May started off with beautiful weather and lots of consumer wine events. In the rush of doing so many things year-round, it’s important for wineries to remember event best practices. Let’s start with the 3 reasons we do onsite and offsite events: Sell wine, Sell club memberships, Secure new emails. Are you comfortable asking consumers to purchase? Let’s be certain your associates are too. How about justifying the wine club commitment? How is yours different? Take ‘the teeth’ out of your wine club applications, and make it easy and fun for consumers to join you. How about securing emails? Are you still using a lined pad? Since real estate on tables provided by events is shrinking (I’m now seeing wineries share 8 foot tables), go to a simple 4”X6” tear off pad format to capture: Names, Email address and “How did you hear about us?”. The last piece of information helps you track back to referral sources and media effectiveness. It also alerts you to what winery stories to tell, and what promotional info to provide your audience when you invite them to visit your tasting room, the ultimate reason we do these events in the first place.
Turning Wine into Publicity