If you’re a wine maker or you’re a wine merchant, you’ll no doubt be on the hunt for great wine marketing ideas. Because in these trying times, if there’s one thing we’re all guaranteed to turn to in the evening, to take the edge off a hectic day or to try and shift the feeling of cabin fever, it’s wine.
But how do you persuade your audience that they want to buy your wine? What can you do - marketing wise - to get customers to not just check your brand out, but to actually purchase your products?
And here’s the thing you need to know - Millennials are the people you need to be targeting with your wine marketing efforts.
Millennials are fast becoming instrumental to a winery or a wine business’ success. In fact, Millennials drink more wine now than their parents do with Millennials representing 42% of total expenditure on all wine purchases.
So what are the best wine marketing campaigns you can deploy to bring this generation over to your side?
First though, what exactly is wine marketing?
What is wine marketing?
You’d have thought that selling wine to young adults would be akin to selling sweets to children, not so much.
With more and more wineries competing for a slice of the market and consumers demanding more transparency, authenticity and sustainability from the brands they purchase from, guaranteeing wine sales is getting harder.
Millennials (the generation born between 1981-2000) will soon represent the vast majority of the workforce, making them the main consumers of almost everything, including wine. And they’re the generation who demand more from a brand, not just value for money. For them being socially conscious is essential, they know that their choices impact the world around them.
So how can you market wine to Millennials? Here are 5 tips to help you on your way.
Top tips for marketing wine to Millennials
1. Use a specialist drinks marketing agency
Using a dedicated food and drink marketing agency, who understands how to market wine to Millennials, as well as have experience doing it (and seeing tangible results too), should be your first port of call.
A specialist drinks marketing agency such as Market Jar will help you develop creative and effective ideas in order to connect you with your target customers. They have the know-how to get you in front of your audience and can position you head and shoulders above the competition.
As a specialist food and drink marketing agency, Market Jar has an intimate knowledge of the sector and a solid process to develop a bespoke wine marketing strategy for you, to ensure your brand’s success.
We're the team behind multiple sucessful wine brands, including Plonk, Pull The Cork, Gasm drinks, London Wine Shippers, Pandemonium Wines, and Quello Drinks.
And, we've recently launched the new website for Res Fortes, which you can see below:
2. Understand they know their stuff
Millennials know their wine and they can navigate the internet like a pro - they already know more than you think. So don’t treat them like children or novices, talk to them like an equal.
Tell them about the wine’s provenance.
About how the grapes were grown.
How the vineyard is sustainable.
Tell them about the winemakers - what makes them and their technique unique.
By giving your audience what they want - great wine and an authentic wine drinking experience, you’ll have created a happy customer.
3. Communicate with them through their preferred channels
Millennials are social creatures, so if you want to connect with them, you have to set yourself up where they can be found - i.e. on social platforms. Ditch the old, stuffy traditional means of marketing i.e in trade publications, and go where your customers are.
Use visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to create eye-catching imagery, or create and engage a community of like-minded wine lovers on Facebook or LinkedIn. By engaging Millennials on their preferred platform and taking your brand to them, you’re creating the opportunity to make loyal customers for life.
4. Leverage your reviews
Millennials are the generation who do care what people think. Reviews are a vital source of truth for them because they grew up on the internet, they know and understand about fake news and they have a tendency now to trust people over brands.
According to Forbes, 97% of all Millennials will read online reviews before selecting a business, with 89% of those believing what they read. How can you leverage this faith in someone else’s opinion?
Ask for reviews from everyone - from customers, suppliers, your logistics chain, your mum, your postman, everyone, and integrate these reviews into your product pages.
5. Be authentic in everything you do
Millennials value authenticity, so create original content and be proud to be unique. In fact, if you have a point of difference, highlight it!
Not only will it make you more appealing to your target audience it will also set you apart from the competition. And when the noise in wine marketing is as loud as it is, anything you can do to get your voice heard is a bonus.
This original content can take many forms - social media posts, blog posts, videos - however you choose to connect with your customers, do it, and be true to who you are.
