Your winery’s welcome email is the first impression you make in the inbox, and it’s the most opened message you will ever send. Here’s a six-point scoring system for getting it right, and the audit data showing how few wineries do.
We audited every winery in the region. Here’s what we found.
Before speaking to a room full of wineries about the campaigns every winery needs to send, Erica did her homework. She visited every single registered winery website in the region, checked whether she could even find where to sign up for emails, and tracked how many sent an automatic welcome email.
About 58% sent something immediately. Better than the general benchmark. But roughly half of those were the out-of-the-box autoresponder that the winery’s point of sale fires on its own. Erica ended up with four of them stacked in her inbox, one on top of the other, carrying the exact same subject line, because nobody had ever gone through their own opt-in experience.
That’s the real number. Not “58% of wineries send a welcome email.” More like fewer than a third send one they actually wrote.
First impressions are everything
Think about the first impression you create at the winery. People are greeted at the door with a welcome pour. They walk into a beautifully appointed tasting space. They’re taken care of at every point of the experience. They sit there for hours wishing they lived there.
Now think about your first impression in the inbox. In a lot of cases it isn’t lackluster. It’s non-existent.
You invest real money in first impressions: the labels, the tasting room, the $50,000 logo. None of that shows up in the welcome email your POS sends on your behalf.
Why the welcome email is worth the effort
- Welcome emails average 4x the open rate and 5x the click-through rate of promotional emails
- 320% more revenue is attributed to welcome emails on a per-campaign basis than any other email
- 74% of people expect a welcome email immediately after signing up, and only 54% of businesses send one
That gap between what customers expect and what they get is the opportunity. The wine industry is no different, as the audit above makes uncomfortably clear.
Score your welcome email out of 100
In the wine industry we live in a 100-point world. You want a 100-point wine because it sells fast. So here’s a 100-point welcome email. Run yours through the six checks below and add up what you’ve got.
1. Send it immediately (25 points)
When someone signs up for your emails, they are actively looking for something from your winery. That window closes fast. Your welcome email should be automated and land in the inbox within minutes, not queued up for the next newsletter.
2. Say thank you (25 points)
Thank you for the permission to show up in your inbox. Thank you for your interest in our wines. The words “thank you” are almost as important as your winery’s name. Put them in the subject line or the headline, but put them somewhere.
3. Give them something to do next (20 points)
Emails without action are just words on a page. Send them to browse the current release, book a tasting, or simply reply to the email. One clear next step, not five.
4. Give them what they signed up for (10 points)
An inside look, a winemaker’s recipe, a shipping offer on their first order. Whatever the signup form promised, deliver it here. This is where trust starts.
5. Differentiate yourself (10 points)
Nobody wants another newsletter. Tell them the one thing your emails give them that nobody else does: first access to releases, the behind-the-scenes stuff, exclusive videos. Make them want the next one.
6. Set expectations (10 points)
Say how often you’ll email so nobody is surprised or annoyed later. While you’re at it, ask them to whitelist you, which helps your future emails land in the primary inbox instead of promotions.
Six moves, 100 points. Score yours honestly. Most wineries land somewhere in the 40s, and almost all of the missing points are in the first two.
Don’t want to write it from scratch?
We built Welcome Email Mad Libs. Remember Mad Libs? Fill in a verb, a noun, an exclamatory phrase, read it back. Same idea, except these aren’t ridiculous, they’re ridiculously useful. Plug your winery’s details into six spots and your welcome email writes itself. Get the swipe file and the scorecard.
What comes next
Once your welcome email is scoring well, there are three natural next moves:
- See how real wineries handle it in winery welcome email examples that work (and flop)
- Get the writing framework in how to write a winery welcome email that converts
- Level up with a full welcome series instead of a single email
FAQs about winery welcome emails
How soon should a welcome email send?
Immediately. Within minutes of signup, automated. Someone who just gave you their address is looking for it right then, and that attention doesn’t come back.
Is the autoresponder from my POS good enough?
Almost never. It confirms a transaction, it doesn’t make an impression, and it usually carries a generic subject line identical to every other winery running the same system. Write your own and turn theirs off if you can.
Should a winery welcome email include a discount?
Only if that’s what you promised at signup. A discount can work, but it trains people to wait for one. Access, story, and a reason to come back often outperform a code.
How long should a welcome email be?
Long enough to say thank you, deliver what was promised, and give one clear next step. That’s usually a few short paragraphs, not an essay.
One welcome email or a welcome series?
Start with one that scores 100. Once it’s working, a series lets you spread the story across several sends instead of cramming it into one, and retailers who send a series see meaningfully more revenue than those who don’t.
Turn it on
Use the scorecard, grab the swipe file, and switch on the welcome email your winery should have had running years ago. You can’t just know better. You’ve got to do better.
