Winery email content that is well written has three primary characteristics: It is relevant, it is personal and it is a fast read. Wineries should craft their email text to fit all three of these important attributes in order to properly engage the wine aficionado subscriber. This will reinforce their purchasing decisions, inspire them to explore your product line further and encourage that invaluable word-of-mouth marketing about your brand.

Keep It Light, Friendly & Personal

Email content should be kept conversational and friendly. Speak directly to your audience by referring to them as “you” while referring to yourself as “I” (rather than the “Royal We”) and signing the email as if it were a personal letter. When the reader hits Reply, make sure that a real person answers that email and not some boilerplate autoresponder. Tell stories about the personalities that shaped the wine, such as your vintner, pickers and staff, and always refer to them by name. You may also want to feature pleasant headshots of the people you are discussing, as this will personalize the wine experience for your audience. It is going to be more engaging to read about Franz the vintner personally going the extra mile to thoroughly destem in order to lower the development of vegetal flavors and tannins than about some nameless corporate automatons installing some whizbang technology and pushing a button.

Write about Topics that Are Relevant to Your Consumer

Subscribers to your winery email marketing campaign may not be so interested in a compilation of stultified statistics about the farm gate value of wine grapes correlated against the historical grape crush totals in your county. But finding out about your product and the loving touch that created it will draw them closer to you. Rather than concentrating on esoteric aspects of the winemaking and distribution process that interest only you and your accountant, focusing on what your audience wants is the key to writing artful winery emails. They are interested in wine pairings, tastings, vintage and varietal characteristics, as well as the history and experience of your winery, so provide that for them in an easily readable format. Your subscriber cares enough about your winery to subscribe to your newsletter, so you already know that they are interested in your brand. Your challenge now is to reinforce the commitment by providing information that is both alluring and educational.

Make Your Point Quickly & Move On

Most winery email marketing newsletters tend to be overlong. Remember that your reader is interested in light, quick factoids about your brand and are not typically reading your business plan in order to invest. A target of around five hundred words is optimum and some wineries show remarkable success at barely three hundred words. Condensing everything you have to say in that short word length can be tantamount to composing poetry, so unless you fancy yourself a Bacchanalian Bard you may want to subcontract your writing to a talented freelancer who has proven experience in developing superlative content for wineries.

Your audience is supporting your efforts by purchasing your wine and reading your email marketing newsletters. Their affiliation with your winery is deeply personal and tinged with aspects of profound pleasure. Don’t relate to these passionate individuals via monolithic institutional email content. Rather, engage them in the same lavish manner that your wine engages their tastebuds.