Designing Better Wine Sales w/ Katherine Cole & Jon Krauss, Vin Agency

“Wine is an emotional sale, not a rational one.” according to Katherine Cole, Communications Director of Vin Agency, making storytelling and the immersive nature of web design critical for DTC wine sales, according to Katherine and Jon Krauss, Creative Director of Vin Agency. They explain how website design can improve brand messaging and create more DTC sales by making websites discoverable, drawing the consumer in, and making it easy to purchase once the thirst is built.  Detailed Show Notes: Jon’s background - founded Vin in 2009Katherine’s background - “recovering wine journalist,” has written 5 books, was a wine journalist for the Oregonian Newspaper, hosts The Four Top podcastVin is a creative agency and brand consultancy for wineriesThe core focus is custom website designWinery focus gives Vin deep expertise in the spaceSearch Engine Optimization (“SEO”) - how people find a websiteHas technical elements - e.g., meta descriptions, site maps - Vin uses WordPress that has plug-ins to make this easierHas communication elements - using SEO keywords (e.g., Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir) and being strategic around where the terms appear (e.g., in headlines, the size of the words, where they appear on the page)E.g., Hibou - re-launched their website Sept 2021, pageviews went up >400%, new site visitors up >200% (shows SEO working), and average session duration up >140% (showing the storytelling is working)Wine is more of an emotional purchase, less rationale, so more immersive website experiences are powerfulE.g., Casino Mile Ranch - didn’t have solid website engagement and wasn’t getting their story across; after the website re-launch, customers have kept coming back to the siteE-commerce design is critical for wine websitesE.g., Seavey Vineyards - their e-commerce was awkward and difficult to navigate (they use WineDirect); Vin re-designed it using WordPress, and it now drills into products to see different formats (e.g., magnums, etc.) and vintages leading to +80% increase in large format salesThe ability to customize checkout flow depends on the e-comm vendor (Commerce 7 and Offset/Figure are Vin’s favorites for this, Offset particularly for allocated wineries)New technologies, e.g., chat boxes and texting, can improve performance but depends on the type of wineryE.g., Silt sales rocketed up when they launched a new website in conjunction with text messaging which linked to the siteVisitation/hospitality best practicesImmersing visitors to the feeling of being at the wineryHaving photography without people in it helps people imagine that they are in itWebsite costsIt can range from $5-100k depending on the size of the winery and the scope of the website, and the normal range is ~$12-30kSome sites can be built over timeBetter to start with a wine-focused developer, people who try non-wine template sites often come to Vin because their e-commerce doesn’t work properlyHighest ROI areasEliminate dead ends on the site for the path to purchaseCreate a call to action at the bottom of each pageWebsite trends for wineriesSome language cues being used with consumer psychology in mind, e.g., “discover” vs. “home page”Scroll animationDrone videos and videos in more creative ways“Photography will never go out of style” some luxury wineries use immersive art photography Get access to library episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.