eMarketing Your Wine BusinessRob StokesQuirk eMarketing

The 1973 Paris Tasting

The vast majority of wine is not sold because it tastes good. It sells because it has a story.

Internet and eMarketing create a unique opportunity to connect with more people with whom you can share your story

eMarketing:The process of marketing through a digital medium

It all starts with a website

A hub to drive traffic to

A medium through which you can communicate and build a relationship with your audience

But it can’t just be any old website

You MUST create an experience

The internet can help you achieve this like never before

But you need to adjust your mindset to embrace it

Websites are no longer just brochures

They should be built to attract, convert and retain customers

Tourism websites have only 11 seconds to capture the customer on their website or risk them getting bored and going elsewhereTravelmole 2008

Is your website THAT good?

Our web development priorities

1. Usability and conversion oriented design

Design sites for your users above all else

Make sure they can find what they want quickly and easily

Drive them towards YOUR desired goals

Copy style:

Allow the reader to get the gist of your message in a few seconds by merely scanning the page

Pyramid style writing

Break up text with bolding, bullets, highlighting, crossheads and contextual interlinking

Have consistent Calls to Action

Don’t make them think…

Tell people to take the exact action you want them to perform in order to get the best response

What not to do:

Don’t resize windows or launch your site in a pop up

No “splash” pages

Don’t build flash sites unless you have a VERY good reason to. Rather use flash elements within a page where relevant to illustrate a point

Keep navigation basic, consistent and standardised

Don’t distract users with Christmas treesblinking imagesflashing lights automatic sound scrolling text unusual fonts

blinking images

flashing lights

automatic sound

scrolling text

unusual fonts

Using Personas: critical for large sites

2. Search Engine Friendliness

1 Billion searches each day

Either your business is there, or your competitors’ is –> you choose

Primary goal is for your site to be fully indexable and optimised around a set of well researched key phrases

SEO Considerations for your siteThe age of the domainLinks to the domainKey phrases in URLsAdd regular fresh content Text navigation is better than imagesOffer RSS feeds (AND RSS to email)Well indexedBe remarkable - make your site a resource!XML sitemap

The age of the domain

Links to the domain

Key phrases in URLs

Add regular fresh content

Text navigation is better than images

Offer RSS feeds (AND RSS to email)

Well indexed

Be remarkable - make your site a resource!

XML sitemap

Blend 2 or 3 carefully chosen key phrases into a minimum of 250 words on each page

3. Look and Feel

Very important, BUT the least important consideration in web development

That doesn’t mean ugly sites are OK

Sites must look professional and demonstrate your credibility...

If these two goals are met, the user will be satisfied.

Remember, they are looking to achieve a goal – not look at a piece of artwork.

Credibility items:

Social proof: subtly show that you are a substantive organisation

Prominently display phone numbers and addresses

Make it easy for them to contact you!

Real testimonials on each page

Show the people behind the organisation

Logos of association or awards

Keep the content fresh and updated

Monitoring your website’s performance

Firstly set up Google Analytics Its really good, easy to set up and FREE

Top stats to keep an eye on

Above all else, conversion rates!

Unique users

Bounce rate

Pages per user

Time spent on site

Traffic Sources

OK, now we have a site that looks good and hopefully converts its visitors, but how do we get these visitors?

There are many options, but the most important is…

Search Engines

Google is by far the largest player…67%12%8%

Lots of volume, but why is this important?

Searchers are looking for the wine experience you are promoting

They WANT to find you!

So how do we make sure we are found?

Search Engine Marketing

SEM = SEO + PPCPaid vs. Organic

You don’t need to be a guru to get the basics

Firstly make sure you select the right keywords

Select keywords based on the following:Search VolumeCompetitionPropensity to convertPotential value per conversion

Search Volume

Competition

Propensity to convert

Potential value per conversion

A few keyword selection tools…

SEO Bookhttp://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/KW Discoveryhttp://www.keyworddiscovery.comDigital Pointhttp://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestionWord Trackerhttp://www.wordtracker.com/Adwordshttps://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Then decide where you want to be…

Search Engine Optimisation

Make sure your site is optimised around your keywords

Then build plenty of high quality, keyword rich links

And this isn’t easy

The best sites inevitably win

So grow links organically

Build a website that offers so much value that people talk about it and link to it naturally

Pay Per Click

But first: Why you can’t ignore SEO:

www.quirk.biz

You choose how much you want to pay per click

And how much you want to spend per day

If you manage your campaign properly, you can’t lose money!

Don’t burn your budget early on: Test!

Look for long tail key phrases

500 000 searches for “win”5000 for “south african wine”500 for “robertson wine route south africa”

Geotarget your adverts

Have a solid call to action in each advert

Don’t send your traffic to your home page, use highly targeted landing pages

Test, test and test these landing pages

Conversion optimisation

The process of making your website and eMarketing activities as efficient and effective as possible resulting in a direct increase to your ROI

Search marketing will bring a lot of traffic to your site, but you can’t stop there…

You should be looking to build communities around your business“Building a permission asset, one follower at a time” Simon Back

Social Media can play a big part in this

Your social media options…

Let’s look at a few specific examples…

Online Video: YouTubeSecond largest search engine!60% market share100+ million viewers a night‘The overnight success’ thing

250+ Million active users

And many ways to communicate with them:Groups and PagesApplicationsAdsConnect

Groups and Pages

Applications

Ads

Connect

Above all when it comes to any social network

If your customers are there, you must engage

And do it honestly, humbly and openly

They will respect you for it

BloggingPrinciple: make friends and influence people

Not 16 year old girlsSource: emarketer.com

The rewards of bloggingBuilds communitySearch Engine rankings:Search friendly designAttract linksFeedback loop

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in the beginning…

Hugh Macleod - “Gaping Void”

Geek Dinner London 2005

UK blogger wine giveaway…

stormhoek sent 80 bottles of wine

more than 60 posts were written

French blogger wine giveaway

100 geek dinners across the US

Stormhoek / Tesco Love Tour

Bottom line: They sold a LOT more wine(before it all went to pieces )

This would be harder to achieve with the same tactics today

But there success was because they did something remarkable and that’s no harder than it’s ever been.

There is someone Twittering about you

Be ready to make the most of it

People are talking, are you listening?

Monitoring your online reputation helps you…… avoid a reputation crisis by informing you quickly… discover quick and effective new marketing opportunities… improve customer service through engagement … understand your customers’ needs and wants better … identify powerful influencers to target with WOM campaigns

OK so you’ve got a good site with lots of traffic and a thriving online community. What’s the most effective way to build long term relationships with these people?

Email Marketing

Use it to build relationships

Not to acquire them

Relationships are built on mutual trust and respect

It costs a HUGE amount for you to acquire a customer

You may as well make the most of them

How do your email newsletters foster this?

Firstly, get personal!

Nurture your in-house list

But make it easy to unsubscribe

Use layout to increase readability

Allow users to manage their information and subscription preferences

…and then personalise accordingly

Rather send less often with more relevant content – people will be more likely to listen

Ask yourself what YOU would want from the newsletter as a reader

Does it speak to you?

Or does it speak AT you?

A local wine eMarketing case study

Blogging:Started blogging in 2007 on a free platformFocused on building storiesOnce the blog had built momentum, invested money in a web developerMonthly Newsletter:Use best blog content, focus on making it interestingFacebook:Now up to 500 followersWineClub:Couple of hundred paid subscribers

Started blogging in 2007 on a free platform

Focused on building stories

Once the blog had built momentum, invested money in a web developer

Use best blog content, focus on making it interesting

Now up to 500 followers

Couple of hundred paid subscribers

Bottom line: Backsberg have created more excitement, more interaction, more relationships and… …more business!

In conclusion - eMarketing fundamentalsGet your website right, make it remarkable!Drive qualified traffic to it.Optimise the conversion of that traffic.Build a relationship with your audience.Test, test, test.

Get your website right, make it remarkable!

Drive qualified traffic to it.

Optimise the conversion of that traffic.

Build a relationship with your audience.

Test, test, test.

Thank Youwww.quirk.biz/WOSA