Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/72545
MANAGEMENT WINE WISE MARKETING The Right Stuff Massage your messages to maximize marketing Elizabeth Slater is the owner of In Short Direct Marketing, a direct marketing com- pany that works with individual wineries and winery associations. he messages you send to cus- tomers are critical to the per- ceptions they have about your business and products. No matter how you send infor- mation to prospective and current customers, you want to create messages that will bring people into or back to your winery. If you don't attract their attention, they may well choose the winery down the road. You need to stand out no matter how they first find you, and make your winery one of the places wine lovers (and big buy- ers) choose to visit. As many of you have heard me say before, it's not usually going to be because you are a "family-owned winery, only using the finest grapes to make hand- crafted, award-winning wines." With new wineries proliferat- ing throughout North America, the previous sentence is not going to differentiate you from neighboring wineries. So while you can continue to use that information, either say it in a different way or add the details SHORT COURSE Messaging is getting the right infor- mation through the right channels to the right people at the right times. Keep your messages clear, concise, consistent and connective. Most visitors' first interaction with your winery is through the Internet. Focus on the impact, not on the task. Live up to your messages. 22 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT JULY - AUG 2012 ELIZABETH SLATER Connect with your target audience using the mode of communication they prefer – whether it's snail mail, e-mail or mobile messenger. Photo: Thinkstock that really make your winery a must stop – the traits that may intrigue and captivate the imagination and paint a picture in the minds of the audience. The news and commu- nication you present should allow potential visitors to see how you are different from other wineries. I addressed this important topic at Vineyard & Winery Manage- ment's "Winery DIY" conference in May, and in this column, I'll share highlights of my presentation. THE RIGHT STUFF So what are the keys to suc- cessfully getting the attention of current and potential customers? In a nutshell, it's about getting the right information through the right channels to the right audience at the right time. Let's start with the right infor- mation, and that takes defining your target audience. These days, database management programs will allow you to sort your list in any number of ways, so discover as much about your customers as you can, especially their wine pref- erences, if they attend events (and which ones), how many times they visit, how much money they spend, their birthdays, and anything else that comes to mind. A good way to collect this infor- mation is through a series of three simple questionnaires sent out to everyone on your mailing list. You could start with a survey that asks those on your contact list to rank the ways they like to be contacted, such as e-mail, phone, Facebook, printed pieces, etc. Another ques- tion might be how many times per month (or year) they want to receive information from the win- ery. The final questionnaire could be about the types of information your customers want to receive: event announcements, details on new wine releases, sales events, etc. Create in your database subsets WWW.VWM-ONLINE.COM