The Email Blueprint — The Vino Shoppe
This Article centers around a Newsletter I received on December 27th, 2022, from a small local wine store selling wines and other wine related accoutrements.
I visited this small business to pick up some wine for a thanksgiving party I had been invited to and I also signed up to receive their newsletter.
While visiting I observed about 4 to 9 customers, some were there for tasting wine others were shopping. The atmosphere was quiet and tasteful, I was quickly greeted and assisted by the manager who had excellent knowledge of my wine selections.
This is a small business, and I would absolutely consider a plan put down in writing of the objectives one would achieve from a newsletter even if it is the owners doing the marketing it is always a good idea to have a email marketing plan.
Target Audience
The target audience are customers who added their email address the newsletter book during a visit, or one can also sign up through their twitter account by clicking on a newsletter post, although it has not been active since August 28th 2021. I believe this is because there is no plan for the twitter account. There is also a Facebook Group for those who prefer Facebook
Marketing Objectives
For those who do not know the style of email being used, this is considered a “Retention” email with the objective used to maintain customers and keep them returning by expanding their knowledge and taste pallet through the sampling of new wines.
Constant Contact is their primary newsletter service provider, for me it is a bit expensive for beginners I suggest that MailChimp would be better starting out as they have an excellent tools available for beginners and it is free for up to 2500 monthly email sends and 500 email addresses.
I attempted to update to my contact information however there is little to none of actual fields to update other than the typical name and email address information.
Segmentation can be productively used to manage wine inventory which is moving slowly or provide promotional emails such as special offers , targeting only customers who is interested in a specific category of wines and can also be used increase cashflow.
I would ask at a minimum a customers preferred wine i.e. Red, White, Rose, Sparkling, Dessert, Fortified etc. and possibly their specific tastes Sweet, Oaky etc. In my experience many young people start with sweet wines like Moscato's and you can use this as a way to help improve customer relations, inventory management, help customers pick wines for their special occasion by simply gleaning a small bit of information helping improve your relationship with your customers
To maintain the theme of this post I will keep all my suggestions to the wine category.
Developing a weekly/monthly schedule so as to include new additions of wine using twitter is a good tool for this and a good business practice.
Include the Wines name, type of wine and maybe a descriptive flavoring of the wine along with an image of the bottle so people know what they are looking for when visiting the store.
I would define each marketing tool with a brief description of what they would be best used for as there are many tools available i.e., Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and many others.
As a marketing specialist I see these not as applications, but tools used to promote and grow my business, when you see them as tools and understand how to use them the can be a powerful ally in cultivating new customers and retaining current ones.
Many of these tools are free to use so be creative and take advantage of them to make them work for you.
Since The Vino Shoppe already has a twitter account I will begin here with some simple suggestions for usage.
Twitter is a mouthpiece or announcement tool for businesses, following someone will flow their tweets into your feed (be judicious here as you want your feed to be useful for your business) as a wine store I would follow Vineyards, Local restaurants, and Local competitors.
Following vineyards allows you to be first in getting orders in and knowing when things are available.
Following restaurants who often provide wine selections may provide an opportunity for you to be the supplier of their wines, following competitors provides you with an opportunity to see what they are doing in the local market so you can be competitive this might also be a good idea to have them in a Twitter list so you can quickly review your competition.
When tweeting, the tweet flows into a followers feed for them to read, like and share. Sharing provides others to connect with you and follow you which grows your customer base. Just click on your Twitter Icon to see what has been shared and liked.
The Vino Shoppe is promoting their newsletter which suddenly stopped in August. A newsletter is great idea and a start for building interest in your newsletters and your shop. Your newsletters in turn should include links to any and all social media accounts, because not everyone is on twitter.
Noting the likes of your wine posts can help align your inventory and determine popular audience trends. It should not take a lot of your time a quick view of your feed a once per week and the following day especially after an event should provide enough information to get your creative juices flowing.
Instagram is a visual medium and works like Twitter but visually, so think visual when using Instagram.
Instagram is a tool which might be used to promote something such as a Wine tasting i.e., a brief interview of a customer or two with their verbal notes on the selections would provide a good visual for those interested in a wine tasting. Be creative and social.
Tools
Here is a tool called Buffer.com which is reasonably priced for tracking your social media accounts.
The Vino Shoppe SWOT —
Strength Hyper local business which is hyper focused on wines. Good customer service and knowledge of wines.
Weakness Lack of a good quality marketing objectives for their newsletters, social media or Facebook event calendar.
Opportunities Improve Customer relationships, Develop Marketing Objectives for newsletter using Acquisition, Retention and Promotional emails. Improve social media skills.
Threats Loss of interest in newsletters and social media.
