As the Growth Marketing Lead at Fat Pants Brewing Co., I joined the team in 2023 to spearhead their marketing efforts and bring a strategic vision to the brand. My role involved providing high-level strategic direction while implementing tactical changes to boost campaign performance and brand exposure.
I organized and streamlined marketing efforts across various channels, including paid and organic social media, email, print, and display. By standardizing campaign creation and establishing methods for tracking efficacy, I brought a cohesive structure to the team. I redefined roles and responsibilities, overhauled project management processes, and increased short-term performance while laying the foundation for long-term branding and marketing success
Audit
My first project was a comprehensive audit of our existing marketing efforts. I identified the channels we utilized, assessed ownership for each channel, and outlined our desired activation output. This audit revealed gaps in operational organization, project management, and tracking. Additionally, I pinpointed several "quick wins" for immediate performance improvements while also evaluating our tech stack, identifying areas for potential enhancement. This thorough analysis allowed me to develop actionable next steps to pivot the marketing direction and align it more closely with the company’s needs, ultimately driving both short-term gains and long-term success.
Branding
Fat Pants Brewing Co. needed a clearly defined brand ethos, and my mission was to uncover the core 'why' behind the brand. It quickly became clear that Fat Pants, located in Eden Prairie, MN, and owned by long-time local residents, is all about community. This family-friendly brewpub not only provides a welcoming atmosphere but also hosts charity events supporting local organizations, with community at the heart of everything they do.
With this clarity, we focused on building a stronger online presence by creating fun, engaging social media content. We also made 'community' the central theme of our website and campaign messaging. A prime example of this was the "Kidtoberfest" event. Recognizing our large family audience and leaning into the community-driven focus, we rebranded one weekend of our Oktoberfest celebration to feature kid-friendly activities and games. This initiative resonated deeply with our audience, driving the highest revenue-generating day in the brewery’s history. Overall, this strategy boosted engagement and performance across all marketing efforts, capturing the true spirit of Fat Pants Brewing Co.
Organic Social Media
At Fat Pants Brewing Co., organic social media was the primary channel for promoting new products, events, sales, and company updates. However, an overemphasis on promotional content without a strategic creative approach was limiting growth. When I took over their social media strategy, the brewery’s Instagram had around 2,700 followers and had plateaued for nearly a year, reaching about 4,000 people monthly.
Recognizing the opportunity for improvement, we shifted our approach. We focused on creating engaging, trend-driven short-form video content and reserved promotional posts for key product launches and major events. This pivot from a promotional-heavy strategy to one centered on community engagement and brand awareness delivered outstanding results. By the time I left, the account was reaching an average of 1.2 million people per month and had grown to over 14,000 followers. Prioritizing authentic community connection not only expanded our reach but also amplified the impact of our promotional efforts, driving similar growth on the brewery’s Facebook and TikTok accounts.
292,419 Engagements
36,095 Engagements
40,730 Engagements
24,524 Engagements
Paid Social Media
Before my arrival, Fat Pants's paid social media strategy primarily focused on boosting Facebook and Instagram feed posts without specified audience targeting or consumer data collection. Recognizing the potential for improvement, I spearheaded a comprehensive overhaul of our paid social practices. I established a Meta Ads Manager account, implemented the Facebook Pixel for retargeting, and built various targeted audiences based on aggregated data, all geotargeted locally. Paid social media became our primary channel for event marketing, significantly increasing attendance and revenue. We also launched direct response campaigns with limited-time offers and tracked campaign effectiveness through tech integrations with Mail Chimp, Toast, and Coupon Carrier.
In addition to improved targeting/data tracking, we also took a new approach to creative planning. We began creating promotions centered around our community-driven brand ethos instead of producing run-of-the-mill promotions like “buy-one-get-one” or “20% off.” Two examples of these creative changes are shown in this section.
These strategies transformed our paid social media approach, leading to measurable increases in event attendance and overall revenue while providing valuable data to optimize future campaigns.
SEO
In addition to revamping organic/paid social, we also aimed to expand our organic search reach and started by enhancing on-page SEO. We conducted comprehensive keyword research on SEMrush and updated page content, meta descriptions, and image meta tags to align with high-performing keywords. This solidified our top rankings for queries like "brewery near me" and "best brewery." We also introduced weekly blog posts focused on brewery events and updates, leveraging AI for consistent content creation, which enriched our keyword diversity and relevance.
Another improvement came from optimizing our events calendar - initially a single-scroll, unoptimized page. By identifying high-volume, low-competition keywords related to event categories such as "art class near me," we revamped the calendar into a categorized landing page with detailed event descriptions and images, effectively targeting these keywords. Additionally, we built high-quality backlinks from reputable, local news outlets by posting our events on their event calendars and linking from those pages back to our site. These efforts resulted in a 14% increase in organic traffic to our events page and a 12% increase in total organic site traffic over eight months.
Public Relations
While at Fat Pants, I spearheaded two major PR activations that significantly boosted our brand visibility and community engagement. First, we secured the title of Best Brewery in Minnesota in the Star Tribune's Best of MN list. We accomplished this through a robust social media/point of sale campaign leading to prominent features on the Minnesota’s Best website and in their statewide catalog. This recognition enhanced our reputation, attracted new customers, and increased foot traffic to our brewery. Additionally, we supported the local school district, Eden Prairie Public Schools, by paying off $12,000 in student lunch debt. The press release I crafted highlighted our commitment to the community which resulted in widespread coverage by Kare-11/Eden Prairie Local News and reinforcement of our community-focused brand image.
I implemented several key improvements to our email marketing strategy at Fat Pants Brewing Co., significantly enhancing its effectiveness and efficiency. Transitioning from Toast's POS software to Mailchimp, we leveraged its superior CRM capabilities for audience segmentation and channel tracking, allowing us to create targeted campaigns and focus on the most productive subscriber sources. We also integrated Mailchimp with Coupon Carrier, enabling dynamic coupon creation and detailed redemption tracking. This integration ensured individual coupon tracking and prevented multiple redemptions by the same user, providing valuable insights into campaign efficacy.
Additionally, we expanded our email campaigns beyond a monthly newsletter send by utilizing Mailchimp's segmentation capabilities to send personalized offers to specific audience segments. These changes resulted in more effective email campaigns, higher engagement rates, and better insights into our audience's preferences and behaviors. By optimizing our email marketing strategy, we drove more targeted traffic to our events and promotions, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Team Leadership
As a team leader at Fat Pants Brewing Co., I managed a three-person marketing team and was responsible for optimizing our project management and operational processes.
First, I overhauled how we used ClickUp, our PM software, transforming it from a simple social media content calendar into a comprehensive project management tool. I developed detailed project roadmaps that automatically imported activations to channel-specific calendars, ensuring all tasks were assigned and visible on the individual dashboards of my team members. This increased efficiency, reduced missed deadlines, and enhanced collaboration between product, marketing, and events teams.
To further improve communication, I instituted regular "connect" meetings, including weekly full-team and one-on-one sessions, fostering better alignment and coordination. Additionally, I onboarded the company onto Google Workspace, creating a shared drive, setting up shared calendars, and providing company emails to centralize file management and streamline communication.
