Tap Into New Clients With Craft Beer

Mar 6, 2019 / By Dan Miller
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What’s Working Now: To build up his new third location, this advisor holds seminars in the tap room at a local microbrewery. At 20-plus qualified households per event, prospects are flocking to this trendy, relaxed atmosphere where they can nevertheless learn about serious financial topics.

Editor’s note: In this edition of What’s Working Now, an AdvisorRADIO feature in which Horsesmouth members tell us about recent success they have had running and growing their businesses, we hear from advisor Dan Miller, who has made craft beer a draw for his workshops and client events.

The following article includes edited excerpts of Dan’s story and observations. Or you can listen to the full interview by clicking the audio file below.

Quick Overview

Advisor: Dan Miller
Red Oak, Iowa

Years in business: 15

Firm: Miller Financial Group

What’s working now: Using the craft beer trend to draw a crowd for workshops and client appreciation events

I’ve been in the business since 2004, and our firm Miller Financial Group has been around since 1963. We’re based in Red Oak, Iowa, which is a small town, but we also have a branch over in Maryville, Missouri, and a relatively new office in Bellevue, Nebraska, which is a suburb of Omaha.

Standing out from the deluge of seminar invites

Bellevue is a market that we’ve been working in for a while but it’s a new office and we’re trying to build up our client base over there. That means finding a way to differentiate ourselves. I visited with some of our clients and they told me they get two to five invitations a week for different meetings at a steakhouse or hotel conference room or country club or something like that, for a meal and retirement presentation.

We tried to think of ways that would differentiate us from those invitations, and ways to involve the things that interest us. My wife and I enjoy drinking craft beer. We’re not really wine drinkers, but we do enjoy craft beer. Our adult kids enjoy it too. And we have two advisors in our office who are 27 and 24, so it’s something that interests them as well. We thought, “What is a different venue that would grab people’s attention when they get that postcard in the mail?” Our marketing director did a lot of searching for different venues, outside of the typical Italian or steak restaurant.

We happened upon a microbrewery that has a taproom that’s open to the public. They also have another event space just off the main room. It holds about 40 people when set up for a workshop like ours. The tables are set longwise facing me so that folks can sit on both sides of the table. When the room isn’t set up for us it’s got more of a pub feel, with a pool table and a big screen for ball games and such. We thought, “Let’s give it a shot.”

Strictly financial education

These workshops are not social events, they are financial education events. Our presentation so far has been on strictly preretirement topics, Social Security and the new tax rules. We’ve thought about pairing the beers with marketplace updates and principles but haven’t gone down that route yet. What’s drawing people in is Social Security, and lately the changes to the tax law.

The people we meet with after the seminar tell us that they really liked the idea of getting a couple of microbeers on the house and some pub fare in a more relaxed atmosphere. And that was our biggest reason for doing this. It’s to stand out and not be just like everybody else. We’ve had a great response.

Is beer viewed askance? Nope!

One of our concerns was that beer may be considered one of the vices out there, and that it might turn some people off. But we haven’t found that. There really is a craft beer trend going on and you see that with the healthy size of our crowds. People are enthusiastic.

We use a large postcard designed by our marketing department to advertise the event. They take care of the mailing for us, too. Our seminars are qualified, so these are million-dollar folks who are attending, in general.

We don’t promise a full meal, just beer and pub food, but since the events are usually from 6 or 6:30 until 7:30 or 8, many people do make a meal out of it. Our cost usually comes out to about $2,000-2,400 per event for us, which is very favorable as opposed to serving a $17 meal to everyone.

A pint or two samplers

When attendees arrive at our registration table, they can get a pint for two tickets, or two half-pint samplers. (Of course, the tickets are also good for soft drinks or wine if that’s what someone prefers.) They go to the taproom and they choose their beers, and we also have pub food available, things like roast beef sliders and pretzels. When we go to the side room for the seminar, they are seated at long tables, and they sip on their beers and eat the food as they listen to the presentation.

The key is to find a good microbrewery that also has the space. Not everywhere has space to hold 40 people, but this one does. And the brewery of course loves that we’re bringing roughly 40 people who might not otherwise come to their establishment. They’re happy to work with us, and I think if advisors approached similar places they would be willing to work with you, too.

The room can hold 40 people, which is about what we shoot for. That usually works out to 20-25 households. Sometimes we have closer to 30 people. About 50%-60% of the households sign up for a one-on-one meeting with us.

Find your ‘something different’

We started with the craft beer events in April of 2018. That’s been such a success that we’re going to move our location around a bit, looking into some other unique venues—a brewery in a different part of town or something smaller and more intimate.

If you’re interested in doing something like this, the craft beer is a great hook, but I also encourage other advisors to think outside the box. I truly believe that people enjoy something different. I met with one woman who told me that she enjoyed the brewery setting in particular because we didn’t serve a meal. She liked that she could just come in, have a beer and a little bit of food, and just relax. There wasn’t so much structure. Everybody needs to find something different.

Craft beer for client events, too

We have also done a beer tasting, but that was a 100% social event. We did it for a client appreciation event. This was here in Red Oak. So it was a food and beer tasting, actually.

We rented a hall and found a microbrewery from Omaha to bring their mini kegs and taps and everything. We talked with the brewers ahead of time about good food pairings, and then we contracted with a caterer to have those special foods brought in.

It was awesome. We had five beers paired with foods, one was with an appetizer, two or three with main-course type foods, and then there was one for dessert! It was very much like a wine pairing—but with craft beer. It was awesome. It was fun. It was a fun experience and I would definitely like to do that again here or over there near our Bellevue office. The clients loved it.

Comments

I love this idea. However, I thought the total cost was incredibly low. Are you saying that the total cost for beer, food, and mailers is under $2,500? That is outstanding. Can you share any other details? Such as how many postcards are mailed and who is the mail house?
From Dan: We mail out to about 4000 households-2 post cards about 10 days apart. That costs around $3,000. The $2,500 covers the beer, food, and room for 2 nights. We offer prospects the choice of 2 different nights. All in around $5,500 for 2 rooms of 30 - 40 people, or around 30+ buying units. (Editor's Note: He mentions in the article that the postcard is designed and mailed by his broker dealer's marketing department.)
Thanks for this fun idea. Is it so costly due to the advertising? I mean a beer and pretzel with overhead shouldn't be more than $20/person at 40 people = $800. It's great also that your foundation is on learning and not selling crazy financial products.
Yes, Jill. It's the cost of the targeted mailing of the post card invites.

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