Staff training & beer information

To successfully sell craft beers, staff need to be trained to be able to describe them to customers and help them choose something they may like. This training can help your staff be enthusiastic about your beer range, which is key to making your shift into craft a success. Brands such as Beavertown will offer training to your staff on their beers and it is a good idea to take them up on the option.

Users of our bar EPOS system can also pull information on their beer range automatically from beer rating website Untappd, and make this information available to staff at the touch of a button.

If you are offering a wide range of craft beer, a digital display board can be a good option. These will display your range on a TV screen near the bar, letting customers know what is on each tap, with a description and information on the brewery, style and abv. The digital display board that comes with our pub EPOS system, automatically updates when you change the beers, helping manage a frequently rotating beer range. Brew York share how having one joined up system has helped them manage their changing beer range in venue.

Marketing

So, you’ve got a great and varied beer range, backed up by key information, and knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and well-trained staff. Now it’s time to let your potential new customers know you are there.

Updating your website with a prominent “What’s on tap?” section can be a good start. Then sharing this on the social media channels you and your customers use.

You could also look at listing your venue on Untappd - the social networking app for beer fans. On the Untappd app, users can rate the beers they’ve tried, share these with friends, and toast each other’s choices.

A paid listing will display your venue as a verified venue and show users the beers you have on offer.

Even without a paid listing users can rate beers and tag the venue they tried them in, which instantly shares your venue with their craft beer fan network. Breweries themselves also frequently toast fan’s ratings of their beers, which can help spread the message further.

The breweries you’ve selected for your beer range can also help with your marketing efforts. The larger breweries will have brand activation teams that will offer a range of marketing, POS materials, and activation activities to run in your venue.

You could also offer beer tasting evenings, which will help you get your venue on the craft beer map.

Track & improve

Once you’ve launched your new craft range, you will want to carefully track what is selling well and what isn’t. You should be able to do this for individual beers on your bar’s POS system.

Our pub EPOS system includes a specific beer sales report, which enables further in-depth analysis, such as which breweries and styles are selling well. You can use this information when rotating your beers or deciding what to replace any poor sellers with.