Dozens of wine industry pros shared insight with Outshinery last year. The second in a 2-part series, here are more essential moves you can implement into your 2021 marketing plan.

Did you catch Outshinery’s On the Spot series? If you missed all or some of it, that’s no problem. All the replays are available on our resources page, so check it all out there. 

There are hours of free content, packed with tips and perspective from some of the most admired voices in the wine industry. 

Only interested in the highlights? That’s cool too. We combed through the replays to find a few key nuggets to take with you into 2021. If you get tempted to absorb the full-length corresponding conversation, just click the link to make that happen. Also: If you missed it, check out part 1 of this series for more moving insight.

Sound good? Let’s jump in.

Optimize the “preview” text when sending client email campaigns

Guest Expert: Adrienne Stillman |  WineDirect

Session: How to make your holiday email shine

“Before someone opens your email, what they’re seeing is the ‘from’ name, the subject line, and then the preview text.

That preview text is really prime real estate in the inbox. So don’t forget it! You want to use that to grab their attention, and make them want to open your email. It’s equally as important as the subject line.”

[Bonus tip:] “I’ve received emails actually, when your email is only an image, and you don’t have alternative text. I get emails from mailing lists where the subject line is great, and then the preview text says, “Unsubscribe, Privacy policy” — because that’s actually the first text in the email. So don’t do that; leverage the preview text in the inbox.”

Keep your customer data clean in order to leverage personalization in your marketing

Guest Expert: Zach Kamphuis | Commerce7

Session: How to use personalization to sell more wine

“The foundation of personalization is all about the customer data you have. You can’t personalize if you don’t have data to pull from. I can’t recommend you [i.e. the winery customer] a product if I don’t know what products you’re purchasing or if I don’t know anything about you.

Having a unified, clean database is the first step. That’s where you’re going to pull the insights from, that’s where you’re going to pull the personalizations from. 

Making sure that that database or that CRM is connected with all of your other systems out there.  If you have this clean database with all of these insights but it’s not connected with your email campaign tool or other engagement or outreach tools, then how will you personalize on these platforms?”

Looking for press coverage? Don’t forget about bloggers!

Guest Expert: Jill Barth | Outshinery

Session: Week 7 | How to increase PR coverage for your winery

“People that write a blog have fewer editorial guidelines, if you will. They usually are the author and the editor, that means they can control the calendar, they can decide what to publish. So sometimes you’ll have better luck with somebody that writes a blog that you really enjoy.

And the other plus — and this is one of the things that constantly impresses me, is bloggers are also usually excellent photographers, or they write their own recipes. And sometimes they’ll do something incredible with the wine — it’s like a bonus —  they’re not just covering it, but they’re pairing it with something. 

So be aware that there are awesome bloggers out there, and that’s a great place to start if you want a first line of pitching. And they’ll probably be thrilled to hear from you too.”

Repurpose your content – everywhere!

Guest Expert: Justin Noland | Goldline Brands

Session: Real talk with wine industry pros

“Every piece of content that you put out, you should be thinking about all of the different ways that could be useful down the road. 

Whether that’s something that’s going to end up in your blog and add SEO value to your website. Or that’s video content that’s going to end up being cut up into 15 different pieces and utilized for Instagram Stories and all these other things. 

Invest in how you can take that content and repurpose it all over the place — it’s not only going to make that content way more valuable, but continue to provide dividends for years to come.”

Create virtual events based around popular questions that wine drinkers are searching

Guest Expert: Amber Lebeau | Virtual Wine Events + Spitbucket.net

Session: Real talk with wine industry pros

“We really need to think of these [virtual] events as content. And think about how this content is going to continue work for the wine industry long after the event happened.

The biggest issue with virtual tastings is that people are narrow-focused. They just think, ‘Okay, I’m going to sell these tasting packs. I want to get this stop-gap of revenue stream here.’ They’re not thinking of the bigger picture. And they’re not thinking about the aspect of how their consumers engage, and with wine content.

‘Wine Intelligence’ has written numerous reports talking about how wine education is kind of, not necessarily going down, but wine retention because
the average consumer doesn’t need to really know about ‘Why is Stag’s Leap District special?’ Because you know what they do if they’re looking at a bottle of Stag’s Leap Cabernet. They’re going to google on their phone: Why is a Stag’s Leap Cabernet good?

And you want, as a winery, you want your content being tied to this question. Google is probably one of the most powerful influences out there. And there’s so many wine questions that people are googling all the time: How to taste wine. Why is chardonnay buttery?

If you did a virtual tasting with those broad topics as a theme, and uploaded it to YouTube, promoted it on your social media — people are more likely to find it. And that virtual wine event that you did on one evening in July, is going to pay dividends and help build your brand for years.”

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