Three Founders Share Their Strategies For Building Community During The Pandemic
By Jessica Militare
Business owners across a variety of industries are innovating their mindsets and models in order to continue cultivating their audiences during the pandemic. For some founders, traditional word-of-mouth promotion still does the job. For others, tapping into the crowded digital space was nonnegotiable. To generate and attract customers, building a strong community is key. Here, three founders share how they’re nurturing their brand’s following.
Working process in the office, business people working in board room
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Forrest Dein,
Dein: We did some to-go and home delivery, which worked but wasn’t anything close to the community-building experience we have in our tasting rooms. Recently, we’ve been allowed to reopen outdoors and we’re opening our first LA flagship location in April, but the rules are pretty strict in California. A lot of places closed, and we were able to keep our tasting rooms open through launching our direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform. We had this viral moment in April, and it saved us last year. We now deliver to 43 states and designed these colorful art boxes that have cans inside and walk you through a tasting in the comfort of your home. Launching DTC allowed us to start partnerships with national audiences. We could have never done that before Covid and before DTC. We work with influencers on social media and offer a first-time purchase discount with free shipping for new customers in our DTC experience. As things open back up, we’ll get more creative with what we can do.