Since the primary goal of every sampling campaign is to generate positive reviews or stories about your wine, it’s important that your shipment stand out from the other 100+ samples press get each week. That requires some creativity (don’t mistake that to mean it can’t also be simple), relevancy, solid execution, and that special “wow-factor.” Here are some rules to live by:

• What’s Your Intended Outcome? Before executing on your sampling campaign, think about what you want to accomplish. Do you just want reviews? Make a bold statement? Predict or create a new wine trend? Raise eyebrows? Your goals should always determine the path forward on how elaborate or creative to get.
• Think Outside the Box: The focus shouldn’t always be about what’s in the bottle. Consider clever, yet appropriate ways to connect your wine to newsworthy current events, food pairing trends, or consumer consumption data. For example, if you’re releasing a new Moscato, insert relevant market data on the rise of Moscato. If you really want to stand out, take a non-traditional wine industry approach by creating a bartender tool kit with some delicious Moscato cocktail recipes.
• First Impressions Matter: If this is the first time you’ve sent samples, make sure everything matches what you want your wines to convey. There are no second chances, so your first impression will leave a lasting memory – good or bad. Pay attention to every detail, from what you say to the look and feel of the material. If it doesn’t match the wine’s branding, it won’t have the desired impact.
• Go Big or Go Home: If you’re samples have a theme, make sure every aspect of the mailer reflects that. If you’re encouraging entertaining at the beach, wrap a beach towel around the wine instead of foam inserts, or use a tote bag instead of shipping boxes. Create an experience beyond just tasting the wines.
• Look Outside the Wine Industry Bubble: Wine marketers take for granted all the alternative media who are not accustomed to receiving wine samples as frequently as their wine writing peers. Match your pitch or theme to writers covering those topics. For example, if you’re wine is on the pricier side, send it to editors at luxury publications who cover expensive watches, purses, etc.
• Don’t Forget We Live in a Twitter World: Make sure the look/feel of your sample mailer is something you wouldn’t be embarrassed if it appeared on Facebook or Twitter. In this day of 24/7 news cycles, media are impulsive and may want to post something immediately. Be prepared and ready to respond.
• Famous Last Rules: Trust us, writers HATE receiving wine samples that are unavailable in their market. So, make sure to confirm your distribution before mailing out samples. Finally, make sure you’re not breaking any laws by shipping wines to states that ban wine direct-to-consumer shipments.

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• Social ‘check-ins’ – The act of checking in allows visitors to share their location with friends. Check-ins are a great form of indirect marketing for wineries and boost engagement on your brand’s Facebook page. When someone checks in at your winery a story is created in their newsfeed, which expands the reach of your brand to people outside your existing fan base.
• Online sharing – Uploading photos to Facebook, writing reviews and Tweeting have all become “normal” ways people share their lives and experiences. Facebook and other channels act as digital diaries chronicling where people travel and what they are eating and drinking. Social media is built for sharing the exact type of experiences people have while visiting wineries. Offering free Wi-Fi can facilitate the free word-of-mouth exposure social media provides for your brand.
• Building relationships – One of the goals of tasting rooms is to foster relationships with customers not only when they visit but also when they leave. Having Wi-Fi in the tasting room makes it easier for people to get online to ‘like’ a Facebook page, join a wine club or sign up for an email newsletter – all easy ways to stay connected to the brand after leaving the tasting room.
• Providing information – The internet is where most people turn to answer questions and research unfamiliar things. If a customer would like to find your wines near them or read more about your current vintage on your website, then making it easier for them to connect to the internet is going to give them access to information and lead to a deeper involvement with your brand.

SUMMARY:

Why do we want people online in the tasting room versus simply enjoying the experience? The reality is we want them to do both, but making it easier for customers to engage with you online is something wineries should want to facilitate. Even if your winery has good cell reception there isn’t always the best coverage for visitors trying to connect to the internet. This is an area of opportunity for wineries to support their current marketing efforts in a simple way: create an environment for people to easily engage online.

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1. Add social media icons: Dedicate a certain area on your website to link to your social media platforms. This can be as simple as the icon at the bottom or top of each page on your website as this example from the Crate & Barrel website demonstrates. We recommend putting these icons in a very visible spot, such as the top of the page or next to the login section (if you have one).
   
   
2. Add social media “plug-ins” (3^rd party applications that link your website to social media platforms) so people can easily interact with your website through their personal social media profiles.
   • Facebook’s social plug-ins offer a variety of options including: commenting (so people can comment as their Facebook account), Facebook sharing (so people can share something they like from your site with the click of a button) and the option to like your Facebook page from your website.
   • Twitter sharing is also a great tool on your website so people can easily share on Twitter if they like something from your site, such as a specific wine, photo or article from a blog post. Make sure your Twitter handle is included in the share so that it is automatically included in the Tweet and more people can easily see the Twitter handle.
     
     
3. Confirm images can be pulled from your website, be it by Pinterest, Facebook or another social media site to get peoples’ attention before they actually click through to your website.
   • Pinterest can pull images from a website if there are images available. These images can click through back to your website, driving traffic. Test that the images on your site can be pulled by going to Pinterest and adding a Pin (with the url to your website). If no images display, your webmaster should be able to fix this.
   • When linking to a url on Facebook or Google+, an image (“thumbnail”) is automatically pulled from your site.  Test that the thumbnail you would like is being pulled by going to Facebook or Google +, update your status with a link to your website and see what image is shown. If no image appears, your webmaster should be able to fix this.

All of this is helpful in making user interaction easy and keep the consumer engaged in your site and social media presences.

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But Google+ is not right for every brand. Should your brand be on Google+?

STRENGTHS:

• Integration with other Google platforms: Search, YouTube, Google Maps, Zagat to help create a unified brand message and link the information on these platforms
• Better Google search results for your brand because “social search” provides relevant results for individuals signed into their Google accounts as well as optimized results based on keyword usage in page posts
• Opportunity to target posts to people in “Circles,” which are categories created to organize connections and can selectively share information with specific circles
• “Events” for people to interact with each other before, during and/or after physical or online events (includes invitations, RSVPs and photo sharing)

WEAKNESSES:

• People appear to be less active
• Not as large an audience as other social platforms
• It is another social network that needs to be monitored and updated

3 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD BE ON GOOGLE+:

• Better search results when people use Google to search for your brand, topics relevant to your brand or keywords that you have used in your posts
• If you have a physical location, you can control the information provided on the Google+ page for your location (“Local”) and map results
• You are active on YouTube and want to better use the available options to interact with fans

TIPS FOR LAUNCH:

• Launch with a similar strategy to Facebook but keep checking and readjusting as needed
• Don’t expect the same results as on other platforms right from the start
• Have fun and test different approaches on how to interact with fans!

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• Do I have news to share?
• Can I teach writers about a specific topic?
• Does my story fit into a larger trend? (Relevance)
• Am I ready to show my best? (Is my distribution in place, the wine shows my vision)

Ok, so you’ve answered ‘yes’ to most of those. Now, the format it takes will depend on your brand story and goals. We’ve employed all of these. Chances are you’ll know right away which one is right for you. But don’t be afraid to experiment with the format.

• Vertical tasting followed by lunch or dinner
• Competitive tasting, pouring wines alongside direct competitors
• After work ‘Happy Hour’
• Mid-day ‘walk around’ portfolio tasting
• Tasting and bar bites hosted throughout the day

Now that you’ve decided to host a press event, here are some must dos (and a few don’ts) to make the most out of it. Good writers will not spend their free time taking a free dinner; it needs to help them get their job done.

Think Way Ahead: This recommendation is two-fold. 1) Invite press further out than you think. 6-8 weeks is an ideal timeframe. 2) Writers are thinking about holiday gifts in spring and summer, and white wines in December. Allow this to inform what you present.

Focus: Chances are you have a thousand stories to tell. Your invitation should focus on one. One message has a better chance of being heard than three, four, or more.

Location, Location, Location: The restaurant where you’re hosting your event makes a statement, so pick a new hot spot, where the food pairs well with your wines. Given the choice between a mainstay that has your wines on the list and a new trendy account that does not, pick the new hot spot and use it as an excuse to speak to the wine buyer.

Think Like a Reporter: This may seem obvious, but put yourself in the writer’s shoes. What will her editor think is interesting? What aspect will his editor think is newsy? What would make for a ‘sexy’ column? Is there is a controversial issue (alcohol, replanting, hangtime) that you can take head on? Is there a story behind your first harvest or difficult challenge at the winery?

Become a Resource: Whether you’re planning on a tasting for 100, a dinner for 8, or a 1-on-1 press meeting, be an educator. Writers will make time for a meeting or a dinner if they feel they will learn something or they can pitch their editors. And a story is rarely about one wine, so the syllabus needn’t stop with your brand or vineyard. It should include your region, varietal or category you’re playing in.

Be Bold: Don’t be afraid to pour competitors or other wines in the category. Don’t be afraid to show how your winery’s style has evolved over years. Don’t be afraid to show who you are. Bottom line, don’t be afraid.

Be Yourself: Nothing annoys a writer more than a trained pony. If they feel you’re reading from a script, they won’t be able to connect with you. Wine writers love to tell authentic stories behind the story. How did you get to be where you are? What mistakes did you make? Who are the people behind the bottle and what makes them who they are?

Be Realistic: Not every writer who attends your event will be able to write a story about it, but you’ve created a connection with that person that you can nurture over time. Not every writer will actually show up! It’s true; writers have deadlines and sometimes have to cancel. We often recommend overbooking the table since cancellations are inevitable. Your job during an event is to get to know these writers and for them to get to know you.

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OPPORTUNITIES:

1. Visual Storytelling – This is really what Instagram is all about. Telling your brand story through the use of images. The quote “a picture is worth a thousand words” rings so true for this platform because memorable images can offer a deeper insight into the brand than copy.
2. Gain Insight into User Experience – The same could be said for Facebook and Twitter but the searchability and image-only content allow marketers to actually see how people are engaging with the brand offline. Like Twitter, you can search different hash tags to find images users are sharing about your winery. The best images can also serve as valuable content for your other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
3. Give an Insider Look – Consumers love feeling like they are getting an exclusive look at what goes on behind the scenes. Take images that show a day in the life of the winemaker or “of the moment” updates on how harvest is coming along. Make your followers feel like they won’t get this information anywhere else.
4. Show Products in Action – Use images to show your followers different ways to enjoy your wines. Take photos of people enjoying your wines on a hike or at the beach, show how your wine can be used for hot mulled wine during the holidays or share photos of your wines paired with different dishes created by your chef or restaurant partners. You can also share consumer-generated photos to show the creative ways others are using your products.
5. Teach – Share a series of images to teach consumers how the wine is made. Take photos at different points in the winemaking process to show the step by step process. Consumers who buy your wines will feel like they are “experts” in how it was created.

SUMMARY:
Without advertising or the ability to share clickable links, Instagram serves merely as tool to help build awareness and tell the brand’s story. Users appreciate the absence of heavy sales messaging and embrace the brands that offer something unique. As with any other social media platform, develop a strategy for your Instagram channel, ensure you’ll have a steady stream of images to share and use your established social media communities to cross-promote to help build a following.

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To receive these one-page reports via email when they become available, sign up for our mailing list here, or email Jeremy Benson at benson@bensonmarketing.com