How a Brewery Collective Increased Web Traffic by 200% with a Live “Tap Locator”

How a Brewery Collective Increased Web Traffic by 200% with a Live “Tap Locator”

We knew we were stronger together, but our online presence was fragmented. The Tap Locator Snippet brought us all onto one map. It’s simple for us to update and our customers absolutely love it. We’re seeing more foot traffic, and people are excited to plan their ‘brewery crawls’ around what’s fresh on tap.

Chloe S.

Coordinator

,

The Riverbend Brew Union

The Problem

The city of Riverbend has a thriving craft beer scene, with a dozen independent breweries forming a close-knit collective. While they excelled at brewing, their collective digital presence was falling flat. Each brewery would post their updated tap list on their own website or Instagram page, but there was no single, reliable place for locals and tourists to see what was currently available across the city.

This created a frustrating experience for customers. A beer lover looking for a specific style, like a Hazy IPA or a sour, had to check ten different sources. "We were losing out on spontaneous visits," says Chloe S., the collective's coordinator. "A customer might have visited two or three of our breweries in an afternoon if they could easily see what was pouring. Instead, that friction often meant they just went to one place and stayed there."

The Solution

The Riverbend Brew Union used Crust AI to create a mobile-first, interactive "Tap Locator" map. This public-facing Snippet serves as a central hub for the entire local beer scene, embedded directly on the collective's website.

The experience is perfect for discovery:

  • An Interactive Map: Visitors see a map of the city dotted with the logos of all member breweries.

  • Live Tap Lists: Tapping on any brewery pin instantly brings up a card showing their address, hours, and, most importantly, their up-to-the-minute draft list with beer style and ABV.

  • Effortless Updates: The entire system is powered by a single, shared Google Sheet. When a brewery taps a new keg, the manager or bartender simply updates their brewery's row in the sheet from a tablet behind the bar. The change is reflected on the live map instantly. No coding or website logins required.

Chloe wanted the tool to reflect the craft nature of their businesses. She used a simple AI prompt to create the unique aesthetic: "Design this to feel like a cool, craft beer label, using rustic textures and bold fonts." The result is a tool that is as visually appealing as it is functional.

The Impact

The Tap Locator was an immediate hit, quickly becoming the go-to resource for beer lovers in the city and transforming how the collective promoted itself.

"Our website traffic shot up by over 200% in the first three months," Chloe reports. "It's become the most popular page on our site by a huge margin."

The benefits were felt directly by the member breweries:

  • Increased Foot Traffic: Breweries reported a noticeable increase in visitors, particularly on weeknights. Customers frequently mentioned they came in specifically because they saw a new beer go on tap via the locator.

  • Community-Powered Marketing: The map encourages "brewery crawls" and exploration, with customers using the tool to plan their route from one member brewery to the next.

  • Strengthened Collective Identity: The shared, successful tool fostered a stronger sense of community and collaboration among the brewers, reinforcing the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats.

How Can You Replicate?

A live locator map is a perfect tool for any group of physical businesses, like a restaurant association, an artists' studio tour, or a "shop local" initiative.

  1. Create a Shared Data Source: A Google Sheet is the perfect collaborative tool. Create a sheet where each row represents a business location. Include columns for Name, Address, Hours, Logo URL, and then a series of columns for the menu or product list (e.g., Tap 1 Name, Tap 1 Style, Tap 2 Name, etc.). Share it with all participating businesses.

  2. Use a "Multiple Items Snippet": Since this is a public directory of multiple locations, the Multiple Items Snippet is the ideal choice.

  3. Design an Interactive Map with AI: No complex configuration is needed. The core functionality can be generated with a single, powerful AI prompt. You can tell the AI to render your locations on a map and define what happens when a user interacts with it.

  4. Prompt for Style and Function:

    • "Display each brewery as a pin on an embedded map based on the 'Address' field."

    • "When a pin is clicked, show a popup card with the brewery's 'Name', 'Hours', and a list of their beers. The beer list should be generated from the fields starting with the prefix 'Tap_'."

    • "Give the entire snippet a 'craft beer label' design. Use a textured, off-white background, a bold slab-serif font for the brewery names, and use the 'Logo URL' as the map pin icon."

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