Chris Wechner's Marketing Ideas Blog: 9 Ways I Would Market Wine and Get More Sales

What company doesn’t want to make more sales? Wine makers certainly aren’t any different. They want to make more sales, also.

I am not a drinker, but I like to purchase wine as gifts for several people I know. So I “speak” as a member of one of the target markets.

Let's discuss how I would market wine to get more sales and improve my brand awareness.

People like wine, but there are so many wine choices to make. Most people don’t know any better, and they will simply buy what they “know” for themselves or other people.

How do we get our wine in front of these buyers? They want wine; we have wine. Why not find ways to make them want to buy OUR wine, the wine we sell?

Here are nine (9) different ways that I would market wine so that people, stores, and companies will want to buy our wine.

Create Wine Tasting Events
Write a Blog
Email List
Join LinkedIn Groups
Give Presentations
Use Twitter - Strategically
Write Press Releases
Produce Videos
Join Industry Groups

Of course, many people “list and run,” which is better than nothing, but it often leaves the reader feeling like he or she missed a great opportunity. So let’s take a closer look at each of these marketing methods.

1. Create Wine Tasting Events

I can’t emphasize this enough.

If I have a product that I know other people will love but don’t know, I BRING IT TO THEM!

I would find an upper scale wine shop or a higher end grocery store that sells wine. Of course, make sure that this location gets a lot of foot traffic. Give them samples. Of course, you have to be careful. (I am not a lawyer, and I do not know anything about liability laws.)

The big thing is that if your wine is really good, all you have to do is have people TASTE it. Your wine will prove its worth. You just have to get them to taste your wine(s)!

One of the best ways to get people to BUY your wine is to get them to TRY it. Then they'll get hooked!

You may even want to partner with an author who writes books about wine, or you can combine your wine tasting event with a local cheese maker, especially one who makes cheese that goes PERFECTLY with your wine. You can even pair with a local musician.

Somehow, make it fun, and make sure they TASTE YOUR WINE!

2. Write a Blog

Don’t just write a blog to write one. I would want people to know that (a) I am a wine expert, and (b) they can always find great, helpful tips about anything relating to wine.

Here are great ideas for topics to help you get started:

Ways to Preserve Wine
Ways to Serve Wine
How to Select Great Wines
How to Avoid Lousy Wines
Ways to Market Specific Wines
Wine Characteristics by Year
Wine Characteristics by Vineyard Region
Ways Weather Conditions affect Wine Taste

Do you see how a wine drinker, someone who sells wine, or someone looking to buy wine as a gift might be starting to look at you as the wine expert?

Most of all, we keep finding “excuses” for people to keep returning to thing we make. Not to mention, a lot of these blog posts can be found on Google or other search engines.

3. Email List

An email list should be a list of people who are customers or perfect prospects to become customers. I would market my wine(s) and my wine expertise to these people.

Here are different examples of things I would send to my email list of customers (or soon-to-be :)

Special Deal Coupons or Wine Promotions
Blog Post Teasers…Just enough to get the started, and…Click here to continue
Review Wine Vineyards
Review Books about Wines (or Wine Tasting) – Perhaps even Joint Venture with them
Special Wine Gift Baskets

Here, we are constantly giving the people on our email list reasons to keep thinking of us. We constantly keep in front of them, and if our emails provide them with enough value, they will look forward to opening OUR email, even when they skip over many other emails.

Enough people are passionate enough about wine that this might be easier for us wine makers than other types of companies. However, even most non-wine making companies should be funneling people to their email list…and marketing to them, either by branding or going for the sale…AFTER you build their trust in you, not before!

4. Join LinkedIn Groups

Many people I know who use LinkedIn do not use it for anything other than an online resume and a contest to see how many LinkedIn Connections they can get. Quite a few people don’t even realize that there are LinkedIn Groups.

Of those people who are aware of LinkedIn Groups, many people simply sign for a group to never return to it.

This is okay, as your LinkedIn Profile shows a list of LinkedIn Group of which you are a member, but that is sort of like having an ice cube tray that can make 12 ice cubes, but you’re only making 1 ice cube at a time.

You know why I REALLY like LinkedIn Groups?

I can get in front of people who DO NOT KNOW ME…yet! LinkedIn Groups allows us to post links or begin discussions to establish our expertise. It allows us to join discussions that are already in progress…in other words there is a mini-market of readers already looking…Now they’re looking at me.

The BEST feature is the ability to “Reply Privately.” This lets me send a personalized message to someone who is otherwise a stranger. I make sure that my message BENEFITS THEM.

Most people do not take the time to do this, or if they do, they usually make it all about what they want as the sender…paying little to no attention to the person they want to “impress.”

I would want to find people who seem like they have people who listen to them, and I try to find people who are likely to share my message when it deserves it.

If I show how much of a wine expert I am, do you think people might want to learn more from me? Once key people in my wine industry begin to support me, other people tend to follow the “popular” people…or in this case, the popular wine guy.

One more thing…I would join LinkedIn Groups about wine, marketing, food, retail, and event planning. I might avoid children’s groups, even many of the parents there might BEG you for some of your wine. :)

5. Give Presentations

Give talks wherever you can. People see speakers as the experts, and so few people are willing to speak that it’s easy to become that “wine expert.”

If the venue allows it, give wine samples—SMALL samples. We don’t want to send home anyone who is drunk. (Again, I am not a lawyer. Consult your lawyer to check liability you might have where you hold the event.)

Besides talking about wine, you can talk about business, retail, marketing, or other topics where people will listen. If you are a resourceful or entertaining speaker, people will like you.

It’s amazing how often people buy from people they “know,” even if they only know you as a speaker without you knowing them (sitting in the audience quietly). Your brand becomes a person, not a company.

It’s even better when you can throw in wine tips that will help them enjoy wine better.

6. Use Twitter – Strategically

I would use Twitter to brand myself and to market my “resourcefulness” about wines.

Using Twitter, I would market my blog posts, which should be okay, because my blog posts are helpful and interesting to people who buy, sell, or market wine. Each post helps further cement me as the “wine expert.”

I would also look for people who discuss wine and try to develop a relationship with them.

7. Write Press Releases

Writing press releases is one of my most powerful marketing methods, but many people are not comfortable with writing them…or even considering what they do to be news.

Ideally, these press releases make the local paper, radio, or TV. However, most of the time, we simply target submitting press releases online, which is still really good.

At the very least, the more my wine making company is in the news, the more active I appear to be, and the better chance that people will see me. Hopefully, they will KEEP seeing me, and they will eventually become curious.

Often the difference between unknown wine and award winning wine is simply marketing exposure.

About what types of things can I write a press release about my wine making (or wine selling) business?

Here are some examples of news events that a press release can cover:

Wine Tasting Events
Presentations about Things in the Wine Industry
Blog Posts about Wine
Discoveries within our Wine Company or the Wine Industry
Celebrate Accomplishments of Customers or Wine Suppliers
Books about Wine
Acknowledge News about Wine Authors

I would do anything to connect my company with any sort of wine industry news. Press releases make it easy to do that.

8. Produce Videos

I would create videos that showcase my wine expertise. Videos add a certain dimension that brings real life to my product, not just simply words to describe it.

Plus, it gives me another chance to brand myself or my wine company.

Here are some different ways I would use videos to market my wine business:

Demonstrate How to Serve Wine
Demonstrate Ways to Show How to Make Wine Last Longer
Visual Checks to Make Before Buying or Serving Wine
Signs of Good Quality Wine
Suggestions from the Wine Sommelier
Wine Event Highlights

Videos will help separate my wine selling and wine making business from my competition. Plus, videos help connect me with my wine loving customers.

9. Join Industry Groups

Just like any other industry, people in the wine industries always want to know about the best wine products or things that contribute to making the best wine.

No matter how hard you work, you will not know everything about wine. Nobody does. That’s why it’s a great idea to mingle with people in the industry.

They also want to know about my great wine product, and I am going to make it easy for them to know about it. I want to make these people raving lunatics about how great my wine is.

There are many different wine industry groups, but here are a few of them:

Since I really am not a drinker, I have not really evaluated any of these wine industry associations. However, if I were marketing my wine(s), I would be checking out several of these and finding where I can have the greatest amount of influence with the least amount of pain.

Each of these represent potential speaking opportunities for me and my wine company. Of course, each time I am scheduled to give a talk, I would write a press release to cover and promote it.

There are other ways to market your wine, but this should help you begin to market your wine. Even if you only do a few of these things, you will be able to sell more wine.

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Monday, January 28, 2013

9 Ways I Would Market Wine and Get More Sales

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