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Your Website and eMail Marketing are
like . . . Well. . . Wine and Food Pairings.
If you run a winery and have a website you are on your
way to using technology to further your winery marketing
goals. Today, most wineries have taken the steps to have
an online presence. Some have been at it for over 10 years
now.
But if you aren't using email marketing to support your
website you may be missing out on a key ingredient to online
success.
Here's how.
In the early days, your website became an extension of
your brochures. It was full of information. Which is good,
because information is often what people are looking for
online. The quest for information is what made Google big.
Over time, smart wineries learned they could put up an
online store using ecommerce software and make actual orders
from their website. Often not enough attention was paid
to this channel and shipping restrictions made ecommerce
tricky but again, many wineries have done a nice job.
In my industry research, though, I have found one thing
to be surprisingly true. After reviewing over 500 winery
sites, most are not taking advantage of email as a means
to promote their product.
Imagine only being able to describe wine in relation only
to itself. There is so much more richness being able to
pair wine to food and have the flavors of each assist the
other.
Email marketing is like adding a food pairing.
A website visitor who finds your site, likes what they
see, and reads enough to become interested in placing an
order becomes a customer. However, over 98% of visitors
leave your site . . . and never return.
The first step to successful email marketing is to collect
an email address - called an 'optin' from a visitor. In
order to do that you have to have a reason for a person
to leave an email address. You have to use that email address
with respect and build a relationship over time with the
subscriber. What would it mean to you if 10% of all of your
website visitors left you with an email address? Ten people
you now know for every 100 website visitors.
Over time you would have quite a list of subscribers.
Once you have that list, you have to communicate with them
about the things that THEY would find interesting. What
do they want from you?
You'll soon find that this list of subscribers slowly starts
to buy product from you and they too become customers.
And really, a growing customer list is a key asset no winery
can ignore. If you are not doing email marketing well, you
are missing out on a key marketing channel that will grow
your profits.
If you have found this site to be helpful, please recommend
it to your fellow winemakerss:
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