2019 is coming to an end, and a whole new decade is almost upon us. So, how are you going to sell more wine online in 2020? We've listed our top 10 foolproof strategies to get your online wine sales growing.
1) Rewards for Reviews
We get it, your business is your lifeline, it's probably been in your family for generations, and making and selling your wine is your absolute passion. But without your customers, there's (almost) no point right? It can be hard to ask for feedback, but if you don't listen to the needs of your customers, you could be missing out on a great business opportunity.
Furthermore, a reward for reviewing 'system' could be as simple as a complimentary cheese platter with every Trip Advisor or Google My Business review, Instagram post with tag, Facebook location check-in, Tweet, or any other social sharing and business review! More often than not, millennial's will already be sharing their experience on social media, so why not capitalise on this strategy across any channel where any generation is able to join in!
Top tip: Have a spare tablet at your cellar door with your google my business listing already open, waiting for your customers to leave a positive review to get their complimentary cheese platter with their wine tasting!
2) Update your Online Presence
Updating your website and online presence can sound like a really daunting task, especially for those smaller family-run businesses. But keeping your website updated, mobile responsive, and user-friendly is key to driving online sales. If your customers struggle to find what they need from your website, even if they like your wine, they will abandon it. Consider updating your website to aunified eCommerce solutionwith a business that will support you through the updating process, provide software training and actually pick up the phone when you call for help.
3) Get Social
Another strategy that you will hear every single year without fail - Social Media. Why? Because Millenials (A.K.A your future customers) are all over it. Research shows that millennials jump online to seek peer reviews before spending money on experiences or products.
This strategy can go hand in hand with the 'rewards for reviews' strategy. Not only are you encouraging (bribing is ok too) your customers to leave a positive review about their experience at your cellar door, or with your wine, they are generating content for you! Social media makes it easy for businesses to 're-share' content from their happy customers, which makes it easier for you to share content when you don't have the resources to create your own.
4) Use High-Quality Images
Using high-quality images across your new website will elevate your brand appearance and improve the whole look of your winery online. Anyone can be handy with a camera, but professional photographers (although a little pricey) can take your brand to the next level.
5) Up your SEO Game
Similar to updating your website, putting some effort into how you SEO your website can also be beneficial to help your customers find you online. Put some time into researching your business as your customers might. This means not searching directly for your business name, but try searching for your wine bottle names or region. See how the top-performing websites are using the terms you searched for, and use this as a basic guide to how you can update the SEO on your own website to boost your Google ranking. Alternatively, you can outsource your marketing to a number of providers that can do this in their sleep.
6) Check your CTAs
Calls to Action are important guiding tools. They help prompt your customers to look at your new wines, or join your wine club! Make sure when you create them they are inviting, captivating, and interesting enough that people want to click to find out more information. It's also very important to keep checking these to ensure the links are still working and directing customers to the right content.
7)Newsletter Marketing
Everyone is on some kind of mailing list - so what makes your winery's mailing list different? How do your customers benefit from signing up to your wine club, or creating an account with you? Make sure you aren't just communicating with your customers for the sake of sending them something. To keep the unsubscribe rates low, keep your mailing lists up to date with a unified CRM that is relevant to your customer base. Give your customers options as to what they want to hear from you about. And, always provide some kind of value in your newsletters - a discount, maybe 'insider information with first access to news about your wines or upcoming events.
8) Create Hype about your New Releases
Got an exciting new wine range that you plan on releasing in the coming months? Start creating a hype campaign about a mysterious "new" product soon to be released! Your customers will love getting involved in a guessing or naming competition, and be curious about what your new line will be. You can also use this to grow your customer database.
9) Wine Club Incentives
TraditionalWine Clubsare great, but we bet you get calls all the time from people wanting to swap the Chardonnay for the Riesling, or this for that. Why not offer them a custom wine club selection? Offering both traditional "winemaker's pick" wine clubs are still valuable, but for those picky customer's you can offer a custom wine club selection where they can update their order before every delivery, OR keep the same if they loved what they had last time!
Wine Clubs are also a great way to increase customer loyalty and a flexible wine club will encourage longer lifetime values for customers.
10) Find your Niche
There are plenty of 5th generation winemaking families across Australia ( and that's actually pretty incredible!) but that isn't your key selling difference... Find your niche; Are you organic? Do you have vegan wines? What do you do differently at your winery? Do your wine bottle names come from a funny story?
Highlight your differences, and play on that quirk! It will give you a point of difference and leave your customers with something to remember your brand, your wine, or their experience at your cellar door!
