Whether a winery, wine retailer, wine broker or other wine industry organization, marketing is an essential part of your business.

You may not focus on anything and everything that might fall under the term of “marketing”, but be assured, if you have something to sell,  marketing is part of the business. For some it is a major part, for others more of an after thought, but for all a necessity to ensure sales and cash flow.

Social media (sometimes confused with or used interchangeably with Social Marketing) is simply another option at your disposal – another choice within your marketing options such as strategy, branding, and competitive analysis.  Ready to include social media in  your marketing plans?

If you have read some of the more recent white papers from Vintank or Silicon Valley Bank, you are likely thinking about this more seriously than you may have been in the past.

So if you are thinking of including social media as part of your overall marketing strategy, there are certainly a couple of aspects that you need to consider (there are more but these two I believe represent an initial review):

1) Approach

Traditional marketing is direct. Your messages whether in print, mail, advertising, or other, are focused directly on selling. Using social media requires a different approach. Here you are sharing and opening a dialogue with your current or prospective customers. The good news is that unlike some traditional marketing activities, you can be very targeted in reaching your audience. The bad news is that direct selling doesn’t work very well. In fact, it is counterproductive.

To illustrate, think of what goes on in your tasting room (an integral part of your marketing activity).  Here you are engaging current or prospective customers in some kind of dialogue. In some cases that dialogue entails discussion about the winery or the vineyard, in others about processing methods, and in others the wine itself. In some cases it may simply be the weather and how to get to the next winery. 

If the tasting room patron sees the dialogue as positive, it may lead to a direct sale then and there, or it may lead to a sale from a local retailer in the future. The main point is that the positive social aspect of the conversation predisposes this patron to continue to buy or to become a customer of the winery. Social media is simply the ability to have similar “conversations” with a like-minded targeted audience across the web.

2) Cost

There is good and bad news here. The good news is that for once this activity will not adversely effect cash on hand or cash flow. Social media activity is relatively low cost. The bad news is that although it is low cost in dollars (Euros, Pounds, etc.), it is high cost in time and attention. Social media is not a one time activity such as an advertising campaign or winery special offer. It is on going, frequent, and its success is highly dependent upon relevant and interesting content.

So… are you ready for social media? Stay tuned… the next blog will talk about self assessment and how to decide whether making the plunge makes sense, and if yes, how to manuever across the social media landscape.