Category: Marketing

How to Tweak Your Messaging for More Sales this Holiday

By: Susan DeMatei, Founder of WineGlass Marketing

  There is a lot of pressure on Q4 this year. Americans fueled by high gas prices, inflation, and pent-up demand flocked to Europe instead of domestically in 2022. For most North American wineries, this resulted in a slow summer tourist season, with some wineries reporting as much as a 25% drop in sales from pre-COVID visitations. Many of our clients hope a strong holiday season will make up for a lackluster Q2 and Q3.

  The addition of gifting makes betting on Q4 reasonable. In addition to increased wine consumption among known purchasers and club members due to social occasions around the holidays, we also can sell additional wine to the same group for gift giving. In addition, those who have not tried the wine might do so as a gift, positioning this quarter as a perfect time to grow brand awareness and increase our prospect databases.

  Buying a gift is undoubtedly different from buying for personal consumption. Consider if the traditional copy and images work in both situations. Has the offer positioning and targeting of the wine been adjusted for gift occasions? Neuromarketing, the study of marketing and consumerism’s influence on the brain, has some tips for us on what messaging is appropriate when motivating consumers to buy a product they intend to give to someone else.

  Objective 1: Get existing buyers to give wine as gifts. Prior research into gift-giving has concretely established that we buy gifts based on our ego, and the subconscious motivation in most gift choices is identity-consistent. According to (Sherry, 1983), gifts become “containers for the being of the donor who gives a portion of that being to the recipient.”

  It makes sense; we buy what we would like to receive ourselves. However, it does not stop there. The gift is also an “acknowledgment by both people that the identity imposed is accepted” (Schwartz, 1967). So not only do we tend to give gifts we feel represent our self-worth, but when others accept it, they confirm that value.

  So, psychologically speaking, getting our loyal base to share the wine they have already identified as worthy should be relatively easy. The most compelling messages here would be ones of connection and pride. Bottle X is their favorite wine, and Brand Y is their favorite winery. They have the inside information on what Brand Y offers, and because of that access and knowledge, they have chosen Bottle X as the best gift.

  What if they are not so confident? Perhaps they are new to the brand or unsure about their wine knowledge. Choosing a present for someone is more complex than choosing something for oneself because of the tension inherent in selecting a product that is appropriate for the recipient while still reflective of the giver’s own identity and the relationship between the individuals. (Belk 1979; Caplow 1982). As marketers, we can relieve this tension by making a solid argument. Emotionally we need to highlight why Bottle X from Brand Y is a solid, esteemed choice that reflects well on the giver. Highlight quality and details and bring up best sellers that further confidence. We do not need to waste time on introductions to Brand Y. We can keep the message focused on the selected products that make the strongest case for the best gifts. Furthermore, do not forget to create urgency with either shipping deadlines or limited quantities.

  Cost is unimportant in this scenario because we shop with a budget concerning gifts. At the onset, Bottle X is within the consideration set or is not. Psychologically speaking, a discount will not help this purchase and might hurt perceived value. Based on cultural norms and other factors, the average gift expenditure is between $50 and $100 for a family member and between $20 and $50 for a friend. (mint.com) So our best chance is to make the most attractive and strongest argument we can within those price ranges.


  TIP: The savvy marketer will also realize a hidden opportunity to target the recipient. An expertly crafted introductory brochure inserted into the gift box serves a dual purpose of not only furthering the giver’s confidence but can engage the recipient as well.

  Objective 2: Get existing buyers to buy wine for consumption. Wine for consumption falls into either self-presentation (at the customer’s own event) or as a hostess gift to another’s event. Research shows that motivations are far less dramatic when the gift is obligatory. We have less alignment with our identity when we give from a sense of obligation, and we are more likely to select practical or utilitarian gifts than those we give from a voluntary motive.

  Here is where logic and price come into play: Avoid outliers. Choose wines that pair well with various foods and situations and are between $15 – $40, the average amount spent on wine brought to parties (Forbes.) By mentioning food pairing, we are putting Bottle X in the context of the consumers’ lives and providing ideas about where the wine will be accepted.

  TIP: For extra incentive here, try a referral offer. The consumer is already in the headspace of how he/she will be spending time and celebrating with friends. It is a tiny leap to consider who else might enjoy Bottle X and suggest an introduction.

  Objective 3: Get prospects to give wine as gifts.

If gift-giving reflects our self-image, how do we immediately resonate with someone who has not tried Bottle X? We must present Bottle X and Brand Y as attractive representations of this potential buyer. The best way to do this is to overcome any objection a potential buyer might have. These objections could be the price, quality, or taste of the wine and, more than likely, the company’s values. We are far more likely to convince a prospect that we are a good gift if we are transparent about what we stand for, and this truth aligns with our prospect’s values.

  To succeed here, highlight mainstream varietal wines between $20 – $100 and have a pretty label or custom box. (Yes, you read that right, here is where research shows us attractive labels are perceived as higher value and thus a better gift choice.) Additional validation, like a score, also helps, as does any information on company values or beliefs. Target this value group on Meta or Google for even more alignment.

  TIP: Brainstorm how to make a bottle of wine special to this target audience. Gift boxes, merchandise inclusions, an insert about the company or an aligned charity, or signed bottles all add to the perceived value and make an otherwise impersonal gift more personal and attractive.

  Objective 4: Get prospects to buy wine for consumption. This is the most challenging of the four objectives but still achievable. The psychological emotion to overcome in this situation is guilt.

  It is bound to happen. We spend hours online combing through gifts (that we now know are reflections of ourselves), and we will see something that we want for ourselves. Our opportunity here is to grant permission to treat themselves.

By framing a personal choice as a potential gift, we can now include non-traditional gift categories. In the Felix Gray email, it is unlikely that someone would give a pair of prescription glasses as a gift. Nevertheless, their messaging leans into the season by positioning their glasses as gifts and additionally appropriate as a small personal luxury. They permit the target to splurge $100 on some new lenses in the context of “I was just Christmas shopping.”

  TIP: Luckily, wine is a relatively low-risk purchase, so our permission can come in the form of removing minimal barriers like shipping costs. The message here should be that the target deserves the wine, and it is painless to get it.

Summary:

  We get something like this chart if we put all four quadrants together and summarize our messaging. We have discussed the psychological motivation between each purchase as slightly different and recommended how to tweak messaging depending on the goal for the best outcome.

  One final note on gifts: A 2016 study asked people to give a friend either a “material” or “experiential” gift (valued at $15). Material gifts included things such as clothing, and experiential gifts included things such as movie tickets. Recipients of the experiential gifts showed a more significant improvement in perceived relationship strength than recipients of the material gifts.

  This shows that the gift we most value is quality time. So, consider experiences when planning the holiday lineup. A unique experience targeted to the local fan base could resonate during a stressful holiday season.

About the Author

  Susan DeMatei is the founder of WineGlass Marketing, a full-service direct marketing firm working within the wine industry in Napa, California. Now in its 10th year, the agency offers domestic and international clients assistance with strategy and execution.   

WineGlass Marketing is located in Napa, California at 707-927-3334 or wineglassmarketing.com

By: Susan DeMatei, Founder of WineGlass Marketing

After navigating our client’s business and company growth during the last two roller-coaster years, I was ready for a significant break. Armed with credits from two canceled vacations and many pent-up credit card miles, I cashed in for an extended European visit in July. While there, my husband and I traveled to and stayed in four major wine tasting regions: Alsace, Champagne, Burgundy, and the Rhine/Mosel.

  While there are countless and apparent differences between how France, Germany and the US promote tourism and sell wine directly to customers, there are equal similarities if you look hard enough. On this trip, I found myself in the rare role of a focused tourist. So, I became aware of the marketing cues and delivery vehicles and noted what worked, and what didn’t.

Here’s Some of what I Learned:

1. You can’t judge a baguette by its crust.  If I were to ask you to paint a picture of your ideal customer, who would you envision? Most have that gray-haired, tanned, 65-year-old couple on a sailboat in their mind. What if I told you that the average 25-55 year old was equal to or wealthier than most over 55?

   And it goes beyond gray hair to the overall presentation. The casualness of today’s affluent consumers was apparent on day one in the premium airline lounge. I splurged all our points on an upgrade to Business Class for our 11-hour flight to and from Zurich, complete with the little fold-down bed and access to the private lounge at the airport. I expected to see businessmen in suits and mature couples dressed in Sax Fifth Avenue or European power couples with effortless, crisp, linen summer button-downs and a nanny in tow with the two gorgeous well-behaved children. This was not what I saw. I saw 30-year-olds with backpacks and complete families with grandmothers in a wheelchair and many young children.

  This observation continued at wineries. What struck me the most was the dress code. I know this isn’t the 60’s where you dressed up to go traveling, and we were in a heat wave, but even in Reims, where an average tasting can be 70€ and a bottle in the thousands, the standard was casual, very casual. Like pajama bottoms, gym shorts, flip flops, unbrushed hair, and ripped jeans casual.

  Takeaway:  The days of the winery controlling the “exclusivity” of a visit have passed. Customers now decide where they think they fit in and boldly go there. Visually, the current wealthy consumer is indistinguishable from a person on minimum wage. How would you determine who “belongs” even if you could? It would be best to assume anyone walking through your door is self-selected to be at your winery and a potential buyer. Your control exists with a straightforward website with your story and brand, where you list your offerings and are clear about your pricing. If you execute traffic-driving initiatives, ensure your income and geography target is correct so you don’t get someone looking for a Toyota strolling into a Range Rover dealer.

2. Napoleon’s hat is cool but not what I was looking for.  My husband and I have seen vineyards and done our share of winery tours, but I was not going to miss the chance to tour the ancient and legendary cellars of the one-and-only Moët & Chandon. I have always been a Dom Pérignon fan, and as the parent company, Moët is the only place you can find it as a tourist. I was prepared to spare no expense for a high-end experience at this boutique and called ahead but was dismayed that they only had two options for visitors. I explained I was a Sommelier from Napa and that I was interested in the higher echelon wines I couldn’t easily find in the US, but there was no flexibility with options. Hoping for the best, I purchased the more expensive of the two tour/tastings.

  Épernay is very similar to Napa. Small and hyper-focused on luxury winery tourism and visited by many tourists with various ranges of knowledge and spending power. Moët & Chandon didn’t disappoint with a grand entrance and seating area displaying several historical artifacts, including Napoleon Bonaparte’s hat.

  But that was as interesting as it got. For the next 75 minutes, we were led through an introductory tour of the champenoise method-not, even very much history or specific information about Moët. It was the same script someone from Schramsberg could have used. A woman from Oregon wanted to ask questions, but at each juncture, she apologized and seemed embarrassed that she was interrupting the tour guide’s script with wanting to know more.

  At the completion, we were rewarded with two glasses of vintage champagne (the base level tour offered a single tasting of the current NV Brut as the only deviation). In the garden with our group, I listened to our group chatter as an Australian wine collector boasted about his cellar full of Penfolds Grange to a mother from the Netherlands with her son, who was celebrating his birthday (he had just turned 18). Then we were all ushered through the gift shop before exiting.

  Takeaway:  What a tragic missed opportunity! With some foresight and flexibility, the Grange buyer and ourselves could have easily been delighted with an abbreviated tour and tasting of their high-end offerings. I’m sure we would have purchased 3x as much in half the time. Then the woman with the questions and the mother and son would have been within a smaller group of people who all could have learned about dosage or riddling while feeling more comfortable and heard.

  Never underestimate the power of customized experiences or knowing your audience to maximize sales opportunities.

3. A little Nerd goes a long way.  The tools and technology used were as varied as the regions we visited. Alsace had some of the most professional “Hollywood” style use of video, ingeniously using the barrels and the cellar walls as the video screen for various camera angles. Mercier in Épernay has a full-size laser-guided train that tours their cellars and a video that interacts with its elevator. Dr. Loosen, in Germany, chose low-tech but equally effective blown-up laminated images of the vineyards and soils to accompany and explain their elaborate and complex Riesling tasting.

  We belong to the Domaine Serene Wine Club in Oregon, and their sister winery is Château de la Crée in Santenay, Burgundy. I appreciated they were sufficiently connected worldwide to have my Wine Club information (even though I noticed la Crée wasn’t on WineDirect as Serene is). The customer service was seamless; they knew what wines we’d purchased and our entire history. But with language barriers, I respected that they also asked us to fill out a customer form to confirm they had information in their system correctly, and nothing needed updating.

  A not-so-great but funny example of a technology miss is that thanks to COVID-19, most cafes and some European restaurants have removed menus entirely in favor of QR code stickers on the tables. This reduces waste and time, lowers germs, and is easier to update, so it seems like a great idea all the way around. That is until your phone runs out of juice (which happened), or your sticker is ripped or faded (which happened), and you’re left awkwardly sneaking to another table or flagging down an annoyed waiter to find a menu.

  Takeaway:  We can use technology to enhance or confuse our customers. It can improve creativity, help communicate a message, make the visit memorable, reduce waste and germs, and help your customer and employee experience. Just ensure you know why you’re using it and employ it with intent and purpose.

  Also, always have a low-tech backup for when tech fails or you need to communicate with a neophyte.

C’est La Vie!

  It’s been several years since I’ve been to another wine region to compare “cellar door” marketing and programs and I can say Europe has come a long way toward our new world DTC practices here in the US. I am encouraged that as younger consumers become more educated, affluent, and demanding, the pace of evolution will continue to increase. There will likely be additional channels and tools that we are just beginning to explore in another few years.

  Susan DeMatei is the founder of WineGlass Marketing, a full-service direct marketing firm working within the wine industry in Napa, California. Now in its 10th year, the agency offers domestic and international clients assistance with strategy and execution.  WineGlass Marketing is located in Napa, California at 707-927-3334 or wineglassmarketing.com 

By: Bryan St. Amant, Founder & CEO of VinterActive

Now that leading wineries have discovered the power of SMS marketing, the race is on to see which brands will profit and at whose expense.

With consumer engagement 32-times better than email marketing, even new wineries can quickly grow a small text messaging list that outperforms thousands of email addresses. For wineries with established DTC lists, the news is even better.

If your winery can convince 3% of your existing list to opt in for text messaging, you’ll succeed in creating an entirely new DTC channel that sells as much wine as the other 97%.

And here’s the best news of all…

Today’s SMS wine marketing solutions are inexpensive, easy to use, and can generate game-changing results in days by following three easy steps.

STEP 1) Plan Your Initial Offer: Once you’ve made the decision to add text messaging to your mix, your next step is to decide what you’ll be using it for so you can create your first text marketing offer inviting your customers to join your brand’s text messaging list.

The latest research shows that consumers are interested in brands that offer exclusive promotions, product news, and customer service delivered via text. And the most successful wineries we’ve worked with use text messaging to deliver all three.

But just because you can do all these things with SMS marketing doesn’t mean you need to do them all at once.

That’s why we recommend most wine merchants start with one of these text marketing offers:

• Concierge Services available via text.
• Wine Club Updates sent via text as needed.
• Order Tracking triggered by new shipments.
• Monthly Winery Updates about new wine & events.
• Weekly Tasting Room Specials.

If you want a proven pilot program and have a wine club, try offering your members the opportunity to receive their club updates via text. They’ll be thrilled, and you’ll have a new text marketing list.

PRO-TIP: For maximum engagement with loyal customers, perform a simple survey asking them what texts they’d like to receive from your brand. You might learn something, and when you offer your fans the chance to sign up for text messaging, they’ll already be on board.

Whatever you decide to offer at first, as long as you focus on real customer needs, you can’t go wrong. You can always start slow and build your text marketing program over time. So don’t stress out. Just getting the ball rolling might be the primary benefit of your first campaign.

For a motivated wine marketer, this first step shouldn’t take more than a day or two.

STEP 2) Select an SMS Wine Marketing Platform:
Once you’ve identified the customer services you’ll deliver via text, your next step is to select an SMS wine marketing platform.

Fortunately, many vendors now serve the wine industry and offer a broad range of marketing tools and price points. So do your due diligence by confirming the platform you select has all the tools needed to support your most crucial SMS marketing goals.

Critical tools for DTC wine marketers often include:

Two-Way Text Conversations: Essential for text-based concierge services. If you have a large hospitality team, make sure the system you select supports multiple team members as needed.

Text Marketing Preference Center: Essential for segmenting customers based on individual interests. Preference-based messaging is the best way to maximize consumer satisfaction and minimize unsubscribes.
Integration with Wine Commerce Systems: Essential for automating transactional messages like order confirmation, reservation reminders, and shipping notifications.

Automated Text Marketing Workflows: Essential for quickly responding to customer inquiries and maximizing staff productivity.

Age Compliance Mechanism: Essential for complying with industry regulations. SMS wine marketing systems must have working age gates that filter out contacts younger than 21.

PRO-TIP: Most wine marketers can send and receive texts using toll-free or local numbers. To send more than 3000 messages daily, use a toll-free service since they can deliver thousands of messages in seconds. But if customers also call you on a local number, you should text-enable it, too.

You can’t go wrong if you choose a platform that delivers the tools needed to support your initial goals. Worst case, if your plans change or your SMS platform doesn’t deliver as expected, you’ll still have all your data and opt-in contacts. So you can change your SMS marketing system if needed.
Even with due diligence, this step should take a week or less.

STEP 3) Launch Your First SMS Wine Marketing Campaign: When your new SMS platform is ready to go, it’s time to launch your new text messaging service. The wineries we’ve worked with have enjoyed success launching their SMS programs using a combination of:

• Email invitations to existing contacts.
• Webforms targeting prospects visiting your website from a desktop computer.
• “Click-to-text” buttons targeting prospects visiting your website from a mobile device.
• “Scan-to-text” signs that use QR codes to invite tasting room visitors to join your list.
• Keywords your customers can text to your brand to join your SMS list.
• Printed offers accompanying product shipments.

Just like email marketing, the success of your text marketing program depends on your list size.
So promote your SMS list wherever you engage the most customers.

If you have a large email list, promote your SMS program to email subscribers. If you have a busy tasting room, promote your SMS list there. And if your website or social media pages host hundreds or thousands of visitors each month, they should prominently feature your SMS wine marketing offers.

PRO-TIP: For an in-depth tutorial on the best practices for growing SMS wine marketing lists, check out our recent article, “The 7 Best Ways Wineries Can Grow Their Text Marketing Lists.”

To help you get started, your SMS wine marketing partner should be happy to assist you with all the tools needed to introduce your new text messaging services and grow your opt-in list quickly.

Even if you take the time to set up all possible subscription channels, this step can be accomplished in less than a week, leaving you ready to begin profiting from SMS wine marketing.

After Launch, What’s Next?

If you’ve already launched your SMS wine marketing program, congratulations! You’ve joined an exclusive club of wine merchants who use text messaging to stay in touch with their customers.

Now the fun begins – optimizing your text marketing program to maximize results.

One of the first decisions you’ll need to make is how often you text your subscribers. Since the number one reason consumers unsubscribe to text marketing programs is that they receive too many or too few messages, the frequency of your messages is critical to dial in.

The latest research on text marketing shows that most consumers prefer receiving text messages from their favorite brands every two weeks. But consumer preferences vary widely. So we recommend offering customers a choice of text messaging content so they can hear from you as often as they like.

Your initial campaign could offer winery updates every two weeks. But then, as you build out your text marketing program, you might also offer weekly updates on tasting room specials or perhaps monthly updates featuring recipes that pair well with your wines. With weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly options to choose from, your SMS wine marketing program will appeal to the broadest range of customers.

As you continue to optimize your text messaging program, you’ll need to keep an eye on results. That means regularly reviewing the open, click-thru, and unsubscribe rates generated by your campaigns so you can do more of what works while learning from your less successful efforts.

In our experience, learning from both success and failure is the key to delivering world-class DTC wine marketing results.

The Sooner You Text,
the Sooner You’ll Profit

In a world where 90% of online consumers want text messages from their favorite brands, but only 8% of U.S. wineries text their customers, this mismatch between consumer preference and industry practice spells nothing but opportunity for wineries focused on growth.

Unless you think text messaging is going away soon, you only have one choice to make: whether or not you let your competition profit from text messaging before you.

With consumers hungry for brands that engage them with text messaging and wine marketers reporting results 32-times better than email, now’s the time for savvy wine marketers to embrace text messaging.

We hope the 3-steps we’ve shared with you in this article can help your business quickly profit from SMS wine marketing.

Happy Selling!

About the Author

Founder & CEO of VinterActive, Bryan St. Amant, is a pioneer in developing preference-based direct marketing and its successful application in the wine industry. His award-winning work has been featured in books, magazines, and seminars. VinterActive is located in Windsor, California. For more information please call or visit their website vinteractive.com
707-836-7295

By: Susan DeMatei, Founder of WineGlass Marketing

In the September/October issue of The Grapevine Magazine, I wrote an article entitled “The four reasons you should care about online reviews.” As a quick recap, the four reasons were:

1.   We are at the precipice of a cultural shift from Baby Boomer values (externally showing luxury as validation, including professional and published reviews and scores) to Millennial values (internal and self-validation, including being part of a community that shares your beliefs).

2.   The internet and modern eCommerce train us to look for the most popular brands and rank the highest among people (we assume) are peers.

3.   Google evaluates reviews when delivering search engine responses and ranking.

4.   Your customers care about review sites.

•   92% to 97% of customers look for or read a review before doing business with a company.

•   80% of us trust reviews by strangers just as highly as a reference from our friends.

•   72% of us look for only positive reviews, and 86% will not do business with those with negative reviews. (Clutch.co)

  For many, this advice proves sound and agree that internet reviews are essential. Maybe you’ve even begun identifying where your target audience congregates and shares thoughts online. But knowing something in principle and achieving that goal are two different things. Your next step is to encourage and collect reviews, which is the topic of this follow-up article.

Asking In Person

  The most obvious way to accumulate reviews of your wine and service is to ask a customer when you’re with them at the time of the sale. This is also the most effective way, as the experience is still fresh in the customers’ minds, and you have a captive audience for a couple of minutes. But this is also the most uncomfortable for some. So, before you start squirming in your chair, here are some suggestions for making this awkward interaction more natural.

Build It Into The Banter  

  The most skilled wine educators weave the request naturally into the conversation. The trick is to have several routine lead-in questions where the response will naturally lead to a review suggestion.

  For instance:

•   “Did you enjoy your visit?”

•   “Do you want to take any wines home with you”?

•   “When are you guys heading back home from vacation?”

  The expected responses will comfortably lead to:

•   “Since you enjoyed yourselves, we welcome you to share your feedback so others can enjoy us.”

•“  Thank you for the purchase! We’re glad you liked the wine. We’d be excited if you’d share your feelings about it to encourage others to try it.”

•   “We love having visitors from out of town. Since you’re heading back tomorrow, please consider leaving notes on your experience, so others find us on their vacations.”

  It’s best to have this dialog after the entire experience is done, with the bill and tip paid. You want to clarify that any review is not affecting their service, charges, or product quality. And, when you have this interaction, choose words that don’t seem pushy. “Invite you to leave feedback” sounds better than “Can you give us a review.” Finally, don’t hesitate to say why you want a review. “Hey, thanks a lot, we’re trying to get going again after COVID, and good news travels fast.”

  Remember that even if you feel uncomfortable, most of the people you ask will be flattered that you’re asking them for feedback, not annoyed that you’re fishing for compliments.

Remove All Obstacles For An Immediate Response

  Continuing our roll playing from above, if the customer above says “yes,” you want to be able to actualize that direct call to action. Have the tools ready immediately and seamlessly to review your location right then and there. Luckily, almost all customers walk into our tasting rooms with tiny computers in their pockets, so offering WiFi for their phones is all that is needed. With a QR code on a napkin, coaster, receipt, or table tent, they could be on your profile on Yelp or Google in less than 15 seconds. If you are remote and WiFi is a challenge, see if you can offer an iPad on your network.

  Then thank them. The good news is that when asked, research says ¾ of us will leave a review. So, you’ll be surprised at your success.

Remote Options

  If your natural state is being socially distant, so in-person requests just are not your thing, there are still ways you can request reviews. Online you will find many websites selling window clings or table tents to make the subtle request not-so-subtly. If you want these in your tasting room, get some tear-off pads so that you can provide the information in the bag with their purchase. And don’t forget that when you’re working on your email, phone, and text campaigns, you can also include a request for review. No, you won’t annoy your customers. Asking for feedback is standard practice in many industries.

  If you ask for after-the-fact reviews, offer a small token of appreciation, such as a tasting voucher, coupon, or discount. Communicate that you will reward satisfied buyers for the time they invest in providing feedback about their experience. 

  A word of caution: this is a slippery slope. Ideally, you want to earn reviews without offering rewards. Websites like Yelp filter out reviews provided because of incentives, and Google also uses analytics to monitor review traffic.

  Also, educate your employees and team leaders on how to ask for reviews effectively as well as excellent customer experience. Be willing to reward your employees for every posted review that they initiate.

How To Maximize Their Impact

  Now that you have these great reviews use them. The objective is 1) to position positive reviews so that your audience learns from satisfied customers and 2) to encourage additional reviews. First, incorporate them into your website’s design. Consider one of the many review widgets or direct feedback options on your website’s home page. Emails, brochures, or newsletters can include individual reviews. On social media, sprinkle them in posts. Please don’t overdo it, and vary the channel and locations as you never know when a satisfied customer’s comment might be why someone else visits or tries your wine.

Haters Gonna Hate

  So, what about the not-so-great reviews? Finding a negative review about your company, product, or team out there for the world to see can challenge your faith and motivation. You and your team have spent years creating experiences and products to entertain and please customers, so a negative response can feel like a personal attack.

  At these times, try and separate your business practicality from the sting to your ego and remember that there are many reasons why you may get a negative review. You will receive bad reviews from customers visiting with unrealistic expectations who either haven’t researched what is possible at your tasting room or have inaccurate information from a 3rd party. They may be ignorant of the legalities around wine service and sales, new to your wine flavor profile, or just having a bad day.

  It is crucial to set internal expectations that a certain percentage of bad reviews will just transpire as an expression of the core values of our culture. The US is about freedom, and the internet has empowered everyone to have a voice. Some people just like pointing out other people’s flaws because it makes them feel better. The unfortunate reality of running a business is that you simply can’t please everyone. Some of your customers are just negative people, and there’s not much you can do about that.

  The real downside comes with how their negative reviews can harm your business. Only 13% of customers will do business with a company with only 1 or 2 stars, and small businesses with a 1-1.5 rating out of five generate 33% of the revenue than businesses averaging 2+ stars. (Trustpulse)

Embrace The Noise

  But, in most cases, there is value in listening. We can be so close to our own winery experience that we fail to see or acknowledge areas for improvement. A negative review can be an excellent way to prioritize issues and enhancements that bother your customers and hinder your success when looked at without emotion. Pre-internet companies spent months and thousands of dollars on focus groups to secretly watch customers behind glass, hoping to learn what worked or did not resonate for a target audience. How amazing is it that now we have an immediate and actionable free feedback loop?

  Surprisingly, getting negative reviews isn’t always a bad thing. Research tells us that a couple of negative reviews can make a brand seem authentic. Bad reviews give customers a sense of the worst-case scenario, and they want to know what can go wrong to understand how much it will matter to them. The occasional lousy review eliminates any “too good to be true” doubts. When every online review about your brand is a gushingly over-the-top 5-star rating, it can appear fake.

  So, when we see the good, we tend to celebrate it by sharing it with our team. Meanwhile, we ignore, forget, or attack poor feedback. Smart companies make the most out of their online reviews by addressing issues with a response to the customer. And consumer expectations are high:

•    53% of customers expect that reviews will be responded to within 1 hour.

•    57% of customers believe brands should respond to reviews on the weekend.

•    63% of customers say that businesses have never responded to their reviews. (Trustpulse)

How to Respond to a Negative Review

  Here are some guidelines on how to respond to negative reviews.

•    First – take a breath and remember that people are human and flawed, and things happen on both sides. Don’t take it personally and acknowledge that everyone gets negative reviews.

•    Make them feel like they’re getting management’s attention. Respond as the business owner, even if you’re not.

•    Be consistent and timely. Always respond, even if you’re super busy.

•    The goal is to open the lines of communication and let the user know you are listening to them. They aren’t just another metric in your dashboard. Treat them like real human beings. Make your response authentic and personal, as if you were talking with a grumpy friend.

•    If it’s a complicated issue, offer to take the case offline by offering to move the conversation to a private chat.

•    If you are at fault, do what you say you’ll do to fix it. Take immediate action once you’ve told the visitor how you’ll improve their problem.

•    And don’t be shy in asking them to change their rating, or at the very least update their comment that you responded to and tried to make right. And who knows? Maybe that negative review will lead to a killer testimonial that drives even more traffic.

  Online reviews are here to stay and can positively or negatively impact your business. The result depends on how well you hand the reviews themselves.

  Remember, even a negative review can positively affect your revenue! The goal of addressing and improving your online reviews is to harness the power of social proof. By showing that many other customers loved your winery enough to be vocal about it, you’ll be more likely to get even more business in the future.

  Susan DeMatei is the founder of WineGlass Marketing, a full-service direct marketing firm working within the wine industry in Napa, California. Now in its 10th year, the agency offers domestic and international clients assistance with strategy and execution.   

WineGlass Marketing is located in Napa, California at 707-927-3334 or wineglassmarketing.com

By: Bryan St. Amant, Founder & CEO of VinterActive

Silicon Valley Bank’s latest research on wine marketing shows that fewer than 9% of U.S. wineries took advantage of text messaging in 2021. But those who did report phenomenal success with open rates of 98% and click-thru rates of 12% – generating 32-times more customer engagement than email marketing.

So savvy wine marketers are now asking the same question: How can we grow our text marketing lists as quickly as possible?

  The good news is today’s wine consumers – even Baby Boomers – want you to text them. According to PC Magazine, “85% of smartphone users prefer mobile messages to emails or calls.”

  The great news is the seven customer touchpoints outlined in this article offer ample opportunity to grow your SMS wine marketing list quickly, so you can delight your customers and sell more wine.

Email Marketing

  Since 80% of U.S. wineries already use email marketing, the fastest way for most wine merchants to grow a text marketing list is to reach out to existing email subscribers and offer them a new way to stay in touch.

  To convert existing contacts, we recommend introducing text messaging to current customers the same way you’d release a new wine or announce an upcoming wine country event.

  Most wine marketers will enjoy the best success with a series of three email messages:

•   A straightforward announcement of what you’re offering and why.

•   A follow-up email that focuses on what customers miss by not signing up.

•   A final email about how your SMS program addresses their main concerns.

  If you have a thriving wine club, start with them first and consider offering club members an incentive for joining your SMS list. And as you write your email, it’s worth reflecting on what it means to ask anyone to sign-up for text messages.

  Here’s a hint: they’ll be giving you access to the most direct and personal way to reach them. So, successful sign-up campaigns offer unique value to new subscribers in return.

  The latest research shows that SMS subscribers want first dibs on flash sales or promotions. With that in mind, you might offer early access to new releases, special discounts, and tickets to upcoming events.

  Once you hone your pitch, the wineries we work with enjoy the most success by pointing their email subscribers to a web-based opt-in form. Many text marketing platforms now make it easy to create an opt-in form you can add to any website.

Tasting Rooms & Events

  After mining your existing email list, now’s the time to invite your in-person guests to stay in touch with text messaging.

  In tasting rooms or at winery events, QR codes make it easy for consumers to join text marketing lists using their mobile phones. In just a few minutes, you can make it happen by printing tasteful signs that feature a QR code, legal disclaimers, and simple instructions on how and why winery visitors can join your list.

  Instead of pushing your tasting room staff to ask customers for their email address – then deciphering hand-written forms – using QR codes to market your SMS list makes it easier for everyone.  As a bonus, once your customers sign-up for text messaging, many SMS marketing systems can also automate the process of asking for an email address.

Social Media Channels

  DTC wineries report social media is now their most widely used marketing channel.

So enticing online followers to join your text messaging list — using the same offers you promote in your tasting room — is one of the most concrete ways to leverage your investment in social media.

  Digital wine marketers can use unique text marketing keywords like “Text INSTA to 888-592-2832 to join our text club,” QR codes, or web-based sign-up forms to invite your followers to join your SMS list.

  Since it’s so easy to test marketing ideas using social media, the best practice is to experiment with multiple conversion techniques to see what resonates best with your followers.  For the most impact, you might consider creating unique offers explicitly customized for your most vibrant social media communities.

Transactional Messages

  If you sell wine online, accept reservations, or manage a wine club, your commerce system already sends order confirmations, appointment reminders, and shipping notices via email.

  These transactional messages offer another proven way to grow your text marketing lists.  Imagine offering your wine club members the option of receiving a text confirmation when their next shipment is on its way. A keyword like ORDERSTATUS is tailor-made for this application.

  The footer of your online order confirmation page is also a perfect place to promote the option of receiving transactional messages via text. Here’s an example: “PS: Text ORDERSTATUS to 888-592-2832 to receive updates about your wine order via text. No spam, just news you can use.”

  Not only do today’s consumers prefer text messaging 2-to-1 over email, transactional messages about orders, shipments, and appointments are among the most popular text messages consumers receive.

Mobile Website

  Website visitors using their phones to browse your site are the perfect fit for text marketing offers. Not only are they on their phones already, but they don’t even need to enter any data to subscribe to your text messaging lists.

  Without any special software, you can generate a QR code that website visitors can scan to join your list in just one click. Some text messaging platforms popular with wine marketers also offer the ability to generate online pop-ups visible only to visitors using their mobile phones.

  Today’s wine marketers can add “click-to-text” buttons or custom mobile pop-ups to any web page. Perfect for building a list of text marketing subscribers, these same tools can engage your customers by enabling two-way text conversations with your hospitality staff.

Desktop Website

  If your winery website offers online visitors the opportunity to join an email list, doesn’t it make even more sense to give them a chance to subscribe to text messaging?

For visitors browsing your website from their desktop computers, web-based sign-up forms are the way to go. Simple text marketing sign-up forms only require a mobile phone number plus consent with the terms of your offer.

  But if you offer consumers a choice of text messaging content — from concierge services to weekly tasting room updates — a Text Messaging Preference Center can give your customers the ability to curate their own unique customer journey.

Product Packaging

  Your wine labels and the shipments you send to wine consumers can also work to grow your list of SMS wine marketing subscribers.

  QR codes printed on your labels can invite consumers to engage your brand at the point of purchase and consumption. For maximum flexibility, use a dedicated landing page that can be re-directed as needed over time.

  Wine shipments to consumers offer the perfect opportunity to market lifestyle content like recipes delivered by text messaging or encourage customers to post their photos and wine reviews via text.

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

  With today’s wine consumers thirsty for brands that engage them with text messaging, summer is the perfect time to get started with SMS wine marketing.

  If you can print a QR code or send an email message inviting your best customers to join your text marketing list, you’ll soon be on your way to success. With the proven power of SMS wine marketing on your side, even a modest list of 300 contacts can generate the same results as another 10,000 email subscribers.

  Summer sales are just the beginning. Once the holiday season arrives, your new text marketing list can drive record sales while delighting your customers with an easy way to order your wines using their favorite way to stay in touch.

  We hope the simple methods outlined in this article can help you achieve your goals. Happy Selling!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Founder & CEO of VinterActive, Bryan St. Amant, is a pioneer in developing preference-based direct marketing and its successful application in the wine industry. His advice has helped hundreds of wineries across the U.S. grow sales and customer satisfaction by leveraging the best practices of DTC wine marketing.

  St. Amant holds an MS from M.I.T. and a BS from U.C. Berkeley. His award-winning work has been featured in books, magazines, and seminars, including CFO Magazine, Inc., CNN Money, eMarketing Magazine, Integrated Direct Marketing, Direct Marketing Association, Wine Marketing Report, and the Wine Industry Network.

VinterActive is located in Windsor, California at 707-836-7295 or vinteractive.com

By Susan DeMatei

What do you think of when you hear “data hygiene”?  Most people either have no idea what the term means or believe it involves tedious hours mired in excel. But like regular car tune-ups, it should translate to increased marketing program performance and sales.

  Why? Because just like that tune-up, our engine, or in this case our database, needs periodic maintenance to clear out the “gunk” and refresh the connections. Even if we’re growing our list and sending out great emails, our work isn’t done — we need to keep our database healthy.

  How do we keep a database healthy?

  If the reason to have a database is to drive sales, then the ultimate indicator of health should be strong sales, right?

  So, what are the predetermining steps for sales?

  Size: The size of your database directly correlates to the level of sales you can expect from that database.

  Size is not a function of data hygiene but instead your lead generation efforts. Whether lead generation efforts are done through a tasting room or event table, accumulating names or advertising on Facebook, a continual flow of new prospects is like oxygen to your database. Databases decay at a rate of about 2% a month – so every year, you can count on losing 25% of your database. Therefore, it is imperative for the health of your database and sales to target a growth rate of at least 2% a month to not slip backward.

  Best database collection practices say to review all signup forms for typos, fake names, or duplicates before uploading. If you routinely see false addresses like “noemail@gmail.com” talk to your tasting room staff to find out why they feel pressured to fabricate data. There is likely some process that needs revision or a technical barrier that requires an address to continue. A conversation can identify various data collection challenges while impressing the importance of a usable database to your company.

  Additionally, attaching a source to your new prospects as they sign up is invaluable not only for hygiene but also for future continually monitor them to judge their quality. Ask yourself how many leads you got from each activity, how many of them ended up buying, and how long it took them to buy. Next year, this will be invaluable information when planning activities and ensuring you move forward with the activities that yield the best quality leads.

  Validity: The individuals in your database need to receive your emails without flags or filtering.

  You can instantly see the validity of your database when you send a mass email by looking at the bounces and invalid addresses.

  Bounces are typically categorized into soft or hard bounces. A soft bounce is temporary and, in most cases, a setting. The most typical one is an “out of the office” message. The email address is valid; they’re just not getting this email delivered now. Most Email Service Providers (ESPs) will attempt to redeliver to an address marked as a soft bounce multiple times, over subsequent campaigns, before flagging it as a severe deliverability problem.

  A hard bounce is a server error and means the address is no longer on that domain. Servers do go down temporarily for reasons like scheduled maintenance, so most ESPs will still try a bounce two or three times before marking it permanently undeliverable.

  There is a third category. Let’s call these “Unmailables”. Unmailables are junk and so obnoxious the ESP doesn’t even try to send them. They are blank or data is in the wrong field (e.g., the phone number in the email space). They can be made-up domains that don’t exist (like noemail@noemail.com). However, sometimes there is an obvious typo you can fix, like yahoo or Gmail is spelled incorrectly. And sometimes, the email address is in the phone number field, so these are worth investigating.

  Trust: Upon seeing the email in their email box, the recipient must believe that the source is trustworthy and contains relevant enough content to open the email.

  You must know how your ESP defines an “open” email. There are differences in how mail apps track this data point. Most notably, Apple’s Privacy updates for iOS 15, that preload data, create a false “open” to make tracking less reliable. (And this isn’t minor. In 2021, Litmus reported Apple devices accounted for approximately 52 percent of all email opens.

  In addition, gain agreement from your management as to whether you are reporting on total or unique opens (because someone can open the same email several times). At WGM, we report on unique opens because they best indicate how many individuals responded, and the same goes for clicks.

  Interest: The content of the email must be compelling enough to provoke further action, like a click to a website.

  Clicks are also not as straightforward as one might think. For instance, some Email Service Providers count unsubscribes as clicks. Here is where coordination with Google Analytics is critical.  You must overlay the bounce rate of your email traffic to the landing page (because a qualified visitor will stay and read and purchase).

  Note: Conversion, or sales, is ultimately the role of the landing page. An email can deliver a target somewhere, but it can’t close the deal.

  A Simple Yet Critical Hygiene Exercise: Pull your entire database with open, click and bounce information from your last email campaign. Dedupe. And, do this based on name, address, and email address. Sort all the bounces and put them on a different sheet. Review these for typos or duplicates and clean up what you can.

  If you are lucky enough to have sales data, divide the group into purchasers and those who have never purchased. Pull out Wine Club members and multiple buyers and consider calling them on the phone for an updated address. You may also want to add an ongoing postcard program where you drop a card in the mail asking customers to update their email. For the others, if they have purchased, leave them be for a record of purchase history. But if they’ve never bought from you and bounced, you should delete them.

  Sort the un-deliverables and do the same as above:

•    Fix issues.

•    Divide into sales and no sales.

•    Reach out to valuable contacts and delete empty records.

  Do the same with unsubscribes as the first two above. The only difference here is you should pull viable email addresses, upload them to Facebook and target them in your next campaign. Just because they didn’t want an email doesn’t mean they never want to hear from you again.

  You should be left with only customer records with sales attached to them that you cannot email. You will want to keep them for a historical sales record, but you don’t want them muddying up your data. For this group, you can tag them as non-viable, so you don’t keep pulling them for each email.

  It’s good to do this clean-up periodically. But how often and how deep you go down the rabbit hole depends on the value of this potential customer and how much time you have on your hands.

  Most experts recommend some type of database clean up quarterly. If you work at a busy tasting room, you may want to perform them monthly. But with all the evidence that “cleanliness is next to responsiveness”, there is a compelling argument for making data hygiene part of your routine marketing schedule.

  Susan DeMatei is the founder of WineGlass Marketing, a full-service direct marketing firm working within the wine industry in Napa, California.  Now in its 10th year, the agency offers domestic and international clients assistance with strategy as well as execution.

  For the past two consecutive years, Inc. Magazine recognized WineGlass Marketing as the only Napa company listed in the top 250 hyper-growth tier of the “5000 Series California’s Top Companies”. WineGlass Marketing has also been recognized by the community winning the North Bay Bohemian “Best Digital Creative Services” spot for both 2021 and 2022 as well as being honored by her clients in the North Bay Business Journal as Napa’s “Best Company to Do Business With.” In addition, the firm has taken top honors in the 2021 Web Awards for Best Beverage Website and 2021 Internet Advertising Competition for Best Integrated Ad Campaign in the Beverage Category and the 2022 Internet Advertising Competition for Best Wine Website. The agency is also a Webby Honoree in Website and Mobile Sites at the 2022 Webby Awards.

WineGlass Marketing is located in Napa, California at 707-927-3334 or wineglassmarketing.com

After 20 years of researching and reporting on the best practices of email wine marketing, it’s an honor to share VinterActive’s first VinQuest™ Wine Marketing Report on the benchmarks and best practices of SMS marketing in the wine industry. This preliminary analysis draws on five independent wine marketing data sets and confidential interviews with wine marketers using text messaging in 2021.

  Our inaugural report is based on the performance of 88 SMS wine marketing campaigns sent to over 25,000 opt-in consumers in 2021 and 2022. And for comparison, this analysis also incorporates the results of millions of wine marketing emails sent to consumers in 2020 and 2021. 

The results we found were astonishing:

SMS WINE MARKETING BENCHMARKS

  Compared to email benchmarks in the wine industry, SMS marketers averaged 32-times more customer engagement for each text message they sent.

  To put it another way, a list of 300 SMS contacts can outperform a list of 10,000 email addresses.

Compared to email, the text messages sent by wine marketers were 4.3-times more likely to be opened and 7.4-times more likely to be clicked.

  And SMS marketers who kept track of sales conversion reported 100-times more wine sales for each text message they sent.

SMS WINE MARKETING ANALYSIS

  These results compare favorably with industry-wide estimates that report a 20-to-1 advantage for text marketing compared to email. The results reported by wine marketers in this analysis may indicate consumers are more amenable to text messaging from their favorite wine brands.

Or, since the wine industry is new to SMS messaging, initial results could be tempered over time as more wineries adopt text messaging and the wine industry looks more like other retail segments.

But whether text messaging drives 20-times or 30-times more customer engagement than current industry practices, this analysis means that savvy wine businesses would be foolish to ignore this game-changing DTC marketing breakthrough.

BEST PRACTICES OF SMS WINE MARKETING IN 2022

  For the innovators using text messaging in the wine industry, best practices are beginning to emerge for the three pillars of SMS marketing success:

1)  Growing text marketing lists.

2)  Sending text marketing campaigns.

3)  Managing 2-way text conversations with

     consumers.

BEST PRACTICES FOR LIST GROWTH

  To grow their text marketing lists in 2021, the wine marketers we interviewed found success using:

•  Keywords that consumers can text wineries to join their SMS lists.

•  Web-Based Signup Forms that website visitors can complete to join a winery’s text marketing list.

•  Email Marketing that offered existing customers an opportunity to connect via text.

BEST PRACTICES FOR OUTBOUND CAMPAIGNS

  As wineries grew their text marketing lists in 2021, some of the most successful campaigns we measured were:

•   Transactional Texts triggered by customer behavior to send order and shipping confirmation messages.

•   Preference-Based Content Streams that use keywords to deliver weekly or bi-weekly content, like upcoming winery events.

•   Predictive Sales Offers that use purchase history and customer tags to target sales offers personalized for each consumer.

BEST PRACTICES FOR MANAGING 2-WAY TEXT CONVERSATIONS

  In addition to sending outbound marketing messages to many consumers at once, text marketers in the wine industry are also finding immense success in engaging their customers with 2-way text conversations.

  Entire hospitality teams are turning to text messaging to conveniently communicate with customers, answer questions in real-time, delight their visitors with personalized service, and sell more wine as a result.

  In 2021, the best practices we observed for managing 2-way text conversations were:

•   Assigning Trained Staff responsible for each customer conversation.

•   Automated Away Messages that instantly reply to customer requests.

•   Deploying Mobile Apps so winery staff can message their customers wherever they are.

REACHING BABY BOOMERS WITH TEXT MESSAGING

  The wine industry has a Baby Boomer problem, according to some observers.

  The thinking goes that since “older, more affluent consumers drive the U.S. wine market,” today’s vintners are helplessly watching their best customers die off slowly. Perhaps that’s true for some.

But for U.S. wineries currently engaging their customers with text messaging, older consumers – Baby Boomers and Gen X – are driving record DTC sales.

  Why? The latest research on generational marketing (SendGrid, 2021) shows that email, text messaging, and social media are the top-3 business marketing channels for adult consumers of all ages.

While it’s true that older consumers as a group engage in email marketing more often than text messaging, the older your customers are, the more likely they’ll engage your brand using text messaging.

  It might not seem that way when consumers are challenged by technology in the tasting room. But not all Boomers are the same. So, your opportunity lies in reaching older consumers who enjoy text messaging.

  If your goal is to engage older customers and you already use email, SMS marketing is the next best thing you can do. Even better than social media, according to the latest research.

  And remember, you don’t need to convert many customers to SMS marketing to profit.

  Even if you only persuade 3% of your consumers to join your SMS list, you’ll still succeed in creating a new digital sales channel that generates as much revenue as the other 97% combined.

A RARE GIFT FOR SMALLER WINERIES

  Most of the time, the odds are stacked against small wineries.

  But for a brief moment in time, the power of SMS wine marketing is now available to help even the smallest wineries achieve DTC sales results that would make larger wineries jealous.

  With text messaging generating 32-times more customer engagement than email, growing a list of just 300 SMS contacts can outperform a list of 10,000 email addresses – giving small wineries a rare chance to outcompete larger vintners.

Think about it for a minute.

  Do your customers use their phones when they taste your wine? How hard would it be to print a simple QR code inviting wine tasters to join your SMS list?

  And as in-person wine tasting regains momentum, do you think you might be able to build a small text marketing list that doesn’t require any awkward conversations or deciphering poor handwriting?

  Then, congratulations! You’re ready to leapfrog the competition using SMS marketing.

  Across wineries of all sizes, the average email list of 10,000 names generates about the same DTC wine sales as 300 SMS subscribers. And with 1000 SMS subscribers, you’re going to need a bigger warehouse.

  While big businesses expend more and more resources squeezing the last remaining revenue from their old email lists, savvy wine marketers focusing on text marketing now can outperform vastly larger competitors by the end of summer.

And wait until the holiday season arrives…

If you start building your SMS wine marketing list now, you’ll have one of the most effective marketing tools any winery can use to maximize holiday sales.

  According to wine industry expert Lewis Perdue, the DTC sales boost driven by marketing messages delivered to mobile devices is particularly apparent during the holiday season. The research he shared shows “mobile and desktop about evenly divided for e-purchases, but that changes big-time with the upcoming holidays,” when online sales driven through mobile devices dwarfs the sales generated through desktop or tablet computers.

THE FUTURE OF TEXT MARKETING IN THE WINE INDUSTRY

  In the future, as text marketing continues to mature in the wine industry, benchmarks and best practices will surely mature too.

  Forward-thinking wineries are already experimenting with QR codes in tasting rooms to grow their text marketing lists, leveraging social media for SMS content, and creating new ways to serve customers with personalized 2-way text messaging.

  In 2022, innovation in the use of SMS messaging will give wine marketers even more tools to grow their text marketing lists, manage conversational sales, automate personalized text messages, and harness SMS messaging for B2B sales and employee communication.

  Even though wine marketing is one of history’s oldest professions, it’s finally moving at such a rapid pace we can all look forward to what the future holds.

THE BOTTOM LINE ON SMS WINE MARKETING

  SMS wine marketing is much like email marketing 20 years ago, with innovative vintners reporting outrageous results that were hard to believe at first but finally fueled the wine industry’s first wave of digital marketing success.

  In a world where 90% of online consumers want text messages from their favorite brands, but only 9% of U.S. wineries text their customers, this epic mismatch between consumer preference and industry practice spells nothing but opportunity for wineries focused on growth.

And unless you think text messaging is going away soon, the only choice you have to make is whether you let your competition profit from text messaging before you.

  With consumers hungry for brands that engage them with text messaging — and wine marketers hungry for continued success – we hope the benchmarks and best practices we’ve shared in this report can help any winery profit from SMS messaging in 2022.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Founder & CEO of VinterActive, Bryan St. Amant, is a pioneer in developing preference-based direct marketing and its successful application in the wine industry. His advice has helped hundreds of wineries across the U.S. grow sales and customer satisfaction by leveraging the best practices of DTC wine marketing.

  St. Amant holds an MS from M.I.T. and a BS from U.C. Berkeley. His award-winning work has been featured in books, magazines, and seminars, including CFO Magazine, Inc., CNN Money, eMarketing Magazine, Integrated Direct Marketing, Direct Marketing Association, Wine Marketing Report, and the Wine Industry Network.