Attracting people to your tasting room isn’t all that hard! But… Attracting the “right” kind of people… you know, the ones who will appreciate the experience and actually end up buying your wine… That’s a whole different story.

Sure, you could pack the house every day by giving away free booze and pizza but you’d probably spend most of your time scrubbing puke off the floor while you slowly go bankrupt. So how do you strike a balance between attracting the masses, maintaining a good environment and still selling a ton wine?

Here at the Winery Guild we’ve come up with a process that we think solves the problem quite nicely. We wanted an elegant, sophisticated name that quickly tells you exactly what the process does. So of course… We called it:

1. The “Right Kind” of People.

Attracting the people who will really appreciate (and pay for) your wine is the secret to this whole process. Here’s how we do it.

Tell your story. Your customers want to know what makes you unique. They want to know what kind of a cool experience they’ll get if they come visit you. Don’t be fake. Tell them about your struggles and the reasons you do what you do. Give them a taste of what it’s like to be part of your winery and the “right kind of people” will end up wanting more.

Put it online where it’s easy to find. Every day there are thousands of people searching for wineries right in in your area. Make sure to SEO optimize so that when they search for “wineries in San Diego” you are the one they find.

Share it with everyone. Seriously! Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. All great places to get a lot of free publicity. Especially if you can get someone with a huge following to promote it for you. This may not be the most targeted approach but if your message is focused on the things that make your winery unique you’ll capture the attention of the people you want.

Advertise, advertise, advertise! Search engine optimization and social marketing are great but it can take a lot of time to build up momentum. If you want a shot in the arm that will give you results immediately you should be paying for advertising especially since you can target people who are already right in your area.

2. Customers For Life.

Once you’ve told your story to someone who is actively looking for a winery in your area and they want to learn more… the next step is getting them to come visit you and then giving them such an awesome experience they’ll absolutely have to write home to mom about it. We start with…

Make an offer they can’t refuse. And NO! I don’t want you to threaten them… I just want you to bribe them. This may sound like it’s totally contrary to what I’ve been saying so far but hear me out. If you could have all the benefits that come along with giving away free booze ( unlimited new visitors ) without all the downsides (passed out college students, bankruptcy, etc.) would you do it? Here’s how.

First, you’re already talking to someone who connected with your story and wants more. But you can really light a fire under and get a lot more people to come taste your wine by limiting your bribe to only include “the right kind of people” and create an even deeper connection with your ideal customers.

Example: If you’re a pet friendly winery you could offer free wine tastings to anyone who brings in their dog. Or… a winery for bikers could do the same thing for anyone who comes in with a fresh tattoo. I could go on for days but the point is, figure out what kind of people you’re targeting and give them a great deal that makes them feel special and prompts them to get up off their couch and come visit you, right now!

Give em’ an experience they’ll never forget because even the most ideal client in the world will be totally useless if they don’t enjoy their time with you, or if you treat them poorly, or even just have a different experience than they were promised. The point is you want them to have a great time. If they do they’ll forever associate the taste of your wine with having a great time. Which is perfect because you want them buying a bottle (or two, or three, or twelve) then taking it home and sharing it with their friends while telling them all about how much fun they had.

Turn em’ into customers. There’s not a whole lot for me to say here. You’re the expert on selling your wine. But everything we’ve talked about so far should tend to make it easier for you to do more of what you’re already doing. Selling wine! So just go out there, show your new visitors a great time and do what you do best.

3. Repeat Buyers.

The really cool thing about selling wine is… It’s a consumable. Which means your customers are going to keep buying more, and more and more. The only question is, are they going to buy it from you?

After spending all the time, energy and money getting a new customer, you’re not going to be satisfied selling them one or two measly bottles are you? Especially if you’re only making $15-30 per bottle. It’s hard to make a profit and grow your business with such a low lifetime customer value.

But the good news is, you’ve already done all of the hard work. From this point forward it’s easy money. Here’s how we turn a one time buyer into a lifelong customer.

Staying in touch is extremely important whether by mail, email, phone or just on facebook you want to make sure you have a way to reach out to them after they leave your winery. Use the opportunity to deepen your relationship, and make sure they don’t forget about you.

It doesn’t have to be hard either. Little things like posting harvest pictures on Instagram or private messaging them on their birthday can go a long way.

Make it easy to buy online. It’s never been so simple to set up an online wine store. With modern day merchant services and shopping carts you could be taking orders tomorrow and if you’re worried about shipping regulations there are reputable solutions out there that’ll help keep you in compliance.

Also… There are proven, well accepted standards you can follow to protect your wine in transit and make sure it arrives in perfect condition to your customers.

The easiest sale you’ll ever make is to someone who already knows they love your wine. Allowing your customers to order online enables them to continue buying from you (even if they never return to your winery) and it opens the doors to a huge market of customers who won’t ever be able to visit you.

Which means not only have you multiplied your tasting room sales you’ve also opened a new revenue channel that could rival your current stream of income.

This may sound like it’s all rainbows and butterflies but…

The problem is, there are a TON of moving parts here.

Creating content that tells your story and captures your customer’s attention, running ad campaigns, managing social media accounts, developing an online store and then staying in touch with customers so they continue buying from you takes a lot of money, time and expertise.

These are full time jobs… and we (The Winery Guild) want to help.

Although we can help you with this entire process we’d really like to start by featuring you on our show.

That will give us an opportunity to really understand your business and introduce you to our audience. If that goes well, then we can discuss other ways we can discuss other ways to attract even more customers to your winery.

To get on the show all you need to do is send an email to kevin@wineryguild.com. Tell me your interested in having your winery featured on our show and then we can schedule a time to get a on the phone and chat.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers.