Distiller magazine

38 distiller Build Community That Will Sustain You Through Future Ups & Downs (options are endless) Lastly, virtual experiences are incredible at building community. is is more important than ever, as we've all recently realized, when it comes to weathering the storm of difficult times. While hosting your own virtual experiences solely focused on your brand and products will help you build your community, there are also creative ways to build a broader community to reach even more people and deepen rela- tionships that can support you. Consider co-hosting a virtual whiskey event with another local distiller in town. You'll get the benefit of both brands promoting one event and you'll each get access to the other brand's audience, helping you grow your awareness and interest. Or, partner with a local restaurant in town to host a food pairing to support both businesses and grow your audiences. If you proudly use local ingredients, you could even collaborate with one of your suppliers and have the farmer join in on the fun to grow true grain to glass appreciation and further differentiate your brand. Virtual Experiences Are Needed Now, but Valuable Always By building community and providing engaging virtual experi- ences now, when the need is at its highest, you'll train your con- sumers and trade partners to expect these types of events in the future. So even when life does get back to normal, they'll have fond memories of these events and be more likely to continue to join so you can reap the benefits of more efficiently reaching and engaging fans, new and old, far and wide, into the future. Out of crisis often comes opportunity — and virtual experiences are one of the best new opportunities for craft distillers to level the playing field, drive loyalty, sell more spirits and grow your brand. END Provide Much Desired Access to Your Busy Maker & Owners One of the most common complaints we hear when it comes to in-person tasting room visits is disap- pointment that the distiller or owner wasn't available. It's understandable: We all have responsibilities, so it's impossible to give every visitor a distiller or owner-led experience. Virtual experiences, however, make that an easier nut to crack, which means you're giving your guests what they really want… to meet you! Spending an hour or two per week on camera to give consumers that "in the know," personal experience is efficient and effective. Just make sure you leave ample time for your virtual guests to actually engage with you directly and ask questions. For this reason, we always prefer to host our Zoom virtual experi- ences as meetings vs. webinars. at way everyone can see and interact with everyone and attendees can unmute themselves to talk directly to the makers and owners. While I know not all makers and owners like to be "on stage," your consumers value it tremendously, so it's an important marketing tactic both virtually and beyond. People connect with people and stories, not products or brands. So leverage the efficiency of virtual experiences to give your consumers the maker and owner access they crave and watch your consumer loyalty and word-of-mouth connections grow. 4 5 By building community and providing engaging virtual experiences now, when the need is at its highest, you'll train your consumers and trade partners to expect these types of events in the future.

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