Social Media for Wineries – Tips & Strategies to Grow Your Business
One of the last industries to fully embrace internet-based technologies and social media platforms is the wine industry, which has many small or non-existent social media profiles, as well as a lack of savvy integrated digital marketing strategies.
When it comes to interacting with customers, wineries can no longer afford to ignore the power of social media platforms, both from an organic and paid perspective. Wineries have a priceless opportunity to build direct relationships with their customers, a connection that these same customers desire, thanks to this new platform – without competing on shelves for attention among hundreds of other brands.
Great social media marketing can help wineries to reach and engage a larger audience and build their brand, as well as increase sales. More than just a product, today’s customers want stories and interaction.
Even though wine writers still have some sway in the wine world, that influence is waning with fewer people reading traditional print media. One of the top reasons people buy wine is because they were referred to it by someone they trust. Consumers can make and receive wine recommendations from their social networks via social media.
When it comes to social media, it’s important to remember that engaging with customers via social media is not the same as making online sales. In your interactions with strangers, you’re not selling anything; you’re simply chatting and forming relationships.
Relationships on social media, like any other, take time to develop. To see an effect on sales, it will take six to 12 months. Build trust and credibility (social currency) by allowing yourself time to grow your network. Be a trusted source by responding quickly to messages. There are some great alcohol brands and distilleries, such as Lark Distillery, who are nailing their social media and it’s paying off.
It is possible for wineries to build a social media presence with a variety of options. We don’t recommend that you go out and learn them all at once and start marketing your brand on many platforms – as with any business, pick one or two platforms where you know your audience is, and focus on those, ensuring your content matches the platform; don’t just post sales-related content. Remember to be sure to maintain a regular and consistent schedule; posting regularly, responding to messages and comments as well as interacting with others online. Short- and long-term gains can both be expected.
Since wine is such an important part of everyday life, it’s no surprise that people are so enthusiastic about it. Wine and wineries hold emotional and personal significance for these individuals. People’s enthusiasm for wine can be seen in the thriving online community of wine blogs, podcasts, and social media pages.
However, it’s difficult for wineries to stand out on social media and cut through the competition. They post on social media because their competition is, and they lack a strategy of their own to focus on. However, if you know “why” you’re doing something, you’ll get better results.
Social Media for Wineries – Objectives and Purposes
Listed below are five reasons why wineries should be active on social media.
To Raise Brand Awareness & Recognition
Step one of the marketing funnel appears to be straightforward. Because social media is a place where a lot of people are active, you’ll have a better chance of attracting new customers. Consumers are more likely to buy wine from a brand they already know and like. With the help of social media, you can quickly and easily establish your company’s brand online. Every time a follower scrolls through their feeds, your winery can stay at the top of their followers’ minds by posting about the vineyard flowering or new vintage releases on social media. Regularity when it comes to posting helps to increase awareness and recognition.
According to recent data from Sprout Social’s annual Index, 75 percent of consumers plan to spend more money with brands they follow on social media.
The goal is to cultivate and expand a loyal following of brand ambassadors, and even an audience interested in your brand and products even if they haven’t purchased yet.
To Increase Customer Satisfaction, Conversions & Retention
Wineries can use social media to better serve their customers by using it well. You’re only a few clicks away from a direct conversation with your fans. Good customer service is important in building a good reputation, regardless of the issue at hand: hours of operation, cost of tastings, or wedding inquiries.
Isn’t it interesting to know that 57% of consumers are more likely to stick with a brand that has a lot of human interaction or fast response rate? There are many ways to engage customers, but one of the most important is to make them feel like they’re talking to a real person when they interact with your company.
A two-way conversation between a business and its customers encourages other customers to want to engage in the same way. Your company’s chances of being mentioned on social media and in comments skyrocket. As a result, they become advocates for your winery and help spread the word about it.
Customer service, on the other hand, can act as a focus group; if people are asking the same questions over and over again, this can help generate new ideas for content. With Facebook’s ability to incorporated automated messenger replies, it makes it easier than ever to address, answer or direct consumer enquiries and increase customer satisfaction.
To Craft Gripping Narratives & Stories
When it comes to social media, a winery’s social media should be an experience.
Make your followers feel like they’re right there with you at the winery by using social media features like Stories, Reels, IGTV, and Facebook Live.
As a winery, you can be a part of many significant events, such as the establishment of the vineyard, winning of awards, the selection of the cabernet, what’s happening on the vineyard or in the restaurant, the bottling of the wine and finally tasting the great selection. You can also promote events at your winery and community events you are participating in. By emphasising this, you’ll give your followers a sense of proximity to your brand, as if they were actually there. For inspiration, research tourism-based businesses that have tapped into this extremely well.
Gripping narratives and stories can also be delivered through organic posts, with image carousels and lengthy captions. Remember to analyse past performance and continue to improve your content month on month, not simply stick to what you have been doing.
Frogmore Creek‘s Annual Yoga and Brunch at the Vineyard.
To Build Relationships
With the help of social media, it is now easier than ever to build relationships with everyday consumers, advocates and influential people. It only takes a click to get in touch with them! Developing a relationship with a wine critic allows you to send them wine for review, ask for their input on a new release, or even invite them to come visit your winery. A new audience can be gained if an influential person posts about you. Influencers, as you may have seen in numerous news articles over the past few years, can be hit and miss. If engaging influencers, get a specialists (like us) to help manage this for you, to ensure you get the best results. When working with influencers, the majority of success comes from deep-diving into an influencer’s followers and engagement, as well as the output of the relationship. Another great source of advocates to reach out to is local and state tourism profiles, to help promote your business.
Cricket legend Ricky Ponting at Pooley Wines.
To Increase the Results of Paid Social Media
An organic social media campaign is a great way to establish your winery’s personality and voice, as well as to build relationships and involve customers in your product. Yet, the best way to reach new customers and increase sales for your winery is through paid social media advertising hands down. To be effective, organic and paid social media strategies must be coordinated. All of the clients paid social we manage here at Pink Lemonade Social, we ensure our paid social strategies not only align to organic social strategies, but also to content marketing and email marketing strategies. Integrated marketing = success.
It’s unlikely that a user who sees your paid ad and clicks on your profile sees much in the way of organic social activity. Instead for paid social, the complexity of campaign funnels helps lead to capture a colder audience, nurture them, and help increase conversions. It’s safe to say that social media is the best marketing tool for wineries because it can help spread the word and build a strong following of loyal customers, with paid social complementing the efforts to find a similar audience and convert them.
Social Media for Wineries – Tips & Strategies To increase Sales and Awareness
Here are five winery social media strategies that will help to transform your company for the better.
Share Stories
It is a shame that Instagram Stories, in particular, are not more widely used by businesses. Using them is a quick and spontaneous way to organically advertise what’s going on in the business right now and a great way to give your audience a glimpse of behind the scenes. People connect to Instagram stories more easily because they appear less scripted by nature, which lends to a more personal connection, they are the top of your feed and easy to navigate through without the need for reading.
Instagram stories can be used to promote events, give a preview of an upcoming menu, show off the progress of your business, as well as highlight the taste of new wines. It is also a great opportunity to give a taste of the tasting room experience or restaurant. Guests will be enthralled and eager for more information if you give them a taste of what they can expect.
In order to draw in as many viewers as possible, you can tag your location as well as hashtags.
A Look Behind The Scenes
Despite the fact that there is a lot to this, it all adds up to a very effective strategy. It builds trust, allows customers into your world, and creates a sense of ‘human brand’ by letting them peek behind the curtain.
In order to better understand what goes into your product, people can learn more about the inner workings. You can help them understand more easily if they do. Behind the scenes content is also a great way to answer regular FAQs or promote new offerings.
Another option is to focus on a rotating group of employees. Individuals will be able to shine and guests will get to know your staff in a more personal way as a result of this. It can also help to alleviate the workload of managing social media. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved, including your team and your audience.
Living “organically” is also a part of this lifestyle. In the context of wine, this means keeping the public informed about what is happening at the winery. Information on the current state of affairs as well as historical trends and operational specifics.
Incorporate More Video Content
Adding video to your posts is not only a fun way to spice things up but video content is the most consumed content online. While historically Instagram was primarily used for photo sharing, and this will continue to be the case in feeds, posting videos on occasion is a smarter move. Why do you think stories and reels were developed?
There is a lot of material that could be documented in videos about your winery, winemaking and the wine itself, which would be ideal for this. Don’t just republish your own material! Take a look on Instagram, search hashtags and scroll through content from individual users (not other brands) and get inspiration from other content creators. There are so many great video content creators on Instagram from bloggers to every day users, and by having a look at what content works will help you form a better content strategy.
As a side note, don’t expect your customers to do all the hard work for your social media output. Adding a call to action for your guests can be a fun way to interact with your audience and encourage them to create content related to your brand. Make it easy for people to share images of your wines or the winery’s events on social media by encouraging tagging and the use of hashtags.
Become an Expert as Well as an Advocate in Your Field
If you’re going to be a successful winery, you need to be able to live the product you’re producing. You need to be able to provide more than just the product to your customers.
When it comes to wine, you need to be the go-to person on the subject. Don’t just make the creation, be the creation. It’s one thing to know the art, but it’s another to be able to teach it or inspire others without missing a beat.
As a result, your winery will become known as the “go-to” resource in its field, and you will no longer be considered a mere commodity. Serve as a guide for your customers as they pursue their passion for wine, help them to discover how wine can integrate into their lives.
Make suggestions for food and wine pairings to go along with your wines. Recommend wines for gatherings and gifts. Now that customers know what to expect in terms of flavours and foods they enjoy, this concept has the potential to increase sales.
Be Approachable
Social media is the most convenient way for guests to get in touch with you, with more and more people going straight to social media to contact a brand, instead of via email or phone. In many cases, social media is the only option.
As much as possible, respond to both positive and negative feedback. Inquiries and comments should be welcome and responded to in a timely fashion. As mentioned early, incorporating the use of automated responses in Facebook Messenger can help you to easily navigate customers. It’s critical that visitors understand how much you value their interactions because they can post the same exchanges themselves.
In less than five minutes, you can make an enormous difference to a guest’s experience. In order for them to feel more connected to the winery, they want their voices to be heard. This improves the winery’s reputation and strengthens the public’s confidence in it.
Regardless of what industry you’re in, social media is the key to your success. The world is becoming increasingly dependent on technology’s ability to connect each of us. As a result, it’s not enough to simply use social media; you must do so in an appropriate and effective manner. Your winery’s strength can be enhanced by using social media with a well-formed strategy, and you can make the best possible experience for your guests. Social media for wineries should be an integral part of any wine brand’s marketing strategy. Organic and paid methods both have the potential to raise brand awareness and expand a business’s customer base and sales.
Have any questions about how social media can help your business? Get in touch today (we respond quickly :P)! We also love a good chat over a glass of wine!
Pink Lemonade is located on the traditional lands of the palawa people, the Traditional Owners of lutruwita (Tasmania). We pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.
Pink Lemonade Social is a proudly inclusive organisation and an ally of LGBTIQ+ community and the movement toward equality.
Such a helpful post, so glad I stumbled upon this! Keep posting these helpful articles!