Hey, do you want my newsletter?
No.
Nobody wants a newsletter and I hate to break it to you but nobody wants your wineries newsletter, either.
This doesn’t mean they don’t want to hear from you, so please don’t get your feelers hurt. I will teach you exactly what subscribers want to receive from your winery, so you can fast-track your email list growth and e-commerce goal achievement.
I know exactly what your subscribers want from your winery.
Okay, I’m not a fortune teller…but I know how to identify exactly what your unique subscribers want to receive from your winery and how to position that value at every interaction you have with your potential subscribers.
I’m going to teach you that process in this blog. I started this post with potentially demotivating news: no one wants to receive your winery’s newsletter. But, your customers most definitely do want to receive behind the scenes on your wine-making process, invitations to members-only events, access to your releases, updates on top scores, and the list goes on and on.
That is the value of receiving your email campaigns, but too many of us neglect to position that value when interacting with customers and asking for email addresses.
The prospect of another newsletter is not sexy. This might be why your tasting room staff has a hard time asking for email addresses from your visitors. In the previous post, we shared that the most recent Wise Academy Triple Score Data tells us that 24% of tasting room visitors are asked for their contact information during their experience, which means only one in four of the people walking through the doors of your winery are ever given an opportunity to engage with you further by receiving your email campaigns.
Like I said, nobody wants another newsletter, but when I visit a winery’s website, that’s how receiving emails from your winery is positioned.
“Newsletter”
“mailing list”
“stay in the know”
Nine times out of 10. When I visit a winery’s tasting room and I’m asked for an email address at all, it’s in the context of receiving an emailed receipt or it’s an unenthusiastic, “Would you also like to be added to our newsletter?” Come on, I don’t care how good a time I had at your winery – if that’s how getting emails from you is positioned… I’m sorry, new favorite winery, the answer is no.
As an aside, the answer for me is always yes. I am a unique unicorn and if you ask me for my email address, I will 100% give it to you, but I am not like most people.
I want you to think about your winery’s goals for email marketing. I know the first thing you just thought is to make more money, but we’re going to go a little bit deeper today and do a little soul-searching.
Grab your journal and a pen because I am going to help you discover what sets email marketing for your winery apart and why somebody would sign up to get emails from your winery – and not Joe’s down the street.
You’re going to take that pristine first page of that journal and spend a little bit of time answering the question: what do my customers regularly thank me for?
Are they raving about how much more they know about wine because of the educational component of your tasting experience?
Are they over the moon having discovered their new favorite varietal?
These are all indicators and flags that you’re going to want to make note of, so dig deep. Ask the people on your team if you feel like getting an insider/outsider perspective or peruse the five-star reviews that your winery has received online. These are all data sources that can help you uncover what stands out about your winery for the majority of your customers.
The next question I want you to spend some time journaling on is: what do I want my winery to be known for? What, from a brand positioning perspective, matters to your winery? Put that on paper and think about what you want to have to stand out in the minds of your customers.
Next, I want you to answer: what are some of my most profitable offerings? Make a list of the things that you sell the most when people visit you, and what makes you the most revenue or has the highest profit margin.
The next part of this exercise is really fun because, at this stage, we’re going to connect email to your answers to the questions you were just journaling on.
I’ll walk you through it, don’t worry.
What do my customers regularly thank me for that I can also send via email?
If people are raving about the educational component of a tasting experience, what are some of the things that you could deliver to the inbox that replicate that educational experience?
If people are so over the moon about the scenes and the storytelling, how could you capture some of those images and stories in your email marketing?
Take a little bit of time and do that correlation in your journal.
What do my customers regularly thank me for that I can also deliver via email?
Next, how can email establish my winery as the type of winery I want to be known for?
Finally, I want you to ask the question: how can email drive sales for some of my most profitable offerings?
And this one the final question I want you to ask is the money maker:
What is the number one thing of value my emails deliver?
The exercise I just walked you through will help you produce what we call at Email Mavens an ‘Email Program Value Statement.’ It’s like a mini mission statement for your email programs and it is the thing that sets being on your email list apart from being on any other winery list.
If you’re looking for like a Mad Libs-style fill-in-the-blanks formula, here it is:
Sign up to receive [insert number one thing of value] every [insert frequency of times you send emails], so you can [insert benefit of receiving emails].
Now, the benefit part is really important because you might have something of value but if the customer doesn’t know what’s in it for them, it doesn’t matter. If the number one thing of value is educational content, the [insert benefit of receiving emails] is that you can be the most knowledgeable wine drinker in the room. If the number one thing of value is first access to all of your limited releases, then the [insert benefit of receiving emails] is your customer will always be able to secure their favorites before anybody else and before they sell out.
You see how those two things aren’t the same but they go together like peanut butter and pickles in a sandwich?
Once you have your email program value statement, I want you to put it everywhere. In the next post in this three-part training, I’m going to give you nine ways to make sure your email program value statement is being included anywhere you have a chance to interact with a customer who could potentially give you their email address.
At Email Mavens, we believe that every winery can sell more wine online by sending effective email campaigns and your emails will be even more effective if they’re reaching more people.
Stay tuned for the next video and blog! Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified.
Until next time, keep pressing send on your next best email!
