Top 5 Reasons You Need to Hire A Marketing Person for your Brewery
Brewery Owners have a lot on their plate, and wearing every hat in the business: brewmaster, human resources, finance, leadership, recruiting, operations, sales, training, and marketing. The reality? There are not enough hours in the day to do all of these things and do them effectively, so something has to give. How do you find the time to get everything done in your small business? The business owners who are profitable and growing rapidly don’t do it all. They get some help.
Brewery Marketing should take about 10-15 hours per week. And in any business, particularly in a business where there are a lot of competitors vying for the attention of the consumer, your brewery marketing budget should be 10-12% of your gross revenue. For a brewery that is bringing in $500,000 per year, that means that you should be spending a minimum of $50,000-$60,000 per year ($4,200-$5.000 per month) on marketing.
So why hire outside help? Here’s the Top 5 reasons to hire a marketing consultant for your brewery:
1: They can help you stand out in the crowded craft brewery industry
Here in Ohio, we have 427 craft breweries, and 8.9 million people old enough to legally buy a beer. According to Gallup in 2023, there are 63% of people who consume alcohol, and of those 5.6 million, 37% drink beer, leaving 3.3 million beer drinkers in the US. Of that, 24.7% of all beer sales is craft beer, leaving us approximately 800,000 craft beer drinkers in Ohio. That leaves only about 1,800 customers per brewery. I share all of these numbers because standing out in the market is a goal of every business, but your brewery has to be about more than the beer. A marketing consultant can help you stand out among the crowd with unique perspectives.
2. They can help you get out of your own way.
Owners sometimes are their worst enemy. Tunnel vision is real, regardless of your industry. An outside perspective, particularly on what makes your brand and brewery unique, is the best thing you can do to invest in the success of your business. I’ve seen many owners double down on what isn’t working and completely ignore what does. An outside consultant can help with this – whether that is marketing, leadership, or operations. You just have to be willing to listen.
3. They can save you money.
When money is tight, you’re going to save a bunch of money by outsourcing your marketing to an experienced team. A full-time marketing person for a brewery that has experience with marketing strategy, social media, e-mail marketing, website design, SEO, recruiting, branding, messaging, and more is a minimum of $100,000 a year. An entry-level social media manager you should expect to pay $50,000 at a minimum, but this person likely is not an experienced strategist. A marketing consultant that specializes in small business is like hiring a Chief Marketing Officer along with an entire marketing department for a small fraction of the cost – without expenses like benefits & taxes. And the creativity housed in a great marketing team can get more traction from organic (read: free) content rather than shoveling dollars into advertising.
4. They grow with you.
Because they work with breweries and other small businesses of all sizes and experience levels, they are going to have the ability to continuously grow their ideas and execution as you do. You get bigger, they help you get even bigger.
5. They lower stress.
Remember those 10-12 hours a week that you should be spending on marketing, plus 2-3 hours a week executing content? What could you be doing with an extra 12 hours a week? Enjoying more time with friends and family? Growing your business? Brewing beer? Hiring a marketing team allows you to free up your time to do what you really love. If you are not the best person for that job, get someone who is and it will save time and money. Period.
