We all have a love/hate relationship when people tell us what they think of us online. We get angry when someone points out our flaws on Yelp, but we look for multiple reviews when considering something on Amazon. Continue »
Coco Chanel once said, “The best things in life are free. The second best are very expensive.” The mistress of iconic fashion couldn’t have stated it more succinctly. Luxury today, as it was in Coco’s time, is not essential but continues to be highly desirable and prestigious because of the quality, price, and prestige it confers on its consumers. Continue »
You’re a winery, so of course, you’ve heard of tied-house laws. These pesky rules are not new, having been around since 1935. However, within the past six years, it seems violations keep popping up in the media. Continue »
We’ve been waiting, and it’s finally here – tasting rooms can finally open for many of us. But 2021 began as 2020 ended, with much uncertainty as to when a significant revenue driver – tasting rooms -- will open. And when they do open, how quickly will customers feel comfortable enough to visit in pre-COVID numbers? Continue »
With a Two-Year Revenue Growth of 52%, WineGlass Marketing Ranks No 237 on Inc. Magazine’s List of California’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies. Continue »
Gaynor Strachan Chun to join WineGlass Marketing as Head of Strategic Services. Continue »
I was reading an article about early-spring gardening tasks, and they were suggesting that March was a great time for maintenance. The types of things recommended, such as cleaning and sharpening tools, checking bulbs and seeds for moisture or mold, mulching existing flower beds, and planning for new ones, all made sense and almost inspired me enough to get off the warm couch and go out to my shed to investigate. But, because I’m a nerd, my mind immediately followed the theme to a digital correlation. Continue »
At the start of each year, there is a little-known problem that secretly sabotages your wine marketing. Each year shipping companies look at the cost of gas and inflation and increase their shipping rates. If you don't follow suit, you could be charging past-year's rates and losing money. It's not a well-advertised fact that shipping rates are increased each year. And with that, there come challenges to ensure that the rates you pass through to customers are correct. We're going to explain how to ensure your rates are updated each year and what's involved in making sure your fees stay as accurate as possible. Continue »
Kristyn Dunlap to join WineGlass Marketing as Head of Client Services. Continue »
Chances are you’ve attended a virtual conference by now. Perhaps it was your first, or maybe you’re a seasoned pro. In either case, thanks to the ongoing pandemic and the reoccurring “Stay at Home” directives, virtual events are likely going to be here for a while. Continue »
Each December, WineGlass Marketing releases email benchmarks for the wine industry. We do this because having a bar to evaluate email performance has always been a challenge within the wine ecosystem. Benchmarks are widely available for broad categories such as “Retail” or “Food and Grocery,” but finding something to compare a Wine Club email to is historically as accurate as predicting what would happen next in 2020. Continue »
All indicators suggest we will continue our social distancing well in 2021, which means the late winter trade shows in North America will be chiefly virtual this year. The vast majority of us have never attended a virtual trade show, let alone hosted a booth in one. So, as we all venture into this new virtual age together, let’s discuss what to expect, how to prepare, and how to “walk through the virtual exhibition hall” to get the most out of this year’s upcoming events. Continue »
What do we say when the destruction and 2020 have left many of us speechless? Hopefully, this article will give some suggestions on how to pivot (there's that word again) this year's holiday messages. Continue »
This year we've weathered a pandemic, riots, double-digit unemployment, a contentious election year, a labor shortage, and now the most expansive fire in California history. If what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, then we should be Ironman by now. It's enough to make you crawl into your cellar and lock the door. Continue »
It's tough out there right now. COVID cases are on the rise, scaring both our customers and employees. Bank relief programs are ending, but the virus looks like it is just getting started. Even if we are in an area that can open a tasting room, we're not sure what the rules are this week, or exactly how to alter our protocol to keep everyone safe. With harvest looming and the farming community profoundly affected, some wonder if they'll get their grapes picked at all this year. My day is spent hearing the stories and struggles of so many within our community, I wish I could do more to help. All I have to offer is my experience. This is not a sales article. I'm not pitching anything. I don't have a silver bullet, but I can share some advice on how to help your businesses. Continue »
Dark Mode is becoming surprisingly popular and it can have serious implications on your email effectiveness, resulting in adjustments needed in not only how you format your emails, but also how you use images. This article will explain what Dark Mode is, why more and more are using it, and why we all need to be ready for it, like, yesterday. Continue »
Are you feeling discouraged with tasting rooms being closed or limited? The eCommerce channels that are in full swing right now require a strong database for your emails and there are plenty of things you can do right now to continue to grow your database. Even if your tasting rooms are closed, you can still work on expanding your list working with the tools you already have. Capturing leads digitally is nothing new to online retailers who don’t have a physical location – they’ve been doing this for years. Continue »
John F Kennedy said once: "It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this is a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the fact that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all." Continue »
I actually looked it up; AOL started in 1993, which brought in a revolution of using email for personal and business communication. Because this is not a new marketing channel, people assume it is passé. In fact, if you look at Google searches, “email is dead” as a searched term appears very frequently. But the fact that there are so many of us using a 27-year-old technology shows just how alive it really is. Continue »
In our last two blog posts, we discussed the importance of staying true to your brand in uncertain times. Your brand is your compass to keep you on course. It is your scale to weigh options, and programs, to make determinations on what to do. Your brand is also what makes a connection with your customers and sets their expectations of you. A strong well-defined brand will also span across channels. For instance, you could make the jump from an on-premise brand to an online brand and your customers will follow. But there is another reason everyone is focusing on brands as of late. There is an entirely new generation reshaping how we think about our communications. Millennials have smart marketers looking at their brands in a different way. They are pivoting the marketing pitch from a focus on the product to the story behind the product. Continue »
Recession Marketing Pro Tip: Understanding consumer psychology and the underlying emotions is critical when advertising during a recession.In the wine industry, we don’t typically analyze consumers’ psyches or emotions. We tend to think of our customers demographically – mid 40’s – 60’s, lives in New York, Texas, and Florida, HHI over $150k, and the like. But in times of stress, demographic segmentations may be less relevant than psychographic segmentation that take into consideration consumers’ behavioral reactions and the underlying emotions they are feeling at the time. Continue »
We're all affected by the social changes recommended to slow the spread of COVID-19. Wine, by its nature, is both a non-essential item and most often enjoyed at social occasions. So one could argue we're in for a rocky ride ahead. But, by combining what we know about performance in past downturns with the special features of the current situation, we can identify several things companies should consider in preparing for the next few months. Continue »
WINEGLASS MARKETING, LLC. was called out as the only Napa company listed as one of the top 250 – a hyper-growth company – in the Inc. 5000 Series: California’s Top Companies. The list, published on February 19th,, ranks the fastest-growing private companies in the state and represents cities from San Diego to Sacramento. Continue »
Seven ways to segment your email list to maximize ROI. Click here for an interesting infographic using a collection of data on the latest research. Continue »
Think social media marketing might not be worth it? Click here for an interesting infographic using a collection of data on the latest research. Continue »
Email continues to be a critical tool in the digital marketing toolbox. When done well, email is a fantastic customer loyalty tool. And, email is inexpensive. It costs only pennies to send an email to your database, and a small amount of time for your creative person or agency to design and produce your content. The key to your email success is not your offer or product! Success lies in your campaign list strategy. Click to read three quick and easy tips on effective segmentation strategies for successful email campaigns. Continue »
Using our client Tofanelli, WineGlass Marketing carried out a 4-part Story Arc campaign on Facebook. Check out our results! Continue »
In January 2018, we started a project that entailed recording every email we sent for our clients: 3,089,124 emails across 1,697 campaigns for 43 clients over 21 months, to be exact. We removed administrative and club emails and checked for statistical significance and can confirm this is a large enough sample to be confident about the findings. Our goal was to compare our clients’ results to the posted industry benchmarks to see if they were a good judge of success. What we uncovered was interesting... Continue »
According to Forbes, 2020 is going to be the year of personalized marketing. The current opinion is that we are all so bombarded with advertising and emails that we now tune out anything that isn’t specifically relevant to us. Continue »
Emails that bounce can be one of the most frustrating situations to deal with in email marketing. A bounced email means that your reader didn’t get the information that they signed up for. There are many things that can be done to help delivery your emails reach your readers’ inbox. In this post, we’ll discuss the differences between a “hard bounce” and a “soft bounce”, why they occur, and how to prevent and resolve the issues that cause high bounce rates. Continue »
Unless you’ve been hiding in a wine barrel, you’ve no doubt seen a flurry of news articles in the last 6 months regarding ADA website accessibility lawsuits. Specifically, wineries in New York state and California have been served with lawsuit papers in the past 6 months claiming their websites are not ADA compliant. These wineries are caught not because of insolence but because of ignorance, as many of us don’t know what it means to be ADA compliant Continue »
Let’s face it, we have all turned into big photo-fanatics. We are constantly taking photos of everything we see and although this new technological access to images is great, it has turned us into image critics... Continue »
As companies continue to move away from developing software in-house, they've been relying on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendors to provide the services they need. In fact, the average company spent 78% more on SaaS products in 2018 compared to 2017. Continue »
One question our clients continuously want to be answered is how to leverage their social media following to gain new sales conversions. We wanted to show how strategically timed and targeted ads could compliment release schedules while building brand awareness and engagement, drive website traffic, and contribute to sales. Continue »
When we first started using email regularly in the workplace, it was before the PalmPilot, BlackBerry, or iPhone. We viewed emails on computers at our desks. Emails took the place of memos, which took the place of letters––so formal, long format text was the norm. With the increasingly fast pace of technology adoption, our lines between work and non-work on a computer have blurred considerably. Continue »
For a long time, the belief was that the best time to send an email is at 10:00 AM on a Tuesday morning, and for the most part that still holds true. But, the overwhelming use of mobile phones to read email has us consuming content at different times and in different ways. Continue »
Right now there is a WineDirect tool in Beta testing that is available for wineries to try out called "Dynamic Pricing". It lets your club members login to their account on your website and see their club member discount on your wine immediately. Continue »
ADA compliance is an important consideration for websites. Not being ADA-compliant means your site is less accessible to visitors with disabilities, and can also open you up to potential lawsuits. We have a solution! Continue »
It’s time to start thinking about your seasonal/holiday photography needs. While promotional details can be worked out later, a general idea of which wines you’ll want to feature is a good place to begin. Continue »
Whether you’re curating images from stock or creating your own with a camera and editing software, choosing the right image is essential to your message. A photo that doesn’t provoke a response can result in an ineffective campaign. Continue »
This feature is one that some wineries have been asking for for a while and I'm glad that they've finished this feature. The loyalty points tool is really solid from our point of view. Continue »
The rains are fading off and spring events are in full swing. By now most of us have processed our first wine club run of the year. How did it go? Do you know? As you head into the busy selling period, it's important to take a moment to reassess your club successes, failures, and strategies to determine your best selling plan moving forward into the tourist season. Here are some best practices we recommend to improve your club health in the coming year: Continue »
A presentation created for the WineDirect Roadshows that showcase three case studies - one on Facebook Ads, one on email design and one on custom wine clubs. Continue »
A presentation on Facebook Marketing presented at the 2018 Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium with Louis Calli of Echo and Carin Oliver of Angelsmith. Continue »
From keynote addresses on wine and cannabis, artificial intelligence, and state legislation, to workshops on customer service, social media and and wine club optimization, the 2018 Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium brought together individuals from all walks of the wine industry. Every session was filled with individuals looking to industry leaders to share their knowledge on how to maximize DTC efforts. Common questions attendees would ask questions were, “How do I improve my club retention rates?” or “What kind of offers will help my email conversions without devaluing my product?” or “How can I get a customer to purchase again?” I noticed that many of the presenters would turn the questions back onto the attendee, and ask, “What does your data tell you?” and often, the person could not answer them. Continue »
Every year in Q1 our agency get a small flurry of requests to "update" or "refresh" clients' websites. They're often not sure why, or have metrics to support the request. How often should this be done? How many years is too old? Just because you're tired of looking at the same home page, doesn't mean your customers are....right? Continue »
We've turned the page on the calendar, and are already plunged into another year. Here are my predictions for changes to the winery direct marketing landscape this year. Continue »
when all through wine country we pause for a break. (We need one, quite bluntly.) Continue »
We turned on the best Christmas album to get me in the mood to write this post. We just finished Thanksgiving, but Christmas ads are on the TV and displays are in the stores, and shipping deadlines will be here before you know it. Continue »
You hire photographers for your wine, graphic designers to build your emails and printers to print and mail your holiday promotions. You spent hours fussing… Continue »
The holidays are a time for family gatherings, eating too much food…and shopping. Those of us in the sales and marketing business are far too… Continue »
The wine industry is one of adventure, mystery, romance and awe. No, seriously. Our guests want to escape the hustle and bustle of their daily… Continue »
I’m sure the answer is ‘very’. You’re a pleasure to be around. You’re the first person to volunteer when a friend is moving apartments and… Continue »
You’re standing in line at the grocery store waiting to check out and you see a magazine. Not Time or Rolling Stone, but a trashy… Continue »
Having set up almost 50-60 websites with data on Vin65, they asked me to lead a Free Training Friday webinar on best practices for data… Continue »
I was honored to be asked to be on a panel for the DTC Symposium a few weeks ago by Copper Peak logistics. The topic… Continue »
It would be nice if we all had one system that did everything…but that is so often not the case. In many cases, your accounting… Continue »
I was asked to present to a group of winery C-level about why they should care about Social Media marketing, and answer two questions: “What… Continue »
I remember when I was on the team to launch the first “smart-phone” at Sprint. The tech guys were explaining how it would make pagers… Continue »
Right about now we’re all deep into 2015 planning…or finishing up our calendars. This begs the question, what content should we be using for our… Continue »
Happy New Year! We made it through another holiday period….which means you navigated the maze of holiday promotions. This inspired me to do some research… Continue »
With the end of one year comes the beginning of another. For many of us, that means 2015 planning. And some wineries might be considering… Continue »
Do you look at Google Analytics? If you’re like most, it is overwhelming and confusing and once it is set up, you rarely look at… Continue »
Around this time of year, us marketers are typically working on our “Black Friday” messages. This day after Thanksgiving started out as a convenient… Continue »
As you leave the local elementary school sporting the “I Voted!” sticker, consider how easy or complicated the process was for you. Were there complicated… Continue »
Halloween is my favorite holiday. I think because it reminds me of being a kid: choosing what costume to wear, watching scary movies, and of… Continue »
Unless you’ve been drinking far to much of your own product, you know that an earthquake hit the Napa Valley this past week. In the… Continue »
Well, the guest post on label design certainly generated some passionate discussion! So much so, that my friend and colleague Cindy Deutsch, who knows more… Continue »
I recently ran a quick analysis for a client considering a new Wine Club. After 20 minutes of diving into their backend system (which happened… Continue »
If you cringe when databases and “CRM” is brought up in marketing conversations, you are not alone. Many wineries are confused about this area of… Continue »
What is it about Spring that makes one take on more challenges than is humanly possible? Something about the warmer weather inspires us to… Continue »
We have a special “Guest Glass” post today: Courtney Holmes from Talk is Sheep Marketing, a wine marketing design firm specializing in wine label design. … Continue »
Clients ask me all the time about what/how often to post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other Social Media channels. I typically flip the question… Continue »
My wonderful husband, who has worked for 17 years at AAA, was sent to a conference last week in San Diego. He returned with a… Continue »
Below is a presentation I finally got around to posting on slideshare. It is a presentation given at the Wine Industry Network conference last December… Continue »
As February draws to a close, we start to come out of hibernation and look at the busy spring, summer and harvest seasons. The… Continue »
Happy New Year! This past weekend was the Chinese Lunar New Year. It’s the Year of the Wooden Horse. According to Chinese beliefs, the ‘Year… Continue »
I was all ready to provide another list of ideas this week to follow up on last years blog “Ten Ways to Give Thanks for… Continue »
With the holidays coming, we are all busy planning holiday events and sending holiday emails, but don’t forget that millions of busy little elves are… Continue »
I’ve been doing a fair amount of SEO project lately and the more I learn, the more I realize there is to learn. SEO is… Continue »
This is the second part of a two-part blog on Data Collection Strategies. The premise is that many wineries don’t have an understanding of what… Continue »
I work with a variety of wineries to collect customer data. Most understand why this is important, but few have a documented, or even widely… Continue »
I know I’m old school. I’m not so old that I experienced Mad Men, but I did earn my chops as an Account Executive at… Continue »
Most customer care people will suggest you communicate with customers in the manner to which you were first communicated. This makes sense, as they initially… Continue »
No doubt there are financial pressures being in the wine business. As a winery owner you have put out thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of… Continue »
Sorry, for the long blog post, but, I need to vent. At the risk of being cliché, I feel the need to use my recent… Continue »
We hear a lot about “quality”, “authenticity” and “relevancy” when developing Direct to Consumer strategies. But we also talk a lot about metrics, Google… Continue »
Guest post for WWS about their upcoming Rosé event. I have a confession I am obsessed with Rosé, and have been for some time. Oh, sure,… Continue »
This is a guest blog post I wrote for Vin65 which can also be found here. They just announced a suite of new features for… Continue »
Statistics, and Direct Marketing This week we’ll dive into two of my favorite things and see what kernels of wisdom we can find for ourselves…. Continue »
I haven’t written a blog post in a couple weeks. The reason is… well, my dog died, and I haven’t much felt like writing. Most… Continue »
Another consultant told one of my clients recently that they needed more tofu. Top Of the FUnnel offers, (or TOFU, get it?) are commonly dangled… Continue »
I just got a new credit card in the mail this week. Not because I asked for it, and not because the old one had… Continue »
I had a wonderful time, as usual, at the Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium in San Francisco last week. Blog posts will follow about… Continue »
Selling via an allocation method is commonly associated with the higher-echelon of wineries. But just because we all want our wines to command the demand… Continue »
2012 was heralded by many as the “Year of Customer Service“. Now widely noted the #1 success criteria, many are hyper-focused on getting this area… Continue »
Isn’t this what marketers are supposed to do this time of year? I feel pressured to make predictions…so here it goes. My top 5 are:… Continue »
T’was the day before Christmas when all through the valley all the wineries were cheering an end-of-year rally. This year had been different, from ones… Continue »
Whew, what a year. This has been an interesting year for the wine business. While not exhaustive, let’s look back on some of the key… Continue »
Do you know how Coke got started? Back before big pharmaceutical companies, you’d go to the druggist and get your powdered medicine. And it… Continue »
By now there isn’t much you can do but process holiday orders. Emails should be sent, websites updated, cards mailed. And shortly, sometime about December… Continue »
Typically we gather together in small family and friend groups this week, huddle around the soothing warmth of the television, and drink and eat… Continue »
Social media might be the most helpful customer service tool to come along since the telephone. But nobody wants to run into a ticked off… Continue »
I was having drinks with my friend the other night, and we were griping and venting the ways good friends do, when my friend suddenly… Continue »
Like many fans in the bay area, our baseball teams inspired me this year. The Giants and the A’s did a great job all year… Continue »
Email marketing is a staple among wineries trying to communicate to wine clubs, provide holiday offers and reach new customers. If you’re like most,… Continue »
It is no secret that Direct Marketing has gotten more complicated. Printed communications have given way to digital communications, and digital communications are splintering into… Continue »
The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 166, has designated the first week in October, as “National Customer Service Week” since 1992. When George Bush Sr…. Continue »
It is important to be genuine. I write a lot about customer “engagement”, “authentic” marketing and “touch-point” analyses. This is because a major goal with… Continue »
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger Welcome to Wine Glass Marketing – same services, same experience and same snarky blog. Just a different name…. Continue »
One of the most common questions businesses ask about direct marketing is – how often should we talk to our customers? Controlling the frequency of… Continue »
Social Media is a Communication Channel. CRM is a Strategy. If you’ve read my blog, you’ll realize I am a passionate believer that having an… Continue »
What is Web 2.0? Recently a client asked me to look over their website and provide a subjective audit on what they could do to… Continue »
Segmentation 101 The question of segmentation comes up very frequently, as it should since it is the most important success variable in any direct marketing… Continue »
Whether you work for a small winery or or a large international beverage company, there are certain things that are common among all of us:… Continue »
I’m staying with my Mother in the hospital while she’s getting her knee replaced. I’m exhausted. She’s miserable. So far, according to her, the room… Continue »
Call and Response The responses and subsequent discussion about the now infamous NextGen article “Why Every Social Media Manager Should be Under 25” has been… Continue »
Indians...Indiana, what’s the difference? When my husband and I were in Paris last April, there was a series of chain restaurants called Indiana Café. Friday evening, Continue »
When someone says CRM what do you think of? If you’re in IT or operations you might think of the software that holds your company’s… Continue »
You might be surprised the week before the Wine Industry Technology Forum, or with all my technology background, to hear this statement from me. Of… Continue »
I was struck at the Ship Compliant conference last Thursday how lucky we are in the wine industry to have such a high caliber of… Continue »
I’ve always been a confident person. I can’t help it. I had good parents and decent opportunities to capitalize on so when it gets down… Continue »
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