Running a small liquor business is all about making a big impact.
Offering premium products, excellent customer service, and a personalized shopping experience is key to keeping customers coming back.
A simple, but extremely effective, tool to help you do this?
Social media.
Building an online social media presence might seem scary for some business owners, but it doesn’t have to be — the benefits are endless.
Here are five ways to boost your liquor store’s social media presence right now.
Posting on social media is one of the easiest ways for small businesses to build their brand — the platforms are easily accessible, and most consumers are active on at least one.
Take advantage of this opportunity to meet existing (and potential!) customers where they’re at — but make sure you consider which platforms they spend the most time on. Older shoppers tend to spend more time on Facebook, while younger buyers might be more active on Instagram and TikTok, for example.
Create profiles on different platforms, and check out how other liquor stores are making the most of their social media — remember to research relevant hashtags and follow similar accounts.
Get to know your customers and what they want, which will help you to develop a voice and online presence for your liquor store that will resonate with customers and boost your profits both on and offline.
2. Build a Community of Customers
Many people choose to shop with small businesses because of the personalized experience they can provide. Connecting with people on social media gives liquor store owners the unique opportunity to build relationships with customers outside of store hours (and doors).
Give your customers a peek into the human side of your liquor store — highlight yourself and your employees in social posts, and reap the benefits of face-to-face interaction, without having to spend tons of resources (read: time and money). Show some personality — customers want to engage with real people, not a sales robot.
Try a weekly series where you showcase your employees’ favorite movie, sports team, or drink — this is a great way to get your face in front of your customers and to slyly promote your products, too. Once you gain some momentum online, ask followers to submit their own photos and favorites, and share those as well.
If you can, collect contact information. Link your website, or the signup to your newsletter — reel them into your customer loyalty program, so that the relationship extends beyond a social media follow.
Remember to ask people to tag your account in their posts, and to reshare your content. This is an easy way to get in front of potential customers who may otherwise have never considered your store. Having existing customers vouch for your product is key — in fact, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from family and friends over any other form of advertising (bonus: it’s free!).
3. Better Understand Your Customer’s Buying Habits
Because social media is all about engagement, it’s the perfect place to gather free information from your customers. Post the products you carry on your feed, and see if any of them get more likes and saves than others — you might consider running deals on those specific brands to see if you can push more products.
Pose questions in your captions or stories — ask your followers directly what they’d like to buy more of, and reply if possible. You can even create polls, and gauge what types and brands of liquor perform best — tequila or whiskey, Tito’s or Captain Morgan.
Last, remember that social media has also become the go-to place for customer service. These days, many disgruntled (or happy!) customers choose to post about issues on business’ social media pages instead of calling or going into their physical stores.
So, don’t just post on your accounts and call it a day. Read replies and see what customers are posting about you. Always be responsive (never defensive) and friendly to show your customers how much you care. By staying attentive, you can make customers who already like you love you, and convert customers who don’t.
4. Promote Liquor and Wine Deals
You might have the most well-run shop or even the sleekest website, but not everyone is going to stumble upon your liquor store without a little help — especially if you run a small business.
Make the most of the extra exposure.
When you run promotions, let your followers know. Do you have a bottle of bourbon discounted 50%, or a buy one get one (BOGO) deal on your vodka selection? Post it. More people will know about your in-store deals without leaving the sofa, and it might tempt them to head over to your brick-and-mortar store.
You can also use social media for your promotions. Try contests and giveaways, and have followers tag friends in the comments of posts for entries — another great way to increase visibility. Just make sure you give away products responsibly and according to guidelines. Many states have restrictions on giving away alcohol, so get creative and try gift cards or whiskey glasses instead.
Take advantage of timing, too. Promote liquor for seasonal summer drinks, from margaritas to mojitos. Offering 12 days of deals during the holiday season? Put it on social media. And remember to use popular hashtags like #TequilaTuesday and #WineWednesday. Not only does this increase awareness of your promotions, but it also increases sales — especially if you have an e-commerce store on your website that you can send followers to directly.
Social media thrives on engagement — that means posting regularly and often. Make the process easier for yourself by setting up a social media calendar. A calendar will both be a reminder to post content and also help you plan out some content in advance.
Have a big holiday or in-store event coming up? Put reminders on your calendar to start posting about them a few weeks in advance. The more anticipation you can build for a big sale or event, the bigger the turnout will be.
Several free tools allow you to schedule social media posts in advance so you don’t have to constantly pause your work to make a post.
Social media has changed the game for the retail industry as a whole, and it’s no different for the liquor and wine industry. Being active online is especially valuable for small business and liquor store owners — it keeps you top-of-mind as many people spend hours on social media every day.
Strengthen relationships with new and existing customers, and they’ll be more likely to bring their business to your store — and if you have a webstore readily available, you can do even better.
Social media is just the first step. Monitor the effectiveness of your social media outreach and promotions with a liquor-specific point of sale (POS) system. With a liquor store POS system you can discover your bestselling product categories, peak hours, customer buying trends and more. Armed with this information, you can make your social media outreach even more targeted to your customers’ preferences.
To make the most of your social media campaigns and to make your store operations more efficient, take advantage of Bottle POS’ best-in-class solution for liquor stores. Schedule a demo of Bottle POS, including the BottleZoo e-commerce integration, with one of our point of sale specialists today.
