THE ESSENTIALS OF DISTILLERY WEBSITES

More likely than not, the first and possibly only place that a person has interacted with your business in the last two years has been online, probably via your company’s website. Websites have always been important, but the shift to the digital space since the pandemic should have reprioritized them for all business owners. They are your most important digital asset and, these days, one of your most important assets, period.

Certain design trends have taken over the website development space in recent years, including the horizontal scroll, multimedia experiences that tie in visuals, text, video and audio, and 3D images. It almost feels inaccurate to call any retro design choices a “trend” since they always seem to be coming back into style, but particularly in fonts and typography, designs that are inspired by yesteryear, are popular once more. When paired with muted colors — think the subdued counterpoints to more saturated reds, yellows, greens, and blues — you have a very trending aesthetic that can be seen on websites across different industries currently.

Another popular choice for modern websites is to include some element that is interactive, with parallax scrolling being a favored feature. Developed around 2010, parallax scrolling is a design technique in which the website background moves at a slower pace than the foreground, creating a 3D effect as viewers scroll, adding depth to the experience. According to Nic Reed, CEO and founder of 253 Media, a web design, SEO, and paid ad agency based in Utah, “The difference between a good website and an incredible website really comes down to content interactions, something that’s going to make me stay on the website longer, something that’s going to make me excited to be there.” Reed said that utilizing something like parallax scrolling or some other feature that adds depth and movement, by the numbers, inspires visitors to stay on your site four times as long as they normally would. “Now they’ve been on your site four times longer than they would have, now they’re four times more involved with your brand.”

It's not only the design features of your website that matter; content is of equal importance. 253 Media have helped a handful of distilleries create websites or revamp their existing ones, and a couple of consistencies within this business have stuck out to Reed. The first question he asks a client is, what’s the differentiating factor of their company? “Fifty percent of the brands we talk to have no idea why someone should buy their whiskey,” said Reed. They may think that creating a beneficial website is as simple as throwing their contact information, some photos, and the distillery’s address into a template and hitting publish. The process is more involved than that; in fact, it’s more akin to the creation of an experience. Visitors to your website should leave with a sense of that intangible quality that sets your products apart from the rest, which you can create through very tangible design choices and information added to your website.

In general, try thinking of your website as your digital brand ambassador. Consider all the elements that you would want a sales rep employed by your company to communicate to potential buyers. This would include the value and unique qualities of your business, but it would also encompass the tasting notes for each of your products, significant details of your distillations, and your personal background. Now translate that to your website. “I have to be so ingrained in knowing that’s the brand for me, that’s the whiskey for me,” said Reed, “that I’m going to go to the store and look at 15 other whiskeys on the shelf and say that’s the one that I want.”

Decide what it is that sets your company apart from all the rest — perhaps it’s the grain you use, or the labored production methods that you feel result in your products’ distinct flavor profile. Maybe you fashioned your own still by hand. Whatever the specifics, your company’s differentiating factor needs to feature prominently on your website. This

may mean that you work it in above the fold, meaning it appears in the space of your website that’s immediately visible when someone lands on your homepage. If that’s not possible, it’s best to communicate this message within a couple scrolls down the front page. From there, you can add more details and pieces of information to flesh out the full picture of your distillery, including tasting notes, the backstory to the company’s origin, biographies on the founders, high-quality photos, production notes, and a blog.

“Other things that people can do that I encourage a lot of distilleries to do — very few of them do a very good job of this because it’s a lot of work — is in-house [cocktail] recipes,” said Reed. “Not only does that help your SEO side of things as well, it creates a resource for people to come back to your website.” Creating and posting in-house recipes on your blog is a great way to create content for your website and trade on a potential area of expertise. Reed says that tying selective or distinct expressions that you offer into your cocktail recipes is another boon, as it creates a cocktail that couldn’t easily be replicated with a spirit other than one that’s a part of your portfolio. The purpose of all these actions is to create an experience that connects a visitor to your brand, meaning that if done correctly the person reading your recipe will be motivated not only to make the drink but to buy your product to use while doing so.

An added benefit, of course, to creating blog posts regularly and routinely updating your website is that it improves your site’s search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is primarily concerned with designing and operating your website with the intention of showing up sooner in the Google results page when people search relevant topics. “The more content and the more often you update your website, the more Google and the Google bot will crawl the website,” said Karen Locke, creator of High Proof Creative, a branding and marketing agency specifically for the beverage industry. “So, I think adding content [yourself] can be a great way to come up in Google searches.”

SEO can act as a guide to the content that a distillery creates, which is a great way to rope in social media. Looking at keyword ranking is a standard way that a professional agency might help a distillery. In SEO, keyword rankings refer to the specific position of your content on the search engine results page (SERP) following a related query. If someone enters terms that relate to your page’s subject matter into Google, your URL is shown in some spot on a page, and this would be your keyword ranking. A ranking of #1 would mean that your web page shows up first when people search for a particular term. “A creative agency can look at what keywords you’re ranking for and then what keywords the competitors are ranking for and help you outrank your competitors in a Google search so that when someone’s looking for a distillery to visit, you’ll come up first,” said Locke.

To rank on Google based on their variety of algorithms, you need to be making the most out of competitive keywords while also offering quality information.

While indexing the main content of each page that it looks at, Google checks for the purpose of the page, the quality and amount of content, the information about the site and its creator, the reputation of the site, and user interaction on the page, including time spent there and bounce rates. Google favors sites that exist at the cross-section of expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, and it wants to show the most high-quality, relevant results at the top of its search engine. So, while you create content for your social media profiles, don’t forget to tie it back into your site by fleshing out those ideas with authority and expertise in posts and pages, which you can then direct followers to visit. Well-developed SEO is probably best left up to the professionals, but brand owners can make strides to improve the visibility of their site entirely on their own.

Websites aren’t just for conveying key information about the distillery anymore — they can now act as a marketplace to sell your products. Depending on the state, distilleries can use a white label marketing service, which are companies that build out a page that’s linked on the distillery’s website and reflects the look and feel of the brand, acting as an extension rather than seeming like a third-party marketplace, even though they are the ones to host and operate the page in question. In seven U.S. states — Alaska, Arizona, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and North Dakota — and D.C., distilleries are allowed to ship spirits directly to the consumer, opening up the option for e-commerce from their websites. Incorporating e-commerce functionality into a website can be difficult, depending on what you want it to do and look like. More elaborate e-commerce options will require a professional web design agency, but on a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress or Joomla, simple e-commerce functions can be added to a website using plug-ins. Sales can then be made using the main website. If your website is hosted by a simplified website builder like Squarespace, e-commerce function is already an option that can easily be executed within the software, though customization will be limited.

Distillery owners using e-commerce, and thus direct-to-consumer shipping, should be wary of their compliance throughout the process, as this kind of action is still relatively new in this business. There are some best practices to keep in mind. First, you should be sure that you are maintaining the appropriate licenses on both the state and federal levels, including registration with The Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), State Departments of Revenue, and state Alcohol Beverage Control departments when applicable. Regardless of whether a sale of alcohol has been made online or in store, applicable federal, state, and local taxes must be paid, and it’s the responsibility of the

“Other things that people can do that I encourage a lot of distilleries to do — very few of them do a very good job of this because it’s a lot of work — is in-house [cocktail] recipes. Not only does that help your SEO side of things as well, it creates a resource for people to come back to your website.”

— Nic Reed

distillery to ensure they’re doing so if they’re selling from their website. Certain software have automated compliance processes that can aid a distillery in determining the different taxes that apply in the states to which they ship and the rate that needs to be charged by the distillery. Of equal importance to paying taxes is age verification. As the seller, you assume the responsibility of ensuring that the shipments you send are made to consumers who are at least 21 years old. It’s a good practice to have your website protected with an age gate, which would require visitors to affirm they are at least 21 years old before entering, regardless of whether you are selling from the site. Some states, however, also require that you collect the purchaser’s date of birth at the point of sale to be reported later; check with your state to see if that is the case. In this changing landscape, distilleries that are selling directly from their website should always be prepared for a potential audit. To do so, be sure to maintain accurate and extensive records. Critical examples include federal and state tax returns, purchase records, records of tax payments, Certificate of Label Approvals (COLAs), production records, and registration of production records on both the federal and state level. You should also avail yourself of the changes that are taking place to avoid fines or charges, or have your licenses revoked. The best way to situate yourself for success is to be proactive — bake compliance into your website from the start and be prepared to invest money to do so. Ensure compliant shipments and maintain the software that is meant to assist you while you’re operating e-commerce.

Websites are as essential as labels these days — no distillery or spirits brand can exist without them — but if handled correctly, your website can go beyond a prerequisite to become a benefit. Even if you don’t have the money to invest in a perfectly polished site, you do have an interesting story to tell. Ensure that it’s reflected by your digital ambassador.

Websites are as essential as labels these days — no distillery or spirits brand can exist without them — but if handled correctly, your website can go beyond a prerequisite to become a benefit.

Devon Trevathan is the co-founder of Liba Spirits, a nomadic distilling company that focuses on capturing a sense of place in every bottle. She also continues to write about spirits and cocktails, including the science behind distillation and the history of drinks culture. Devon travels constantly these days; if she's not working, she's probably exploring her surroundings in the best way she knows how—her mouth (AKA through food and beverage). You can find her online @devontrevathan or @libaspirits across all platforms.

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