I've talked about blogging in general here, but how is it that wineries can benefit from blogging? What does "blogging" mean for a winery? Here are 4 great examples of blogs in the wine industry. Maybe you can get some ideas from these.
Great blog, but why they moved from their original blog site is a mystery to me. You can still have a blog on Typepad and use your own domain. In fact a primary reason for you to do that is so you'll have more traffic to your domain and you'll rise in the search rankings. Who knows maybe a relative owns the agency. Great blog though.
Love that Goosecross has taken it upon themselves to be the community for the wineries. These guys have
taken it to another level! They highlight other wineries and the wine lifestyle. They podcast calling it Napa Valley Wine Radio, clever! I'm listening to a podcast about Cheese right now. They've got forums for you to post to, and even an "Ask the Educator" section. Great job at getting closer to your customers!
Farella Vineyards
Tom Farella posts often. Most winery blogs I've found post monthly which is good but could be better.
This site posts weekly and very informative. also lends to some personality with pix of the family, etc.
Dover Canyon Winery
Talk about updates! Mary goes blog-crazy and
the updates are so relevant. I love the set up of this blog
and the content. She's got books about wine, recipes and more. Oh, and she was up for a wine blog award, great job!!
So there are a few examples of what a winery can do with the blog. Now for the benefits:
- Gives your followers a place to comment to start a conversation with you or your readers.
- Drives more traffic to your site whether you host the blog or it's hosted on popular blog products like TypePad or Blogger. Make sure you include links back to your home page of your site.
- Sells more product with links back to your wine site or store.
- Gives your Winery a voice or personality!
VerticalResponse isn't in the blog business other than we obviously blog ourselves, but we've had such great experiences with it we think you should give it a go! Talk to your design team or just try one for yourself, it's really simple. Then use email marketing to drive your customers to your blog to get even a closer experience with your business.
An informative post, Janine.
Your readers may be interested in a comprehensive list of winery blogs for additional examples of winery blogs, several of which are quite good (Dover Canyon is my favorite from your list of 4).
The number of winery blogs has more than quadrupled over the last 2 years (although very few of the over 3,000 US wineries blog). Wines & Vines recently printed an article entitled Get More Out of Your Winery Blog, which they may also find of interest.
Posted by: Mike Duffy | August 02, 2007 at 10:20 PM
Thanks for the good press! I was unaware that Typepad could let me use my own domain to host the blog. I'll work on getting that smoothed out.
You've got a great blog, as well. I really like VR and promote it with many of my clients. My parents own and operate Mountain Spirit Winery and I run Creative eMarketing Solutions and manage their eMarketing.
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Darren Barkett | July 20, 2007 at 12:17 PM