The Winery Web Site Report

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.

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)

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)

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)

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)

A Long Path to Adopt A Grape

Yes, I have.

This all started when my pal Edward Wallis of Wallis Family Estate sent me a link to Calwineries ("California's wine defined" -- now what the hell does that mean?), with which I was unfamiliar.  It appears they are trying to build a community of people who are interested in California wines.  A tough row to hoe, I think, given all the other "social media" avenues that are competing for your attention.  But I digress.

I noticed that Calwineries has a blog, so I went there to see what I might find past the "official" face of their Web site.  Blogs, in my opinion, give you a pretty good flavor of what's happening.  If the blog is fresh and interesting, it says good things about the company behind it.

At the top of their blog, I found this video of respected and well-known winemaker Heidi Barrett talking about something I found interesting:  How do you decide when to pick the grapes?

I love finding examples of video that's interesting to watch (since so many winery videos are like watching paint dry while water drips slowly on your head).  In less than three minutes, you get a pretty good picture of how she approaches the problem.  It helps that Heidi is well-spoken and photogenic.

(Note: I decided to watch the video for two reasons.  I recognized Heidi Barrett's name, and the still image of the video looked like it wasn't going to be "corporate speak".  Something to think about for your own video.)

Since I'd never heard of the video's creator, Adopt A Grape, I decided to listen to their introductory video as well:

Duane Hoff of Fantesca Estate & Winery is the man behind Adopt A Grape, and appears in the video.

Since it's my job to stay on top of new online approaches to marketing and promoting wine, I "adopt'd" a grape (it's free).  I got to choose a grape from one of seven different blocks of grapes (2 Petite Verdor, 5 Cabnernet Sauvignon).

Although the above video was posted relatively recently (3 months ago), the Adopt A Grape site itself seems pretty quiet.  The last update for my adopted block of Cab was in November of 2007, which certainly doesn't feel very fresh.  The latest post on the Adopt A Grape site/blog is apparently December 18, 2008.

Any winery could do what Adopt A Grape is doing in creating a tighter bond between the winery and the (potential) customer.  Of course, it takes a fair amount of effort to blog and create videos.  Situations like that provide a business opportunity for someone willing to provide and manage the service. I wonder if Adopt A Grape was started with the idea of expanding to multiple wineries where people could adopt grapes.  Since the signup contains an opt-in to learn more about Adopt A Grape wines, they were clearly hoping to build a permission mailing list where they could offer wine for sale (note the choice of words - you can only interest people in buying).

One goal of your winery Web site is to inspire enough interest and trust in people, so that they will give you their e-mail, so that you can contact them about more interesting stuff in the future (some of which might inspire them to buy some of your wine).  One way to create interest and trust is with short, interesting video, and Heidi Barrett and "Laurie" Wood are two good examples from Adopt A Grape.

(If you're interested, there are more Adopt A Grape videos at Vimeo and at VIRB.)

Top 3 Tips for Improving Your E-Commerce Site

From the MarketingSherpa folks: Basic Tips for Improving Ecommerce Experiences

Number one is something I've talked about here at The Winery Web Site Report for years as a major failing for many winery Web sites.  The other two are simple, common-sense suggestions.  But as Horace Greeley said, "Common sense is very uncommon."

Alas, you'll most likely read it, nod, and then ignore some very sound advice.

22 Great Winery Web Site Designs

At least, that's the title of the article.

Notice that the title is not "22 Effective Winery Web Sites," which would be something altogether different.

I was pleased to see that a majority of the sites proiminently featured a bottle of the winery's wine, which is one of the simplest things you can do to improve your site's effectiveness (a good "special offer" won't hurt your home page either).  Note to Kendall-Jackson: I am not buying Jess Jackson, I am buying wine...

What's your goal for your winery Web site?  How does your current design support that?

(via Serious About Wine)

An Interesting User Interface

Take a look at Flash-based InGoodHands.com,  for which Allstate Insurance Company apparently paid $500,000 to Chicago-based ad agency Leo Burnett.  And you thought your Web site was expensive!

I'm not sure it's a good thing.  There's  lots of Mystery Meat Navigation, for one thing.  But it certainly is inter-freaking-active.

The main problem is that this type of interface doesn't (a) help the user figure out what to do next in order to achieve their goal in visiting the site, and (b) gives equal visual importance to things of unequal importance.

Nonetheless, a perverse part of me would like to see a winery Web site in this style.

It's interesting to see what Readability does with it (try it!).  In fact, you should probably try Readability on the home page of your Web site

What do you think of InGoodHands.com?  Leave a comment!

(from a Reddit post entitled Some UI [User Interface] designers should be poisoned, resuscitated, crucified, resurrected, and then stoned to death.   You gotta love the title.  The comments are worth a quick scan.)

Fear of Online Buying

Are you losing online sales because people are afraid to give you their credit card number online?

Sorry, I Don’t Give My Credit Card Online is a short post with a terrific idea to make sure this isn't happening on your winery Web site.  Go read it.

Do you track "shopping cart" abandonment for your site?  That is, do you know how many people come to your site, put something in the cart, and then fail to complete the transaction.  It's a number that you should know (along with the value of those lost transactions).  If you're OK with those lost dollars, then fine.  But if you aren't, you need to understand what is causing a visitor to abandon their cart.

(And yes, I had a great week off in the US Virgin Islands.  I hope you missed my posts!)

Hammy the Hamster Explains A/B Testing

This is a terrific, slightly geeky post on how to be sure that the results of your A/B testing actually mean something (in math parlance, that the results are statistically significant).

Plus, it features Hammy the Hamster.  What could be better?

Is Your Winery Web Site Memorable?

Here's a post-worth-reading from 37signals about making memorable (Web site) designs.

To sum it up briefly, your site may look good, but what does it say?

The comments make for interesting reading.  You can see the pragmatists vs. the designers at war.

It's similar to the recent brouhaha when Google's chief visual designer resigned in a huff because all the design choices at Google are driven by data: what actually happens when a user looks at it?

It's all about selling more of your wine, right?  I'd rather have an ugly Web site that generated lots of wine sales, than a beautiful site that no one ordered from.

What do you think?  (he said, putting on his asbestos pants...)

Marketing Experiments

Everyone wishes they had more time to run experiments on their winery Web site (at least, I'd like to believe so).  Experimentation (testing) is really the only way to find out what works, and whether it can be improved.

Fortunately, the people over at MarketingExperiments.com have time to run all sorts of interesting experiments, and they publish the results of their experiments for free, both as Flash slide shows with intergrated audio, and as HTML with an accompanying MP3 audio track..

The easiest way to find out about new research is to sign up for their newslettter.  Like any good Web site, their newsletter signup is featured prominently on every page.

Check it out!

Are Winery Web Sites Dead?

Maybe.

There was an interesting article in the most recent Fortune about Facebook, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg is quoted:

We think that if you can build one worldwide platform where you can just type in anyone's name, find the person you're looking for, and communicate with them," he told a German audience in January, "that's a really valuable system to be building.

Here's a list of wineries on Facebook., courtesy of Tim Elliott of ACAN Media.  I'm sure he'd like to know if he missed your winery's Facebook page.

Do you see Facebook replacing your winery Web site someday?  Leave a comment!

Wine Marketing & Website Tips

Even though we disagree on some things(e.g. spelling it Web site vs. Website), take a look at Rachel Coe's blog over at 4theGrapes.com ("focused on small, boutique and micro wineries").

In particular, you can vote on her next blog topic:  would you rather see "What NOT to do for your winery Website" or "Things to know when starting a new website or redesign"?

I've subscribed to her blog.  You should too.  And go vote in her poll.

(via Twitter)

Sampling Wine By Mail

The best way to sell a wine is to give someone a sample of it.  As much as I wish the Internet were a solution to everything, the fact that you can't taste a wine over the Net is inescapable.

But, here's a French winery using their Web site (alas, I don't read French) to get wine samples into the hands of potential customers by mail.  They charge about $5 (3.90 euros) for a single 60 ml sample, which isn't as good as a free pour at the tasting bar, but not unreasonable, either.   (The winery promotes their effort as a way to be greener, by keeping people out of their cars.)

Coupled with a video that leads a sample-drinker through a tasting of the wine, this isn't a bad idea.

And if you give the $5 back if they order the wine after sampling it, it shouldn't be too hard to convince people to give it a try.

The biggest obstacle for wineries (I would think), is the additional work of producing a sample-sized bottle of their wine.  Please leave a comment if you know what's involved in this.

Will this replace your tasting room?  Not yet.  

(via Serious About Wine)

Those Pesky Words: Search vs. Action

People use different words to search than to take action.  That's the finding of a new UK study (a copywriting outfit, which apparently is smart enough to do research as to what happens to the stuff they write).

This is an important distinction for winery Web sites, and something you should consider when writing for your site.  Search is only part of the battle, and people express themselves differently when searching.  Consider "cheap wine."  No one really wants to drink it.  They're really looking for good wine under $20.

Always remember that visitors to your site come with a goal already in mind, and that the Back key is their response when they don't read or see something which points clearly toward their goal.  That's why checking your bounce rate for the pages where people first encounter your site is so important.

Are You as Brave as Skittles?

Skittles (you know, the rainbow colored candy thingies that aren't M&Ms) has done something really interesting with social media.  They've (almost) completely done away with their Web site.  

Instead, when you go to www.skittles.com, you get the little floating menu above, with links to:

• Home (the Skittles page on Wikipedia)
• Media (their YouTube channel and their Flickr page)
• Chatter (a running Twitter search for tweets containing the word "skittle") 
• Friends (their Facebook page)
• Other Gobbledygook (just a drop down menu with links to parent company Mars) 
• Products  
• Contact   

The last two are the only pages at Skittles.com. In other words, most of their Web "presence" consists of links to social media.  All they're missing is a blog.

I'm not sure a winery would do something this extreme, but it does show what's possible when you think about it.  A slightly less-extreme version is what Donati Family Vineyard is doing with their "Winespace" and by featuring social media connections on their home page.

What do you think about Skittles.com?  What can your winery take away from this experiment?

And what wine (if any) goes with Skittles?

The Most Important Web Site Statistic

What is it?

Your bounce rate.  Here's why it 's important.

Bounce rate is insightful because from the perspective of a website visitor, it measures this phenomenon: "I came; I puked; I left." (OK, technically it also means the number of sessions with just one pageview.)

(read the rest of Stop bouncing: tips for website success at The Official Google Blog)

The beauty is that Google Analytics (free, remember?) offers this statistic right on its dashboard for your winery Web site.  You are using Google Analytics (or some other stats package), right?

Here's how to use this statistic to improve your Web site:

1. Identify your top "entry page," i.e. the first page that most visitors to your site see.  Hint: this may not be your home page.
2. Look at the bounce rate for that page.  A bounce rate of 75 percent means that 3 out of 4 visitors took one look at the page and left.  As a target, you want this page to have the lowest bounce rate of any page on your site. 
3. Look at the source of traffic for that page: 1)  typed directly into the browser address bar, 2) referred from another site, or 3) referred from a search engine.  If they came from a search engine, look at the search term.  If they came from another site, look at the referring page (no, I mean actually look at it.  In particular, what words are used to link to your page).  What does that tell you about their reason for clicking through to your page?
4. The hard part: based on what you know about how people are getting there, generate 2 or 3 theories about why visitors leave.  Consider that you may not be addressing their need in visiting the page.
5. Based on one of your theories, change the page (copy, layout, emphasis, ...).  
6. See what happens to the bounce rate for that page over the next month (with enough traffic to the page, this might be the next week, or the next day).
7. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

  I'd love to tell you there's a quicker way to improve your bounce rate, but that's the basic process.  You can speed it up a bit by using Google Web Site Optimizer (also free), which allows you to perform step 5 more easily.

Bottom line: identify your top "entry page" and lower its bounce rate.

Learn Everything on YouTube

Well, maybe not everything.

I just wanted to call attention to Flyte New Media's channel on YouTube, which presently has 8 videos covering a variety of topic of interest to wineries on the Web (and Twitter).  Here are the titles (linked to the video):

1. Google Analytics: Where Does Your Traffic Come From?
2. Use Google Analytics Filters For Better Traffic Reports 
3. Google Analytics Dashboard:  Measure Your Web Site's Success 
4.  How to Get Started on Twitter: Signup and Setup
5. Twitter: How to Find and Follow People on Twitter
6. TweetDeck & Twitter: Better Manage Your Tweeple 
7. How to Engage People on Twitter  
8. How to Get Followed on Twitter  

Each video is about 5 minutes long, which makes it appropriate for learning something while having a cup of coffee or a Diet Coke.

You can also subscribe to Flyte's YouTube channel, and receive periodic notification of new stuff by e-mail (it does require setting up a free account on YouTube).

(Of interest to TypePad users: Flyte also has several videos on backing up your blog content)

Thinking of Redesiging Your Winery Web Site?

Then you absolutely need to read this first: Redesigning Your Website: Who's Taking Care of the Content?

Users visit websites for content — to read, to learn, to assess, to compare, to buy. And they'll return, time and again, if the content is useful, relevant, interesting, entertaining, up-to-date. We all know it’s true: Content drives readership on informational, promotional, and e-commerce sites.

And my favorite line: 

“Hey Ed! Go get that content from the storeroom. We’re ready to load it into the site.”

If you want your Web site to help sell your wine, what you say to your visitors is critical.  A plain site with great copy will sell more than a great-looking site with average copy.

The $300 Million Button - Do You Have One?

 

How successful would your tasting room be if you required people to show you their driver's license before they walked in?  The same thinking applies to your Web site.

Here's how changing one button increased the number of people purchasing by 45 percent for a large online retailer.   Overall, that simple change was worth $300 million dollars.

Always minimize the mental effort that someone must expend to make a purchase.  And don't just guess - test!

How many of you have actually purchased wine from your Web site?   I'll bet you haven't...

(via kottke.org)

Which Guy Is Your Winery Web Site?

When I read this post over at Copyblogger, I immediately thought of the way some winery Web sites write about themselves. 

Hint: don't be the guy in the suit.  It's all about helping your visitor achieve their goals.

The comments are pretty funny, too, even though they have nothing to do with winery Web sites.

(PS - The Winery Web Site Report uses a PC, but covets a Mac.)

Google Website Optimizer

As a follow-up post to Optimizing Your Web Site vs. Optimizing Your Search Rank, here's a 25-minute video on how to use Google Website Optimizer:

Of course, you've got to start by measuring your site activity with (free) Google Analytics.  If you haven't done that yet, here's How to Sign Up for Google Analytics in Less Than 5 Minutes (Quicktime movie).

Do you have questions about all this Web site optimization stuff?  Leave your questions in the comments!

Winery Video

A shout-out to my friend and fellow ex-SCDS-Trustee, Ted Elliott, who has some nicely produced video on his TR Elliott winery Web site.

My one recommendation to Ted is to upload his video to YouTube.  The exposure can't hurt, and Google (slightly) favors its own Web properties (i.e. YouTube) in search results.

A minor quibble: many people are annoyed by videos that start playing automatically.  It's probably better to have the video paused and display a "play" icon, like this:

Embedded video is now common enough that people know what do to do when they see that icon (go ahead - it's a five-second video).

I also wanted to mention The Winery Channel, which is promoting a number of wineries on its "Fine Wineries" channel:

• Antica Terra
• B Cellars  
• Denner Vineyards 
• Duckhorn Vineyards 
• Justin Vineyards & Winery 
• Paraduxx 
• St. Clement Vineyards 
• Twomey Cellars 
• Vincent Arroyo Winery 

The Winery Channel selects the wineries it covers in "Fine Wineries" based on (a) liking their wines, and (b) a 90+ score from Wine Spectator or Robert Parker.  TWC does ask wineries to share in the production costs, which seems like a win-win.  If you're interested this sort of arrangement (and the enhanced exposure it may offer), you can contact them for more details.

( Thanks to the Mutineer Magazine blog for reminding me to write about The Winery Channel, and an excuse to feature The Dramatic Hamster.)

UPDATE: CNET has a great review of HD Web video sites (most of which are free).

Optimizing Your Web Site vs. Optimizing Your Search Rank

There's a difference, you know, which Rich Page points out in his latest post: 7 (Great) Reasons Why Website Optimization should NOT be Confused with Search Engine Optimization (whew!)

Web site optimization focuses on visitor effectiveness:  making sure that your visitors leave with their goal for visting having been met, and pleasant thoughts about the experience.  Ideally, you've also "converted" them (e.g made a sale, captured an e-mail address, etc.).

Search engine optimization focuses on making sure your site can be found when people go searching for whatever it is that you're selling.

There's not much point in being found unless you're going to delight visitors once they find you.  That's why Web site optimization should come first when you spend time and effort on your Web presence.

What are you doing to optimize your winery Web site?   Leave a comment!

Three Ways To Improve Your Winery Web Site Today

1. Review your analytics (you have them, right?  If not, Google Analytics is FREEEEEE!)  

2. Ask your customers a question (it's not hard.  SurveyMonkey is FREEEEEE!) 

3. Analyze the competition (surfing the Web is FREEEEE!)

More  details in this Startup Nation post: 3 Ways to Improve Your Website Today

Free 140-Character Web Site Reviews

Rich Page will review your Web site via Twitter for free.  The only downsides are: 

1. You have to have a Twitter account to get the results.
2. The review is limited to 140 characters (the length of a  tweet / SMS message)
3. It may take him a few days, so don't expect an instant response. 

Because I wish I'd thought of this, I will review your winery Web site via Twitter.  Same deal (free, limited to 140 characters, and it make take me a few days to get around to it).  Just send me a tweet containing the URL at wwsr (the new, official, business-only Twitter identity of The Winery Web Site Report, as opposed to my personal Twitter identity, mikeduffy).

So, you can get two reviews of your winery Web site, from two different people, all  for the same low price (free).

The Value of Optimizing Your Web Site

The ubiquitous Google, which has a free product called  Google Website Optimizer, just announced the four winners of the "Website Workout "contest they ran last year, with some impressive results:

For example, by changing the layout of their product page, Colonial Candle was able to increase the number of candles they sold by 20% and improve sales by $20,000 in one month.

If you happen to care about making your winery Web site a sales machine, you may want to watch this 2.5 minute Colonial Candle video:

(or, you can watch all four Website Workout videos, one about each of the winners.)

At least, click through on the announcement to see the before and after pictures of the Colonial Candle site.  It may surprise you (I say this, having looked at a lot of winery sites).

Two take-aways:  Investing time in optimizing your site conversion is worthwhile, and, your intuition about what works (or doesn't work) is probably wrong.

How do you approach testing and optimization of your winery Web site?  Share a comment.

The Most Useless Winery Web Site?

I have a Google Alert for the phrase winery web site, and it turns up things like this post, which includes the following comment:

Bonus points: this is probably the most useless winery Web site I've ever seen. Check it out!

The Web site in question?  Daniel Le Brun, "one of New Zealand's most respected Methode Traditionnelle wines."

Is it the most useless winery Web site you've ever seen?  Well, it does have a phone number and an e-mail link.  And a nice picture of their looks-like-everybody-else's-bottle sparkling wine.  But...

• It doesn't tell people who want to buy the wine where they can find it, other than "most wine 
  retailers, supermarkets and a selection of restaurants throughout New Zealand."  It would be nice to have a little more detail.
• It doesn't offer the opportunity to buy their wine online.  What, they don't like more margin?  Do the Kiwis place some restriction on online wine sales?
• It doesn't have full contact information.
• It doesn't have anything for the media who might be interested in writing or blogging about Daniel Le Brun sparklers. 
• It doesn't have any consumer-oriented information about the wines they sell.

This winery presumably sells a lot of wine, and the focus of their site is on the trade ("call us if you'd like to sell our wine").  For the trade, it's OK (but they're missing an opportunity to support their distributors, retailers, and restaurants with sales materials).  For everyone else, it *is* pretty useless.

Remember: there are four types of visitor arriving at your winery Web site:

1. People who want to buy your wine right now (buyers)
2. People who want more information about your wine or winery (browsers)
3. People who want to sell your wine (the trade)
4. People who want to tell a story about your wines or winery (the media)

If you were Daniel Le Brun wines, what would you do?

Something To Shout About: A Checklist

If my wines were listed here or here, you can bet that I would do all of the following:

1. Create a high-quality image of the bottle with the award (suitable for the media to use)
2. Update the front page of my Web site  
3. Update the product page(s) for my award-winning wine(s) 
4. Write a post for my winery blog
5. Tweet the news to my followers on Twitter 
6. Send an e-mail to my mailing list 
7. Make sure I mention it in my next newsletter 
8. Do a press release (along with a nice bottle+award image)
9. Let my distributors, retailers, and restaurant know about it with a updated product PDF and shelf-talkers
10. Make sure that everyone in the tasting room knows about it (employees and visitors)

In every case, you have the opportunity to make a special offer to the people you are contacting.  For example, people who have already bought the wine might want to add to their cellar.

I can almost bet, though, that most of the award-winners won't do any of  these things.

Winning an award isn't just a time to feel good, it's an opportunity to advance your brand.

(Thanks to the Harney Lane blog for inspiring this post)

Your Opinion Wanted: Caduceus Cellars

Reader Doug Rose passed along the Caduceus Cellars winery Web site, describing it as "by far the most high-tech winery web-site I've seen."

What do you think of it, Gentle Readers?  Take a moment to visit the site and leave a comment here.

What's Your Value Proposition?

To determine if your winery Web site has a good value proposition, Rich Page suggests taking a look at your site from a visitor's perspective (yes!) and asking these three questions:

1. Where am I?
2. What can I do here?  
3. What should I do here?

More details in his post.  As I've written before, you've got to think like a visitor.

Rich also publishes a free Web site improvement e-book that's worth a look.

Get Your Landing Page Makeover (Cheap!)

What's a Landing Page, you ask?

A landing page is any page on a website where traffic is sent specifically to prompt a certain action or result. Think of a golf course… a landing page is the putting green that you drive the ball (prospect) to. Once on the green, the goal is to get the ball into the hole. Likewise, the goal of the copy and design of a landing page is to get the prospect to take your desired action.

Wouldn't you like that page to work harder for you?  Well, for the price of a bottle of wine (donated to Heifer International), Roberta Rosenberg will do a Landing Page Makeover with you.

Let me know if you take her up on her offer.

(And really, unless your wine retails for $100 a bottle or more, you should probably kick in a little extra to the good folks at Heifer International.   A good critique of your site is worth at least that much, more if you actually do something with it!)

PS - she's making the same Makeover offer for marketing plans.  You've got one of those, right?

(via Copyblogger)

Good Reads

For your consideration, a nice post from Ben Chinn at Inertia Beverages, Building a Better Virtual Tasting Room, including a link to a great interview with some experts on maximizing tasting room effectiveness.

Next time you're thinking about the content of your web site, or if you're building a new one, a lot of what you already know about your tasting room will help you with your online presence.

Ben's point is that your Web site is your virtual tasting room.

His post echoes my recent statement that visiting your winery's Web site should feel like visiting your winery. But, please, don't take that too literally.  What I mean is that,  in both cases, a visitor should feel like they got what they came for (and then some). 

Writing For Your Winery Web Site: Two Tips

For those of you who want the CliffsNotes^™ version, here are the two tips:

1. Write as though you were speaking face-to-face
2. Provide substance 

The longer, worth-your-time-to-read-it version is here: Two Tips for Website Writing

 

Think about how you interact with real-life visitors to your winery.  You probably ask them why they came, and attempt to satisfy them.  If they seem confused or unsure, you may try to guide them to a tasting or a tour or something else.  If they've visited before, or purchased your wines, you'll treat them differently than someone who is a first-time visitor.

To a visitor, your winery Web site should feel like that experience ("I had a great time visiting!")

Two Questions To Improve Your Winery Web Site

Here are two questions to improve your winery Web site:

1. What action do you most want your visitors to take?
2. Are you making that action as effortless as possible?

Assuming a major goal of smaller wineries is to sell more wine direct to consumers, it amazes me that their Web sites don't make this easier.  It's not just the checkout process, it's the whole idea of orienting your site to sell wine.

And there's even nuance to that.  If you'd like people to buy cases of wine (instead of just bottles), what incentives do you provide to make it worth someone's while?  Free shipping?  A simple discount?  Schwag? That's part of making the action effortless as well.

In designing the original Winery Web Site Report evaluation, I started with the 4 types of visitors to your winery Web site:

1. People who want to buy your wines right now (buyers)
2. People who want to resell your wine (distributors, wholesalers, restaurants)
3. People who who want to tell others about your wine (the media)
4. People who want to find other information about your winery and wines (browsers)

and discussed the need to make it easy for each type to reach their goal successfully and with a minimum of fuss.

As part of making it easy for buyers to reach their goals, I strongly encourage wineries to use the phrase "Buy Now" as part of their main navigation, as opposed to "Wines" or "Online Store" (or worse, something more cutesy and less obvious).  You might want to keep "Wines" as a navigation item for those seeking information, but it's not a call to action for people who arrived with the goal of buying your wines.  "Online Store" identifies a location where your wines can be bought, but again, it's not as clear a call to action.

Here are some other questions related to how effortless you make it for visitors to buy your wine:

• How many clicks does it take to buy a bottle of wine on your site?  What can you do to reduce that number?  
•  How many clicks to buy your most popular wine?  
•  Do people have to sign up before they can add something to their cart? 
• Do you offer a buying suggestion on every page of your site?   
• Do you offer one-click ordering for previous customers?   
• Do you tell them about restaurants and retailers where they can buy your wine offline? 

Yes, effortless e-commerce is hard to do well.  It's one reasons that people choose ready-made solutions from Inertia Beverages, eWinery Solutions, Cultivate, and Nexternal (although I've seen a lot of bad uses of Nexternal, Orin Swift Cellars has one of the most seamless Nexternal shops I've seen,).

How well have you answered the two questions for your site visitors?

(Here's the original post from ProBlogger which posed these two questions in slightly different form.)

 

Starting A Winery Web Site: My Recommendations

The story so far:  an existing winery (without any Web presence) is  launching a new varietal (which won't be in production until 2010) -- you can read the details in my original post Starting A Winery Web Site: What Would You Do? along with several excellent reader suggestions.

I assume an existing winery already has a logo to go along with its name, but establishing your visual identity is important.

The next important thing is to obtain your winery's matching domain name, e.g. Acme Winery should try hard to own the domain AcmeWinery.com, as well as similar domains which people are likely to search (e.g. AcmeWine.com, AcmeWines.com).  In countries, where .com is not the predominant top-level domain, readers should make the appropriate adjustment.

As Paul Mabray pointed out in a comment on the original post, the poster child for wineries without Web sites is Josh Hermsmeyer's pinotblogger.com (which is now the home for his nascent Capozzi Winery).  Josh also owns CapozziWine.com and CapozziWines.com (although it appears that someone else controls CapozziWinery.com).

 If you were to follow Josh's example, you would set up a blog at www.AcmeWinery.com and start blogging.  For a startup winery, your winery Web site is your winery blog.  The advantage of using blogging software like Wordpress or TypePad is that many of the headaches involving the mechanics of a Web site are eliminated.

I also recommend using a hosted service (e.g. WordPress.com or TypePad.com or Blogger.com), where someone else sets up and maintains the blogging software for you.  You lose some flexibility, but when you are starting out that flexibility is just one more thing to contend with.  Note that with any of these three, you will have to do a little extra work (called "domain mapping") so that www.AcmeWinery.com points to your hosted blog.

Your site doesn't need to be fancy, but it must show the following things in the header (which appears on every page):  your logo, the name of your winery, and your contact information (perhaps just a phone or e-mail if you don't have a physical location yet).  Remember, your logo will be the way most people remember your winery, so make a point of showing it.

Before ever making your first post, you must sign up for Google Analytics and install the simple tracking code into the template for your blog, so that right from the start you have quantitative information about how people use your winery Web site.

You'll also need some static "Pages" which explain what's going on (TypePad and Wordpress make this easy).  Visitors to a blog are coming in to the middle of a story in progress, where newer posts replace older ones.  You need a page that explains the story so far.  Again, pinotblogger is a great model.  I don't think Josh will mind if you copy his ideas.

Plan to create 5 - 10 initial posts before telling anyone about your blog.  Take pictures and write stories about them.  Introduce the cast of characters (again, with pictures).  In the case of this particular winery, which has an existing product, do some posting about that wine (and let people know if/how they can obtain some of that wine locally).  If this step seems hard, maybe you should re-consider blogging (see my recommendation at the end).

Once you announce your web site (you can use a free press release service, but also send a personal note to local business editors), plan to post once a week.  Have a list of ideas which you can draw on for those weeks when nothing is happening at the winery itself.  Consistency is important in building up a following for your blog.  Again, for ideas start with the oldest post on pinotblogger, and read forward.

In addition, you must create an environment where people want to stay in touch with you.  Notice that one prominent feature on every page of Josh's blog is an invitation to join the Capozzi mailing list, which offers several benefits:

• you will receive notice of the inaugural vintage, whenever it happens
• you will have first priority in allocation of the inaugural vintage 
• you are a Pinot Pioneer, giving you access to 
  • discounts 
  • library wines 
  • Pinot Points (redeemable for cool stuff)
• you receive invitation to winery events and other special happenings

These are all incentives for someone to give you their contact information so you can continue to interact with them.  Since the winery in question has a "captive market" for its existing production, it's extra-important to get these folks on their mailing list (it doesn't sound to me as if they are).

You should give your mailing list customers the option of receiving your blog updates via e-mail (ideally, they know how to subscribe via RSS, but I suspect allowing them to opt-in to e-mail copies of posts is easier for most people).  FeedBlitz is the service I offer my readers to receive blog posts via e-mail, since it integrates nicely with TypePad.

You may also want to create a standalone "Visit Us" page if you are in a position to receive visitors.  People who are interested in visiting a startup winery are potential "true fans" that you want to cultivate.  Even if you can't invite people to the winery, you may want to create some (quarterly) events where you can meet people who have been nice enough to join your list before there's any wine to buy.

One thing that I would recommend for this particular winery is to think about emulating the "wine futures" program of David Coffaro Estate Winery as they plan for their inaugural vintage.  David's approach strikes me as a pretty sharp one, as long as you are clear about its limitations.

To summarize, when starting a winery Web site, you need:

• A logo (this is the visual identity you are establishing)
• A domain name that closely matches the name of your winery 
• Hosted blogging software with "page" capability  (TypePad or Wordpress)
• A blog header with your name, logo, and contact information. 
• Google Analytics installed
• A page which tells the story that people are joining
• Five to ten inital blog posts.  No one likes an empty blog.
• A commitment to post on a regular, weekly basis. 
• A way to capture visitor contact information (and incentives for people to provide it) 
• To make people aware of your winery Web site by adding its URL to your e-mail signature, letterhead, business cards, printed materials, and any other information you send out into the world.
• To let me know about it! 

The bottom line is you want people to be interested enough that they will give you contact information (even just an e-mail).  The way to do that is to tell an interesting story about your winery, and the best way to tell stories on the Web is with a blog.  Then take good care of the people who are interested in your story.

The downside:  if you aren't writing interesting stuff, your efforts will be largely wasted.  In that case, a single static page with your logo, winery name, contact information, and the basic story (one or two paragraphs at most) will serve you as well.  Don't forget to let people join your mailing list (although I doubt you'll get many sign-ups without other promotion).

What did I forget?  Add a comment!