1. what needs to happen on your site to get your business where you want it to be, and
2. identify which metrics will tell you if what you want to happen is happening.

Simple to state, but it requires you to think more deeply about your business.

Repeat business is where your investment online becomes truly viable, but without new customers you will never reach your full potential online.

Of course, you have to have the data about your web visitors to decide where you stand.

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Winery Videos Critic offered at Green Wine Summit  

Do you ever wonder why some wineries get more attention and press than others? It could be the way you are delivering you message, whether in print, with photos or through video clips. Wineries are invited to submit marketing videos for critical review and counsel on how to maximize messaging and reach through extremely impactful video channels.

Wine Industry marketing panelists will offer critical feedback as well as best practices tips:
Mimi Gatens, Winery Marketing Consultant, Moderator
Michael Duffy, Principal, Michael E. Duffy & Associates and WineryWebsiteReport.com
Laura Levy Shatkin, President, L Squared Productions
Lisa A. Walter, Principal, Adams Walter Communications

Upload videos to the YouTube Green Wine Summit Channel by November 15, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/user/GWSVIDEO

Info and tickets for the Green Wine Summit can be found at www.greenwinesummit.com
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(disclosure: I am speaking at The Green Wine Summit)

Love him or hate him, wine critic/blogger Steve Heimoff hits this particular nail on the head:

The biggest mistake most wineries make online is to establish a website, put some stuff up, and then let it molder for months if not years. I routinely get tasting samples in the mail ...So I’ll go to the website for info, only to find that the vintage hasn’t been updated for two years!... when you deliberately go to a website expecting something new and useful, only to find a bunch of old, boring stuff, it’s an insult. You actually feel resentment to the company for being lazy and uncaring and unprofessional. Not good.

(from An example of how social marketing works for a winery -- maybe).

The top error for winery websites remains a lack of freshness, from home pages which haven't changed in years, to a lack of information about new vintages, to "News" pages where the last update was more than a year ago.

A related mistake is to throw out the "old, boring stuff" on your website wholesale, instead of archiving items which have long-term value to visitors.  Disk space is cheap and search engines are your friends.  Someone just might want to read about that 10-year-old vintage they pulled from the cellar for tonight's party.  Ideally, your website has information about every vintage you've every produced.

Your winery could do this: pre-fill a shopping cart for returning customers, based on their previous purchases.

Jeez, this is brilliant.  If you want e-commerce lessons, study the people who spend lots and lots of money to make sure it's optimized (e.g. Amazon.com, Wine.com).  

I wouldn't call it "Guess My Order," though.  I think this copy is particularly confusing.

I will be part of a panel during the morning breakout session, Green Sales & Marketing: Communicating Green, along with Mimi Gatens, Laura Levy Shatkin, and Lisa Adams Walter.  I am almost certain to offend someone with my take on wineries and their websites.

Please say hello if you're in attendance.  Details on the event are here.

Last night (Saturday, September 24, 2011), the winners of the Sonoma County Harvest Fair were announced:

• Wilson Winery: 2009 Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley, Sawyer Vineyard
• Kenwood Vineyards: 2010 Pinot Gris, Russian River Valley
• Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards: 2007 Brut Rosé, Carneros

As I write this on Sunday morning, this story is the most-read news article on the Santa Rosa Press Democrat website.

BUT, not a single one of these wineries has the good news on their websites (either on the home page, or on the "news" page of their site).  People are reading the news, searching for the winery on Google, visiting their home page, and finding...nothing.

(Update: as of 8AM Monday, 9/26, Wilson Winery has updated their home page.)

Consider the lost PR value of this oversight.  It happens once a year -- you'd think people might plan for it.  And yes, it's a weekend, but last time I looked, wineries are open for business on the weekends.

To their credit, Wilson Winery and Gloria Ferrer have updates on their respective Facebook pages (here and here), but unfortunately, these updates will only appear in the news streams of people who already Like them, and will disappear fairly quickly in the news stream.

As Vin|65 pointed out, your winery website is the hub of your (online) marketing activities.  Something as newsworthy at this award should be featured on your home page for a week after the event.

Obviously, these winning wines may soon be sold out.  A winery in this glorious position should still have an offering of some sort for people who missed out (a different vintage, a special deal).

You lose the value of publicity when you fail to engage the people who look for your winery and wines as a result of that publicity.

(previous rants: 2009, 2005)

Still not 100% sure about what SEO is?  This quick video from Common Craft is a good introduction.

Of course, your chances of ranking highly for a general search phrase like Pinot Noir are low.  But you probably want to rank highly for searches that associate your winery (e.g. Kosta Browne Pinot Noir) and/or region (e.g. Russian River Pinot Noir) with a particular varietal.

Another example: V. Sattui recognizes that they are a popular picnic spot, and has optimized their site for searches relating to winery picnic.

If you don't know the top 3-5 search terms that bring visitors to your winery, talk to your Webmaster.  Then take a look for yourself at where your site appears in the results when you type those phrases into Google.  If you're not happy with the outcome, it's time to tackle SEO for your winery website.

But even small changes, like a red link vs a blue link can make a gigantic difference in click-throughs (and perhaps, conversions as well).

And that's why you have to test and measure!  For the record, I guessed wrong.

(PS - if you worry about website conversion rates, Which Test Won? is worth subscribing to...)