1. Define your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). 

What makes you stand out? Create your uniqueness. Ask yourself these questions What your target customers want? What your competitors have to offer? What different do you have to offer? If you want to capitalize on your USP, one tip is to see what people are talking about your brand & what keywords they use. Now use those keywords in your marketing to attract more customers.

2. Introduce “Click & Collect” 

Let customers order your products online & collect offline. Adding “Click and Collect” to your website ensures easy pick-ups for your customers with hassle-free payments and no delivery charge. And while people are browsing through your website, they might end up buying more wines, beers or spirits from you. 

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3. Collaborate with a local restaurant.

Bundle your drinks with food pairings from a local restaurant. Here’s how it will work. To stand apart from your competition, you should always provide an experience to your consumers. In this case, that experience is “Convenience”. Partner up with a restaurant so that when consumers order wine/beer/spirits from you they can also get food delivered from that restaurant and vise versa. The convenience here is “getting food and drinks together.” This will benefit in two ways — First, new customers referred by restaurant to you and, Second, you’ll be able to increase DTC Sales.

4. Utilize Online Directories & Listings

Online Directories are a great way to spread the word online and make your product/service visible in your neighborhood. List your winery/brewery/distillery on getdrinksdelivered.com, an online portal for the alco-bev industry to grow their delivery and curbside pick-up sales. With Getdrinksdelivered.com, you can — Connect with the consumer directly — Grow your pick up and delivery sales in your area — Develop new delivery branches globally — Boost your product marketing awareness 

5. Cross-sell & Up-sell

Utilize Product Bundling for repeat purchases. Ecommerce techniques like cross-selling and up-selling can be used by wineries, breweries, distilleries to increase the value of a sale. You may think, “What are these techniques? And what is the difference between them?”

Upselling encourages customers to spend more than what they’re currently spending. Cross-selling invites customers to buy related or complementary items.

One of the most popular upselling technique is to try & sell product accessories (eg. wine opener) at the CHECKOUT PAGE Bundle up products that offer discounts like “Get 10% off on purchase of 5 bottles of rum” If you have a membership club, then offer exclusive discounts for members for cross-promotion. Create limited edition accessories like badges, mugs, t-shirts or bar accessories like bottle opener, cocktail shaker. If you have 5 varietals under your brand, offer your customers a package of all of them “by the glass” in one box.

6. Use “Email Marketing” the smart way

According to Statista, global email users are expected to grow to 4.3 billion in 2022. Email Marketing still remains one of the most popular profit-generating sources. - Collect abandoned cart emails & send them an extra 5% off via newsletter or email. - Share testimonials, weekly wine update, the story behind your brand. This will really help them connect to you better. - New product announcements, delivery options, curbside timings or any information that will make their ordering process a smoother one. - Send your email as a one-column template for an easy mobile view

7. Focus on Personalized Marketing

Segment your customers and build your communication accordingly.

Doesn’t it feel good when you visit your local bar and the bartender knows your favorite drink? That’s personalization. When you know your customer so well that they feel valued and know that they’re important to you, as a brand. But it’s impossible to talk to every one of your customers. Right?!

By using data you can easily analyze your customer’s buying habits. Find trends in orders that you get. For example, if most of your customers come for a pick-up during morning hours, then offer a discount during those hours to attract more customers that fall under the same category. 

8. Integrate “Live Chat” to stay connected

Reduce the “wait time” for your potential customers.  62% of customers are inclined to purchase products online if live customer support is available. (source: Happybox) Live chat also reduces the abandoned cart orders. You can easily integrate chats like olark or happy box in your website or you can also use facebook’s messenger box. For local customers, give them the convenience of text or call.

9. Generate “Social Proof”

Collect testimonials and User-generated content from social. According to Salesforce, 54% of consumers trust information from online reviews and recommendations from their peers. When people see other people drinking your merlot or your seasonal ale, they become more confident in their choice. Ask your customers to share videos, photos and their product reviews and give them an extra incentive (eg 10% off on next purchase) to attract more content. Now use this content to increase your delivery and curbside orders.

 

10. Activate Instagram Selling

Drive your DTC sales with convenient social selling. 84% of consumers will buy from a brand they follow on social media over a competitor. Now what if you directly sell on social? Activate your Instagram selling account and with likes and engagement, you will also see an increase in online sales. To increase curbside pick-up sales too, Instagram selling can be a great medium for you.r brand. After you set up your Instagram selling account, promote it via geo-targeted ads and with the correct hashtags attract local customers every day.

11. Use Facebook Store

Drive your DTC sales with Facebook store. As of April 2020, Facebook still ranks #1 in the most popular social networks worldwide list. With facebook’s global 2498 million active users, setting up a Facebook store can be helpful for your business too. Tips to increase your delivery and pick-up sales with Facebook store. - Use Facebook store as your first touch and then use Facebook ads to convert sales. - To attract more customers, start posting more videos as Facebook analytics has been seen to promote videos more than any other type of content. - Reach out to local influencers that have a good following on Facebook.

12. Use the holiday period to boost pickups

Holiday Period is crucial for peak sales. Maximize it. In 2019, E-commerce sales hit a record high this year with more people doing their holiday shopping online, according to Mastercard. And in 2020, this number is only going to increase! - Include countdown for offers on your website to create urgency. - Create a landing page of special holiday offers. - People tend to buy in large quantities during the holiday period so bundle up products during the important days. - Use Facebook ads during the holidays targeted to your neighborhood for more curbside pick-up sales.

13. Host virtual tasting events

Bundle online purchase with free or discounted virtual tasting event. As we move towards a world with more DTC sales, it is crucial for you to redefine your communication with your customers in a more personalized way. A normal winery tour includes a walk in the vineyard, a look at the wine-making process, and a sip of the flagship varietals offered. And a virtual tour replicates this experience for consumers via a 360-degree tour of the vineyard, a video explaining the wine-making process and includes an expert demonstrating the experience that consumers normally get at an actual tasting event. Start with —creating a virtual tasting kit and promote it with 4th of July marketing.

14. Slide into DMs (Direct Messages) 

Don’t hesitate to reach out your local customers via direct messages. Start engaging with your customers via DMs on Instagram and Facebook. Direct messages are more effective compared to social posts as they directly grab the viewer’s attention. You can offer your special/repeat customers a special discount via DMs. You can also ask for feedback from customers who place orders online. 

15. Reevaluate Your Portfolio

Streamline your product offering for increased sales. You must look at your product list and compare it with the number of orders you received over the past quarter and streamline them. By data, you’ll know the fast-selling and slow-selling products. For fast selling products, upsell them and offer large quantity discounts. For slow-selling products, cross-sell them by offering merchandise or food with it.

16. Offer Loyalty Programs & Club Memberships 

Reward your online customers & boost repeated orders. DTC sales have been steadily increasing over the past year and club memberships have been a big reason why. With many states and countries opening up the industry by allowing direct sales from producers, execs are looking to find ways to make their clubs more attractive and increase online sales. - Give customers a discount on their 1st order after signing up for the club. - Introduce a monthly subscription box exclusive for club members. - Include FREE merchandise with 1st orders after customers take the club membership. - Offer club rewards to active members or long term loyal customers. A little goes a long way. 

17. Influencer Outreach/ Brand Ambassador

Reach out to influencers on social media & tap new customers. 89% of brands say ROI from influencer marketing is comparable to or better than other marketing channels. (source: bigcommerce) In the typical influencer marketing strategy, a brand reaches out to social media influencers with thousands – if not tens of thousands – of followers on platforms such as Instagram or Twitter, asking them if they would like to become a brand ambassador for their wine, beers or spirits. They can help you move your products in their community and followers.

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About Sommeliers Choice Awards

Sommeliers Choice Awards gathers the top restaurant wine buyers, Master Sommeliers, wine directors who have a direct influence on the US on-premise market.

Put your wines in front of them and get rated by Food Parability, Typicity, Value, Quality, and Package.

If you're looking to get in front of the top sommeliers and on-premise wine buyers of the USA, now is the best time to enter your wines. 

SCA Entry Process & Fees

Deadline For Submission Is Approaching Fast.

Leading wine brands from around the world now have an opportunity to grow their business and gain the attention of wine buyers, wine directors and influencers within the U.S. on-premise industry. Time to submit your wines in the 2021 Sommeliers Choice Awards.