New Partner FAQ & Testimonials

Expand the reach of your brand, define your story, and make connections more personal in a simple elegant way to a targeted group of people.

People need at least 7X exposure to your brand before they will visit. Let’s help you do this for free.

1. Highest quality design, printing, and UX
2. Personalize your business for deeper connection
3. Highly targeted and engaged consumers

Customers know we only work with the best partners, and they come to us to discover the exceptional, hear the stories, and become raving fans.

You make great products. But people need to try them before they love them!

Sample new customers in your venue during open hours without having to organize special tasting events/promotions team.

1. Ensure 1st point of contact is on brand
2. Staff can assist with selection
3. Immediate sales

You’re open. Your staff is paid. Now let’s fill your seats and add some fun!

GARUNTEED Customers in your doors, for free. After they make a purchase, you reward their financial support with a complimentary drink

Secure new tap lines. Get cocktail drink features. Support your best accounts by sending your fans there.

The more customers that buy on/off-premise, the more you accounts will buy from you.

Our founder, Matt Dowgwillo is in charge of partner support.
612-803-102 (personal cell)
Schedule a meeting/call
matt@craftnotes.net

Indeed there is:) This was made on a fun day out with Minnesota’s local CWTV. They did such a good job, we just kept it as our presentation.

NOTE: After Covid, we’ve updated our slogan and offering. (see the Partner Newsletter addressing this)

To claim a Drink-Reward, a purchase must be made (Support Local).
GOAL: Get New customers to actually engage with what you do. Prevent bar-hopping, Create Regulars.

APP: How we control Drink Rewards.
All ‘rules’ can be set. General rules are:
Prevent Barhopping = 1 use per venue, 3 max uses per day.
Encourage Repeat without taking from Regulars: 30 days to return to same venue.

PASSPORT: How we control Drink Rewards.
We control the number printed.
We target GOOD customers.
1 Drink Reward per person, per unstamped passport.
Other regulation is left to partners, provided you offer the deal: Buy them a drink after they spend money.

Our founder, Matt Dowgwillo has been in Craft Beer since ~ the beginning, when he created and sold advertising to bars & restaurants for Thrifty Hipster (the world’s 1st happy hour search engine. He’s been a featured speaker for multiple years with the NBWA, and through it, sold his proprietary beer:distributor platform to be used in California.

Craft Notes founded the ‘craft beer passport concept’ and partners consistently rave, “it’s the best.”

Nick Kosevich heas helped launch 100’s of restaurants and bar programs. He also founded Bittercube and has travelled the world working for Bombay Sapphire.

Meet the team

Sometimes they’re new, or sometimes they are the OGs. But they are always “AUTHENTIC, LOCALLY-OWNED, and IMPORTANT TO LOCAL CULTURE.”

This could mean large companies like Surly Brewing, Tattersall, or Lakefront, or small ones like Dangerous Man or Arbeiter. It could be a restaurant with a James Beard Award-Winner like Hai Hai, or one like Red Stag that started LEED Certifications.…

No matter what it means, we try to select the “100 most important creators of local culture” — so if your focus is creating superior products, we’re looking at you.

To date, we’ve NEVER had even 1 partner quit our program…

“People seem to have fun with it… most are new customers that have never been here, and Craft Notes does a good job telling our story and making our brand look good.”

Maggie P. – Dangerous Man Brewing

Taproom Manager

“Craft Notes has been excellent at driving direct sales. Our drinks average $9, and we usually make around $50 for each group we see… and occasionally more if they purchase our bottles to take home.”

KYLE K. – COPPERWING DISTILLERY

Owner, Head Distiller

“A Fantastic Experience. We see people come through the door with their passports all the time, many of whom would not come here otherwise (we have weird location)… People love using it and it’s really helped our business…”

CJ – Uproasters Coffee

Roaster

VIEW CJ’S INTERVIEW ON THE CW

$0.00 / FREE
No, that’s not a typo. We pay the artists. We pay the photographers. We print and distribute the books and then sell them. We guarantee you pay nothing until they walk through your door…

1. Customer visits you during your normal operating hours.
2. Customers will SUPPORT you with a purchase.
3. After Purchase, you reward them with a complimentary drink.

Our pitch to customers buying the book:
“We sell you the book, you support the venue, the venue buys you a drink…“
We’ve found a coupon is a coupon, but when the bartender buys you a drink… that is where true loyalty starts.

We want to encourage them to support local business. To make it habit. To look for products not just in your venue, but on/off-premise too…

And remember, this is essentially a 2-for-1; a consumer must BUY SOMETHING BEFORE you buy them a drink.

YES. AND WE WANT YOU TO!

We recommend a host of best practices that we’ve seen work. Check out our Partner Resources for advice on how to track it.

Yup. That and make them feel special
We work hard to be at the best events that your best patrons and regulars are most prone to be at. We also have a vast network of social media influencers and media partnerships to further your message. We don’t discount. We know that quality customers is what you want. Our goal is to connect with them and help them find you.

Yup. 1st: User “Supports” you with a purchase. Then, 2) You “Reward” them with a drink
You can choose to make this ANY purchase (recommended) or more like a 2-for-1 if you think it’s easier for your team.

YES.
Again, BEFORE someone can do a redemption/claim a ‘reward’ they MUST FIRST spend money supporting a local business: AKA: YOU.

Our goal is really to get as many people in your doors as we can, so they can spend money!

Tracking spend is VERY IMPORTANT to us. We know that over a long term, a regular will have a huge impact on your business, but in the short term, we wanted to ensure you saw money from visit 1.

One of the things we did when we first launched was track this. Here is what we found, for each “Drink Reward” given on the visit where a drink was claimed.

• Breweries: $14
• Restaurants: $28
• Distilleries: $11
• How does this work for you? Check out the worksheet.

NO WAY! One of the things we do best is make this SUPER SIMPLE for you and your team.
Our local managers are happy to show up and help you get going if you need, but we’ve launched a whole “Partners Resources” section to help you get involved at any level.

All broken down into 3 short steps/engagements that are about 5 minutes each, we make sure that we’re connecting to the right people on your team and making this easy for everyone.

Finding GOOD customers for you is important! Targeted Events & Advertising.
We work hard to be at the best events that your best patrons and regulars are most prone to be at. We also have a vast network of social media influencers and media partnerships to further your message. We don’t discount. We know that quality customers is what you want. Our goal is to connect with them and help them find you.

YES.
Our mission is to support you. We think that if someone enjoys their experience with you, it’s the best time to invite them to follow you and connect on a deeper level. We’ll handle introductions, you take it from there.

First, we suspended ALL app and passport usage. Then, we updated function (Support Local. Be Rewarded)

1st. We emailed all users that passports were suspended.

Then, we put out resources for the partners (signage, etc)

One of the things we wanted to do after covid was see a real shift in consumers’ understanding: We are all in this together and we have to support what we love. And while a small percent of consumers told us to “fuck ourselves”, a vast majority said, “We weren’t going to use them anyway because we want to pay full price.”

🥰 This made me feel all warm and fuzzy. We’re getting the consumers we want in Craft Notes.

YES.
Again, BEFORE someone can do a redemption/claim a ‘reward’ they MUST FIRST spend money supporting a local business: AKA: YOU.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY.
Craft Notes is the original passport. We’re biased, but we also feel that we’re the best. Craft Notes is WIN:WIN:WIN:WIN. (You, Us, Consumers, Culture)

• Best Team: Over 40 years of combined industry experience
• Best Mission: We actually care about your business and want to see good businesses grow
• Best System for you. No expiration, more difficult verbiage, more effort in quality, finding better customers all = challenges for us, but we believe in the long term having a better product and actually helping our partners will give us all long term success.
• Highest Quality. Thoughtfully curated, high quality stories and art, high quality printing, great consumers, and great partners; we’re the best of the best!

We typically print 3-4,000 passports.
We DO NOT reprint these. Once printed, they are printed. Once sold out, they are sold out. When you are invited to tell your story in a Craft Notes passport, we will notify you of the number we intend to print.

Sadly, NO.
Partner surveys say you should expect ~10 passports/week and about 75-90% brand new customers.
Dangerous Man tracked in their POS; for every beer we give away, ~$14 comes in direct (places with food is even better). That is why, we’re hoping, with themes, that we can increase to see higher redemptions and resulting sales….

Targeted Events & Advertising.
Our website, Farmers Markets, Beer Festivals, upscale concerts, retail and non-profit partners… We work hard to be at the best events that your best patrons and regulars are most prone to be at; the exact ‘who and where’ varies based on book theme. We know that quality customers is what you want. Our goal is to connect with them and help them find you.

SOME DO, SOME DONT.
From your perspective: Passports don’t really expire.

If they do, standard is 13 months from the time a consumer purchases it, but each book is different. From YOUR perspective, however, they don’t really expire. Instead, we print a set number. You should only sign up to this if you’re able to give away a max of that number of drinks.
Expiration dates (if applicable) are listed in the front-inside cover. We are trying to tell a story, and we want to make sure the right people (the ones interested in that story where you are featured) can engage in that story, so we do not typically have a “coverall end date” unless specifically noted in the sign up form/edition where you are featured.

NO.

After we sell out of a volume, the final date of usage will be 12 months. All consumers will be notified of the final final deadline.

Having said that, however, we encourage you to accept offers whenever; if each usage results in a sale, why wouldn’t you want that sale? Also,

YES. but we typically encourage NOT doing that.
People are here to explore and like not being limited. That said, if you have something that is particularly high cost or labor intensive to provide, we have several proven methods to address that.

We don’t use logos.
Market research strongly indicates that when logos are included, people view this as an “advertisement.” Our goal is to engage people in content and stories, NOT make them feel marketed to.

YES.
We will email a proof out before print, though time to edit may vary. Please make sure your information is correct on the program application. Regarding art and photography, this is done in collaboration with several local artists and we provide virtually 100% artistic freedom

NO.
We spend a considerable amount of time, money, and resources creating the passports. Once these are printed, you will have to accept the offers agreed to. However, if we ever do a reprint of your edition, you CAN opt out of any future runs.

YES!
Download and print Passport redeem instructions for your team (we recommend putting it up by the register or time sheets)

YES!
You can make a lot of money! Please contact your representative and they will put you in contact with our wholesale director and get you started. We offer custom made displays and much more. VIEW RETAIL INFO