The annual Spring Release celebrations are fast approaching for Washington wineries and with it the beginning of what I call, "winery season."  Winery season is when the weather is nice enough here in the Pacific Northwest that people are encouraged to get out of the house, take a long weekend and spend a few days travelling through the various winery regions here in the state.  It is the time when small wineries move the majority of their inventory through their tasting rooms.  In this economic environment, more than ever before, the success of a small winery's tasting room is going to depend upon how well the winery is communicating with its audience.

Dollars are tight and the first quarter of 2009 is proving that, at least here, people are still buying wine but they are buying it at lower price points.  What this means to the small, premium winery is that you need to get creative and vocal in order to keep moving those bottles at $30 and higher.  Your first order of business is segment your lists and start communicating today.

Why Segment Your Lists?

If you don't have different levels within your club already (and even if you do), you need to take a look at the purchasing history of your customers and break them down into some easily recognizable categories:

• Avg sale over/under $100
• Frequency of sale more-or-less than once a quarter
• Online purchase vs. Tasting Room vs. Club
  • Hopefully most of your customers come up under all three & that's why you need the other two categories

Create different offers for each group and send them out to your different segments.  This is a great way to do two different things at once; identify your highest lifetime value customers and test your offers & audience for uptake.

Offers? We don't need no stinking offers!

This may be true - if you are Cayuse or Leonetti, you've long sold out and really don't need to worry about the economic reality of this market.  If you aren't, then you may want to consider some creative ways to stand out among the now more than 600 wineries in the state, not to mention the growing industries in our immediate neighbors of BC, Oregon and Idaho.  It is crowded and loud out there, folks, what are you going to put forward to make someone spend their wine budget with you instead of the other guy/gal?

Now is the time to get your offers together and gear up your TR staff to be ready to present them when someone is ready to either buy or walk out of your tasting room this coming Spring Release weekend.  Maybe in your emails you sent out to your segmented list, you included coupons or perhaps you are going to do a little something to encourage greater sign up for your club.  Whatever it is, get it defined and budgeted now then make sure that everyone working your TR knows the plan and can execute without holding up the cash register or the bar.

Sustain Your Spring Release Success!

List segmented, offers defined, budgeted and in place, staff trained - you're ready for SR weekend.  Good!  So what are you going to do after the weekend is over and you need to ensure a steady stream of people coming through the doors or to the website?  May I suggest that you proactively communicate to the people who visit you?  There are some wineries that do this pretty well.  Efeste and Januik are two that have pretty good event email that is consistent in form and timing.  There are others that are less consistent and then there are some that I have never heard from regardless of the fact that I dutifully filled out the guest book and even bought more than $200 of wine during my visit.

It should start with something as simple as a "Thank You."  A simple email to the people who sign your guest book to say thank you for coming in and if you either have the time or staff specifically mentioning the wines they purchased with either a recommendation for another or perhaps an offer to order online within the next month would go a long way.  First, everyone likes to be told, "Thank you."  Second, wineries should take a lesson from the most sophisticated direct marketers, catalogs - someone who just bought something from you and is satisfied with their purchase is most likely to buy again within the first 3 months of their initial purchase.  Don't miss that opportunity!  Stay on top of the activity and proactively pursue your customers.  You will be gratified at the response and your customers will be grateful for the attention.

Washington Wineries - Springing into Action!