27 Aug 5 DTC Tasks to Tackle

While the wine making team is busy producing delectable drops in the cellar, your marketing and direct sales teams can concentrate on invigorating the company’s direct-to-consumer activities. Here are 5 DTC Sales Tasks to Tackle to improve your sales.

AS PUBLISHED IN WBM MAR/APR 2019

WORDS ROBIN SHAW AND SANDRA HESS, DIRECT WINE WORKSHOPS AUSTRALIA

1. CLEAN UP YOUR CUSTOMER RECORDS

Whether you use a manual system, Excel spreadsheet, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, or dedicated wine club platform, you need to regularly review, update, and purge your customer records.

• Run a report of all customers by type (members, non-members, first-time customers, etc.) and drill down to identify any inactive customers who haven’t visited or purchased in more than a year. Save this report as your ‘Reactivation Campaign’ list and personally reach out by phone or email to invite them back. Develop a conversion plan based on proximity to your cellar door before reaching out, as you’ll want to target locals and out-of-area customers differently.
• Run a report of all active customer records and identify any duplicates. Your winery POS and CRM software may offer a de-duplicate tool out of the box, otherwise, leverage Excel for this task.
• Determine whether or not you need to update ‘contact types’ based on customer preferences, lifetime value, etc. If you haven’t set up different contact types, now is the time to work out what is most relevant for your business and customers. Train staff to allocate relevant types from a list whenever they create or update a customer record.
• Update missing contact data in customer records for your brand loyalists and club members (email addresses, phone numbers, etc.) to ensure you can contact them easily for promotions and order follow-ups.

2. IDENTIFY YOUR TOP CUSTOMERS AND SCHEDULE AN APPRECIATION EVENT OR PARTY

Many wineries use an ‘A, B, C’ system to identify their most valuable customers, however, this can be misleading. Think about developing a system that clearly reflects their specific value to your business.

• Ensure your system allows you to identify your most valuable customers based on a range of variables, such as lifetime value, repeat visitation, attendance at events, level of influence, etc.
• Pull a list of your top 5-10 percent of customers based on lifetime value. Start with the length of the relationship first and then factor in total revenue invested with your wine brand to determine your top LTV customers.
• Based on the number of top customers identified, develop one or two events and host 40-50 people in an intimate wine brunch or dinner with the winemaking team, family, or winery owners. This should be a ‘customer appreciation event’ with complimentary tickets for a member and guest – not an overt sales pitch.
• Gather one new customer fact or note to add to their profile in your CRM system.
• Identify the ‘influencers’ in your top LTV customer list and note as a contact type in your CRM or customer management system.
• Make it easy for this segment of customers to refer clients, close friends, and VIPs to your Cellar Door manager for a private event or tasting experience.

3. AUDIT AND UPDATE YOUR ONLINE OUTLETS

You might be surprised to discover where your cellar door or wine brands are being promoted online, and that the information is woefully out of date or worse – completely inaccurate.

• Google search the name of your winery, cellar door, winemaker, etc. to review the top results (preferably using a browser that doesn’t already ‘know’ you, or clear your cache before starting your search). Does your official website appear at or near the top of the list? Does your wine brand show up in directories and referral websites? Check specific global sites such as Vivino and see what’s being said about your wines. For directories and referral sites, check whether you need to provide fresh and updated content around contact details, cellar door hours, types of experiences offered, etc.
• Also, check sites such as wine-searcher to see whether your wines are being promoted for sale through third-party outlets without your knowledge (at heavily discounted prices).
• Review the ‘About’ sections of your Facebook, Instagram, and Google pages to ensure content is current and reflects the season.
• Check that your contact details and cellar door hours are correct and current in Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google Reviews. Also, add fresh seasonal images.
• Is your wine brand listed in winery industry websites or directories? Take time to review and provide fresh content as necessary. Some of these are pay-to-play, so check their relevance with your target audience before automatically renewing your listing.

4. EVALUATE YOUR DTC TECHNOLOGIES AND MAKE A WISH LIST

Technology is advancing rapidly, and your customers are likely to be interacting with companies and websites that offer fast and efficient purchasing and enquiry options. From a business perspective, there are also plenty of tech options available to make your day more efficient and produce better outcomes. Make a plan to incorporate new tech in line with your growth strategy and financial capacity. Your wish list might include:

• E-commerce and wine club platforms to manage a growing club that enables greater efficiencies through marketing automation solutions.
• Live-chat facilities associated with your online store, social media, wine club, event bookings, function planning, and reservations. (This is a burgeoning area. Forrester Research indicates that 63 percent of customers are likely to return to a website that offers live chat versus one that doesn’t).
• Reservation software linked to live inventory to better manage your resources, enhance the customer experience, and enable instant bookings.
• Mobile POS to allow your staff to service customers during their experience rather than requiring them to visit a separate sales area.
• Mapping your customer journey using dedicated software to develop workflows that will impact how new customers move through your sales and engagement channels.
• Online collaboration tools such as Slack and Zoom for connecting and communicating with your teams, and Evernote for recording notes and prioritizing tasks.
• Integrated time management tools to assist in scheduling meetings more efficiently, such as Calendly, and task automation software such as Zapier.
• Investing in social media management tools such as Hootsuite, Sendible, or Sprout Social to help you schedule, engage, and report quickly and efficiently using interactive dashboards.

5. REFRESH YOUR BRAND STORY

We’re not talking re-branding here – this is about ensuring your company messages resonate with your existing brand.

• Your story is your story, however, the way you communicate on different platforms – online, in-person, and in print media – may need to be reviewed to ensure your messages resonate with each audience and are relayed in your distinct voice.
• Your online audit of owned and third-party sites may have revealed conflicted messages, and design assets. Update anything that is off-brand.
• While consistency is important, you don’t want all your platforms sounding exactly the same, because they are for different audiences. Ensure you and your staff communicate like a person and never use ‘cut and paste’ messages. Instead, create a template of language styles your team can readily access and use at their discretion.
• Consider a mid-year campaign with a unique spin on a specific part of your business that will refresh your image across different platforms.
• Make sure your entire team is on the same page: skilled mystery shoppers can evaluate how well your front-line staff communicate your brand message at the cellar door, on the phone, and online.
• Attract a new audience by launching or expanding an online social media campaign.
• Differentiate with a new gallery of professional photographs to accompany your refreshed messages.
• We encourage you to carve out some time with your direct sales, marketing, and hospitality teams to review these five tips together and formulate a plan to engage more meaningfully with your customers.

Robin Shaw, Wine Tourism Australia, designs comprehensive wine training programs to assist winery teams in establishing and growing DTC sales. Contact robin@winetourismaustralia.com.au for more information on cellar door and direct-to-consumer wine sales and marketing services.