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Is Your Winery Marketing Plan Ready for the Holiday Season?

We often sweep it under the rug when we hear that the holiday rush is around the corner. “Holidays!? I have more important campaigns to run before then!” As much as many choose to ignore it, as a wine marketing agency, we know that the wineries that see the greatest success around the festive season are those who plan their strategy and incentives 3 to 6 months in advance. Digital marketing for wineries is highly competitive, here’s some expert advice if you’re a winery looking to double down on your holiday marketing strategy. PS: This isn’t just a roundup of ideas for incentives and stocking fillers.

Last minute holiday shoppers make up nearly 30% of online holiday sales. That means 70% are better prepared and are making their gift decisions before the holiday rush. The question is, which shoppers are you looking to sell to? Targeting motivated holiday shoppers requires you to be ahead of the rest. Here’s when you should be starting your holiday initiatives, and sorry to say but the sleigh has left the station on a couple of these online marketing strategies.

Track Your Traffic

Understanding your customer’s buying journey is important if you manage a tight winery marketing budget. Tools such as Google Console can help you understand where your existing customers are visiting your website from. Are your year-round shoppers arriving at your store from Direct Search? Google? Social Media? Ads Campaign? Double down on your highest converting shopper journey and you’re sure to increase leads in the lead up to the holidays.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you’re looking to build organic search traffic with SEO for the coming holiday season, it might be too late. That is unless you already have a strong SEO and content strategy driving domain authority. Many of the best wine websites commence their SEO strategies 6, even 12-months out, to bolster their position on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and establish high-quality domain authority well ahead of shopping season. Wineries that plan in advance are the ones to capitalize on the 70% of early bird shoppers. Any of the best wine marketing companies in Napa will help you develop a detailed keyword strategy to attract your target holiday clientele. Speak to yours today.

Winery Advertising

Late to the holiday party? It’s okay! Remember 30% of online shoppers don’t tick off their gift list until the last minute. Winery advertising is the best means of highly converting, short term traffic. Our wine marketing agency works with clients year-round to run profitable search and social media advertising campaigns. If you know your target audience, we can ensure your promotion reaches their wish list even weeks before gift giving season.

Gift Buying Incentives

We couldn’t get in the spirit of gift giving without giving you some festive incentives to help nurture your wine buyer’s holiday gift decisions. As a wine marketing agency, we’ve seen a gamut of gift giving ideas and one of the most successful is Free, Low Cost or Free Upgraded Priority Shipping. Hint: Last minute shoppers love priority (1 or 2-day) shipping upgrades. Take the stress out of gift giving with expedited shipping on qualifying purchases.

Locally Curated Gift Sets

Ho, ho, ho, here’s some honest holiday marketing advice! Consider a cross promotion with another local small business. Send your wine customers a taste of Napa and Sonoma with a hand selected assortment of locally made small goods. One such example of holiday sales success is that of Handwritten Wines collaboration with Kollar Chocolates in Yountville. Who doesn’t love an artisan spice rub, together with a local chef’s turkey brine or rib eye roast recipe? Sign me up!

Updated Holiday Media Library

Digital marketing for wineries is multi-faceted and our wine marketing agency is here to help you get ahead. Some parting words would be to get your new releases, gift collections and holiday hampers photographed ahead of time for all of your social media, website and email marketing needs. Shoppers will be bombarded soon enough, be sure to stand out with the most compelling content, innovative offerings and smart wine marketing solutions.