The Under-Tapped Wine Channel for Small Wineries

There are valuable lessons to be learned from 2020 and most importantly, there are key steps your winery can take right now to move the needle in 2021.

An active and disciplined ecommerce plan remains incredibly important for keeping small wineries connected to their most important customers and maintaining traction through the entire year. While ecommerce - including a robust email program - are opportunities often under-tapped by small wineries, in 2020 many wineries did see a big jump in their email click through rates and sales. In our view, email will continue to be extremely important in 2021; we’re working with clients to increase their email campaigns - which in turn equates to a higher ROI.

According to Wine Glass Marketing’s Wine Email Benchmark Report:

"While the average number of campaigns sent per winery in from 2017-2019 equated to a little less than 23 emails a year or one email every 2-3 weeks for sales, events, or wine club communications, the average number of campaigns sent per winery in 2020 doubled to 3.63 per month or about once a week."

It’s time to get on the email train if you haven’t, and here’s why:

• Email campaigns can be managed with a very modest financial investment.

• Covid aside, email campaigns can help make up tasting room revenue during seasonal slow downs.

• You can learn to write a subject line and good content to improve open and click through rates. It’s not nearly as hard as you might think.

• You can also outsource email campaigns using experienced freelancers at minimum cost.

• You’ll enjoy higher margins even with a sizable discount, and this is especially important if you’ve got excess inventory to move.

Emails create social connections with your customers near and far.

Now that they understand the value and ROI, wineries who crushed ecommerce in 2020 will continue to push the boundaries and innovate this year. We want you to be one of these wineries in 2021.

Right now is the time to stop the downward slide and make a fresh start. DTC is going to be your winery’s best friend for the foreseeable future.