Archive for the ‘How-To Marketing for Wine Shops’ Category

The key to selling more wine is to not always be all about selling wine. Engage your audience on another level and you’ll get more of their attention. [level-members] Make interesting and useful recommendations and you’ll create a more devoted following. Like, for example, recommendations about setting up a home bar.  Remember that for a […]

Wine snobs are insufferable. The trick to teaching people how not to be wine snobs is to not teach them at all. [level-members] As I read this humorous take on wine snobbery – and learning to become a wine snob – I realized how little time most of us devote to educating our wine shop […]

Zinfandel has long been one of our favorite summer wines to accompany grilled meals. Some thoughts on marketing built around summer activities rather than selling wine. [level-members] You want to sell wine, of course, but the best way to do that often isn’t to be all sales-y. It’s to paint a picture, spark an idea, […]

If it’s just to sell more wine, you’re probably not going to attract a lot of of customers who are shopping for anything other than price and convenience. [level-members] But if you have a deeper story to tell, you can create an emotional connection with your potential customers that will not only draw them into […]

Nobody likes to feel stupid, so it can be a challenge to educate your wine shop audience, though the benefits are great enough that it’s worth the effort to do it right. [level-members] This recent article, The Beginner’s Guide to Natural Wine, is an excellent example. It’s precisely because there are “shifting definitions and no […]

Most of your wine shop clients are likely to have heard of vertical tastings, but few will have heard of diagonal tastings. That’s because I just made them up. (I think) [level-members] Actually, I’m sure someone else must have had the same idea already, since it’s hardly rocket science. The concept is simple: take a […]

Repeat business is the holy grail in nearly all industries and wine shops are no different. Here’s one way to build it. [level-members] Forget about trophy wines! Sure, you should stock some truly great wines in your shop, no matter how small or how rare the sale, but your focus should be on the wines that […]

Sure, we’d all love to sell big ticket wines and nothing but. Roughly the same amount of effort, but more gross profit. But not everyone can afford those wines, so having a way to appeal to “the other 99%” is an important part of your wine shop marketing. [level-members] As a geek, this brings to […]

Think that wine and social media channels like Instagram are too different to work well together? At least one Bordeaux winery is proving that idea wrong. [level-members] Sure, the image of Bordeaux drinkers differs greatly from the stereotype of, say, cat-loving, filter-using Instagrammers, but there’s enough overlap that Chateau Darius is seeing great results from […]

Are there wines you think changed the way the world drinks? Wines that changed the way you drink? You can market around either. [level-members] Granted, you’re not going to market a whole lot around the 1764 Ruinart Rosé Champagne, which is likely out of stock at your local distributor … but this Food & Wine article […]