The Winery Web Site Report

Your Turn!

I've been posting my opinions daily for the past couple of weeks, so  I thought I'd take this opportunity to openly invite you to give me some feedback and direction.  Please (please?!) take a minute to leave a comment with a question you'd like answered, or a challenge you face with your online presence.

If you can't think of a question or a challenge, I'd love to know what you wish you could do with your winery Web site.  If you want to comment anonymously, just use a fake name (e.g. "Anonymous") and a fake e-mail like jdoe@example.com.  I'd rather have an anonymous comment than no comment at all.

I truly appreciate the time you take to read my blog, whether you stop by daily or just once in a while.  Thank you!

My Annual Harvest Fair Rant

On Saturday night, the Sonoma County Harvest Fair gave out its wine awards.  The Sweepstakes Awards went to  Adler Fels (2007 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley) and Owl Ridge (2008 Sauvignon Blanc Sonoma County). 

As of this morning (Tuesday), still nothing on the Adler Fels Web site about their win.

Owl Ridge, to their small credit, added a brief note on their home page on Monday morning.

OWL RIDGE walks away with Harvest Fair SWEEPSTAKES Award for 2008 Sauvignon Blanc - Sonoma County!!!!

No information about where I can buy some (nor does it appear to be available for sale in their online store), no explanation of why that's the case.

Is this too hard?  Is there something I'm missing?  Or do wineries really not give a damn about making use of their Web presence to drive sales?

Sign me Discouraged.

What's Your Most Popular Blog Post?

And why you should care.

This follows on my previous post which outlines that it doesn't matter whether people read your blog.

A Great Example Of Winery Blogging

This post from Tablas Creek.

What makes it great?  It satisfies the three requirements: interesting, informative, and useful.  It's well-written and tells a story, which makes it interesting.  It contains lots of information about wines under screwcap and cork, so it's not fluff.  And if you drink wine, it's actually useful to you when selecting wines.

It's not trying to sell you on Tablas Creek wines, although they are clearly part of the story.

What it really sells is how fundamentally passionate Jason & Co. are about the wines they produce.

First runner up: this post from Sanglier Cellars.

WinesTilSoldOut.com

WinesTilSoldOut.com (WTSO) is very much like wine.woot: A new wine goes on sale each day at 12 AM.

Paul Mabray of Vintank tweeted about WTSO the other day, wondering who is behind the site.  The site itself is a bit coy:

WTSO.com is an online store that focuses on selling wine at 30%-70% off store and internet site prices. It started as an in store department of the parent company that will remain nameless so we can continue to get all these great wines at ridiculous prices and pass them on to you!

 So, I put my Internet Detective hat on and went to work.  Turns out, it's not much of a secret.

The man behind the WTSO domain registration is Joe D. Arking, who LinkedIn reveals to be an executive vice-president at Roger Wilco Wine & Spirits in scenic Pennsauken, NJ.

Lazy Sunday: Ask the Pinotblogger

Schools in session: Josh Hermsmeyer teaches us what an interesting winery video looks like.

Admittedly, "brett" is a somewhat-estoeric subject for a video, but Josh does a great job talking about it.  He's a natural in front of the camera, and he tells a good story.

Take 4 minutes and 34 seconds with your Sunday morning coffee and watch Josh show how it's done.

(Josh - if you read this, I'd love a comment from you about the why and how of this video series, i.e. the backstory.)

Free Book

I'm a great believer in non-fiction books as a very cheap way to get smarter.  So, when a book is *free*, I'm inclined (a) to get a copy for myself, and (b) tell other people about it.  This is part (b).

Sam Carpenter wrote a book called Work the System: the simple mechanics of making more and working less.  Now you can get it for free (as a PDF).  Why free?

If the book resonates – you’ll know one way or the other by the end of the introduction – consider buying a hard copy for yourself and maybe another copy as a gift for someone else. 

The short version: send an e-mail to pdf @ workthesystem.com with the words simple mechanics as the Subject: of the e-mail.  You'll get the PDF by return e-mail.  Note: your e-mail will automatically be added to their mailing list, although you can unsubscribe at any time.

Let me know what you think of the book by leaving a comment.

Bottle Buzz

It would appear that computer-assisted pairing of food and wine is The Next Big Thing.  First, from Snooth and Natalie MacLean. Now from Bottle Buzz:

(doesn't the guy at the table look like Gary Vaynerchuk from this angle?)

Now, if they can use geolocation to tell what restaurant you're at, and get their wine list as an XML feed from the restaurant's Web site, things will be perfect.  It'll even tell you how much they marked up the wine.

See more about Bottle Buzz, or just head to the Bottle Buzz page on Facebook.

You may also want to read Vintank's Pulse Reports on the Snooth and MacLean offerings.

Oh, Dear!

The economy is still moribund:

BFS-175918: Winery - Custom Crush Facility Location: Other California (Sonoma, CA) Asking Price: Between $2.5 Million and $5 Million ($2,750,000) Summary: 65,000 case custom crush facility with existing, long-term clients. Room to expand. Profitable. Owners looking to retire. The equipment is in excellent condition. Business is mostly small-lot producers,...

BFS-175915: Wine Estate in Distress Location: Other California (Sonoma, CA) Asking Price: Between $5 Million and $7.5 Million (Make Offer) Summary: Beautiful 80+ acre wine estate located in Sonoma, California. 14+ acres of planted vineyard. Approx 20+ plantable acres. Main house + guest house. Ample water supplies. Private lake on property..... As always, the details are at MergerNetwork.com

Managing Club Memberships Online

Most winery Web sites allow people to sign up for their wine club.

But really, your wine club members should be able to manage *all* the aspects of their club membership online, including cancelling it.

(I can hear wine club managers pulling their hair out - bear with me.)

First of all, do the self-test.  If you had a subscription (to anything, not just a wine club), wouldn't you like to be able to cancel it online?  The same applies to your wine club members.

And if people *really* want to cancel, are you creating a good (possibly final) impression by making it harder for them to do so?  Obviously, you want to understand why they're cancelling, and provide a better alternative (for them, not just you) if at all possible.  If you really wanted to make it hard for someone to leave your wine club, why not just hide your phone number and e-mail address and be done with it?

Usually, when someone wants to cancel by phone, you'll offer them alternatives, such as suspending the account for one or more shipments.  The same applies online: club members should be offered the chance to temporarily suspend their membership (with a definite date when that suspension will become a cancellation).

The copy for that offer should promote suspension as an option, as opposed to simply offering it.  Suspension should be an attractive alternative, not just one of two possible actions.

When you do your regular club mailing, members who are suspended should get a reminder of what they are missing, with links to "reactivate now" and "manage membership" (like "cancel" but less obvious).

And obviously, as the suspension period comes to an end, you want to let them know that cancellation is imminent (and possibly incent them not to let it happen).

If they have previously tried to cancel, suspended their membership, and now want to cancel (while in the suspended state), their membership should be cancelled without further ado.  They've made their choice.

Regardless, whenever someone cancels, you should always ask for a reason, to better understand what's going on "out there." Provide radio buttons for common reasons to make it easy for people to provide an answer, along with an "other" selection with a fill-in box.  You might consider sending a "We still like you" note by snail mail immediately following a cancellation with an offer that can be redeemed if they rejoin the club.

You may want to do a once-a-year mailing to those who left for a reason other than "I don't like your wine," again to try and return them to the fold.  If you think that these efforts to recapture a former member are too much work, just consider the ongoing revenue stream that a loyal club member represents.

Of course, it helps if your club memberships, at every level, deliver real value to members.

(this discussion all started with this form to let people suspend shipments while away from home)

What do you do when a wine club member wants to cancel?  Can they do it online?  Why do people typically leave your wine club?  Leave a comment!

Want To Improve? Just Ask.

When a visitor leaves your winery Web site, wouldn't it be nice if you could ask them these two questions?

1. Why did you come here today?

2. Did you get what you came for?

Actually, it's quite possible to do just that.  Any takers? 

Key Performance Indicators For Your Winery Web Site

Here are five key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider when looking at your Web site:

1. Conversion Rate: How many people "convert?" A conversion can be ordering wine, joining your wine club, signing up for your e-mail newsletter, calling the winery, subscribing to your blog, etc.  You get to decide.

2. Average Order Size: Pretty straightforward, and one which you want to watch over time.

3. Days & Visits Until Purchase: How much time, and how many interactions does it take for someone to finally decide to buy from you?  This can be surprising.

4. Visitor Loyalty and Recency: How often do people return to your site?

5. Task Completion Rate:  I support this one whole-heartedly.  It doesn't matter if someone visits your site if they can't accomplish what they came to do.  Hard to measure, but well worth it.

Read lots more details in this post from the author of Web Analytics: an hour a day. He offers a sixth KPI and some rules for using them effectively.  I really like what he has to say about Task Completion Rate.

Lazy Sunday: Teeny Tiny Text

Consider that at least some of your customers and potential customers are getting older.

Then see what Google, who thinks long and hard about making changes, and then tests the bejeezus out of them, has done to their home page.

Something to think about if you're planning a site upgrade and you have lots of teeny tiny text, particularly on pages where people shop.

Just sayin'.

Hashtags For Wineries

If you've used Twitter, you've probably seen a hashtag.  That is, a hash sign (#) followed by a sequence of characters, e.g. #wine. There's no built-in meaning to hashtags.  It's just a textual convention which has become an accepted part of using Twitter.  When people use the same hashtag to categorize their tweets, it becomes useful.

For example, Paul Mabray of VinTank has been know to include the hashtag #atomicfireball in his tweets.  Who knows what it means?  On the other hand, the #redsox hashtag has a pretty obvious meaning, and is used by enough people to break into the "Trending Topics" list you'll see on the right-hand side of your Twitter home page.

If you're curious about ways to use these cryptic constructs to promote your winery more effectively via Twitter, here's a useful and informative article: How to Use Twitter Hashtags for Business

As with all social media forms, Twitter hashtags require an investment of time (and thought) to pay off.  The article contains links to some tools and sites which can help.

PS - you can follow The Winery Web Site Report on Twitter as @wwsr, and me personally as @mikeduffy.

Beyond The Fail Whale

The University of Washington taught a course this summer entitled Beyond The Fail Whale: How Twitter Is Changing Organizations.

It appears that they created a book for the course, which includes a chapter-length case study about wineries using Twitter, which is the point of my mentioning it here.

The wineries used in the cases study include:

• Capozzi Winery
• Donati Family Winery 
• Eagles Nest Winery 
• King Estate Winery 
• Sobon Family Wines 
• St. Supery Vineyards & Winery 
• Teusner Winery 
• Twisted Oak Winery 

(links above are to each winery's Twitter home page).

If you're interested in how wineries are using Twitter to good effect, go read the chapter.  It looks like it was an interesting course.

Affiliate Programs For Wine

I've long had a dream of doing a much better job of marketing selling wine online than some wineries do.  I always figured that when Amazon Wine launches (if it ever does), I'd just be a savvy Amazon Affiliate and rake in the dough.

Alas, according to this September 9^th article at Wine Industry Insights, the California Alcoholic Beverage Control (CA-ABC) has dashed my hopes of great wealth, pronouncing affiliate programs like Amazon's to be illegal when used to sell wine.  Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any information on the ABC site regarding this specific advisory, and the full article is behind a paywall.

CA-ABC had previously  issued this advisory regarding third-party sales of wine last June.  You can read a legal expert's view of that advisory at ShipCompliant,com and additional commentary from Wines & Vines and Vinfolio.  I'd be interested in hearing from people like Wine Spies, wine.woot, etc. as to their take on all of this.

As for my dreams of vast internet riches? Sic transit gloria mundi.

5 Things To Check On Your Winery Web Site Right Now

This post from Vin | 65 is one I wish I'd written: 5 Signs that Your Web Developer "Gets" Search Engine Marketing

It outlines five things that you or your Web designer should be worrying about, and how to check (almost) all of them without moving from your chair.

You can check if you site is using Google Analytics (item #5) by using your browser's "View Source" feature (typically available when you right-click on the page) and looking at the very bottom of the page for  code that looks like this:

<script type="text/javascript"> var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-9999999-1"); pageTracker._initData(); pageTracker._trackPageview(); </script>

OK, now go check the other four things!

Vin | 65

I am a bonehead.

I know the team at Vin | 65 has lots of smart things to say.

And they have a blog.

And now I'm subscribed to it.  (what took me so long?) 

You should subscribe, too.

(You can see all my wine-related blog subscriptions under "Wine-Related Blogs")

Why Winery Blogs Are Important

As astonishing as it may sound, it doesn't actually matter if people read your winery blog on a regular basis.

What matters is that your blog posts contain information that people are searching for.  This is a really brilliant insight, courtesy of Rich Brooks over at Flyte New Media.

In short, it's a way of increasing your visibility when people search for topics related to your wines and winery.  Is your winery Web site short on the phrases which people search for?  Your winery blog can help remedy that shortcoming.

Google Webmaster Tools

Readers of this blog already know that I'm a big fan of Google Analytics for wineries to track traffic to their Web sites.

A terrific adjunct to Google Analytics is Google Webmaster Tools, which basically shows you the data that Google has about your Web site, in an easy-to-understand fashion.  Like Analytics, Webmaster Tools are free.

It's easy to install (as long as you can edit the HTML of your home page, or add a specifically-named HTML file to your Web site) and well worth it.

To further whet your appetite, here are 6 tips for using Google Webmaster Tools.

Lazy Sunday: What's Wrong With Winery Videos

What's wrong with winery videos?  People think they're making movies.  Instead, they should be putting the  important stuff first .

Become A Wine Marketing Weasel!

9 Ways Marketing Weasels Will Try to Manipulate You shows how!

Actually, it's an quick review of the main points of the book "Predictably Irrational".  If you're a wine marketer, and you're not sure about reading the whole book, this is a pretty good summary.

And no, the post doesn't say anything specific about marketing wine (although the Hershey's Kisses vs. Lindt Truffles experiment is probably applicable).  I'm just manipulating you...

Giving Through Growing: An Analysis

Giving Through Growing is the name of a partnership between Robert Mondavi's Woodbridge brand and the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA).  Here's the full press release from June 19 of this year.

The basic idea is that Woodbridge will contribute $1 to the ACGA for every "e-seed" sent from the Giving Through Growing Web site, up to $40,000.  A e-seed, it turns out, is an e-mail message which you send to your friends with a picture of a packet of seeds (tomato, basil, carrot, or radish) that you select, plus the following copy:

For every virtual eSeed I plant, Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi will donate $1 to the American Community Gardening Association, a nonprofit group that supports community gardens around the country. And I think that′s a great cause – community gardens encourage neighbors to work together to grow fresh produce and flowers in unused outdoor spaces.

Send your own free eSeed and help support community gardens

Since this falls in the category of "online winery promotion" (the broader topic of this blog), I took time to visit the site, and send myself an e-seed.  Having done that, I'd like to offer my thoughts for other wineries that consider doing this or similar promotions for good causes.

• The first thing I encountered was the 10-second wait for the Flash-based site to load.  And I've got a blazingly fast cable connection to the Internet.  There are probably good reasons from Mondavi's point of view, but not from the perspective of someone who is waiting to the site to load.

• The second thing I encountered was a roadblock: the dreaded "you must be 21 years or older to enter this site" check.  In this particular case, there doesn't seem to be a need for it, other than the fact that it's part of the Woodbridge site infrastructure.  Once inside, there isn't any wine-related copy that I can see, so why restrict it to 21-year olds (other than the desire to add people who can drink to your mailing list).

• From a PR perspective, I couldn't locate the press release announcing the partnership on either site.  The link above is to Reuters.  Why?  Isn't this important to both participating groups?

• The domain name GivingIsGrowing.com is available. Why didn't somebody spend $10 to register it for the next year?  This isn't rocket science, folks.

• There's no link from the ACGA site to the Giving Is Growing site.  Woodbridge features it on their home page.  This makes me feel that its not something the ACGA cares much about, although it's precisely because of them that people are motivated to participate.

• What will be done with the e-mail addresses I provide after the e-seed message is sent?  Although the form provides an opt-in "to receive news and product announcements from Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi," and it does say "We will not share your contact information with third parties," it doesn't say the thing I want to hear:  we will forget we ever saw your friends' e-mail addresses once we send this e-seed.

• Is this really necessary?  The fine print mentions that $1 will be contributed to ACGA, "up to the guaranteed $40,000 donation."  If it's guaranteed that ACGA is getting $40K, what am I doing here giving Woodbridge my friends' e-mail addresses?

• Finally, you can send an e-seed to up to 5 of your friends at once.  If you do, however, each recipient gets a message with all the e-mail addresses visible in the To: field.

 In my mind, the biggest issue is not clearly addressing how my friends' e-mail addresses will be used, followed by revealing the addresses of people I sent e-seeds.

One last thing: I hope that I will receive a message at the end of this campaign letting me know how many e-seeds were sent (and how much was donated to ACGA).  I should be able to opt-in to that separately from other promotional messages from Woodbridge.

I'm all in favor of wineries promoting causes in which they believe to their customers and fans.  I just think you need to be mindful of the details when you do it.

What do you think about wineries promoting good causes?  How does your winery do it?  Please leave a comment.

 

(Incidentally, this is the kind of consulting work I do -- helping people to have a more effective online presence.  That'll be 5 cents, please.)

 

(thanks to Jon Bjork of Pantheon Cellars for passing along a copy of the press release)

25 Ways To Promote Your (Winery) Blog

Rich Brooks at Flyte New Media posts 25 ways to promote your blog .  Not all of them seem 100 percent relevant to wineries (e.g. article marketing), but it's a good thought starter.

One that I can speak to directly: always remember to link to your Web site from your blog, and your blog from your Web site.

I recommend you sign up for Flyte's monthly  e-newsletter, which gives you the added benefit of a number of useful free reports related to blogs and Web sites.

Lazy Sunday: The $11,000.00 Tweet

A pretty cool example of how, when social media words, it *really* works.

Even for a winery, which can't create products on the fly, it does point to the value of having devoted followers (not just quantity, but quality) and making special offers to them.

Do you have your Facebook and Twitter information on a nice little sign next to the cash register in the tasting room?  If not, you're missing an opportunity to gain followers.  Of course, that little sign should also point out the benefits of being a Fan or a Follower of your winery (cool offers not available to anyone else, of course!).

Check Out Your Checkout

Elastic Commerce has a great post on 12 checkout blunders that lose customers.

Take a couple of minutes to buy something from your winery Web site and see if any of them apply to you.

BTW, all the major credit card issuers provide "test" credit card numbers, e.g. 

American Express	3782-822463-10005
MasterCard	5555-5555-5555-4444
VISA	4111-1111-1111-1111

which are valid digits, but non-existent accounts.

Change one digit and you've got yourself an error to test with (card numbers include a check digit based on what is called a Luhn code).

New Winery Blogs for August, 2009

Only two discoveries this month:

• Moonstone Cellars
  http://www.moonstonecellars.com/blog/blog.html

• Stone's Throw Winery
  http://stonesthrowwineryblog.wordpress.com/

I guess I need to look harder!  The good news is that every month yields some new winery blogs to add to my comprehensive list of over 200 winery blogs.

Please let me know if I've somehow overlooked your winery's blogging efforts.  Thanks!