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My Message: Outsourcing is the next wave of marketing
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Social Media: Facebook Invites
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Still trying to do it all?
Most wineries are small, family owned and operated businesses. These winery owners are passionate about their businesses and they want to do everything right, or at least as affordably as possible. Often, the latter means doing everything by themselves, recruiting friends and family, and sometimes hiring inexpensive help that probably lacks valuable wine industry knowledge and experience.
Most of these wineries are not in a position to hire a full time manager/director of marketing and communication; often, they lump the work of national sales, marketing and communications into one job (and often they are doing that job themselves!). Somewhere along the line, however, important work will fall through the cracks - the kind of work associated with boosting your sales, customer loyalty and overall brand perception in this very competitive market.
Wineries are learning, sometimes the hard way, that they need help.
Today, more and more wine businesses are looking to outsource marketing and communication work in order to improve sales, customer loyalty and overall brand perception, thus, avoiding the unnecessary expense of hiring another full time employee. And, that way, the sales employee who might otherwise absorb the marketing and communication responsibilities, can better focus on their most important job function - sales.
According to AllBusiness.com, outsourcing allows small businesses to control capital costs, increase efficiency, reduce labor costs, start new projects quickly, focus on your core business, level the playing field and reduce risk.
Outsourcing marketing and communication projects helps wineries take their businesses to the next level by doing a better job at engaging trade, media and consumers - at a fraction of the cost associated with adding more staff.
Are you ready for help?
Contact me for a consultation and let's explore how we can improve the impression you make on trade, media and consumers.
Cheers!
Leah
About Leah:
Leah Jorgensen offers marketing and communication solutions for small to mid-sized wineries in the Pacific Northwest. Jorgensen is a communications expert who has worked in the wine industry for a decade. She previously worked as the Director of Marketing & Communication at Adelsheim Vineyard, Communications Manager at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates (working specifically with luxury brands, including Erath Winery, Northstar, Spring Valley Vineyard and Col Solare), and National Sales & Marketing Specialist at Erath Vineyards. Jorgensen served as a founding board member for the Dundee Hills Winegrowers Association and on the Marketing Committee for the Chehalem Mountains Winegrowers Association. She co-produces the Best of Oregon Food & Wine Festival. She founded comPASSION for Wine as a conduit for scheduling wine industry related events to benefit Portland-area non-profit programs and organizations. Jorgensen specializes in helping wineries tell their unique stories by way of storyboarding and brand development, collateral design, label/packaging, website analysis and maintenance, social media, event planning, press kit development, writing press releases, media pitching strategies and mindful media sampling. Leah is also a freelance writer covering travel, wine and gluten-free living.
Visit her website at www.leahjorgensen.com.
MARKETING 101: Marketing Still Matters
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I have been invited to more winery events this year than
ever - and I've been invited by way of Facebook.
Smart wineries are utilizing social media to draw in consumers and, in the process, are engaging fans to come out to the tasting room, attend events, join the wine club, and purchase wine both online and out in the market.
In Wine Business Monthly's August issue, Pamela Personette reported in her article, Rapport is the Core, "the economy is down, but you don't have to be. Build relationships with tasting room customers, and you'll sell more wine."
If you aren't using social media like Facebook and Twitter to help build relationships with your local customers, you're foregoing valuable opportunities to maintain rapport.
Social Media:
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Connects you with new fans
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Develops relationships with existing fans
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Drives more traffic to your website
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Increases wine sales
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Is FREE marketing that reaches thousands
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Plus, you can choose to advertise to increase your target audience
If you are not already on Facebook and Twitter, you're already several steps behind the curve.
Still not convinced? Read "Wineries Tap Twittermania" from Wine Business Monthly.
CREATE YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT
CREATE YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT
Don't have time or feel intimidated by setting up and maintaining your social media accounts?
This may be the perfect occasion
for you to outsource!
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| Postcards From the Road...Vineyard...Winery... |
comPASSION FOR WINE |
Communication: Editorial Vs. Advertising
Most wineries do not have excellent media lists. What is a media list? Well, it's a catalog of contact information for important lifestyle, travel, food and wine writers who you should know or get to know. And it's not just the obvious ones. There's a host of freelance writers out there who could be writing about your winery in different corners of the state, country or world.
If you don't have access to these writers, don't fret. If you belong to one or more AVA winegrower's associations, you will automatically get partial exposure. Trouble is, so are all of your neighbors. Chances are, you won't necessarily get featured in an article simply by belonging to an AVA.
Why is it important to reach different tiers of writers? Because editorial sells more wine than advertising. Period. You can spend boucoup bucks on a print ad and still not get near the leverage as having your wines and wine business featured in a story in a regional magazine or newspaper. People are more likely to remember your wine after someone else writes about it versus your own efforts in creating an ad to create your own splash.
This doesn't mean you don't need to advertise. You just need to be smart about where and why you advertise. Supporting your local wine publications is a good reason, since they are driving business to you and the region.
Not sure how to build a strong communications and public relations program?
Once again, you can outsource! Here's what I can offer:
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A clean, presentable press kit that matches your other brand collateral materials
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Expertly written press releases to engage the media
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Constant media pitching to invite writers to taste your wines, visit your winery, meet you for lunch, etc.
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Mindful media sampling, so that you're not sending your wines out to just anybody for a review that really won't influence perception of your brand or wine sales.
Get your communications program started today. Contact me for a consultation.
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Stay tuned for the first event!
I will announce soon the first event to benefit a program that supports crisis, at-risk children in the
Portland public school system, with professional counseling and services. Because of this program, many of these children, who would otherwise drop out before completing high school, thrive and go on to earn higher degrees and/or professional training. And, most importantly, they transition to live happy, healthy and balanced lives.
The comPASSION FOR WINE blog site will be the vehicle for announcing wine related events that will benefit small, barely-known non-profit programs and organizations in desperate need of funding.
The kinds of organizations I'll be targeting would be thrilled to raise just $500 in order to further operate small projects and endeavors that will make a huge difference in the lives of others and in our community.
How does it work? comPASSION FOR WINE will simply set up a wine related happy hour or event at a local wine destination (winery, wine bar, etc.), and then promote the event. The non-profit will collect a suggested donation at the door. Patrons can then pay for a special flight or other themed tasting led by a wine maker or wine business professional.
Interested in being a featured winery?
Contact me at leah.jorgensen@live.com.
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