Email marketing remains the #1 way to increase sales. Building an email list should be a top priority for wineries.
An email can remind winery customers what they’re missing, long after they leave your winery. It can invite your visitors back. It can inspire your fans to go buy that favorite bottle again or join your wine club or sign up for a winery event
To increase your conversion rates, you should be focused on driving targeted consumers to your site, which happens mostly through email marketing.
MailChimp Basics
The MailChimp DashboardCalls to action can be a huge driver for email – often it may be the email’s only purpose, to get readers to perform a task.
For wineries, a good call to action should be persuasive and compelling. It should also be more descriptive than “click here”.
We recommend using command verbs to make it clear just what clicking a link or button will lead to:
- Read More on The Blog
- Order Wine Now
- Join Our Wine Club
Create Buttons for Your Primary Actions in an email.
Buttons should be used for primary actions in an email. They’re the best way to define an item that requires reader action. They’re attention-grabbing and prominent:
(add a graphic of a Join Our Wine Club button)
We recommend using large, thumb-tappable buttons for your calls to action. A button should be considered your ace-in-the-hole!
Use your Website to Collect Email Addresses
We recommend creating a place above the fold on every page of your website where people can subscribe to your newsletter. MailChimp’s home page does a great job placing the calls to action, Sign Up Free above the fold.
Why I love MailChimp for Winery Email Campaigns
For winery’s that run an e-commerce business, MailChimp’s email marketing service can track your sales from the first URL click in your email campaign all the way to purchase. Pretty awesome!
Below, I have provided some very compelling reasons why we recommend using MailChimp for your winery email campaigns:
Set Goals and See your ROI
MailChimp’s Analytics360 module enables you to set goals and see your progression. This report also shows you the revenue your campaign has created and your return on investment.
Create Gorgeous Winery Branded Campaigns
With MailChimp, you can create gorgeous branded campaigns. You can match your MailChimp colors and styles to your winery’s branding. You can even insert regularly used images or recurring content into your template.
Here is an example of a Valentines gifting campaign we designed for Stag’s Hollow Winery:
Custom Displays
MailChimp automatically selects the most popular email clients from the subscriber’s list and displays exactly what the campaign will look like for each person.
Segment Your Winery Mail List to Reach Your Best Customers and Prospects
Every winery needs a satisfied list of buying customers that have history, and buys frequently over their lifetime and spends money. The way to wealth is keeping this group of customers coming back and finding ways to ups-sell and cross-sell.
MailChimp allows you to segment your winery mail list- it gives you the tools to segment your list by any and every criteria you can think of. For example, many wineries segment their list by Wine Club members, best customers and prospects. The most important aspect of your mailing list is that it is created from individuals who know you and who you know. A mailing list builds from people who visit your website, your Facebook page, your Tasting Room or your table at an event.
Personalize Your Campaigns
MailChimp gives you the ability to include the recipient’s first name. You can add a personal touch to your subject lines by including the recipient’s name. This can positively impact campaigns.
Mobile-Optimized Templates
MailChimp offers mobile optimized templates that allow subscribers to access email campaigns while on the go- key for your mobile on the go customers.
Social Media
MailChimp integrates with Facebook and you can have email subscription as part of your Fan page.
MailChimp makes it easy to share your email across social networks with one click in your campaign dashboard. Connect MailChimp to your Twitter and Facebook.
Share your campaigns on Social Networks.
MailChimp makes it easy to share your email across social networks with one click in your campaign dashboard.
Here’s a nice example of a MailChimp customer (T in the Park) using the new social sharing links in their email newsletter footer:
Subscriber list Cleaning
Your subscriber list is automatically cleaned when an email bounces.
Great Analytics
MailChimp provides you with really great analytics for each “send”.
With MailChimp Analytics:
• You can see how many subscribers have opened and read your email.
• You can monitor sales, subscription growth, click maps, location information, social interaction etc.
• You can see who received the email, when they opened it, the exact links they clicked on, who bounced the email or who didn’t open it, who forwarded it.
And best of all, MailChimp’s analytics integrate with Google Analytics
Use Split Testing to see which message sells well
Great subject lines are critical for every MailChimp marketing campaign. Subject lines are the first thing users see when they check their inboxes, and they can make all the difference as to whether a message gets read or deleted.
It’s why marketers spend a great deal of resources testing, tweaking, and analyzing their subject lines.
When you want to learn if one message sells well, or if another message sells better, MailChimp gives you the ability to do split testing.
We recommend keeping your subject lines short and snappy to pack more punch.
Remember to factor in the demographic information of your winery’s subscribers, as well as what makes sense to your emails in the first place.
With the right subject lines to compel recipients to read on, a MailChimp email campaign can be an incredibly valuable tool for wineries.
Clos Du Soleil Winery MailChimp Newsletter Examples
We want to share some best practice MailChimp campaigns:
This is a campaign for creating a sense of urgency to join the wine club.
10 Email Marketing Ideas for 2014
To make sure you get people interested, you need to come up with really enticing deals, such as shipping discounts, specials for people who sign up in the first month, details of a private winery tour and more.
Once you have an opted in list of email subscribers, you’ll need some creative ideas to spark your customers’ memories and bring them back for more.
• Wine Club Benefits
• Pairings and Recipes
• New Releases
• Winery Events
• Seasonal Gifts
• New Releases
• Rate Your Wines
• Sustainability Initiatives
• Community Initiatives
• Videos
We want to touch on why we love videos in MailChimp campaigns:
• Videos provide an up close and personal view and allow you to show off your winery and take people behind the scenes even when your winery is closed.
• Videos also let you share even more content than the typical email can hold.
• Use video for educational demonstrations, “meet our team” introductions and sweeping panoramas of your estate that call visitors back.
• Post them to YouTube and link to them with a clickable screenshots in your MailChimp campaigns.
Talk to us about creating winning branded MailChimp email campaigns for your winery:
• Building a top quality and clean mailing list.
• Creating gorgeous branded campaigns to promote your winery.
• Developing a compelling offers and videos.
• Increasing open rates and conversions.
Here’s a tip you can use right away. You’ll have vastly better open rates in your emails in 20 minutes by following these three simple steps:
• Keep your subject line short and snappy
Come back here and tell us about the before-and-after. I bet you’ll have something to say!
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