The Winery Web Site Report

Now, Winery Lifestreams!

Evidently, blogging has become passé.

Now you need a lifestream, like PR maven Steve Rubel.

While I'm poking a little bit of fun at the idea, I think Rubel's workflow is worth a look if you're interested in the idea of creating a lifestream for your winery, a central feed of everything that you want to communicate to your fans.

As always, one needs to evaluate new developments with this in mind: it's always about selling more of your wine, whether it's a Web site, a blog, Twitter, Facebook, or a lifestream.

Lazy Sunday: Freakonomics on Wine

For those of you who enjoyed Freakonomics, there's a New York Times blog written by the same fellows, along with guest writers.

A newly-added guest economist, Robin Goldstein, writes about wine and the wine industry.

On The Internet, No One Can See Your Tongue

On June 8^th, I wrote about what I felt was a missed customer service opportunity by Chateau Julien.  After they received some "negative comments" on what they had intended to be a "tongue in cheek" post, they've asked their readers to "make the call" as to whether to remove the original post altogether.

(you can read the comments on their original post here)

On the one hand, I feel badly for having called attention to Ch. Julien's gaffe.  They made a common beginning blogger's mistake and experienced the wrath of anonymous commenters.

On ther other hand, it's instructive to others who write winery blogs (and blogs in general) that written humor is sometimes elusive.

I guess my bottom line is that there was probably a better way to have written the original post.  For example, here's one from El Jefe.

If you have comments, please leave them here, and give Ch. Julien a pass this time.

Thinking as a winery owner, would you remove the comment?

Facebook For Wineries (the blog)

"JD in Napa" has started an interesting blog on winery marketing through social media, which deserves your attention: Facebook for Wineries

And I would say that even if he hadn't been nice enough to mention this blog in a couple of hist posts.

Joe Bob says, "Check it out!"

Thinking About Making A Commercial?

Instead of hiring an agency, consider hiring your users.

Twitter Search For Your Winery

Twitter Search is the best way to keep tabs on what's being said about your winery/wines on Twitter. You'd be surprised.

Here's a quick introduction from the nice folks at CommonCraft:

Each Twitter Search has its own RSS feed, which means you can keep tabs on lots of distinct searches using your blog reader (e.g. Bloglines.com)

If you've got some additional Twitter Search tricks, please leave a comment.

Our Wines Are In The Wine Shop, But Why?

Paige over at Erath Winery invited me to take a look at their new Web site.  While it will take me some time to look around and do my "winery Web site evaluation thing" (much as I did for Twisted Oak recently), looking at their site navigation prompted me to ask this question:

Why do wineries have main navigation elements for both Our Wines and Wine Shop?

Lots of sites do this, but it seems like a false dichotomy: we describe our wines over here, and you can buy them over there.

Maybe I'm missing something, but Amazon (who arguably knows a thing or two about selling stuff online) doesn't describe books in one place, and make you go somewhere elseif you want to buy them.  There is no Our Books and Book Shop in their navigational scheme.

So, winery Web site owners (and designers), what's the rationale behind this split?  Please leave a comment!

Sites Which Are Blogs

I have a number of alerts which help me find new winery blogs for The List, and one of them turned up the Hawkes Wine blog. 

What makes Hawkes Wine worth mentioning is that their site (like the original Stormhoek site) is a blog, built using WordPress.  In other words, the front page of the Hawkes Wine Web site is the home page of their blog.

Any other good examples of this type of site?  Leave a comment.

Help!

I've had a pretty good run of posts lately, but the well has temporarily run dry (in part due to business travel earlier this week).

So, Faithful Readers, I turn to you.

Do you have a question or need advice related to your winery's online presence?  If so, please leave it in a comment.  One way or another, I'll answer it (either in response to your comment, or as a whole post here).  Think of it as Dear Abby for your winery Web site.

(you can also drop me an e-mail if you'd like to keep our exchange confidential)

...And thank you for your support!

Father's Day at Your Winery

Every holiday offers an opportunity to market your wine, even Father's Day.  I want to call attention to this innovative approach to Father's Day wine marketing from Notaviva Winery (which I saw on their blog):  Grillin' at the winery

Want to treat dad to a special experience? How about five grilled dishes, each paired with a Notaviva Vineyards wine?

It sounds delicious, and you can bet that Dad will want a few extra bottles of your wine to go with his own grilled meals at home.

Too late for Father's Day this coming weekend, but add it to your marketing calendar for next year.

The New Twisted Oak Winery Web Site: A Review

Jeff "El Jefe" Stai and his crew at Twisted Oak Winery in Murphys, CA have lauched a brand-new Web site.  Jeff is one of the most tech-savvy winery owners, so I wanted to take a close look at his new site.

First of all, let me say that I really like the new Twisted Oak site.  As far as navigation is concerned, they're hit all the right buttons, with their usual "twisted" flair:

• Get Twisted Wines (buy wine)
• The Twisted Few (wine club) 
• Goings On (event calendar) 
• Twists (blog-like content: pictures, recipes, etc still to come - the reason why is worth reading) 
• Find Us (directions) 
• Media / Trade (media and trade information) 
• Contact Us 

Although they have more than the basic navigation options (Buy Wine, Give Wine, About Us, Contact Us, Media/Trade), it's kept to a manageable seven primary navigation links.  Four of the seven items have drop down menus, which add navigational complexity in a manageable fashion as long as some restraint is applied.  The footer navigation recaps the buy, club, media/trade and contact items, and adds "Shipping" and "Boring Legal Crap" (again, completely consistent with their brand identity).

Buying wine is a breeze - the shopping cart and checkout takes very little effort (I didn't place an order, but I went throug the entire process except for the final click to place my order).  You don't have to create an account to buy anything, and there's a cool little drop-down "Shopping Sack" at the top of each page so you can see what you've got.  If you're not sure how good your winery's e-commerce function is, Twisted Oak is a very good benchmark for a nearly frictionless process.

I do wish that more effective use was being made of the home page.  There was no featured wine with a strong call to action.  And I wish the home page fit on a single screen - it may seem like a needless constraint, but it also forces the designer to reduce the home page to essentials.  At least there were no gratuitous vineyard pictures...

A winery Web site is more than the home page, of course, but the internal pages maintain the same navigation, content, and right-column appearance, so that the site (including the e-commerce system) has a consistent look and feel.  The page layout makes good use of white space to avoid a cramped feeling that may prevent people from reading.

I'd like to single out the copywriting on the whole site for recognition.  It's actually interesting to read each page, unlike many sites filled with marketing speak.  I presume Jeff was personally involved, as the feel of the copy is consistent with the Twisted ethos.  The site speaks with a single, authentically twisted voice.

The right column on each page shows visually interesting graphical elements for the wine club, newsletter signup, the Twisted Oak blog (hosted at a separate URL,  www.elbloggotorcido.com), and facility rental.  I'm not sure that all of these are worth such graphical emphasis (images call attention to particular elements on a page), but I was glad to see the newsletter signup  on each page.  If nothing else, you'd like a visitor to provide their e-mail address so you can continue the conversation once they leave the site.

One small gripe: I'd rather see a condensed list of wines (as shown under Get Twisted Wines / All the Vino), as opposed to the more spread-out listings used.  The four-up presentation of wines, while uncrowded, makes it hard to get the full scope of what's for sale without clicking through multiple pages.  The full product page for each wine is nicely done, although moving the "Shipping" information up near the "Add to Sack" button would be useful on these pages.

Jeff hasn't posted an announcement about the new site on the Twisted Oak blog yet. He may well have Tweeted about it, but since he has made over 11,000 tweets, I couldn't easily tell.

You can use The Wayback Machine to see previous versions of the Twisted Oak site.  The new design was done by Vin | 65.  According to the Internet Archive, Twisted Oak was previously an Inertia Beverages client.

I hope that Jeff will eventually post something (on his own blog, or here in a comment) that describes the process Twisted Oak went through in deciding to make a change, and what happened along the way from old site to new.  What were the goals for the new site, were they achieved, and what are his future plans?  As someone with a terrific winery Web site, I think it would be instructive for others contemplating a site redesign.

Take a look at the new site, and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Lazy Sunday: What's Your Dream?

My wife and I are big fans of the movie Pretty Woman.  At the end of the movie, there's a street person who walks through the frame:

Welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream? Everybody comes here; this is Hollywood, land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don't; but keep on dreamin' - this is Hollywood. Always time to dream, so keep on dreamin'.

Dreams are a large part of what makes us tick as human beings.  Neuroscientists say that our ability to pre-visualize outcomes is enabled by our complex cortical structure (read Jeff Hawkin's On Intelligence for a great, readable take on our brains).  

Wine country is the land of dreams, too.  I was talking to a guy last night who is growing Cabernet Sauvignon on some leased acreage in Kenwood and dreams of making a $20 bottle of Cab that he would like to drink.  Maybe his dream will come true.  

And then, of course, he'll raise the price to $75.

But, the important thing is to have a dream.  Seth Godin phrases it very nicely in Ruby Slippers.  Read it with your Sunday morning repast, and then take some quiet time to articulate your dream.

(What's your dream?  Leave a comment.)

50 Proven Ways To Persuade

Two great ones are here:  http://www.kottke.org/09/06/the-science-of-persuasion

The complete 50 are here: http://www.moskalyuk.com/blog/yes-50-scientifically-proven-ways-to-be-persuasive

What I like about the presentation is that each method has an associated example.

You're always in the position of persuading people to drink your particular brand of fermented grape juice.  Why not be smart about it.?

Scientifically proven!!  What could be better?

Your Winery Web Site is Boring

I've ranted before about how every winery Web site seems to have a picture of a vineyard on it.  Not that I don't like vineyard pictures, but because, in this context, they're boring.

Here's why you can't afford to be boring (in any context).

And here are some suggestions on how to be interesting.

(via Copyblogger)

Are Winery Blogs Dead?

Are Facebook pages replacing winery blogs?

I saw this interesting comment on the Wind River Cellars blog:

Hey everyone! Sorry I've been such a lame ass with the blog lately...   I'll try to update this blog more frequently, but to tell you the truth, it's easier to just post things on Facebook. I prefer Facebook because it's easier for you all to post pictures and comments. If you're a Facebook geek, just search "Wind River Cellars" and become a friend.

And thinking about it, Joel has a point.  Facebook has a richer interaction environment than common blogging platforms like Wordpress and TypePad.

Of course, Facebook can be confusing.  When I followed the instructions above, here's what I saw:

(click for a larger image in a popup window)

I couldn't immediately tell what to do:  join the Wind River Cellars Fan Club group, or add Wind River Cellars as a friend?

Of course, an untended Facebook page for your winery is just as bad as an untended winery blog.  In the end, you've got to decide whether you really want to interact with people online (I think you're missing something if you don't, but would love to hear "responsible opposing viewpoints").

What's your take?  Leave a comment!

(Interesting related post: Should a Facebook Page Be Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy)

FLASH: Facebook Vanity URLs For Your Winery

If you're using Facebook to promote your winery, you'll be able to get a vanity URL for your Facebook pages on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 9:01 PM on Friday, June 12^th.  Here's a good explanation of the details.

Basically, this allows a winery to have a URL (Web address) for their profile that looks like

http://www.facebook.com/Acme.Winery

instead of the standard geeky numeric URL that Facebook has always used.

Go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ at the appointed time to get your vanity URL (it currently displays a countdown timer, and links to more information).

IMPORTANT UPDATE 2009-06-10: As JDinNapa points out in the comments below, if you didn't have a Facebook page as of 5/31, you can't get a vanity URL for that page: 

If you signed up for a Facebook Page after May 31 or a user profile after today at 3 p.m. EDT, you may not be able to sign up for a username immediately because of steps we've taken to prevent abuse or "squatting" on names.

There are protections for copyright holders.  More info at the Facebook blog and Username FAQ.

Promoting Your Wine 2.0

Every time he says "book,", you say "wine."

 

Missed Opportunity?

Here's a consumer inquiry and response from Chateau Julien, with the headline "This is funny! I suggest he call his insurance company!"

While I can't fault their response from a business perspective (the flawed bottle was a gift, not a direct purchase from the winery), it's quite possible they missed an opporunity to delight, not only the person with the flawed bottle, but the person who gave them the bottle (which retails for $15 or less).  Seems like cheap marketing to me.

What do you think?  Any winery owners care to comment (especially someone from Chateau Julien?

And they probably should have removed the consumer's personal information from their blog post (I left a comment to that effect when I saw it, and as of 2009-06-08, they appear to have now removed the information).

Lazy Sunday: Help Your Readers with RSS

If you have a winery blog, you can help your readers by showing them how to subscribe to your RSS feed.  Just like I've done below, you can create a post with the YouTube video embedded.

To embed a video, just go to the YouTube Page, copy the "Embed" code from the right column, and paste it into your blog as HTML.

Although I prefer Bloglines to iGoogle, it's probably because I follow over 450 feeds (and the largest single group is winery blog feeds).  You can see all the RSS feeds I subscribe to with Bloglines.

I'd be really pleased and flattered if I saw this video popping up on winery blogs.  If your goal is to make it easy for your fans to get updates about your winery, teaching them how to use RSS is the best way to do it.  Embedded video makes it easy to teach them.

(And if you haven't already, please subscribe to *this* blog!)

UPDATE 2009-06-07: Stephen Bachmann pointed out the bad link to my RSS feeds, which I've corrected.  Scroll down to "Wine-Related Blogs" and "Winery Blogs" to see what I'm reading.  Thanks, Steve!!!

New Winery Blogs for May, 2009

Every month, I take a look at The List (my comprehensive list of winery blogs), and list the blogs that have been added in the past month.  Here are the additions I made last month:

• Decalier Wine Company
  http://wineblog.dacalier.com/

• Dr. Loosen Wines
  http://www.drloosen.com/blog/

• Hickory Creek Winery
  http://hickorycreekwinery.typepad.com/hickory-creek/

• Kumkani
  http://blog.kumkani.com/

• San Leonardo
  http://blog.sanleonardo.it/en/

• Stag's Hollow Winery
  http://www.stagshollowwinery.com/blog/

This brings the total on the list to 191 of active and inactive winery blogs.

Winery Home Page Checklist

This 15-item checklist is pretty good, if you're willing to be thoughtful and honest with yourself.  It's not specifically for winery Web sites, but does address the need to help visitors reach their goals, and to present a distinct and memorable personality.

But remember, the most important page on your site may not be the home page.

What Your Winery Web Site Is NOT

Your winery Web site is not a brochure.  At least it shouldn't be.

Your winery Web site is not a showcase for your designer.

Your winery Web site is not about you.

Your winery Web site is direct-response advertising, presenting clear, compelling choices and inviting action.

Ignore this difference at your peril.

That is all.

Weblog As Web Site

I've written before that using blog software as the foundation for a winery Web site seems like a not-bad idea.

Someone much smarter than me (he has a Ph.D. from MIT) agrees:  Weblog as Website for the Small Organization

(I also found his article on how the Web and, later, blogs have changed writing to be a thoughtful piece)

Wine Fulfillment Companies

What are your options now that, as the Wall Street Journal reports, "the company [New Vine Logistics] plans to shut down permanently"?

There are a number of companies involved in fulfillment for the wine industry.  Here's a partial list (alphabetical - no recommendation implied):

• Bacchus Fulfillment
• Copper Peak Logistics
• Pack 'n' Ship Direct 
• ShipCompliant (software)
• Terravant (Santa Ynez) 
• Vintage Logistics 
• VinTrust
• The Winetasting Network (WTN)
• Wineshipping.com 

If you know of others, please feel free to add them in the comments.  And here's an older Wine Business Monthly article on selecting a third-party fulfillment partner.

Lew Perdue at Wine Industry Insight has a great summary article on what went wrong at NVL.

Flash Abuse

(click for a larger image)

Stop the insanity!  Why do wineries create sites which obstruct the user?  

Although there's a certain novelty factor to the Some Young Punks Web site, it's slow to the point of painful.   Plus, it suffers from the usual problems with Flash sites: for example, I can't bookmark a page.Worse, I can't order any of the wines from the site, nor get a direct link to a place where I can (although Snooth appears to carry it)

I'm intrguiged by the names, graphics, and blends of the wines presented, but I can't imagine anyone saying that they actually like using the site.

The site has tabs appropriately named "Suspects" and "Blame."

(via Serious About Wine)

Crisis Management

If you're one of the wineries who has shipments to customers pending at New Vine Logistics (NVL), it's a crisis for you.

What's the first thing you should do?

Communicate.

Let your affected customers know that you are aware of the problem (ideally, by phone and e-mail), and what you are doing to solve it.  Give them a way to contact you directly.  Make sure that whoever answers the phone knows about the issue and where to route calls.  Develop a set of talking points so that everyone says and does the same thing in response to an inquiry.  If you've charged their credit cards, give them a credit and let them know that you've done it (maybe not - see Larry's comment below - but if they ask for it, don't hesitate).  Put all the information on your blog and Web site.  Let them know when you'll update them again.  If you have an alternative way of getting wine to these consumers, you should act on it.

At some point, depending on how long this crisis goes on, do something unexpectedly nice for the affected customers.  I don't think a discount on more wine or free shipping is the answer, though.  Be creative: a t-shirt, a box of chocolates, some olive oil...

NVL is probably overwhelmed by calls this morning -- they're undoubtedly having trouble communicating as well.  Here's what they've communicated so far (props to Larry Chandler at OverABarrel.net). Regardless, share what you *do* know with your customers about the situation as it affects them.

The last thing you want is for a third party to negatively affect your relationship with your customers.

Any other suggestions for these wineries?  Help them out by posting a comment.

UPDATE 2009-06-02:  here's a post from Caveman Wines (a professional PR firm) with some additional recommendations: Crisis Communication and New Vine Logistics

Thought Experiment

This is a very short post (inspired by this geeky article from the very smart Tim O'Reilly).

What would your winery Web site be like if you were building it today?

Now, why isn't your site like that?  (leave your reasons in a comment)