Offered: Summer

Summer Dates: June 7 – August 8, 2023
Course Tuition: $1495 ($1196 for Certificate Alumni and/or Brewers Association Members Discount)
Course Duration: 8 weeks
Learning Format: Online

Instructors: Julie Rhodes and Emily Hutto

Download a sample Digital Marketing and Social Media Promotion in Craft Beer Syllabus

Both the marketing landscape, and that of craft beer have evolved significantly over the past decade.  Breweries and their marketing teams need to consider alternative strategies and tactics in order to reach and connect with prospects and consumers.  What worked a few years ago, may not work now, or even a few months from now.  Digital marketing has become a predominant component of many marketing mixes in recent years.  And, now it is critical that multiple marketing channels and disciplines are leveraged together in order to remain relevant to the always on, always connected customer life-cycle. This online course focuses on introducing the craft beer professional to a breadth of core and emerging digital channels and disciplines. Students will learn the holistic value of creating a clear digital marketing strategy, the tools to support it, and the skills to evaluate and refine it. Understanding the interconnected value of various marketing channels will set you apart from other beer professionals and guide your development as a digital marketing expert within this field.

Participants will

  • Examine key trends within the craft beer/digital marketing landscape
  • Explore the fundamentals of developing a digital marketing strategy as they plan tactics and identify goals.
  • Gain a foundation for planning budgets and tactics from a strategic perspective
  • Recognize SEO as a fundamental building block for online marketing and create an optimization plan.
  • Assess a website’s ability to rank well in terms of SEO
  • Create effective display ads
  • Identify the best places to “place” craft beer ads
  • Examine what paid search is, what it isn’t, and where ads appear
  • Identify typical goals advertisers may have when running paid search campaigns
  • Develop an email and sending strategy
  • Learn about different types of social media and how to maximize the impact of each channel
  • Develop a social media calendar and create a social media budget
  • Identify different types of content, various distribution methods, and evaluate why each one may, or may not, work for their brewery
  • Develop strategies for dealing with negative consumer feedback, and practice using these instances as opportunities for improvement
  • Identify tools and strategies to gather consumer data and monitor online reputation
  • Increase awareness of legalities around advertising and marketing beers and breweries
  • Use analytics to improve their digital marketing strategy

Schedule

Week 1: Exploring the Digital Marketing Landscape
Week 2: Research and Content Evaluation
Week 3: Planning Your Digital Strategy
Week 4: Developing Your Strategy and Engaging Your Audience
Week 5: Testing and Optimizing Your Content
Week 6: Implementing Your Strategy and Managing Your Content
Week 7: Analyzing and Evaluating Your Digital Strategy
Week 8: Identifying Opportunities and The Future of Digital Marketing