The wine industry has a Baby Boomer problem, according to some observers.
The thinking goes that since “older, more affluent consumers drive the U.S. wine market,” today’s vintners are helplessly watching their best customers die off slowly. Perhaps that’s true for some.
But for U.S. wineries currently engaging their customers with text messaging, older consumers – Baby Boomers and Gen X – are driving record DTC sales.
With text marketing now generating 32-times more customer engagement than email marketing in the wine industry – older consumers are also powering an entirely new digital sales channel with their love of SMS wine marketing.
BABY BOOMERS LOVE SMS WINE MARKETING
The latest research on generational marketing (SendGrid, 2021) shows that email, text messaging, and social media are the top-3 business marketing channels for adult consumers of all ages.
While it’s true that older consumers as a group engage email marketing more often than text messaging, the older your customers are, the more likely they’ll engage your brand using text messaging.
And if it’s true that wine consumers are older and more affluent compared to other industries, that might explain why our latest research shows SMS marketing is particularly effective in the wine industry.
SMS WINE MARKETING - BUILD IT, AND THEY WILL COME
It might not seem that way in a busy tasting room when an older consumer is challenged by technology. But not all Boomers are the same. So, your opportunity lies in reaching older customers who enjoy text messaging.
If your goal is to engage older wine buyers and already use email, SMS marketing is the next best thing you can do. Even better than social media, according to the latest research.
And remember, you don’t need to convert many customers to SMS marketing to profit.
Even if you only persuade 3% of your consumers to join your SMS list, you’ll still succeed in creating a new digital sales channel that generates as much revenue as the other 97% combined.
USING TEXT MARKETING TO CREATE A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE NOW
In a world where 90% of online consumers want text messages from their favorite brands, but only 9% of U.S. wineries text their customers, this epic mismatch between consumer preference and industry practice spells nothing but opportunity for wineries focused on growth.
And unless you think text messaging is going away soon, the only real choice you have to make is whether you let your competition profit from text messaging before you.
With consumers hungry for brands that engage them with text messaging and wine marketing results 32-times better than email, now’s the time for savvy wine marketers to make a move to SMS wine marketing.
That’s where VinterActive can help.
Our award-winning PreferencePro Automated Wine Marketing system can help DTC wineries delight their customers and grow sales with personalized text messaging.
To schedule a live demonstration and learn how PreferencePro can help you, please visit us at https://www.vinteractive.com.
Happy Selling!
ABOUT VINTERACTIVE LLC
Established in 2002, VinterActive LLC is a wine industry leader in the research and practice of consumer direct sales and marketing.
VinterActive’s VinQuest™ Research has helped the wine industry profit from the insight needed to maximize DTC sales. VinterActive’s award-winning PreferencePro™ automated wine marketing system has sold millions of dollars of wine for wineries across the U.S.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Founder & CEO of VinterActive, Bryan St. Amant, is a pioneer in developing preference-based direct marketing and its successful application in the wine industry. His advice has helped hundreds of wineries across the U.S. grow sales and customer satisfaction by leveraging the best practices of DTC wine marketing.
St. Amant holds an MS from M.I.T. and a BS from U.C. Berkeley. His award-winning work has been featured in books, magazines, and seminars, including CFO Magazine, Inc., CNN Money, eMarketing Magazine, Integrated Direct Marketing, Direct Marketing Association, Wine Marketing Report, and the Wine Industry Network.