep the same tab open as they move through your space; their bartender doesn’t have to hold onto their credit card; they can order anywhere, anytime. You have the ability to make service adjustments based on the needs of the day; robust data and insights drive informed growth decisions; your sales channels are all centralized in one system. 

Built to Flex

Tuesday’s lunch, Friday’s happy hour and the volume that results from events like trivia night create vastly different experiences. Flexibility for their unique service needs are key—that means making sure every tab is accessible from anywhere, without holding your guest’s card behind the bar. This omni-accessibility gives servers and managers the freedom to adjust their service model on the fly.

Give your servers and bartenders the chance to be the educated and product-focused people you hired. Imagine a guest sitting at a table, talking to their server about your beer selection, and while still talking, the server enters a few tasters into the POS. A runner quietly drops them at the table. The conversation continues, uninterrupted, and your guest is left educated and wowed. 

Customers will spend more if they’re engaged and able to get excellent service anywhere, anytime. With a flexible point of sale, that’s easy to do.

Operations 

Data matters—a lot—and if you can’t easily access it then you can’t know what’s working… and what’s not. A comprehensive POS system gives decision-makers access to data on the fly, providing immediate insight to sales numbers and labor costs. They can easily answer questions like: What sizes are customers buying, by type of beverage? Are half-pours of a certain style selling like hotcakes? Should I cut the afternoon server? Insightful data will drive optimizations in staffing, production, marketing, and distribution.

Whether you’re a new or veteran owner, you need a system that’s going to scale and allow you to add on functionality like a loyalty program, digital menu boards, and time tracking tools without eating away at your margins. You want a flexible system that will adapt as you grow, give you the tools to do so and provide the data you need to make informed decisions about that growth.

Looking To The Future

Contactless payments and ordering, whether online, in an app, or via tap and pay technology, is the next frontier for our industry. Contactless payment lets us all keep our hands to ourselves. Contactless ordering gives the guest the ability to control their experience and, as has become vital during the pandemic, offers additional revenue streams for your business to sell beverages and merch to-go.

A fully integrated online ordering platform allows you to add that additional sales channel, with minimal effort. All your inventory syncs from the same place, eliminating the need to update menus in multiple systems; all online orders print to a centralized printer, so staff can monitor orders coming from one place; all sales reports aggregate on the same dashboard, providing a comprehensive view of your business.

Bottom line: If you can improve your efficiency, customers will be delighted and you will sell more. It’s worth taking the time to get something better.

You can join Arryved at the Sell More Beer Virtual Summit on Monday, Nov. 9 at 10am when they kick off Julia Herz’s session – How to Stay Afloat & Ahead in a Time of Disruption & Opportunity.  For a full Agenda, please click here.

The next Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference will take place in February 2020 in St. Pete/Clearwater, Florida.

The conference is scheduled for February 4-6 and will be located at the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront. The Hilton is located 15 minutes from the Tampa International Airport, with direct flights to cities including Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Asheville, Milwaukee, Syracuse and even Atlantic City.  St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport is also a nearby option with 59 non-stop flights on Allegiant Air.

We plan to continue growing our agenda based on your feedback and are excited for our fourth conference.  Nationally-recognized industry experts will come to St. Pete to offer educational and applicable information so you can take home ideas to grow your beer business!  To keep apprised on agenda updates, please enter your email in the Stay Updated box to the right.

Thank you to Visit St. Pete/Clearwater for taking the lead role in making it possible to bring the conference to St. Pete. We will be announcing other local partners in the coming months.

Click here to register for the best price today!

In an industry like craft beer, where some regions have many, many options, growth is crucial. New competitors are popping up every day, so it’s important that you remain top of mind with consumers. But how do you do that?

Nearly every brewery uses social media and email, but those are designed more for maintaining communication with people who already know you – followers or subscribers – rather than creating completely new awareness. Social media algorithm changes have made it very difficult to acquire new followers organically. They all want you to run paid campaigns and have set up the algorithms to force you to do if you want big increases in followers. Email is only useful if people already subscribe.

So how do you reach new people who haven’t previously heard of you?

The best ways I’ve found to increase awareness at scale is through media relations and influencer marketing.

Media relations took a back seat to social media over the past few years, but I’m now seeing a resurgence in breweries wanting media coverage, whether it’s from local publications or national ones like Beer Advocate, Good Beer Hunting, and Hop Culture. Breweries are seeing value from independent third parties talking about them, but most importantly, publications and news sites have large followings. This is especially true when you factor in their social media channels. Media coverage helps you reach entirely new groups of people.

Influencers are similar. They can be an independent third party to recommend you and provide further validation, and they have followers who may not already be following you.

But how do you successfully secure media coverage and run an influencer program?

I’ll be speaking about those topics next Wednesday, March 27, at the Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference in a breakout session from 2:50-3:50PM.  Join the session to learn:

• Reasons to run an influencer program

• How to identify influencers

• How to run an influencer program

• The difference between influencers and ambassadors

• What’s needed to secure media coverage

• Media pitching tips

Hope to see you there, and I’m looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible in Boise!

This post was written and submitted by our conference speaker Kevin York, who is the president of Kevin York Communications, a Boston-area marketing communications agency that focuses on craft alcohol clients.  Find him on Facebook and Instagram and catch his session, Increase Awareness Through Media Relations and Influencer Marketing, at 2:50 PM on Wednesday, March 27.

It is often said that as a nation we have more that unites us than divides us. Most of us at the Beer Tourism and Marketing Conference would agree. No matter our background or difference of opinions, we all share the same love for an ice-cold beer. And, what’s not to love? Happy hours, family gatherings, sporting events, and even a meal at home are all perfect occasions to share a beer.

But, have you ever wondered how your beer – whether it’s a local craft, a new import, or a familiar favorite arrives on the store shelf and in your hand? It takes more than just great taste. Behind every glass of beer, there is careful system in which brewers, distributors, and retailers work together to deliver choice and variety, while maintaining the quality and safety American consumers have come to expect.

In the United States, beer travels from the brewery to the retailer to the consumer under what is commonly known as the three-tier system. This system separates and licenses the companies that produce or import alcohol, distribute alcohol to licensed retailers, and sell alcohol to consumers. Keeping these responsibilities independent ensures that the beer chain of custody provides oversight and transparency. So, when a thirsty customer heads to the beer aisle, they can trust that their selection is genuine and safe.

In fact, the U.S. has the safest alcohol market in the world. Thanks to the three-tier system, there is tremendous confidence behind every can and bottle on local store shelves.

Unfortunately, other countries around the globe that lack this efficient network can’t say the same thing. Tragically, recent incidents in Mexico and India have proven this fact again. Tourists vacationing in Mexico have suffered dangerous reactions or death from unregulated, tainted alcohol; and, more than 100 people in India recently died from contaminated, bootleg liquor. America’s time-tested independent alcohol distribution system provides the necessary checks and balances to help prevent these incidents from occurring here in the United States.

Beyond safety, our three-tier system spurs competition and growth throughout the beer industry. Each component – suppliers, distributors, and retailers – plays a critical role in the success of our beer market. Consumers are now enjoying beer from more than 6,000 breweries nationwide – up from just 49 in the 1980s.

Beer distributors, which represent more than 3,000 independent companies, are spread out across communities nationwide. They are committed to building brands large and small by investing in state-of-the-art equipment like climate-controlled trucks and warehouses; producing cutting edge marketing strategies and materials; and providing continued education that keeps their employees expert in beer knowledge and reliable partners on the future of beer in their communities.

Because of these investments, beer distributors have their finger on the pulse of the communities where they operate. They are always anticipating new kinds of beers consumers will crave while helping bring new beers into local markets. They work to educate retailers on trends and sales data, and they connect brewer partners looking to grow their brands with consumers ready to expand their palates. With local marketing expertise, brewers are able to access new markets that otherwise would have remained challenging.

This allows brewers to focus on what they do best – make delicious beer.

When it comes to delivering kegs and cases of beer, smaller beer brands are on the same trucks as national staples, allowing those smaller labels to reach scale in an efficient way. In fact, as a conference attendee, you may come across a beer you love. There’s a good chance it’s available back home because of this dedicated tier.

At 141,000 strong, this incredible workforce is not small. These men and women have good-paying jobs that serve as an integral piece of both the national and local economy. Working closely together with brewers and retailers – the result, ultimately, is that beer drinkers in 2019 have access to fully-stocked bars and grocery store shelves with nearly limitless choices of safe, tasty beer.

That, after all, is why we’re here at this conference – because the market is so competitive and diverse that marketing strategies are more important now than ever.

And, that’s a great thing for all of us who love beer.

It’s an exciting time for this industry – with more choice than ever before and an ecosystem that fuels economic growth and entrepreneurism across the country. The National Beer Wholesalers Association is committed to propelling the beer industry further forward and highlighting the beer distributors who remain at the heart of this robust supply chain.

To learn more about NBWA and beer, check out our website.