For the purpose of the winery I segmented our email contacts into four groups: Wine Club, Out-of-Town Wine Club, General Interest and Home Winemakers.
Wine Club
Wine Club members at Ten Thousand Vines had "first dibs" on our quarterly new releases. The main purpose of Wine Club newsletter emails were to let club members know we were accepting reservations for their complimentary wine tasting and food pairings of the new releases. As well as to provide all pertinent information regarding the new releases such as the date and times that wine club pairings were available as well as a brief introduction to the new wines. Typically, Club members received two emails quarterly; one as a first alert to open reservations and then a follow-up reminder email that was sent about halfway through the club tasting dates.
To the right is an example of a follow-up wine club email. During this release after seeing how club tasting time slots were filling up we opted to include additional evening hours to better accommodate club member schedules. We used the reminder email to not only follow-up with the club members who had not yet made their reservation but to also update them with more expansive information about the wines they would be trying and the dates and times still available for selection. |
Out-of-Town Wine Club
While the vast majority of our Wine Club was composed of local residents who physically attending our complimentary tastings of new wines with hand-selected food pairings, we did have a handful of out-of-town Club members. For our out-of-town Club membership we sent a newsletter with detailed information about the wines available for club members to purchase. Out-of-town members got special bottle discounts as well as free shipping for anything they ordered. We also included a list of our food pairings we offered to local club members so that our out-of-town friends had the opportunity to recreate them at home if they so chose.
Prior to sending this email it was also my responsibility to update our e-commerce story with the new releases to ensure they were available for purchase for our out-of-town club members. Within the email, I included photos of the new wines as a visual to captivate email subscribers. I also utilized hyperlinks to ensure the next stop and shopping process was as streamlined as possible for customers. |
Home Winemakers
Our home winemakers generally only received emails twice a year when fresh juice orders were open in the spring and fall. The primary focus of these emails was to let our home winemakers what regions and varietals were available and how to pre-order if interested.
To maximize the email opportunity, however, we also included brief highlight updates of events going on at the winery/that the winery was involved in. This allowed us to keep our home winemakers up-to-date on other winery events without being overbearing or overshadowing the primary purpose of the email. Similar to other email campaigns, I included a direct link to the fresh juice pre-order page to streamline the process for home winemakers. |
General Interest
The purpose of general interest emails were to update customers on special events and different opportunities offered at the winery.
Customers elected to sign up for email updates if they were wished to receive these updates. Often our general interest emails also included content from other email segments (i.e. fresh juice) This allowed those just learning about the winery a look at other facets of the business including the opportunity to learn how to make wine at home and the supply shop within the winery that offered all the tools and resources needed to get started. General interest emails included a variety of information for everyone. This email to the left in particular mentions that fresh juice orders are open, for those new customers who may already make their own wine and be interested in purchasing fresh juice. The email also includes information about a special wine and cookie pairing being offered at the winery for those looking for a fun outing. And finally, the email gives an overview regarding the wine supplies section of the store and the Winemaking 101 class periodically offered by the winery for those who may be interested in making their own wine. |
Ghost Writing
Each newsletter campaign, regardless of the particular email segment, begins with a message from Mike, the winery proprietor.
It was my job to ghost write this segment for him. Ensuring to match the verbiage and tone to his keeping it light, conversational but also informative. This allowed Mike to focus on his administrative duties, while also establishing a personal relationship with newsletter readers. By starting each newsletter with a message from Mike, it helps readers to feel seen and important. |