Welcome to The Email Maven’s blog—the place for winery owners and marketing pros to learn how to send email campaigns that sell wine online.

Today, we’re going to talk about the single most important email campaign your winery will ever send.

You know what they say about first impressions. It goes something like…

“First impressions are everything.”

Think about the first impression you create at your winery: people are greeted at the door with a welcome pour, they walk into a beautifully appointed tasting space, and they are taken care of at every single point of the experience. They sit there for hours, wishing they lived there.

But when it comes to your winery’s first impression in the inbox, we have to say, in many cases, it’s not just lackluster—it’s non-existent.

You invest significant resources in your winery’s first impressions: your beautiful labels, your gorgeous tasting room, and the $50,000 you spent on a logo design. But when it comes to the inbox first impression, they ain’t getting any of that.

Let’s shift gears for a hot second and talk about some stats—some sexy stats, like Ryan Gosling sexy.

SEXY STATS:

• On average, welcome emails get a 4x improvement in open rate and a 5x improvement in click-through rate compared to promotional emails.
• Additionally, 320% more revenue is attributed to welcome emails on a per-campaign basis than any other email.
• Most importantly, when polled, 74% of respondents said they expect to receive a welcome email immediately after signing up to receive emails from a business. Yet, only 54% of businesses are actually sending an automatic welcome email. That’s a huge divide between your customers’ expectations and what you are delivering. The wine industry is no different.

 

A while back, Erica, our queen Email Maven, had an opportunity to speak in front of a room full of wineries about the essential campaigns that every winery has to send. Naturally, she wanted to be prepared, so she spent time visiting every single registered winery’s website, auditing whether she could find where to sign up for emails, and then kept track of how many of them were actually sending an automatic welcome email. The statistics were a little better than the general stats—around 58% sent something immediately. However, about half of those automatic emails were the out-of-the-box autoresponder that the winery’s point of sale sends. Erica had four of those stacked in her inbox, one on top of the other, with the exact same subject line because these wineries had never taken the time to audit the opt-in experience.

Your welcome email is your winery’s first impression in your subscribers’ inbox, and you need to make a good first impression. First impressions are everything. That’s why your welcome email is the most important email that your winery will ever send.

 

Get a 100-point score!

In the wine industry, we live in a 100-point score kind of world. You want a 100-point wine because it’s going to sell really fast. So naturally, we are going to teach you how to get a 100-point welcome email that delivers that first impression in the inbox.

Let’s do this!

1. Send it immediately.

We already discussed that there’s a huge gap between your customers’ expectations and what most businesses deliver. When your customer signs up for your emails, they are actively looking for an email from your winery. Make sure your welcome email is delivered automatically right to their inbox. Do you know how many points that’s going to get you? 25 points!

2. Say thank you.

Thank you for giving us permission to show up in your inbox. Thank you for letting us stay connected with you. Thank you for your interest in our wines and what we’ve got going on. The words “thank you” are almost as important as your name. It could be the subject line or the headline, but your welcome email must say thank you. This earns you another 25 points.

3. Give them something to do next.

Emails without action are just words on a page. You want to get your customer to engage with you immediately. Give your customer something to do next, such as heading to your website to check out your wines, booking a reservation, or replying to your welcome email. This action is crucial for engagement and earns you 20 points.

4. Give them what they signed up for.

This can be an inside look, a winemaker recipe, or a shipping promotion on their first order. Giving your customer what they opted in for increases their trust in you and creates more value. This earns you 10 points.

5. Differentiate yourself.

Nobody wants another newsletter. You need to give them the number one thing your email program offers. This could be first-to-know offers, an inside look, or exclusive videos. Make sure this is reiterated inside your welcome email to excite them about receiving the next one. This earns you another 10 points.

6. Set expectations.

Set expectations on how often you’ll email them so they aren’t surprised or offended by your email frequency. Also, encourage them to whitelist your email. This ensures your emails end up in their primary inbox. This simple action can earn you another 10 points.

Ding, ding, ding!

You just scored 100 points with your welcome email and are well on your way to a long and prosperous relationship with your new subscriber.

Wow! 100 points—let’s shout it from the rooftops! With your 100-point welcome email, you are now delivering an amazing first impression in your subscribers’ inbox. But maybe you’re thinking this looks like a lot of writing. Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered.

We have Welcome Email Mad Libs. Remember Mad Libs? Fill in a verb, noun, or exclamatory phrase, and then read it aloud. In this case, these welcome email Mad Libs are not ridiculous—they’re ridiculously awesome. Just plug in your winery-specific points in six spots, and your welcome email is written for you. Get that swipe file and your scorecard now!

You are now the proud owner of a 100-point score welcome email. Armed with this incredible tool, you are creating an amazing first impression for your subscribers. But as we say here at Email Mavens, you can’t just know better—you’ve got to do better.

Use the scorecard, get the swipe file, and turn on your automatic winning welcome email. Then, watch your email marketing results skyrocket because you are now nailing the most important email that your winery will ever send.

We believe every winery can sell more wine online by using effective email marketing strategy. Until next week, keep pressing send on your next best email and make that awesome first impression that lives up to its promise!