Comments on: What I tell winemakers

By: Kady

Kady — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:09:03 +0000

Great post. I’m going to bookmark this to show my clients. I run my own business (on the side) for Wine 2.0 (and regular internet marketing) and mainly consult but occasionally I maintain social media accounts for clients. I always tell them it’s best if they provide the content (even if I’m the one typing it up for them). Sincerity and authenticity are key. While consistency is great it’s better to post once a week (or even once a month) than not at all as long as you’re clear about how often you plan to post. Your audience wants to know ahead of time what to expect.

So thank you for encouraging more wineries to utilize all of these free marketing avenues online.

By: Greg Brumley

Greg Brumley — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:58:12 +0000

Steve,

Sorry to be the curmudgeon, but I think we really are talking mountains and molehills. It’s fine to hop on the social media bandwagon — as long as one realizes it’s a second-tier tool.
For an under 10,000-case winery, marketing is a very different task than for a 100,000+ winery. To the latter, it’s about volume sales; to the former, it’s about repeat sales to the same people.
The challenge for my small-winery clients is to grow their relationships with current customers, and develop relationships with new clients. That must be done voice-to-voice and face-to-face. People don’t buy Kendall-Jackson because its “my winery in California”. They do buy Jones Family Winery for that reason. Social media cannot start those personal relationships, nor tighten a customer’s bond with the winery. Social media are wonderful secondary tools to support those efforts — but they should never be a small winery’s primary effort.
I spend time teaching wineries to talk with and pamper and exploit and learn from their most-active customers. Many are reluctant to do that, just as your representative winemaker is reluctant to blog. But, when we break the job down, they become pretty good at it.
You are very right that someone whose name is on the label makes the best representative by far. I also very much agree that young family members — properly trained and supervised — can be very effective on the social media. (It’s a great way to involve the next generation in the business because these kids’ tech savvy equips them to carve out a sales/marketing niche as no previous young generation has.)

Thanks for provoking everyones’ thoughts!

Greg Brumley
mail@brumleygroup.com

By: steve

steve — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:04:50 +0000

Diane: A great message, and one that every winery should read! Thanks.

By: Diane Thompson

Diane Thompson — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:38:50 +0000

Interesting discussion. I have built a long and successful career in both B to B and B to C marketing and sales and have been involved in online marketing from the beginning. While I certainly agree that wineries should use a variety of media to engage with customers and prospects, it is troubling to me that so many have no communications plan or comprehensive marketing strategy, yet they want to jump on Twitter or Facebook because it’s the latest thing. I recommend that clients develop their online media plan much like they would develop a personal investment strategy: take a portfolio approach. That means, first invest in your foundation (low risk, high return): great, updated website and consistent, quality email. Then, add “higher risk” elements like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr. It is really shocking to me the number of wineries that make no effort to collect email addresses from tasting room visitors and, further, even those that do seldom use them! I was recently visiting a high end ($50-100/bottle) Sonoma County winery; purchased a couple of bottles, but no one even asked for an email address! Wouldn’t they like to sell me more wine? Are there really so many customers in this price range that they can afford this attitude? So, net ,net, I am all for incorporating a variety of social media in a marketing plan, but some of the elements need to be viewed as frosting on a cake. Unfortunately, way too many wineries don’t have a cake! The good news – lots of opportunity for people like me!:-)

By: JonEVino

JonEVino — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:13:57 +0000

Yee haw, Doc! This is startin’ to remind me of when you and I, and my cousin, JonERingo, used to sit around the saloon after everybody else was gone and go on for hours about…oh, I don’t know… marketing and public relations, social media…stuff like that. Those were the days, eh Doc? Have you noticed how a bunch of folks round these parts have been questioning the value of social media, as though they was gonna have to lay out serious gold dust to pay for it? Think you’ve hit the nail square on the head this time, Doc. The point is that it’s advertising that you don’t have to pay for (my apologies to the “time is money” crowd…you know how much I love those guys). Back at Gunslinger Tech, seems to me they called that Public Relations. Seems like folks were pretty high on it, and back then you mostly had to pay a guy or gal to do it for ya. Now you can be sittin’ on your horse, or layin’ in the bunk, clutchin’ your handheld (hee hee, cough cough), and next thing you know you’ve done a little self promotion, and ya never even broke a sweat! Doc… seriously now…I think it’s time that we make like cow pies and hit the trail. Don’t forget to pick up your gun on the way out. Seems we’ve lived to fight another day – g’night, Doc.