Marketing for independent breweries.
From the taproom to the trade to the webshop.
I was the first hire at a brewery, ran marketing for a pub group and a beer subscription, and I judge SIBA’s Indie Beer Awards. I know what a brewery’s week looks like, and how little of it is left for marketing.
Sound familiar?
- People want your beer. Getting it on the bar is the hard part.
- The founder is still the one selling to the trade.
- The taproom, bottle shop and webshop are open, but they aren’t pulling their weight yet.
- Every pint has to earn more, because duty, energy and ingredients keep going up.
- There’s no one doing the marketing, so it falls to whoever has a spare minute.
- You have a marketing person, but you’re not sure how to lead them or help them grow.
If two or more ring true, it’s time someone owned your marketing.
Your marketing, owned.
Someone owns your marketing, and it isn’t you.
You get your time back, and you can leave it with someone who’s done it before.
Everything works towards a business goal.
A plan led by your drinkers and your numbers, where brand, beer, price and where you sell all pull together, and measured on its success.
Your team, brought along.
I lead your marketing person, in-house or freelance, mentor them so they grow in the role, and bring in specialists I trust.
Where I help
Strategy and plans
Where the brewery is going and how marketing gets it there. Commercial goals, a marketing plan and a budget, measured on what they deliver.
Brand
Why drinkers pick your beer over the one next to it. Identity, tone of voice and beer branding, from the label to the bar. I created the identity for Leith Helles, Moonwake’s best-selling beer.
Growth in the trade and the taproom
Listings, activations and staff training in stockists, working alongside your sales team. Launches, collabs, events and press that bring people in.
CRM for venues and online
Turn taproom visitors and webshop buyers into regulars. Klaviyo email flows and campaigns, loyalty, subscriptions and Shopify websites. I’m a Klaviyo partner.
See some of the email work: Brewser · East Pizzas
How we’d work together
It starts with a free 30-minute call. You tell me what’s going on in the brewery, and I come back with an accurate quote. Then take one, or a mix of all three, shaped around you.
Someone to own the marketing
We set the commercial goals together, then I build the strategy and the plan, lead the work and your team, and bring in the specialists you need.
Clear direction, for you to run
A two-hour strategy session with a written plan in your inbox within 48 hours, or a marketing audit of everything a drinker or a buyer meets. I hand it over, train the team and stay on hand for questions.
The hands-on build
Shopify, Klaviyo flows and campaigns that run without you, retention, loyalty and subscriptions.
Because I’m fractional, I can scale up when there’s a launch or a lot to build, and back down as things settle.
The work
Moonwake Beer Co.I was the first hire at a brewery
Two brewers, a building site and no beer yet. Building the brand and the customer base from nothing, and getting it into the taproom, the shelf and the trade.
BrewserI grew a beer subscription
A craft beer box that had nailed the beer geek and wanted to be approachable. Fixing the website, the process and the reasons people were leaving, before spending anything.
Read more →
SellarI brought a tech company into real life
A software business selling into craft drinks, with two customer bases and no events budget. Getting in front of trade buyers and makers in person, on next to nothing.
Read more →Also worked with Solvay Society Brewing, Duration Brewing, Wild Card Brewery, Mothership Beer, Young’s Pubs and Black Dog Beer House.
In numbers
Moonwake Beer Co.
Brewser
Sellar
In the beer world
- Taste judge for SIBA’s Indie Beer Awards and the Scottish Beer Awards, and panel chair, including at SIBA’s BeerX.
- Cicerone Certified Beer Server.
- Wrote Women in Beer’s monthly newsletter and hosted their trade conference.
- A chapter in CAMRA’s Good Beer Yearbook 2023, and writing for Ferment, CAMRA and Burum Collective.
- Featured in The Devil’s in the Draught Lines by Dr Christina Wade, Best Book about Beer and Pubs 2024.
Watch: how I got into beer →“Sarah is brilliant and her work has shown measurable ROI.”
“Sarah’s creation of a referral system led to a significant increase in revenue, and we likely wouldn’t have achieved our commercial goals without Sarah driving this scheme from idea to execution.”
Start with a chat.
If you’re brewing something good and you’re not sure what to do next, or whether what you’re doing is working, get in touch and we’ll work it out.