When was the last time you went to the supermarket and decided to buy a bottle of wine? How did you arrive to a decision? Did you go with a specific purchase in mind? Did you choose based on the food you bought to prepare? Did you buy red wine or white, California, South American, European, or Australian? How much did it cost, and did you stick to your budget? Were you swayed to pick the one with a $1 off coupon tag, or did you pick your wine because of how the label looked?
Picking out a bottle of wine at a supermarket or large liquor store can be daunting. There are hundreds of different varietals, vintages, appellations, and price points to complicate the decision. It is amazing how much can go into a simple decision; good thing those pretty labels are there!
So then, how does a wine producer persuade potential buyers to sort through the clutter and choose its wine over another similar style? Wouldn't it be wise to plant a seed in the customer's head before he or she got to the store and was bewildered by bottles and bottles of choice? Social media marketing and search engine optimization are powerful, cost-effective tools for any winery to use to stay in the forefront of a customer's mind.
Social media marketing is hot, and first-rate SEO can place a brand in front of the competition when someone is researching wine. For any winery, the time to act is now because wine sales are on the rise and most wine drinkers are using the internet to learn more.
At the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium on January 26, 2011, California wine industry executives discussed the state of the wine business for the coming year. They determined that wine would have its best year since the start of the recession. They also expressed that wine sellers must use a new approach in their marketing initiatives, saying that buyers would like to be spoken to from the wine industry like this
Give me a unique experience.
Speak to me, not yourself.
Discovery rules, rediscovery is equally important.
Life is sweet.
Talk to me where I'm listening, not where you're listening.
A custom Facebook Fanpage and ad campaign can do much for a wine's image. Facebook also allows a brand to engage users and give them that unique experience. Most wine drinkers associate wine with memories of a great dinner with friends or a chic party. A winery's Fanpage helps them recall that wonderful experience with photos, videos, and comments from other people present.
A clever brand manager could hire a social media manager that understands wine and the people that enjoy it to speak on behalf of the brand, and speak directly to the customers on the Fanpage and the company's blog. Social media is the ideal channel for a winery to interact with its fans and keep them engaged. A mobile marketing campaign that ties into social media marketing and advertises itself with conspicuous bottle tags, in conjunction with a coupon at the store, is another effective initiative.
The internet, of course, is all about discovery. Make it easy for people to find your wine by keeping your website on the first page of Google searches for your best keywords with diligent search engine optimization. If a customer finds your wine by searching online for "Argentinian Malbec," and then sees it at the supermarket, chances are they will re-discover it at the supermarket with faced with 1000 choices. If someone tried your wine at a friend's hose and then searched for it at home when trying to recall the name, the joy of re-discovery is there too.
Life is certainly sweeter with good wine! A brand must convey this and can actually show people the intangible by keeping videos, photos, and blog posts up to date on social media channels, and its website, as well as encouraging them to connect with other lovers of the sweet life and showing the brand how they define the sweetness of their life in regard to their favorite wine. Wine is a lifestyle; social media gives your brand a chance to reinforce this and share in it with your customers.
People of all ages are on Facebook and everyone with the potential to buy your wine uses the internet, so be where they are, communicate with them via their channels. One question for wine makers and marketers is, "Should wineries market to boomers or millennials?" Facebook lets them do both! Baby Boomers are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook, and just about every 21-25 year old is there too.
The "sweet spot" of wine prices is $9 to $12, and so wine producers must rely on volume since anything over $20 is a tough sell and luxury prices of $50 to $100 are nearly impossible. Again social media marketing, and SEO can drive the needed sales volume. Total U.S. table wine sales grew to an estimated 278 million cases in 2010, so as the demand returns, brands must place themselves where the customers are paying attention and keep them engaged. Nothing achieves this as well as internet marketing does for a wine, and factoring in the affordability and efficiency of web tactics, means that a winery that isn't in constant contact with its customers online is losing market share and thus staying lost in the cluttered supermarket shelves.
In conclusion, social media marketing and search engine optimization are the most powerful and affordable means for a wine producer to stand out in a crowded marketplace. They are the ideal means to connect with wine lovers on their terms and where they are already engaged and active. These innovative methods are indispensable for success in such a competitive environment. Now that you know what social media marketing and SEO can do to help sell your wine, how are you going to put the internet to work for your brand?
I am a wine lover and can help wine producers market their brands in a crowded market place. Please contact me for a free assessment of your company's current internet marketing presence and to get a plan for a powerful social media, mobile marketing, and SEO initiative for your business. I operate Beach Marketing in Miami Beach, Florida, creating innovative, effective, profitable social media marketing and mobile marketing campaigns, as well as doing SEO for small businesses. I specialize in helping businesses that specialize in the good life -- wineries, craft brewers, restaurants & bars, and tourism operators -- succeed with their internet marketing initiatives. Connect with us at http://www.facebook.com/mobilesocialmediamarketingmiami.
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