In a crowded wine market, it’s difficult to differentiate yourself from the competition. The focus is no longer on simply having an exquisite product or staff passionate about their work. Wineries must also market themselves better than the new brands popping up on a daily basis.
It’s hard for wineries to keep up with the demands of the industry. So what are you to do? The success of your brand — and your profits — depends on how well you carry out your marketing strategy. The good news is, you don’t need a large dedicated marketing staff or limitless resources to see success.
With the right wine marketing strategy, planning and tools, you'll be able to master your winery's growth with ease. Let's look at three high-impact ways you can improve your winery's marketing strategy.
Data should be the core of your marketing strategy. The information your winery collects about your customers, and how you use that data, makes all the difference in your winery brand growth.
And it's easier to collect the right data than you think. In fact, you can get started as your customers take that first sip of lightly chilled Sauvignon Blanc.
Email Address. It’s vital to prioritize data capture right in the tasting room. Record emails before your customers leave! For the contacts you do attain, a timely email strategy will enable you to keep the engagement alive — and provides you with higher repeat customer rates and word-of-mouth praise.
Segmentation. As you're growing your contact list, be sure to segment the incoming data. Segmentation parses out your contacts by preferences, location, tasting room visits, etc. This way, you can send out more personalized and effective emails and keep your customers coming back for more.
Referral Source & Location. Gaining as much information about your customers (as is reasonable) has multifaceted benefits. For example, learning the referral source allows you to figure out what channels or relationships are working and double down on those.
To set the right goals for your marketing, begin by being clear about your business goals. Are you looking to drive more tasting room traffic? Build online sales? Boost club member engagement and retention? Before you start creating emails, ads or social media posts, determine your overall objectives and the audience your efforts will target.
Keep in mind, as you create specific strategies and metrics, each should align with a specific goal within your strategy.
Set SMART Goals
Setting SMART goals for all your marketing enables your winery to reach success as efficiently as possible.
Specific – your goal should be as specific as possible to guide improvement in your business. For example, “Increase visitors in the tasting room next month.”
Measurable – what metric are you using to indicate progress toward your goal? For example, “15% visitor increase and above indicates success.”
Attainable – for your goal to be attainable, strive to understand the benchmarks involved with your goal. For example, “I have resource A and B required to attract more visitors to our tasting room.”
Relevant – is your goal in line with the direction your company is moving? For example, “More visitors in the tasting room means I can convert more wine club members and boost winery growth.”
Timely – think of the realistic timeframe for your goal. For example, “Within this period, I’ll be able to see a 15% visitor increase in tasting room visitors. By the end of the year that number can increase to 40%.”
And, most importantly — don’t try to boil the ocean: do one thing at a time for optimal goal setting and accomplishing results.
The right winery software supports your marketing efforts through easy data collection, robust marketing tools, and in-depth reporting. The right software should serve as an end-to-end solution that integrates your marketing, POS, website, and ecommerce into one tool. Here's what to prioritize in winery software that will help improve your marketing:
A single CRM equips you to get a true 360 degree view of your customer across all touchpoints. Use one system for managing every facet of your wine club, from sign-up to club processing to email alerts.
Robust list segmentation capabilities enable you to make marketing decisions based on demographics, purchase history, etc. Plus, with more advanced options, you can access in-depth reporting, available in real time.
Engage customers and drive sales with built-in marketing features like up- and cross-sell tools — automated abandoned cart recovery emails, and dynamic sales messages in the online cart.
Using technology and tools to your advantage is key to modern marketing strategy success.
Pro Tip: Don’t disregard the importance of having mobile-friendly websites and emails. In fact, an outdated site or email can cost your winery sales. For example, over half of traffic to WineDirect client websites comes from mobile, and we saw a 30% increase in mobile orders in 2018 vs. 2017.
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There are a lot of moving pieces to juggle when it comes to your winery, but with the right marketing strategy, planning and tools you'll be able to master growth with ease.
