Wine Direct

Welcome Vin65 to the WineDirect Family!

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:25:00 -0700

This is truly an exciting day for us. As you probably know, a couple of years ago we made the announcement that we had licensed the Vin65 platform. For the past two years Vin65 has hosted the websites and wine clubs of all of our eCommerce customers. Today, I’m happy to share the news that we purchased Vin65.

With this exciting announcement, I thought I’d put together a quick blog post to share some thoughts on our motivations behind this deal and what the future holds for WineDirect and for our customers.

Our focus is on all things Direct-to-Consumer

Our goal at WineDirect is to be the “go to” company for anyone interested in selling wine directly to their customers. We can’t handle every aspect, of course. But what we can do is focus on making life easier for wineries and enabling them to scale their direct sales channels.

Covering the Basics

First things first, our job is to provide peace of mind for anyone partnering with us for telesales, shipping and logistics, or for eCommerce. What we do, we need to do well.

For our telesales team, that means handling the customer relationship with utmost care and finding new and creative ways to build customer loyalty.
For our logistics team, it means being attentive and responsive to the needs of our customers and living by our motto of delivering efficiency, convenience, accuracy and value.
And finally, for our eCommerce team, it means providing a platform that helps wineries sell more through digital channels (Internet, mobile, and social.)

In terms of eCommerce platforms for the wine industry, we happen to think that Vin65 is the cream of the crop. More importantly, I’m inspired by their vision. They’re hungry for knowledge and as a result, the platform keeps getting better and better.

What’s in store for the future?

In my view, success in the wine industry (and in particular the direct sales channel) hinges on our ability to adapt quickly to change. Change is happening at a record pace in the regulatory landscape, the world of technology, and in the way we communicate (i.e. social media) and that pace is not likely to slow anytime soon.

In terms of what’s in store, I see the following:

New features and better visibility: We’re bringing two very talented teams together, so stay tuned. The possibilities are numerous, but one of our primary goals is to provide unparalleled visibility into the direct sales channel.
Additional opportunities and new avenues for selling your wines: The importance of third party marketers is clear. They offer wineries a new avenue for customer acquisition and a level of transparency that has always been lacking in the traditional three tier system. Because of the October ’11 advisory that was issued by the ABC, we now have a clear roadmap for working with third parties. I look forward to more and more opportunities opening up over the next 12 to 24 months.

It’s been an exciting year for our industry and for our company. We’re looking forward to working with the Vin65 team and to building a great platform for direct sales together.

Now Is the Time to Get Your Customer Databases Ready for OND

Tue, 29 May 2012 07:00:00 -0700

It’s hard to believe that nearly half of 2012 has almost gone, and before we know it the busy holiday season will be upon us. This time of year is perfect for solidifying your relationship with your customers and making sure their shipping and billing information is up-to-date, which will hopefully make for a smoother and slightly less stressful OND for you and your staff.

So how do you go about strengthening your relationship with your customers now?

Party like its 1999!

Throw an exclusive, limited capacity event for your private customers. People want to be outdoors in a beautiful setting, celebrating the warmer weather, eating great food, and of course sampling your delicious wine! Invitation only release parties, lunches, dinners with live music are just a few ways that will strengthen the connection your customers have with your winery. Treat them like VIP’s and you will be rewarded with consistent wine purchases year after year.

What better way to make sure all your customer information is up-to-date than by having them pre-pay for their tickets using a simple, but comprehensive, event sign-up form?

Handy hint: Create a sense of urgency by showing a count-down of tickets remaining on your website, Twitter and Facebook.

Entice With a Prize

Send out a short and sweet email/tweet/post giving your customers the opportunity to be rewarded if they complete an easily accessible online contact information page. Let them know that you’d like to be able to expand your ability to dialogue with them in the future. You won’t get much traction without some sort of incentive in place, so make sure it’s enticing enough to motivate someone to enter their precious personal information.

For example: Go in the draw to win a trip for two to Napa worth $1500

The Personal Touch

The most powerful and immediate way to connect with your customers is to reach out over the phone to them. People love to hear from their favorite winery and will jump at the chance to talk about their experiences with you. It’s a great way to keep them interested in you, update their details and sell some wine!

It’s a far more active and effective than an email, Twitter or Facebook offer, and on average 70% of people who purchase will be repeat customers (Call for Wine statistics – 2004 – 2012).

If you are finding this task daunting (making phone calls is not everyone’s cup of tea) outsource to the professionals at Call for Wine. They’ve been in the business for eight years and are exceptionally good at capturing the personality of each winery and authentically representing each brand. They will call through your entire non-club and customer database, updating details as they go and building a good rapport with your private customers in readiness for OND.

Call to Action!

So why wait until the busiest time of the year to get organized? Start tidying your customer data now and be rewarded with the most profitable and effortless holiday season you’ve ever had!

Knock Knock...Who Is There?

Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:00 -0700

Your wine delivery!!

It is always a treat to receive wine delivered at your home but what happens when you are not there to sign for it? Carriers are required to obtain an adult (above the age of 21) signature upon delivery. If that requirement cannot be satisfied, they will return at a later date for another delivery attempt. Carriers are not allowed to leave a package containing alcohol at the door. After three delivery attempts, the wine will be returned to the sender.

Carriers will leave door tags to notify that a delivery was attempted, and some carriers will call the consumer if they have been provided with a phone number. Consumers can await the next delivery or arrange to pick up their shipment at the local carrier hub.

Unfortunately returned orders cost money. Not only is there a carrier charge for processing the return but there are additional transportation fees to send the shipment back. If the order is sent back to the WineDirect Fulfillment Center, it will be checked for any damage and restocked. So what can you do?

ALTERNATIVE ADDRESS: Ask your consumers if they have an alternative shipping address such as a work address at which there will likely be someone on hand during business hours to sign for the package.
MONITOR: WineDirect clients can monitor their FedEx and UPS delivery attempts 24/7 on our web Portal. Sign in and go to the Orders tab. On the left navigation menu, there is a link for “Delivery Exceptions” to pull up a report with carrier tracking links. You can then coordinate with your consumers for the next delivery attempt.
RE-ROUTE: WineDirect can arrange for order re-routing however there are costs involved for processing and potentially increased delivery charges depending on the new address.

It should be noted that for 3-Tier states, in which the order passes thru the in-state wholesaler and retailer licenses, state laws do not allow wine to be physically returned to the originating fulfillment center. Returns will be held at the state retailer for up to 6 weeks awaiting resolution (i.e. an alternative address is provided within the same state). Your Account Coordinator will email you with the return information and request resolution. If no resolution is provided within 6 weeks, the state retailer will dispose of the product.

Successful Deliveries = Happy Consumers.

Now if we can just figure out how to deliver more time in the day to enjoy all these wonderful wines!

Getting to Know Your Customers

Thu, 17 May 2012 08:00:00 -0700

Stanley Marcus, who was an early President and later Chairman of the Board of luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, was once quoted as saying:

“Consumers are statistics, customers are people.”

For the wine industry, where the customer experience is vitally important, I think his words are especially meaningful. The customer experience reaches across dozens of different touch points: your product, your packaging, sales, marketing, wine club, retail tier, tasting room, and your staff (not just customer service but rather everyone involved, from your winemaker to your bookkeeper.) And don’t forget third party providers like WineDirect. We’ve been entrusted with your customer experience as well (to deliver your orders with care, provide information via email, to make sure the web experience exceeds their expectations, and to build upon your relationships through Call for Wine.)

Delivering an exceptional experience across all of these different touch points requires a deep understanding of your customers.

There are a lot of great tools and resources available today which allow us to see a broad picture of the typical wine “consumer”. Demographic information is used to understand the average age, gender, and household income of consumers. Transactional data like average order values and products purchased can be analyzed to understand aggregate consumer preferences and behavior. And all of this data can be invaluable, if used in the right way.

But it’s important to remember that customers don’t live in a data warehouse. This brings me back to Stanley Marcus’ quote: “Consumers are statistics. Customers are people.” I think the message in that quote is that in order to deliver a great experience, you need to understand the “people” behind the data, i.e. the individuals who interact with your brand and buy your wine. A solid understanding of the meaning behind the data provides one piece of the puzzle.

The other piece comes from getting to know your customers personally. What are their motivations, goals, and expectations? How do you begin to understand your customers? The easiest way that I know of is to go to them, through whatever channels you can. Talk to them on the phone, in the tasting room, at events, or through social media. After a while, you’ll begin to develop a better understanding of what their needs are and start filling in the rest of the puzzle. Some marketers develop personas as a means of gaining empathy for their customers - remember Constellation Wines’ Project Genome. Personas are a great way to focus and direct the conversation away from analytics and toward what is really important….the customer.

Engage Customers with a Great Winery Video Campaign

Tue, 08 May 2012 11:00:00 -0700

The use of video (both for ads and as content) is way up this year according to comScore. In March, 181 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 37 billion online content videos, while video ads topped 8 billion for the first time on record.*

I think customers have become a little overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content on the web, and video provides a better way to connect through use of sight, sound and motion. But your campaigns should be well planned, because if done right, video can be a highly effective marketing tool.

What Makes a Great Video?

Research and Preparation: Before attempting your first video, it’s always a good idea to do some research. What types of winery videos are more popular with your target customer and which of those appeal to you?
Connection: Think about who your customers are and how you can use video to engage with them in a manner they will appreciate. Your video should be tailored to your audience.
Personality and Authenticity: A great video will give the audience a feel for who you are and what makes your winery special. It’s a perfect way to convey your value proposition.
Humor: People love humor, so if it fits, don’t be afraid to use it. I’m a big fan of the Gundlach Bundschu videos.
Length: Your video should be somewhere in the 2 to 5 minute range, no longer. To accomplish this, try to limit the video to a single message. You’ll want to put thought into the objectives of your video before production time.

How Should You Market Your Video?

Remember that success is not just about collecting views, butrather, it’s about generating interest and gaining customers.

Use video sharing sites: You’ll want to host your video on a site like YouTube and embed it on your own website or blog. And if you’re committed, consider starting a channel for your winery on YouTube and perhaps Vimeo.
Prepare your video for the search engines: When you upload your video to YouTube or another video sharing site, be sure to populate all informational fields including meta-tags and descriptions.
Share your video: Use all of the social media channels you actively participate in to really expand your reach: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ for example.
Engage with your audience: Respond to user comments on all channels and communicate with your followers through social media.
Measure your success: In order to measure you need to start with a set of clearly defined goals. Are you trying to educate your audience about your winemaking or green practices? Are you interested in generating brand awareness? Or is your goal to improve sales?

Depending on your goals, success can be measured by the number of views, by clicks to your website, or by specific user comments.

Sources for Video Creation

You can start with a Google search for video production companies in your area. A couple that I would recommend:

Resources

5 Things Every Video Marketer Should Know…Before Production Begins!
By G. Christie

Examples of Wineries That Have Done a Great Job with Video

*Source: Americans Watch Billions of Video Ads Monthly

Actively Grow Your Wine Club!

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:00:00 -0700

At Call for Wine we understand the importance of Direct-to-Consumer sales, and particularly Direct-to-Club sales. According to MKF Research approximately 24% of all your wine sales will come directly from your club. In fact, this can be the most consistently profitable part of your business. Therefore, it makes sense to nurture the club customers you already have, and make concerted efforts to increase your numbers.

How do you grow your club?

Approximately 85% of your club will come from the tasting room*. A great tasting room experience will lead to a strong, loyal club.

If you don’t have a tasting room, your next best option is to create a memorable wine related experience and sign people up at the event - wine dinners, wine tasting festivals and in-store wine tastings are a great way to gather followers. Collect as much data as you can at these events. Electronic tablets are a great way for people to enter their details. Make sure that there is an incentive for them to sign up with you on the spot. Don’t forget to build your mailing list as well!

Send out invitations to your mailing list once or twice a year. Motivate people to join with a generous, exclusive sign-up offer.

You’ll also want to make sure your online experience is attractive and easy to navigate. The club sign-up process should be enticing and straightforward.

And now….

A new club builder tool!

At Call for Wine we are excited to offer a brand new club builder and retention program. We’ve been successfully helping wineries to gather loyal supporters with carefully crafted relationship marketing telephone campaigns. And what’s more, we’ve managed to make these customers the wineries most loyal brand ambassadors year after year.

Get active, build your business.

Club customers are a vital part of a winery’s business. If you can effectively create a fan base and keep their adoration your winery can be a rock star of the wine world!

*DTC Wine Symposium 2012 – ‘Winery Check-up’

A Brilliant Alternative to the Gift Card

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 07:00:00 -0700

The gift card industry has been growing tremendously over the past decade or so. According to research firm the Tower Group, it should reach $100 billion this year. But there are problems with gift cards: they’re impersonal and they’re not exactly convenient. You have to go to the store to buy one, figure out the correct mailing address, and then run to the post office to send it. Another big problem with gift cards is that we tend to forget about them for weeks or months before finally redeeming them, or worse yet they get tucked away in a drawer, never to be seen again.

With the digital age, it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a really good alternative. One that I really like is Karma Science. Lee Linden and Jen You from the Karma team came into our offices a while back to show us their new app and to talk about offering wine through their unique new service. Since that time, I’ve had an opportunity to download and explore Karma.

Karma is a “mobile social commerce app”, or to put it another way, it’s a really fun way to send someone a gift from your phone. The idea in creating Karma was to come up with an easy way to let you “capture the moment in the moment.” No more worrying about your gift card not being redeemed for months.

Here’s what I like about Karma:

It’s Different
Buying a gift online has become pretty predictable. Gifts are almost always arranged into standard categories like “by occasion” or “by price”. Karma adds more meaning by using verbs like thank, celebrate, surprise, inspire, indulge, pamper, congratulate, entertain, delight, or impress to help you find the perfect gift.

It Offers a Nice Selection
They’ve carefully cultivated the product selection and are working with some great partners like Barnes and Noble, Spotify, Gund, Chandon, Jonathan Adler, MOMA, Kate Spade, and Vosges Haut-Chocolat. This tells me that when I’m in a pinch, I know they’ll have gifts to suit the occasion.

It’s Social
This is where it gets interesting……brilliant actually. When you login to Karma, you can choose to login via Facebook, which means that they are able to tap into a treasure trove of data and deliver up gift suggestions based on that data. Better yet, they go beyond the standard profile information (like dates for birthdays and anniversaries) and conduct a semantic analysis of your newsfeed to pick up keywords like “congratulations.” They then offer suggestions based on what they find. And, to make it even more viral, your recipient can easily post on Facebook “I just received this gorgeous Napa Valley Cab from Jake.”

It’s Easy
To send a gift, you pick from either your address book or from Facebook. Karma then sends your gift recipient a message via text. The real beauty in this is that people tend to read text messages right away, whereas with the mountains of email we all receive each day, messages can easily get lost. Your recipient then fills in shipping information so that you don’t have to fumble through your address book to find it.

It’s Personal
The gift giver can really have fun with some of the personalization features – creating a special and unique gift message using photos, voice or video.

Special Delivery
Imagine receiving a text message that says “Charlie has sent you a gift”. As the gift recipient, you get to actually “unwrap” your gift on your phone or desktop. You also have the opportunity to either exchange your gift for another same-priced item or donate the value of the gift to charity if it’s not just right. And don’t worry; the giver doesn’t need to know.

Personality
I love the Karma personality. The app design is clean, yet a little playful and the gift packaging is young and fresh.

If you are interested in learning more about Karma, you can visit their website to download the app (currently available for iPhone and Android phones).

And if you’re a WineDirect fulfillment customer and would like to learn about participating in Karma, please feel free to contact me or your Account Manager.

Aliens Abducted My Wine!

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:00:00 -0700

Sometimes that is what it feels like in that time between placing the order online and receiving the wine at your door.

The average weight for one 750ml bottle is 3 pounds. Shipping twelve bottles totals to around 41 pounds including packaging…which is equal to a small child! Unfortunately shipping heavy items can be pricey. Small children are pricey but that is another topic. For the savvy winery, there are ways to minimize shipping costs. Unless there is a pressing need such as a birthday party tomorrow night that you absolutely positively have to have that specific cabernet, the most economical shipping method is Ground.

Yes, Ground does take longer than 2Day or Overnight but with a quick check on weather conditions in the destination state, Ground shipping can maintain the integrity of your wine at a lower cost. The WineDirect Fulfillment Portal offers a nifty weather hold management tool. You can place a state on hold for a specific period of time with just a couple clicks. If hurricanes are causing havoc in the south east, put those states on weather hold. If the New York has declared a snow day, you can easily hold your orders. The Portal also offers a quick link on the landing page to see the temperatures across the country to help with your shipping decisions.

Your Account Manager is available to walk you thru placing a state on hold on the Portal. We have not figured out how to control the weather but we do have ways to control costs. It should be noted, and our legal counsel will be pleased with this, neither WineDirect nor the carriers can insure against alien wine abduction. We will have to take our chances that the aliens prefer beer.

Spring Clean Your Customers

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 07:00:00 -0700

Spring is the time of year when your consumers are starting to think about everything summer: outdoor barbecues, baseball, and a glass of wine. It’s also a perfect time to call your customers to check in and make sure they have some of your whites and reds on hand to last them through the hot summer days. Making this call now, whether you outsource or do it in-house can also greatly increase your end of year Direct-to-Consumer sales.

At Call For Wine we call it “Spring Cleaning.” Here are two simple strategies for success:

1. Clean up your customer data

The most important part of Spring Cleaning for us is calling every lead in a database. Once we have made a full pass we have two very important piece of information:

Which customers want to buy wine over the phone
Which customers have incorrect / old information (phone, mailing address, and email)

Those are your two database segments.

Over the years, one of our focuses has been providing a complete list cleaning and data-sourcing service. We take the customers with incorrect data, get updated addresses, emails, and phone numbers for you – it’s an instant boost to your callable universe. This is a process you don’t want to be doing during the high conversion months from September through December.

2. Find your customers’ likes

One of the greatest things about a phone call to your own customers is the impromptu information you are able to discover. We use a contact manager that allows our reps to take copious (and more importantly, actionable) notes on anything from frequency of visit, anniversaries, or just what wines make them really excited.

Spring is the perfect time to get this information. What you are doing during this call is not only about brand building and sales at that moment, but strategizing for the end of the year.

From September through December, we find that our most successful clients have run a spring campaign. Why are they so successful? Because we have the tools we need to make every call relevant to that individual customer. Every contact becomes a high-probability sale because we don’t have to spend as much time probing.

On average, clients who run at least a spring campaign to clean up information and find customer likes perform at two times the conversion rate of clients who don’t.

This can be a big project and the sooner you start, the more successful future Direct-to-Consumer sales will be.

Everything Changes, Nothing Stays the Same

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:00:00 -0700

Last week Bloomberg.com published an article entitled “Retailers Shut Facebook Storefronts amid Apathy” in which they painted a pretty bleak picture of Facebook as a vehicle for online sales. GameStop, a company with 3.5 million fans, opened a Facebook store only to shutter it six months later. So did Gap, J.C. Penny, and Nordstrom. Of course, this begs the question – Should I have a Facebook store?

My answer is an emphatic “It depends.”

Here’s what we know:

Social commerce in general is still relatively new when you think about how long it took for eCommerce as a sales channel to take off. The people who do buy on Facebook could still be considered early adopters. This indicates to me that it’s way too early to abandon ship.
The examples above are clearly not representative of the typical winery who maintains a Facebook presence. These are large retailers with a strong Internet presence and substantial traffic, not to mention very large product catalogs. For them, the line is more distinct. Facebook probably should be more about building community, leaving the shopping experience to the website. For our customers that line is fuzzier. Facebook offers an engaged audience, some of whom found your page through friends. You could send them back to your website to make a purchase, but should you? Once again, it depends. My inclination is to say no. It’s an extra step and you run the risk that those visitors will become distracted along the way.
Social media is on the verge of becoming the dominant driver of online content. According to a recent study by comScore, it represented 16.6% of Internet time in 2011. While the benefits of maintaining a storefront are still up in the air, the benefits of maintaining a strong presence clearly aren’t.

“All things are difficult before they are easy.” Thomas Fuller

I built my first eCommerce store in 1997. To put that date in perspective, Google was incorporated in 1998. While it was never easy, both my husband and I made a nice living from that business and I still look back fondly at those days. ECommerce is a whole new ballgame today, but the one valuable lesson that I learned is that everything changes – not just from one year to the next, but rather from one week to the next. I found that once I learned how to optimize my site for one search engine, its algorithm would change, or another search engine would enter the scene. The key to success online is perseverance, patience, and a relentless quest for knowledge. Some things will work. Others won’t. But you never know until you try.

So, to go back to my original question, “Should I have a Facebook store?” - If it were me, I would go for it.

Expand Your Domain: Protecting your company from those who want to use, or abuse, your good name

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:00:00 -0700

Your Space
The word “domain” has several definitions depending upon the context of its use. The common thread is however, it represents a range of territory or scope of characteristics over which one maintains ownership. In the internet world, the space your company occupies is your domain, your cyberspace territory. It represents that space on the web you own where you can present your company message and products. Whatever you name this space is your domain name.

Most companies give their domain a name that represents what they do or identifies them to the public. The most obvious is to give the domain the same name as the company; WineDirect.com being a perfect example. It says who we are and what we do. If the preferred name is unavailable, the company may invent variations using hyphens, abbreviations, similar terms or creative spellings. “Vin” is a common alternative to “Wine”, for example. Necessity is the mother of invention, after all.

In addition to the name selected, domain names consist of the top-level domain; familiar as suffixes such as .com, .gov, .org, .biz and so on. Between the variations in the name selected and the variety of top-level domains, a multitude of combinations of potential domain names is available, as well as many opportunities for others to exploit or trade upon it.

Threats to Your Space
So what happens when a company acquires its preferred name? Or even its second choice? Often they stop there. They feel comfortable they’ve secured their domain space on the web. They’ve got their own registered .com and no one else can use it. However, this sense of security is really an illusion. And it’s a mistake.

A recent presentation by David P. Branfman, Esq., "HOT Trademark & Copyright Issues For Non-IP Lawyers", discussed threats to domain names and the most expedient and inexpensive way to protect your space. He points out that with the explosion of the internet many companies spend significant dollars securing the rights to that one domain name they covet most, yet leave themselves vulnerable to “cybersquatters” who trade off their good name or worse, disparage it.

Mr. Branfman notes that if you own only the one domain name associated with your business you are leaving yourself exposed to other parties who acquire the rights to any or all of the domain name variations still available. A competitor could acquire a variation on the spelling of your name, or an alternative top-level domain with your exact name, creating confusion for your customers and potentially stealing away some of your business. Worse still, an unhappy customer, a disgruntled former employee or just someone with an axe to grind could snap up a similar name strictly for the purpose of attacking your reputation online. They could even create a “nasty” variation of your domain name for such purposes.

Defending Your Space
Branfman’s solution is easy and inexpensive. Domain name registrations are cheap, usually in the $10-$15 range per domain through a registration service. Once you’ve landed on a name you like, protect yourself by spending a little extra money by buying up the rights to the most common variations, including the possible “nasty” names that make you look bad or confuse your customer. Although you won’t be actively using these domain names, no one else will either. It’s inexpensive insurance against someone exploiting or sullying your good name and reputation. Expand, and thereby protect, your domain. It’s cheaper than a lawyer!

The information conveyed in this blog post is made available for general informational purposes only and none of the information provided should be considered to constitute legal advice.

Are you testing your email messages before blasting?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:00:00 -0700

Given the number of mailing lists our Client Services team has joined, we too often experience that “oh no” moment when we receive an email that was clearly sent untested. And, recently, at the ecommerce workshop I attended at the DTC Symposium in San Francisco, the topic of email testing was discussed at length. This has prompted me to provide some tips to follow before sending out marketing emails.

I think many of us have been there, right? Rushing to meet a deadline and feeling like a quick preview of the email will be a sufficient enough test.…….but then you send the email and WHAM! It hits you like a ton of bricks as you sink down into your office chair, burying your head into your hands…….your email has typos, broken links and the merge tags are inaccurate so users can't easily place an order on your website, which was your point to begin with. You could be faced with customer service calls and now need to send out the dreaded apology email with corrections. Your customers may have lost faith in this important communication from you and it makes you really wish you had taken the time to test.

Our ecommerce team can’t stress enough how important email testing is as it provides the opportunity to catch mistakes in advance and ensure the email is sent with accuracy. If desired, we will gladly review our client’s emails and make suggestions for improvement to help ensure it is sent without error.

Our client, Alexana, does an incredible job of not only creating emails with rich content and images but segments their list to ensure it reaches the proper audience. Including extra time for testing will help ensure email success as well as a positive customer experience. I’ve attached a recent sample email they sent which speaks to their attention to detail.

Some tips to help you check your email prior to sending:

Proof your content by reading it out loud to ensure readability. Or, ask somebody to proof your work.
Create an email address at Yahoo, Hotmail, Google, MSN, etc. and send the email to this test group. Preview your email in both a web and outlook client.
Check for typos, broken links and proper tags.
Don’t save images with spaces, dashes or characters in the name or they may not render in some email clients. Check that images are sized properly and aligned with text.
Check email on a mobile device, IPAD, etc., more and more users are reading email on handhelds.
Ensure your list segmentation results are what you expected.
Join other winery/brand mailing lists that you think highly of to see how they communicate with their clients.

Testing is an email marketing best practice that not only helps you avoid errors, but improves the overall effectiveness of your email marketing program and how your brand is perceived.

Vision and Mission

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:00:00 -0700

As we begin the New Year, it’s customary to reflect on the events of the previous year and to look ahead to what lies in store. This was a big year for our company, as we acquired the WTN Services division of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM and became WineDirect.

The process of bringing two companies together provides a unique opportunity to reflect on our vision for the future. The landscape for the wine industry and Direct-to-Consumer sales is constantly evolving. For us to help our customers succeed in this ever changing market, it’s important to look to the future and understand the trends that will shape our industry over the next several years. With that thought in mind, our team has used the merging of our two companies as an opportunity to reflect on our Vision and Mission. These two important statements capture the essence of who we are and provide guidance in everything we do.

So here are our new Vision and Mission statements. Please enjoy. I welcome your thoughts and look forward to working together as we see what changes the coming year will bring.

Vision
We aspire to be the leader in winery direct sales. To that end, we must fully support our customers with products, services, and information to help them succeed, and build a positive culture by encouraging and rewarding employees for delivering on our promises.

Mission
We make Direct-to-Consumer easier by providing responsive and efficient winery fulfillment, eCommerce, and telesales services. Our commitment to technology and a strong team allow us to deliver peace of mind to our customers as they build their direct sales programs.

Characteristics of a Great Winery Website

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:02:00 -0700

Are you missing out on opportunities in Direct-to-Consumer eCommerce?

Retailers often have an advantage over producers where eCommerce is concerned because this is their bread and butter. Buyers have become accustomed to shopping through retail sites and consequently they hold certain expectations regarding the user experience. As a producer, it’s important for you to meet those expectations.

There are a number of reasons you may be losing out on Direct-to-Consumer opportunities:

Your customers are unaware that you have a web presence, or they may be unable to find your website
Perhaps previous experience with your site has been less than perfect. Even if it’s improved a great deal since your early days online, you may have trouble winning them back.
It could be that experience with winery sites as a whole has been poor; in which case customers may have been conditioned to go directly to retailers. Retailer sites often have better features and functionality, particularly when it comes to finding what you’re looking for.

How can you overcome these challenges? You can start by working to build awareness and by following some basic principles regarding the design and navigation of your website.

Building Awareness

It may seem obvious, but remember to put your URL on every piece of marketing material that goes out (newsletters, package inserts, advertisements, etc.).
Do a little bit of research on SEO and make sure your title tags, marketing URLs and site content are optimized for search engines. Statistics show that 42% of search users click the top-ranking link, while just 8% click the second-ranking link. Your name should come up first in an Internet search for your brand or for your wines. If you’re not doing it today, you should also consider using Google AdWords to promote your brand.
Use analytics to gain an understanding of your customers and learn how they interact with your website. How are customers finding you and which pages do they tend to exit from? Use this information to continually improve the customer experience.

Basic Web Principles

Design

Last month I put together a quick list of design tips which you can read here. In addition to these basic tips, you’ll want to make sure your site displays well in all browsers. See this link for some interesting browser usage statistics. Usage among the top three has changed pretty dramatically over the past several years.

Navigation

Can your website visitors easily find what they’re looking for? Website navigation is often taken for granted, but research by User Interface Engineering shows that it’s a significant issue for customers. Their research indicates that people can’t find what they’re looking for 60% of the time. Even more importantly, Forrester Research estimates that approximately 50% of potential sales are lost because users can’t find the information they’re looking for. Your navigation should be prominent, i.e. it should be at the top of the page or above the fold on either side. It should also be logical with link copy that makes sense. For a good overview of navigation usability, see this article.

Just for fun, here is an example:

Great Navigation

Resources

The Anatomy of a Perfect Website (Infographic)
The Do's and Dont's of Website Navigation Usability

Design Tips for Your Website

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:15:00 -0700

Is your website design beginning to feel dated? It’s always a good idea to step back and look at your site objectively; to make sure you’re on top of the latest trends in design and to ensure that it’s performing optimally.

Here are a few things to consider (be sure to scroll down to the bottom for some examples).

Use of Color
There are a number of resources available if you're interested in learning more about the psychology of color. Your website can invoke different moods depending on how you use the primary colors from your logo relative to any complementary colors you've chosen. For example, have you used a dark or light colored background? Which colors have you chosen for highlights and headers versus body text? When working with a designer, have him or her prepare several variations and then solicit feedback from friends and colleagues.

Contrast
Remember the old days, when it was popular to use white text on a black background? Computer monitors use light to generate images, so displaying text with too little or too much contrast can strain the eyes. You’ll want to test different combinations of background and font color for readability before you choose a design.

Line Height
This is a very simple, yet effective concept. Adding some additional space between the lines on your pages makes them appear cleaner and your content will be easier to read.

Imagery
The use of beautiful images is very common in the wine industry, but effective in other industries as well (think apple). It doesn’t take long for a visitor to decide whether or not to spend time on your website. Arriving to see a beautiful image of your tasting room, vineyards, or wines will encourage customers to linger and enjoy.

The Shopping Experience
If your current website structure and navigation is the one you designed several years ago, it’s time to look at it again with the customer experience and ease of use in mind. Make sure customers can easily figure out how to “buy” wine. And that they can get from the home page to the shopping cart with a minimum number of clicks. Today’s web users have been spoiled by easy-to-use eCommerce sites and will quickly leave a website that’s not intuitive.

Designing for Tablet Use
Tablet owners are valuable customers. According to a study by Forrester Research and BizRate, tablet owners spend on average 28% more per order than non-tablet owners. That study also sheds some light on the frustrations the tablet user experiences, with the most common complaints being that the experience is “limited” relative to the desktop experience and that it’s difficult to click on exactly what they want. These are important considerations when redesigning your site.

Content
There’s no better time than a redesign to reevaluate the content on your website. Remember that customers rarely enjoy reading long blocks of text. Use bullets, icons and images and try to be concise with your verbiage. And if writing is not your forte, consider hiring a copywriter. You’d be amazed at the difference good copy will make.

If you’re considering a redesign for the New Year, I’d suggest contacting your Account Manager right after the holidays.

Some Resources:

HubSpot Blog
71 Secret Tips for Website Redesign Projects

Practical eCommerce
The Psychology of Color
Color Psychology Showcase

BizRate Insights
The Emerging Tablet Market: What Online Retailers Need to Know

Here are some examples of customers who've gone through the redesign process recently. We think they look great!