The Craft Emporium Had the Brand. We Built the System Behind It.
Bellefontaine's beloved craft beer bottle shop and taproom was a community institution without a website, without analytics, and without a way to reach its own customers after they walked out the door. Here's what we built — and why it matters.
0 days
From zero to fully live
0%
Organic traffic engagement rate (first 2 weeks)
0%
Referral traffic engagement rate
The Craft Emporium · Bellefontaine, Ohio · Restaurant & Bar · Pilot engagement
Meet the team who built something worth finding
Brian Harmon
Owner
Brian climbed the corporate ranks the hard way — data, discipline, and a relentless eye for systems. When he left to bet on something he actually loved, he brought every tool from that world with him. The Craft Emporium runs with the operational rigor of a company ten times its size. Brian doesn't guess. He measures. Our job was to build him a system worth measuring.
Hailey Buck
Operations & Community
If Brian is the infrastructure, Hailey is the heartbeat. She is the reason Bellefontaine knows The Craft Emporium by name, by face, and by feeling. The super-connector who turned a bottle shop into a community anchor. She breathed life into the brand in every room she walked into. Our job was to make sure that energy didn't disappear the moment someone opened a browser instead of a door.
A brand that outpaced its own digital presence
When Liftoff started working with The Craft Emporium, the business had everything that takes years to build — a loyal following, a distinctive identity, a product people drove across the county for. What it didn't have was any digital infrastructure to match.
Their website was a Facebook page. The bottle shop had no online presence — no way for customers to browse inventory, no order-ahead capability, no system to promote what was on the shelves. No CRM. No way to reach customers after they left. And when Ohio legislation changed the rules around THC beverages — eliminating a meaningful revenue stream overnight — the business needed new ways to drive traffic and build customer relationships that didn't depend on any single product or policy.
"The core problem was not brand. The problem was that nothing digital reflected it."
The build
A real website — finally
Built from the ground up to match the brand equity The Craft Emporium had already earned in the real world. Conversion-optimized for loyalty and newsletter signups. Interactive beer recommendation quiz. Age-gate system. Accessibility toolbar. Scroll-based animations. Every detail carried over from the physical brand to the digital one — consistent, cohesive, and unmistakably Craft.
Built to be found
Every page optimized for searches like 'craft beer Bellefontaine' and 'things to do in Logan County.' Custom titles, meta descriptions, and structured data on every page so Google understands exactly what The Craft Emporium is and what it offers. FAQ pages formatted specifically to appear as featured snippets — Craft's answers showing up in search results before someone even clicks. Direct indexing submissions to both Google and Bing on launch day, so the site appeared in results within days, not months.
The foundation every future dollar of advertising depends on
Google Analytics 4 configured with full campaign attribution — so every visitor's source is tracked, whether they came from a Google search, a Facebook post, a referral link, or a future paid ad. Meta Pixel installed from day one, quietly building a custom retargeting audience in the background. Google Search Console connected and live. By the time The Craft Emporium runs their first paid campaign, they won't be advertising to strangers. They'll be targeting people who already visited the site, joined the loyalty program, or attended an event and opted in.
Turning one night into a customer list
Every business that runs events faces the same problem: 200 people show up, care deeply, and then disappear. We built a system that captures that energy before it leaves the room.
🍺 The Craft Emporium
CHILI COOK-OFF 2026
Scan QR to begin
Guests scan. The experience begins.
A branded QR code is displayed at the event. Guests scan it on their phone and land on a custom-branded voting page — no app download, no friction.
Pick Your Top 3
Pick your top 3 chilis.
Guests browse the entries and select their favorites. The page is fast, branded, and built for mobile. This is where engagement peaks — they are invested in the outcome.
Get Results First
Be the first to know about future events
At peak engagement — the ask.
Right after they vote — the exact moment they care most — they're prompted to join the insider list via email and SMS. Not a popup. Not an interruption. A natural next step when they're already engaged.
🏆 Live Leaderboard
● Updating live
Smoky Mesquite
Hailey's Habanero
Five-Alarm Classic
They're watching all night.
After opting in, guests land on a live leaderboard that updates in real time as votes come in. They check back. They talk about it. They show their friends. The event has a second life on everyone's phone.
Contact List
Chili Cook-Off 2026
47 opted-in contacts
One event. A permanent asset.
When the night ends, The Craft Emporium has a segmented, opted-in list of their most enthusiastic customers — ready for future promotions, new releases, and the next event. The night is over. The relationship isn't.
"One event becomes a data capture moment. Regulars feel like insiders. The energy in the room becomes a list you can reach forever."
This system is not a one-time activation. Every event The Craft Emporium runs from this point forward is a growth moment. The chili cook-off list becomes the seed audience for the next promotion. The next event grows the list further. The Meta Pixel running on the site connects these contacts to Facebook and Instagram retargeting — so when Brian and Hailey are ready to run paid campaigns for a new can release or a seasonal event, they're not advertising to strangers. They're advertising to the people who already showed up.
Two weeks in
The site launched in mid-March 2026. The Craft Emporium had no prior web presence. Here's what the first two weeks showed.
0%
Organic search engagement rate. Every person finding the site through Google is reading it, not bouncing.
0%
Referral traffic engagement rate. Significantly above industry benchmarks for a brand new site.
Day 1
Indexing submissions sent to Google and Bing on launch day. No waiting in the queue.
These are two weeks of data on a site that didn't exist before. Volume will grow. The trajectory is what matters — and the trajectory is right.
What's already built for what comes next
The Meta Pixel has been building a custom audience since the day the site launched. Every person who visits, browses the bottle shop, signs up for the loyalty program, or scans a QR code at an event is being added to a retargeting pool.
When The Craft Emporium runs their first Facebook or Instagram campaign:
- — A customer who voted in the chili cook-off can receive an ad for the next event
- — A browser who visited the bottle shop page can get served a new can release promotion
- — Loyalty members can be excluded from acquisition ads and targeted with retention offers instead
- — Website visitors from the past 30, 60, or 90 days can be retargeted with exactly the right message
This infrastructure is live and growing today. Every day the site exists, the audience gets more valuable.
Questions about this project
Your business has more equity than your digital presence shows. Let's fix that.
Liftoff Local works with restaurants, bars, venues, and service businesses across Bellefontaine and Ohio. If your brand deserves better infrastructure, let's talk.