Over two weeks in October, our partners at Mushroom Media and AccelPay hosted a series of webinars focused on strategies for optimizing digital presence and sales for alcohol brands during the critical OND (October, November, December) season. The sessions emphasized that OND can drive 30-40% of annual revenue for many alcohol brands, with premium brands reaching up to 50-60%.
Key takeaways include:
- Strategy and KPIs: Identifying essential KPIs and optimizing digital strategies across all sales channels to improve customer acquisition, traffic, and conversions.
- Multi-Channel Marketing: Using paid social, organic content, email marketing, and other digital tactics to reach target audiences. Emphasis is placed on capturing first-party data to refine strategies and build brand awareness.
- Customer Acquisition and Retention: Importance of leveraging email marketing for repeat sales and utilizing data-driven insights to build CRM audiences, target emails, and retarget potential customers effectively.
- Implementation Tactics: Creating seamless customer journeys and focusing on user experience in e-commerce to maximize holiday season sales.
- Performance Measurement: Using KPIs to track brand awareness, engagement, conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS).
Why OND Matters
OND is the most crucial quarter for beverage alcohol brands. For many brands, this period can account for 30 to 40% of total annual revenue. For more premium brands and premium seasonal products, it could be as high as 50 to 60%. It's the time to double down on both the sales side, as well as the brand awareness side.
E-Commerce as a Channel
Brands will typically see between 1 and 15% of annual sales come through their direct-to-consumer online channels. While on/off premise channels account for more of total gross sales, it's highly important to leverage and grow the direct-to-consumer channels because they allow for:
- Extension of the brand's tasting room beyond physical locations
- Brand awareness outside of typical local sales efforts
- Communication of brand message and positioning through online channels
- Capturing first-party data to build audience profiles
- Leverage with distributors as you grow your awareness in key markets
Market Challenges
Beverage alcohol brands face several market challenges:
- Large portfolio brands monopolizing competition
- Celebrity endorsements taking market share
- Consumer health and wellness trends, sober curious movement
- Category education gaps (consumers not understanding product differences)
- Macroeconomic factors like inflation reducing discretionary spending
Key Focus Areas for OND
Awareness and Traffic Goals — Social following, engagement, email marketing lists. What are brands doing to capture new customers through on and off premise sampling? Are they employing technologies to profile individuals and capture contact form submissions?
Customer Retention — What are brands doing to reactivate and remarket to existing customers to drive repeat purchases?
Market Penetration — What type of new on and off premise accounts are being captured? What product velocity is happening at the local and regional sales level?
Setting Up for Holiday Success
The webinar covered tactical components for OND success:
- Start early — Don't wait until Black Friday to launch campaigns
- Leverage AccelPay tools — Corporate gifting, subscription services, gift cards, international shipping, on-demand delivery
- Build robust email flows — Segment audiences and create targeted campaigns
- Track the right KPIs — Brand awareness, engagement, conversion rates, ROAS
- Coordinate with your supply chain — Communicate projections to distributors and retailers
Resources
For more detailed insights, reach out to success@accelpay.io to dig into these topics or learn more about how AccelPay can help your alcohol brand sell online.