DIRECT TO CONSUMER WEBINAR SERIESBUILDING U.S. TOURIST BRAND ADVOCATES

Got Wine?

How do we sell a 3-dimensional story in a two dimensional world?

How do you capture the essence of your brand online? Visitors are exposed to a number of stimuli that help frame their experience at your winery. They breathe fresh warm air that blows across the valley floor as they enjoy expansive views, marvel at architectural details, and soak in the overall ambiance of your tasting room during their visit. All

of these things help engage and interest them.

Is your website doing the same?

Question for the Day:

DTC TargetingThe Vino-Tourist

The Opportunity

Source: http://www.canadianvintners.com/?p=294

Canada’s Wine Industry: Ripe, Robust, Remarkablehttp://www.canadianvintners.com/?p=294

DTC Best Practice: 360 Degree Customer View

eCommerce

Wine Club

Allocations

Tasting Room

Recipe Engine

Social Media (Social Commerce)

Mobile

Telesales (inbound & outbound)

SMS (Text)

Email Marketing

Visitor Reservations

Newsletter

Mobile POSSearch Engine Optimization (SEO)

Retail Locator

DTC Best Practice: Model of Customer Progression

DISCOVERY• Search engines• Word of mouth• Travel websites• Regional

organizations• Lifestyle

websites

ENGAGEMENT

• Visits website• Visits tasting

room

ACQUISITION

• Purchases wine online

• Buys wine in tasting room

• Joins wine club

LOYALTY/LOVE• Email

communication• Facebook shares• Special events

D E A L

Wine, food, travel forums Existing customers Referrals from local

businesses Social media channels Friends and family Special events Wine publications and

blogs

Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Marketing

Getting Found

Building Advocates

Discovery: Socializing Brick & Mortar

Source: www.tripadvisor.com, Ram’s Gate Winery

How do you attract visitors and grow your customer base?

Inbound Marketing is a system that allows interested buyers to actually FIND YOU via a combination of:

Content Marketing 

Search Engine Optimization

Social Media 

Lead Generation & Nurturing 

Discovery: Getting Found

Discovery: Content Marketing

1. Create useful, usable content that adds value to the customer experience with your brand.

2. Perform outreach, and determine the best outlets to publish (high-profile guest blogging, social networks, your own website).

3. Identify influencers who will share your content and further discussion.

4. Pay attention to the responses, and engage your audience.

5. Analyze the results, measure the impact (new links to your website, new visitors, increased social media activity, more sales).

Discovery: The customer funnel

Unaware

• Purpose: Create awareness, brand discovery• Blog posts, web page, customer stories, advertising, industry trends

Interested

• Purpose: Provide usefulness, education, create interest• Regional travel guides, events, independent articles, demonstrated values, email newsletters

Desire

• Purpose: Incentivize, stir emotion, demonstrate values• Demonstrate charity contributions, connect with lifestyles, build community of social sharing

Purchase

• Purpose: Secure customer, provide good experience, build loyalty

• Reviews & ratings, customer service, upsells and promos, personalized content, streamlined checkout

Engagement: Making a Difference

Source: www.kj.com

Every tasting room visitor is a potential customer.

Collect email addresses Personally invite to Tasting Room Events

and Winemaker Dinners Welcome “Check ins” via FourSquare,

Facebook Promote reviews of your business (Yelp,

TripAdvisor) and wines (Cellartracker) Communicate Club benefits and incentives Convey your winery’s story Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale

Acquisition: Build Relationships

Consumers are on-the-go and want quick and easy access to basic information.

99% of the time, they want to do one of five things:

Call Winery Find Tasting Room Locate Wine Buy Wine Join Wine Club

Acquisition: Go Mobile!

LOYALTY

 GOT WINE CLUB!

• Imports account for 35% of wine consumed in the US.

• If a customer likes your product, they will be loyal beyond your countries border.

• Create partnerships with local restaurants, hotels, and destinations to collectively entice return visits.

• Ship It Home USA can help ease the burden that the LCBO places on exporting to the United States.

To Do List – Top 5 Things

1. Expand company profiles on both local and national travel and tourism sites like Fodors, Destination Canada, Virtual Tourist, and Lonely Planet.

2. Encourage visitors and fans to leave reviews at Trip Advisor, Zagat, Google+, Facebook.

3. Create useful and usable website content that includes resources, things to do, local knowledge, and popular destinations near your winery.

4. Claim your Google+ Local page.

5. Contribute guest blog posts on travel blogs and websites to increase exposure from new audiences.

Thank You

YOUR WEBSITE IS A MARKETING TOOL

More traffic to your website leads to more purchases, visits to your tasting room, and brand recognition. But most wineries struggle to get visitors who search for anything but their brand name.

Think about what's relevant to your winery - the varietals you make, the region you're located in, or the story behind your labels. Create a list of keywords that you can associate that go beyond your brand name. Branded search traffic accounts for about 95% of most winery websites traffic, which means they aren't getting much exposure from new, unfamiliar faces.

Instead, try to focus on building your site to be a hub of information for not just your wines and your history, but the surrounding area, the vineyards, the AVAs, places to stay, things to see, and anything else that's relevant. Your website should be a flytrap for tourists looking to plan their vacation, or visit that special winery with a picnic area, great view, or wedding venue.

3 Traffic Sources you must cultivate:

Organic search engines. Referral sites, especially

from local regional sites.

Local maps search results.

Appendix A:

Varietals

• Cabernet, Rose, Muscat

Regional• Carneros, Willamette, Rutherford

Others• Wine tasting/tours• Weddings• Boutique

Build a relevant list of keywords

FINDING KEYWORD VARIATIONS

Use tools like Google Adwords Keyword Tool and Ubersuggest to find lots of keyword variations, along with their search volume. Why it's important: Wineries can capitalize on regional terms and attract a broader range of new visitors to their site. Within any given region, especially tourist areas, you have ample opportunity to find topics to include on your website and possibly attract a new customer as a result.

Appendix A:

ASSESSING THE COMPETITION

Don't expect to put “Merlot" in your meta tag, and simply hit page one. Many factors come into play in ranking, but a few stand out. Most importantly is the number of links coming into your site. Each link counts as a vote, and quality links can boost your keyword rankings. You also need to focus on creating engaging content on a regular basis.

Appendix A:

FOCUS ON LOCAL SEO TO ATTRACT MORE VISITORS

When you do a search for "your region" + "winery" does your website appear in the maps area? This is the "Places" results, and these search results differ from regular organic search results in that they appear for people located very close to your business. They want to find you, but are you listed high enough?

In order to rank well in the local search results, you need a two things. A verified Google+ Local page for your business. www.Google.com/places. Multiple NAP (name, address, phone) listings on site like citysearch.com, yp.com, hotfrog.com and others. For a more complete list of sources to get business citations, visit Getlisted.

Appendix A:

THINKING BEYOND YOUR WEBSITE

Content marketing is a huge buzzword right now, and it requires you to both create original content of your own, and interject yourself into conversations relevant to your business.

Where do people learn about you?

Travel forums:http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g580460-Napa_Valley_California-Vacations.html

Blogs:http://justwandering.me/2013/03/09/napa-valley-wine-tasting/

Wine discussion groupsWineberserkers travel forum

There are tons of places where you can tap into new audiences. The wine lifestyle transcends cultures and gives you lots of opportunity to cross-market into other groups that go beyond straight up wine lovers.

Appendix A:

For more strategies that you can use to boost your online presence, and connect with consumers, check out this free ebook. It’s loaded with 39 pages of insights that will help you improve your approach.

Download it here