10 Pivots to Energize Your Winery’s Marketing
#1 Cultivate a More Diverse Customer Base
The wine industry cannot afford to be on the wrong side of history.
Social movements surge and wane, to be sure, but when they occur wineries must use them as opportunities to self-reflect and to look for ways to be part of the solution. The modern-day push toward a more diverse and equitable wine industry is such a moment.
Every winery has the potential to increase the diversity of it staff as well as cultivate an audience within the BIPOC community for its wines. While other groups have been under-served historically in the wine space, such as women, the even greater absence of the BIPOC community is unmissable.
Wine has for too long been viewed as the beverage of the white elite, and while there is a vibrant wine culture with the BIPOC community, there is much more to be done. Marketing aside, it’s simply the right thing to do.
If you’re not sure how to cultivate diversity within in your own ranks or as an audience for your wine, there have never been more resources available. We recommend starting here.
#2 Segment Your List Even More Ruthlessly
There is no need to rehash why segmenting your list is advantageous to your bottom line. With the industry at an inflection point, taking a hard look at your existing segmentation strategy could be key to generating additional revenue.
For example, don’t look at customers who haven’t yet purchased as your “dead list.” Look at them as potential buyers you don’t yet fully understand.
Try this: If you only sell your wine in 3-packs, try offering single bottles to this “dead” segment, being careful not to include customers who reliably purchase 3-packs. For those that do purchase the single bottle, you now have a new segment to work with.
If you have customers who’ve only purchased once in the last 12 months, experiment with unique incentives to win another purchase. Tailor them based on how much the customer purchased in their single order.
For customers who bought a case, offer them free shipping on a case or more for a limited time. For customers who’ve only purchased 1-3 bottles, camouflage a modest discount in a bundle of three bottles, also for a limited time.
#3 Cross-Market with a Brand-centric Partner
Expand the reach of your brand by partnering with a like-minded organization. Because you deal in alcohol, this can sometimes be a challenge, but possibilities abound.
If your winery is in a heavily touristed area, ask an area hotel if you can put leaflets in their rooms offering a special incentive to any guests who visit your winery.
In the digital space, perhaps partner with a boutique food producer – cheese mongers are an obvious choice. See if they’ll send an email to their list containing a promo code that can be redeemed on your website for free shipping or a modest discount on a particular SKU or multiple SKUs. You can return the favor and push out one of their offers to your list.
#4 Pick Up the Phone
Call a subset of your most engaged customers, and just ask them how they are. Ask them if the wine they recently purchased has helped them get through the COVID-19 lockdowns. No hard sells. Engage them in conversation. Simply showing that you care is a powerful customer retention tool.
#5 Text Your Way to More Sales
98% of text messages get opened. 29% of emails do.
We’re not saying ditch your MailChimp account, but what if you could push offers and shipping info out via text? A new platform, Vimbibe, allows you to do just that.
While it integrates seamlessly with e-commerce platform Commerce7, it can work with other providers. Of course you’ll have to sacrifice some branding and visual elements in the texts themselves, but if it means reaching a thirsty mailing list member whose emails from you repeatedly end up in their Spam folder, the system could pay for itself in no time.
#6 Add Value Where You Can
Who doesn’t love getting something extra in a wine delivery (or any delivery)? During these trying times, an extra touch here and there can work wonders for customer retention.
It can be as simple as including a logo corkscrew in your best customers’ latest order, a thank you note from the owner or winemaker on the customers’ birthdays, or even a special photograph of the estate signed by the owner or winemaker.
The “extra” doesn’t have to be costly, but if it’s meaningfully chosen, it can keep that customer coming back.
#7 Invest in Video, Even If It’s Not You on Camera
I’ve always had the opinion that if you don’t consider video a strength, avoid it and focus on telling your story through media where you have an edge. COVID-19 may have pushed me in the opposite direction.
While you certainly should devote most of your time and energy to your strengths, avoiding video because you, as marketing manager or winery owner, consider yourself camera-shy is no longer an excuse.
Perhaps you know a local chef who loves being on camera. Ask her or him to do a cooking demo of a dish that would work perfectly with one of your wines. It can be at the chef’s restaurant, or, if you have one, your winery kitchen. Broadcast it via Instagram live or record and edit it for your website. All you need is your phone.
Another idea is to engage with an influencer in the wine space. Send them a bottle, make sure they’re clear on the messaging, and let them do a short tasting video for their followers.
#8 Clean Up Your Database
With online wine sales surging, you have to make sure that nothing is impeding your emails from reaching your customers.
Bounced emails deserve particular attention. Sending too many emails to addresses that repeatedly bounce can degrade your domain reputation and may over time prevent emails from getting into valid mailboxes.
Kickbox is an easy-to-use tool to validate emails. Simply upload a .csv file of suspect emails and the system sends a full report on their validity. For purchasing customers especially, it is worth deploying personnel to reach out by phone to update emails declared invalid. These calls can also be opportunities to deploy suggestion #4.
#9 Create Themed Wine Packages that Dull the Pain of Missed Events
Many of the pastimes of everyday life pre-COVID have been upended, such as sports, live concerts, and food and wine festivals.
Depending on your brand positioning and how well you know your customers, perhaps you can assemble packages of your wines that will make the inability to attend these events less sad.
For example, if the winery owner is a huge San Francisco Giants fan, put together a 3-pack of wines the owner most enjoys drinking while watching a Giants game. Include a simple piece of Giants merchandise with every order.
#10 Make Sure Your Website is Firing on All Cylinders
Website audits should be at least a monthly occurrence. Whether updating products, imagery, or checking links, your virtual storefront must be always be in tip-top shape.
Make sure that you reduce as much friction as possible from your shopping cart and mailing list signup page, and consider adding strategically placed but unobtrusive pop-ups that showcase a special offer.
An excellent tool to consider using is Hotjar. In the form of heatmaps, you’ll be able to visualize where site visitors spend most of their time, what they click and where they vacate their shopping cart. If you can pinpoint where confusion and friction exist, you can more quickly iterate a solution.