Harry’s Wine of Fairfield, CT, sends out a great and very simple weekly opt-in e-newsletter to announce its weekend tastings and classes and events. Just recently the e-letter announced, “We’re on Twitter! ... to communicate real time offers, wine events and information to Harry’s community.”
Harry’s first Tweets have discussed a great wine, offered a spot in a class that night that just opened up, reminded people of the Saturday tasting, and said thank you for “looking us up!” Nice job at serving their community with this social media addition to their marketing repertoire.
Event invitations might also be emailed to subscribers during the week, giving Harry’s another chance to remind customers of its classes and upcoming dinners or benefits.
All the things Harry’s email marketing does right
The email templates for the weekly e-letter and email invitations:
• are easy for Harry’s to put together (i.e., mostly text with a graphic header)
• put the important, newsy content at the top
• focus on what’s new but also serve its wine community with expert information and advice.
Harry’s web site serves customer needs differently and well.
People don’t want to go to your web site and find a repeat of your e-newsletter. A web site like Harry’s should serve customers’ informational and transactional needs efficiently and should project brand image.
Forrester Research’s annual Best and Worst of B2C Site Design points out that credible home pages provide evidence that user goals can be completed. Stanford University Persuasion Technology Lab research shows that consumers judge website credibility quickly by its design:
“Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose). We find that people quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone. When designing your site, pay attention to layout, typography, images, consistency issues and more. Of course, not all sites gain credibility by looking like IBM.com. The visual design should match the site’s purpose.”
Harry’s web site scores on both usability and professional design that matches purpose.
Harry’s print newsletter and print ads add more touch-points
Harry’s mails its two-color, four-page, all text print newsletter, The Wine Taster, to customers who sign up for it, and occasionally sends it out as a mass mailing effort. The print newsletter also sits as a hand-out in the retail shop near the door for customers to pick up as they enter or leave. The Wine Taster is a listing of featured wines and beers with a blurb next to each entry. It includes product information, experts’ quotes, and ratings—probably a breeze for the shop to put together from available beverage industry resources.
The takeaway: Harry’s Wine “talks” to customers in all the ways they respond to, from timely weekly email reminders and promotions to the wine experts in the store who help customers select a great bottle at a price they like to Tweets that keep up with its community on Twitter. Harry’s has been around for 68 years, but judging from their quick and fluid adoption of up-to-date marketing techniques, it seems like they adapt pretty well.
Note: Harry's Wine & Liquor Market emails and web site are Powered by Beverage Media Group.