Pouring Profits: Boosting Holiday Sales and Retention in Your Brewery & Taproom
The scent of mulling spices, the glow of string lights, and the clinking of glasses—the holiday season is a golden opportunity for breweries. Your taproom has the potential to be more than just a place for a festive pint; it can become the go-to destination for corporate parties, family gatherings, and celebratory meetups. But turning this seasonal surge into sustained success requires more than just a holiday ale on tap. It demands a strategy.
How do you capitalize on the holiday rush to not only boost your Q4 revenue but also turn those first-time visitors into loyal regulars? The key lies in creating seamless, memorable experiences that keep guests coming back long after the decorations are packed away.
Deck the Halls (and Your Bottom Line): Strategies for Holiday Revenue
The holiday season is your prime time for hosting private events and offering special promotions. This is your chance to think beyond the typical taproom traffic and tap into new revenue streams.
- Curate Unforgettable Private Events: Companies, families, and groups of friends are all looking for unique venues for their holiday parties. Position your brewery as the perfect spot. Offer tiered packages that cater to different group sizes and budgets—think “The Ugly Sweater” package with a buffet and drink tickets, or “The Mistletoe & Stout” experience with a private tour, guided tasting, and plated dinner. Managing these inquiries, contracts, and BEOs manually can be a chaotic process. A centralized event management system allows you to handle leads, send professional proposals, and track every detail without letting anything slip through the cracks.
- Host Ticketed Holiday Experiences: Don’t limit yourself to private parties. Create your own must-attend events.
- Wreath-Making & Beer Tasting: Partner with a local florist for a creative, hands-on workshop.Holiday Beer Pairing Dinner: Collaborate with your kitchen or a local caterer to create an exclusive multi-course menu.New Year’s Eve Keg Drop: Create the ultimate countdown celebration that your community won’t want to miss.
- Offer Festive Promotions & To-Go Options: Think beyond the draft lines. Create special holiday gift baskets with branded merch, crowlers of a seasonal brew, and local artisan goods. Offer pre-ordered holiday meal kits or growler-fill specials for at-home celebrations. This not only adds an immediate revenue boost but also gets your brand into people’s homes.
The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Turning Holiday Guests into Regulars
A busy taproom in December is great. A busy taproom in February is even better. The key to retention is to make a lasting impression and build a connection that extends beyond a single visit.
- Capture Guest Information (The Smart Way): The holiday rush brings a wave of new faces. Are you capturing their information? When a guest books a party or buys a ticket, you have a golden opportunity to collect their email address. This isn’t just for a one-time transaction; it’s the start of a relationship. A good software platform will automatically collect and organize this data, making it easy to add guests to your marketing lists for future newsletters and promotions.
- Deliver Flawless Service: Nothing sours a festive mood faster than a disorganized event. When a corporate event manager has a seamless experience—from the initial inquiry to the final payment—they are far more likely to rebook for their summer outing or recommend you to a colleague. A streamlined internal process, powered by a dedicated event management tool, ensures your team is on the same page, from the kitchen to the taproom floor, delivering the exceptional service that builds loyalty.
- Re-engage in the New Year: Don’t let the conversation end when the ball drops. Use the contact information you’ve gathered to launch a targeted “New Year, New Brew” campaign in January. Offer a “Welcome Back” discount to all attendees of the holiday event. Invite them to your Super Bowl party or Valentine’s Day event. This follow-up is critical for converting seasonal traffic into a dedicated customer base.
Don’t Let Planning Be the Ghost of Christmas Past
The difference between a chaotic holiday season and a profitable one often comes down to the tools you use. Juggling inquiries from a contact form, event details in a spreadsheet, and payments through a separate system is a recipe for burnout and missed opportunities.
Adopting a robust event management platform like Tripleseat centralizes every aspect of your holiday event business. Imagine a world where you can:
- Capture and respond to every event lead instantly from your website or social media.
- Create and send professional, customized proposals and contracts in minutes.
- Securely process deposits and payments online.
- Seamlessly communicate all event details to your entire team.
- Automatically build a customer database for future marketing.
The holiday season is a marathon, not a sprint. By implementing a smart strategy and leveraging the right technology, you can ensure your brewery not only survives the rush but thrives because of it. Start planning today, and set yourself up for your most profitable holiday season yet—and a taproom full of regulars in the year to come.
Book your demo of Tripleseat to make managing holiday events more profitable.
