Any marketing expert will tell you that word-of-mouth advertising is worth its weight in gold. Nowadays, word-of-mouth often comes in the form of user-generated content (UGC) online. What business wouldn’t want its customers to advocate for it?
That’s especially true in the beer industry where you have a revolving door of customers coming in and out of your bar or brewery every day. Some might be locals, but because the industry itself is so popular, there’s a good chance many of your customers will be tourists or first-time visitors. Beer tourism is a big deal, and you can capitalize on it – but maybe not in the traditional ways you might think.
So, how can you leverage beer tourism without blowing your marketing budget? Simple: get your customers involved.
What Are the Benefits of User-Generated Content?
People are traveling all across the country to try different beers and go to different bars. Some might be more prone to share their experiences, no matter what. Others might need a reminder or a bit of encouragement. Whatever the case, when you understand the importance of user-generated content for your business, you’re bound to become a business that encourages those practices.
So, what are the benefits? Why should you care what your customers are saying about you? Some of the biggest “pros” include:
- You can use it as content curation to build/boost your brand
- It boosts social media growth
- It can help with SEO to give your business more visibility
- You will have a better understanding of your audience
- It increases personalization efforts between your brand and customers
Sounds great, right? But, you can’t just automatically expect your customers to rave about you, share pictures, or leave reviews if you’re not encouraging them or creating a digital presence for yourself. Thankfully, that’s easy to do with just a little bit of time, initial setup, and someone on your staff who lives and breathes social media.
Stay On Top of Social Media
The top social media platforms your business should be focused on include:
- TikTok
- Snapchat
While there are others, these few tend to be the ones that get the most traffic, especially for businesses. If you’re not active on social media, you can’t expect your customers to do the work for you. Maybe someone wants to share a picture of their beer and tag you in it, so their friends and family know exactly where they were — but if you’re not up-to-date on your digital presence, they may not be able to. Who knows how many customers your negligence will cause you to miss out on?
It’s not enough to let your customers do all the work. If you want them to create UGC, you have to be on top of your social media game, too. That includes taking beautiful photos of your beer, brewing process, or even your gastropub fare if you have it. Learn some of the best practices for food photography to get started and to spark people’s attention. When you’re willing to post photos and videos, it’s an open invitation for your customers to do the same.
Let people tag your location on social media outlets, so others will know where to find awesome beer and a killer atmosphere. You can also take it one step further by creating a hashtag for your company, a current beer you’re featuring, or even a contest/giveaway. It’s helpful in getting attention and organizing people’s content into one convenient location.
Whatever you do, make sure you’ve got someone on your team taking care of social media and interacting with your audience as much as possible.
Connect With Your Customers
The average person sees thousands of advertisements and traditional marketing techniques at work every day. Needless to say, many people have learned how to tune those things out. People are no longer looking for “just another commercial”, billboard, or radio ad. Instead, customers want to feel a connection to the brands they support.
If you’re willing to “humanize” your brand and truly connect with your customers, you’re going to be viewed as more trustworthy, more personable, and more relatable. Being active with social media is crucial here, too. It’s not only important to post relevant content and stay on top of everything from Facebook to TikTok. It’s just as important to answer people’s questions, start discussions, and manage reviews as they come in.
When people know that there are real people behind your brand, it takes away the curtain between company and customer. It creates a more relaxed environment where your current and potential audience is more comfortable talking about what you have to offer. In addition to creating engaging posts, one of the best things you can do is actually show your audience who you are.
Host live Q&A sessions on your social media pages. Or share behind-the-scenes photos whenever possible. When you can develop a relationship with your customers, they’re more likely to become loyal and tell their friends and family about you.
Bottom Line
While traditional marketing efforts aren’t completely dead, it’s impossible to escape the rise of digital marketing. That includes user-generated content. In an industry where travel and tourism have become so important, UGC will do a lot of the work for you if you’re willing to encourage your customers and step up to the social media plate and encourage locals and tourists alike to check you out.
Indeed it is really an excellent lever for tourism. One reason why he made me choose Ljubljana two years ago for my holidays was the Union factory present!
These tips are really going to help any pub or restaurant owner. Beer tourism and beer, in general, have become so popular.
Social media is absolutely key. I have seen so much about beer on all of my social media channels. It’s prime real estate for beer lovers and purveyors.
Right now, social media is your best ally when you want to grow your business. In our city, there is an online entrepreneur that sells (and delivers) ice cold beer. His business brand is unique too. He calls his beer delivery service “UBeer. Don’t come to us, we’ll come to you.”
Social media is so important when it comes to marketing businesses. Taking advantage of customer content is also a helpful marketing tactic. You’d be surprised with the quality of the content customers can create.
social media is a key for bloggers.Great information with tips ,Thanks for sharing with us.
Social media is so important for any business these days. It is cool when your customers do some of the heavy lifting for you by posting and tagging you on their feeds!
Such great information that so many of us will find useful! This article was a really great read, thank you.
Social Media is really good place for promote your business online. Many people will check on social media to see the review and rating your business.
YES social media is everything! I feel like thats always how I find new places!
Oh I can´t stress enough how Social Media is important especially for establishment like pub! Great tips! m
Social Media can definitely help out a lot. Those are all great points to keep in mind and what an informative post.