I've been thinking about the wine business a lot lately. No surprise, given wine is what I do for a living. But I've recently been spending days buried under a stack of research materials pertaining to the Internet, blogs, websites, all these communications tools that are right at our fingertips, and growing more and more accessible with every new coffee shop and portable device that has a Wireless Internet connection.
There are an awful lot of ways to buy wine online, whether you buy directly from a winery, wine shop, auction, or even a private collector. And some of these guys are really good at using the Web to sell wine. Check out K&L Wines for an example of a great online wine shop that's making full use of Web 2.0 technology to sell wine. These guys have an interesting blog, nice graphics (they just redid their website), and helpful descriptions of the wines, producers, grapes, regions--which is why they pop up just about every time I search for a wine online. Tons of relevant content! Tons of keywords! Plus, they update the thing site about every day, which keeps everything fresh. And guess what--they sell tons of wine online!
So this all got me thinking about small wineries and how they are and could be using the Internet to sell wine. Many people in the wine, web, and PR industries are familiar with the story of Stormhoek, the South African winery who doubled their wines sales with a PR campaign targeting bloggers. This is an example of what can be done with a targting, well-orchestrated online campaign that combines marketing and public relations. Lots of wineries have gotten in on the blogging game, but I'm not sure that everyone who's blogging really understands what the blog does for your business. Nonetheless, it's an encouraging sign that so many people are attempting to break the old marketing molds and speak directly to consumers.
Tom Wark's wine PR blog "Fermentation" brings to mind another advantage of small wineries becoming more web savvy in their sales and marketing strategies. Forming relationships with potential customers online means they're more likely to buy directly from the winery, meaning all the profit goes into their pockets instead of being spread out among the middlemen. As demand for direct sales increases, so does the likelihood that consumers will loudly advocate against laws that prevent direct shipping from wineries to consumers in certain states. Currently, there are only about 26 states that allow wineries to ship directly to consumers. Ostensibly, all those middle men are there to prevent alcohol from getting into the hands of minors. Frankly, I think this is a bunch of BS. I don't know many teenagers in California who get online trying to buy bottles of Santa Barbara Pinot at $45 a pop, so why would they do that in North Carolina?
In any case, I will continue to post about selling and promoting wine online, in the hopes that my comments and those of all you web-savvy, wine-savvy readers out there will help the little guys get their names out to a wider audience, so they can keep producing great wine for all of us to enjoy!
~Michelle
michellem@danfredman.com
