Leeann Froese
One way to attract visitors, build awareness for your brand, and make sales is to hold an event at your winery.
You want to host an occurrence that's going to be exciting and will attract lots of bodies to your cellar door. These can be events where people pay a fee and they get an experience, or it can be something free and there will be wine for sale while people are on site.
Objectives for holding an event at the winery are both to attract newcomers and retain existing customers. People who have never heard of the winery before become inclined to explore it and taste the wines. Others who already know and love your wine will come together for a celebration and feel closer aligned with your brand as they enjoy this entertaining experience.
We will start with the simplest idea, which is when people come to the winery for the kind of visitor’s experience that you give them. Do you offer tours of your production facility or the farm property? Are there opportunities for hands-on experience? Allowing people to get a peek at your production and what you do helps them understand that you are working hard for your finished product. In turn, they have a greater appreciation for your wine.
Another idea is to hold a fundraiser at your winery for your charity of choice. Have people pay a fee or make a donation to attend and offer them some wine and cheese or a few prizes such as one of your winery T-shirts. Fundraisers are a win-win for everyone involved: the people attending feel good about where they're putting their money because it's supporting a cause, you get people into your winery to see you and ideally become a customer, and the charity that you choose benefits from your support and donation.
Throughout the year, themed parties are always a favourite. Every season offers some fun reasons to get together and dress up. From the Academy Awards in the winter, to a cupid’s ball, or an Easter themed spring social to a harvest party or Halloween bash.
For a more informative event, you can invite outside experts to your winery to give some sort of talk or presentation. This is an Age of Celebrity, so a well-known expert can attract and engage customers at the winery.
Hold a seminar. This is a classic way to get people to taste your wine while entertaining them. You can have a formal, instructional-tutored or guided tasting led by your winemaking team or maybe a guest sommelier. You can present your story and a select lineup of your products and then offer a purchase discount to those that attended.
To really get people excited, host a private concert with a regional band, exclusive movie showing, a VIP section at an existing community event, etc. A memorable experience is worth the effort.
Other than hosting your own event, you can attach yourself to something else happening in your community such as a bike race, a marathon, or a convention. Partner up with the organizers of the other events and get them to offer the attendees a free tasting coupon or a discount on case purchases.
In order to pull off an event, you need someone with the skill who understands logistics and can see the event through from the planning phase until the end, including the promotional aspect. You can’t put together an event and just expect people to show up. To help spread the word about your event, you can work with your publicist, your social media expert, or purchase advertising in print, online or on the radio in order to drive traffic to the event. The bonus of the PR and advertising is you reel in all kinds of people, even those who can’t make it to the event.
The kind of skills required to put on an event is someone who is organized, detail-oriented and able to coordinate things in a calm manner. They should know how to budget so they know how to make sure that the cost of the tickets covers the cost of any rentals, wine poured and staff that is going to work the event.
These are just a few ideas - what do you think? Have I missed any ideas that have been successful for you in getting audiences engaged and attracting them into the winery?
Leeann Froese owns Vancouver-based Town Hall Brands – a full service marketing agency that specializes in wine, food, and hospitality. See Leeann’s work at townhallbrands.com or follow online at @townhallbrands
