Why You Need Custom Cocktail Recipes for Marketing Your Alcohol Brand

Whether you have a tasting room for your spirits brand with a cocktail menu or not, you need custom cocktail recipes to sell your spirits.

At the end of the day, you need customers to know how to use what you're selling. As much as almost every distiller would love to have their juice enjoyed neat, that's not how most consumers consume alcohol.

Here are a few reasons why this needs to be an important part of your spirits brand marketing.

Reasons to Use Custom Cocktail Recipes in Your Marketing

1. Recipes Inform Customers How to Use Your Spirit

The easier you make it for customers to envision how they will use your spirit, the better. You want to take the work out of imagining how they will enjoy it. Customers needs to be fed information in quick, easily digestible bites... or drinks these days. 

When we're deep into our own business and product, we can sometimes forget the obvious. So keep your marketing simple and direct: tell them how to use your product. Inform them how to best drink your spirit.

2. Recipes Help Customers Consume... So They Can Buy More

The more you inform them how to use your product, the more they will use your product.

Don't let your bottle just sit as a decoration on their home bar. Encourage them to consume with friends, with dinner, with an at-home brunch. Let them know how they can show up their home bartender skills with friends. 

Soon, they'll be back for more because not only did they drink it quickly, but it was a hit at their household, for themselves and friends!

3. Custom Cocktail Recipes Create SEO Content For Your Web Site

At the end of the day, we still need to think about SEO (search engine optimization) and how that feeds into your marketing efforts.

By putting these cocktails onto your web site, you can continue to utilize valuable keywords to help search engines find your site when customers are looking for you. 

4. Recipes Create Product Appeal on Social Media

Your social media needs to stay fresh, so posting photos of custom cocktail recipes could keep it interesting for your current followers.

It can also generate appeal from prospective customers who might be poking around social media. Maybe a home bartender is looking for a cool new recipe to try. If your recipe calls for your unique spirit, it may drive them to order your brand online or find it at a liquor store near them.

5. Your Distributors Want a Way to Help Sell Your Brand, Too

Many distributors will request custom cocktail recipe for sales sheets. They take these recipes and pass them on to your on-premise locations (restaurants and bars) to help them sell your alcohol products, as well.

It's in their best interest to move your product as much as it's in your interest, so give them the tools to do that. 

We've even helped some brands create mini cocktail books for their distributors and sales reps to hand out. It's a tangible tool that creates the initial sale, then just keeps selling. 

We can help you create that custom cocktail book if you're interested, don't worry. It can sound like a daunting task, but we've done so many, that it's an easy project now.

Just contact us if you're interested.

6. Seasonal Cocktail Recipes Keep Your Brand Current and On Trend

Every season comes with its own trend of cocktails. During the fall, you see a multitude of baking spices pop up in cocktail recipes for brands. 

Stirred cocktails are in as it gets colder. Citrus cocktails are hot during the spring and summer. Make sure you're not promoting your hot toddy riffs during the summer, when no one is into hot cocktails. 

Keeping your cocktail recipes fresh and current will also let anyone checking into your brand know that you're a credible brand. You know your stuff, you're putting effort into your marketing, so they're going to assume you put effort into your juice... so it must be good!

How to Come Up With Custom Recipes

Are you convinced? Then let's get to work on crafting those custom recipes.

Not just any recipe will do. If you want, you can start out with classic recipes that work with your spirits, but you will have to get more creative than that to stand out from the pack. 

The beverage world is saturated these days, so don't just fall in line with everyone else. Create recipes that don't just intrigue customers, but also really help your brand shine online.

Riff Off Classic Cocktail Recipes

This is easy, and essential. The classics exist for a reason. Use those and the structure for your recipe. 

For example, if you make a gin, take a gimlet recipe and substitute agave syrup for the simple syrup and garnish with pink peppercorns (if those flavors resonate with your gin). 

Celebrate the Flavor Profiles in Your Spirits

Make sure you stick with flavors that complement the notes in your spirit. If your gin has lemongrass in it, don't be afraid to work with lemongrass in a cocktail to pull out that botanical. If you have a bourbon with some nice stone fruit notes on the palate, use apricot to celebrate that in a cocktail. 

Keep the Recipes Approachable

You can have some recipes that flaunt the creativity of your brand, but make sure you also have some that are approachable for the average home bartender.

This means finding ingredients that the average person can find at local grocery and liquor stores. If you want to use particular ingredients that you know may be difficult to locate, provide some suggestions for how to find them. At the end of the day, you want to make sure the cocktail is enjoyed, and not a stressful ordeal.

Hire Us! We Craft Custom Cocktail Recipes at Twist & Tailor

Our team has crafted thousands of cocktails for hundreds of brands all over the world. We can craft recipes that help your spirit shine and complement your brand.

Our Creative Director and Beverage Director, Nemo Whiskey, has personally created thousands of custom cocktails in his bartending career. He is the final eyes on all recipes that we deliver to clients and you can trust that he's going to be particular about how your spirit is celebrated. It's his biggest passion in life, so you're in good hands with us.