This document summarizes three case studies about direct-to-consumer (DTC) best practices from wineries. The first story describes how a small winery called Zinderella used Facebook to support email campaigns and increase sales. The second story explains how the Little Mer(lot)maid tested email designs and found dividing content into bits with website links improved performance. The third story shares how Snow Wine added customized options to an existing wine club, increasing additional sales by 57% without more memberships.

1. Short Stories
Three Case Studies on DTC Best Practices

2. Susan@WineGlassMarketing.com
www.Facebook.com/WineGlassMarketing
@WineGlassMktg
www.WineGlassMarketing.com
707-205-0871
Susan DeMatei
WineGlass
Marketing
About the Author

3. Zinderella
How a small, simple winery attended the
Facebook Ball and attracted many Prince
Charmings that bought wine.

4. Once Upon a Time, there was a simple winery in Napa
with a DTC princess named Zinderella…
84.45%
10.95%
3.82%
0.78%
Customer Database by Status
Prospect 1st Time Customer Repeat Customer Club Member
1
2
3
~5,000 member database
Not a strong club following
4
The majority of their database are
prospects
Sales in the first half of 2016 were
significantly depressed

5. While other wineries in the kingdom had titles, castles and
servants, Zinderella had none.
No tasting
room for list
growth, trial or
sales
No staff for
events or
outreach
No famous
winemaker or
vineyard
Average-to-
good scores,
but
nothing
extraordinary
No large
marketing
budget

6. Her fairy Godmother implemented a Social Media plan…
Extending email
campaigns onto
Facebook to increase
reach and use the
audience to spread word
in an organic manner
Link back to the website
– particularly the store
Keep engaged with any
comments on posts
Email to Facebook
Boost messages using
$5 and $10 to extend
reach
Created a custom
audience including the
mailing list and club
Extend Reach
Using non campaign
topics from a third party
to tie back to the winery
e.g. “We tried this recipe
for red wine hot
chocolate using our
Pinot Noir. Buy your
bottle here and try it out
for yourself.”
Different Topics

7. Facebook was used to support email campaigns and timed
to coincide with launches.
Over 5 cases sold, with
combination of 1st time, repeat
customers, and club members
4 cases sold with 1 case being
sold to a 1st time customer

8. Ongoing support around the holiday gift sets provided a
“halo effect” for the season.
Over 10 cases of
wine were sold after
these supporting
posts, all to but 6
bottles to 1st time
customers

9. After 6 months, Social Media posts are generating sales on
their own…
This post generated
4 sales: all were 1st
time customers, 3 of
whom purchased
this Cabernet
Sauvignon

10. This Social Media plan, implemented in July 2016, has
helped sales recover, created 1st time customers from
prospects, as well as increase sales from repeat customers.
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Website and AdminPanel Sales
2016 2017

11. The transformation is apparent in other areas, too…
Social media helped
promote brand
awareness and is
partially responsible
for 21.74% growth in
the database over
the last year.
Zinderella saw a
dramatic increase in
the number of social
media referrals to
the website.
• 0.44% in July
2016 to 7.31% in
January 2017

12. The making of a fairy tale?
While not every social media post will cause a
direct sale, social media can:
Contribute to
action (sales)
for your overall
campaigns
when
combined with
email and
other channels
Influence your
customer base
to go to your
site, forward
information
and sign up for
mailing lists
Result in new
customers
Result directly
in sales

13. The Little Mer(lot)maid
How a winery princess proved that the best way
to communicate might not be with words.

14. Once upon a time, there was an underwater
winery who had been sending out newsletters for
years and years…
The emails were carefully crafted and
painstakingly written by the Little
Mer(lot)maid’s father to provide educational
paragraphs of content
This was the main marketing channel as this
winery didn’t have it’s own tasting room or a
big marketing budget

15. The Little Mer(lot)maid took over marketing for her father,
and knew there needed to be a change.
But she thought she could do better…
She had heard that
mobile phones
changed best email
design
Current research
suggests 60% of emails
are read on phones
Mobile Design
Her average open rate
was a respectable 26%
and her average CTR
3.35%
These are about industry
average according to
MailChimp
Click Rates

16. So she devised a test,
and sent a newsletter,
designed two ways, each
to half of her database
The traditional version had
the entire copy from her
father in the email
A
B The revision had the first
paragraph then a link to the
site, which left more room
for additional content like a
recipe and second wine

17. The results were shocking!
In addition, the #1 link clicked on
the original version of this email
was “unsubscribe” while in the
revision it was to the store for the
Cabernet featured in the recipe
Original
Version
(average)
Revised
Version
% Change
Open Rate 26.50% 32% +23%
CTR 3.25% 9% +275%
A
B
The email design that divided the
content into digestible bits with
links to the website performed
dramatically better

18. Now the email design is consistent, and
efforts are under-way for better list-generation.
Email lists decay at a rate of 22% per year
Meaning you have to grow your list at least
that much to stay equal
*Marketing Sherpa’s research shows that data decays
at a rate of 2.1% per month. This is an annualized rate
of 22.5%.
Email Lists
The average order value of a “POS Guest”
sale is typically half of those who you
collect names from (non club).
• higher value shipping customers
• when someone gives you their contact
information, there is an implied
connection, if handled correctly, will lead
to more sales via the email channel.
Average Order Value

19. Snow Wine and the Seven Hundred
Club Dwarfs
How a winery added 57% more sales to their
wine club without selling more memberships

20. Once upon a time, there was a winery with a large wine
club that drove the Club Manager, Snow Wine, crazy with
requests
Snow Wine offered lots of wines in the
shipments, but members knew what they
liked and weren’t shy of changing their
club shipment when they found out what
wines were chosen
• This forced her pay the dwarfs overtime
during this period to handle all the calls,
which angered the evil queen in
accounting
Shipment Changes
She also saw a cluster of club cancellation
right before and after shipments.
• Reasons included “too much wine” and
just simple “no responses” to three calls
to update a card
• This also angered the evil queen
Club Cancellations

21. The matter was discussed in depth. The concerns were:
A handsome prince recommended Snow Wine change
hers to a Custom Club, but keep the same flat rate shipping.
1 The club had been consistently organized for a very
long time – they might not understand
2 Too many might take advantage of this – causing
even more work and organization
3 How to handle pickups – which were pre-packaged
and a limited space

22. The resulting conclusion
was to test this for one
year (four shipments) of
the ship only members of
the oldest club.

23. %
Customized
Additional
Volume
Additional
Sales
May 2016 5.2% 11% 7.7%
Aug 2016 6.9% 17.3% 17.6%
Nov 2016 2.6% 2.0% 10.9%
Feb 2017 8.7% 15.7% 20.9%
23.4% 46.0% 57.1%
The results dramatically reinforced the decision to move
toward the custom club program
Over the first year:
• Add-ons increased sales by 57%
(over what standard shipment cost
would have been)
• They sold 46% more bottles
• Only 23% of the club customized
(the most was 8% at a time)
• New signups went up 75% to this club
tier prior to the period before the test
• Cancellations dropped in half

24. $0.00
$50.00
$100.00
$150.00
$200.00
$250.00
$14,500.00
$15,000.00
$15,500.00
$16,000.00
$16,500.00
$17,000.00
$17,500.00
$18,000.00
$18,500.00
Fall 2015 Summer 2016 Fall 2016 Winter 2016
Pre- and Post- Change Club Shipments
revenue AOV
A princess in a neighboring kingdom ran a similar test with
similar results but average order value decreased
This club may want to consider what wines are being offered to club
members and how the shipments can be customized.

25. All shipping clubs have now been rolled out with custom options,
and even the evil queen is happy