Erica Walter, our Founder & CEO, got into the wine industry because she loves amazing stories, incredible wines, and incomparable experiences. Perhaps you did too. And so far, Erica hasn’t met anybody in the industry who told her that they specifically got into the wine industry because of their love of data and stats. But here we are, nearly 20 years later, and we’ve discovered that email marketing data can tell a story that helps us tell more amazing stories, sell more of the delicious wines, and enhance the impeccable experiences that our clients and students are creating.
If the reporting dashboard of your email service provider overwhelms you, or you don’t even know what your email stats mean, today we are going to cut right to the chase.
Track these stats to sell more wine with your winery’s email campaigns.
We’re about to convert you into a big-time data nerd!
Welcome to the Email Maven’s blog, the place for winery owners and marketing pros who want to sell more wine online by sending better email campaigns.
As wineries, we have a unique opportunity to connect with an audience through emails. I mean, what is sexier to look at than the gorgeous vineyards, the epic patios, the delicious bubbles effervescently floating to the top of a perfectly poured champagne flute?
To truly measure success and optimize your campaigns, you need to keep a close eye on three essential metrics.
Let’s break them down:
1. Click Rate
Definition: The percentage of recipients who clicked on links within your email.
Importance: Indicates the effectiveness of your content and design.
Action Steps:
- Track click rates per campaign.
- Note the content theme or main call to action.
- If event emails get high clicks but online wine sales do not, segment your audience to better target those likely to shop online versus in person.
2. Conversion Rate
Definition: The percentage of recipients who took a desired action after clicking on a link (e.g., making a purchase, signing up for a wine club, or buying tickets to an event).
Importance: Crucial for measuring the actual impact of your email campaigns on sales and customer engagement.
Action Steps:
- If you have a high click rate but low conversions, it may imply that your landing page could be optimized or your shopping cart experience enhanced.
A cautionary tale about measuring the right metrics:
Years ago, we worked with a winery that was getting an insane click-through rate on one of their email campaigns but no sales. We asked, “What’s the deal with this 25% click-through rate and no sales?” We discovered that people were clicking on a link to read a review that the wine got an awesome score on, leading them to the Wine Spectator website, and we never got them back to our website to spend money.
What we did was, for the next send of that email campaign (using our signature 3-send resend strategy), we changed the landing page for that one link. We created a snippet from the overall article that lived on the product page of the winery’s website. Then, when people wanted to get the full review, they went to a place where they could actually give us money for wine. Huzzah!
3. Unsubscribe Rate
Definition: The percentage of recipients who unsubscribed from your email list.
Importance: Provides valuable insights into the health of your email list.
Action Steps:
- An increase in unsubscribe rate could indicate a need to reassess your email frequency, content relevance, or targeting strategies.
- It is a big indicator that what you’re sending is not aligned with what your customer is expecting to receive. This becomes a great opportunity to review how you’re asking for email addresses in the first place.
Now, I’m sure you’re asking yourself, why are we not including open rates in the key stats?
While open rate can provide some insights into email engagement, it isn’t always the most accurate or actionable metric, especially for wineries. Factors like image blocking, preview panes, and mobile email clients can skew open rate data, making it unreliable for measuring true engagement.
The stats we shared with you above are the metrics that directly reflect recipient actions and engagement with your content. By keeping a close eye on these metrics and continuously optimizing your campaigns, your winery will deliver engaging content that resonates with your audience. And if it resonates, it’s going to sell.
At Email Mavens, we believe that every winery can sell more wine online by sending better marketing emails. So, track these key stats at your winery for the next three months and focus on improving all of these metrics. We promise you, you are going to notice a difference in the bottom line.
If you loved this content, it would mean the world to us (and Erica may even pop open a bottle and pour herself a glass in celebration) if you would subscribe to our weekly Email Party.
Share this blog post with your winery business bestie so that they can send better marketing emails too. Because when more wine is sold online, more wine is sold online. It’s a beautiful virtuous cycle.
And until next week, keep pressing send on your next best email.
