Sales Tips-Wine Club Success…
Our industry has seen the growth of the continuity or loyality programs better known as the wine club. Some argue, the wine club is the backbone of their entire direct-to-consumer success, while others believe they can create a wine club success overnight.
It is a challenge to build and mantain a strong, growing and profitable wine club. The continuity program is central to a profitable business plan and building a healthy brand image. Many believe if their wine club is growing it is healthy and the brand is healthy.
The club should be a reminder to the consumer of the brand image and should be central to driving home that image of your brand. The club is an invitation and a reminder to the consumer of why your brand is the brand of wine to remember in the store, online, in a restaurant and of course continued through your club or online purchasing at your e-commerce store.
To have a truly healthy (and profitable) club, three goals must be addressed:
- Growth: in club members year over year. (Is your membership number growing?)
- Increase: in the quantity and frequency of member spend. (Does the member come back for additional wines from selections featured in the wine club?)
- Continuity: longevity. (Does the member continue to renew?)
One constant battle that is key is to fight attrition. The goal should be to increase the frequency of member activity. And while this may seem counterintuitive, and you feel that if you “bug” them too much they might quit, experience shows that, within reason, the reverse is true.
Many wineries do a good job of selecting the right wines, and providing value added materials with each wine club shipment. But that’s it, many stop there. Unless you provide incentives to do otherwise, a large percentage of club members, after their initial election to join the club, are very passive. They receive wine each month with little interaction with the winery, grow bored and do not renew their memberships.
The most successful wine clubs have done an excellent job of getting their wine club members to actively participate in the relationship–beyond just enjoying the wine. There is a direct correlation between members who are more active in their wine club and those that tend to stay members longer. If you track members who quit, you likely will find that they were the least active of the bunch.
What types of “activities” lead to longer retention? The range is pretty broad. As many as possible should be pursued and tracked. To increase activity, try inviting members to:
- Visit the winery and receive special VIP or member treatment
- Reorder their monthly club wine at special member discounts for a limited period of time
- Take advantage of online VIP privileges (via their own password protected area of your website)
- Respond to “members only” e-mail or direct mail offers
- Submit their tasting notes or recipes to share with others
- Attend a club event, and–even better–bring a friend
- Refer new members (and receive an incentive for doing so)
- Respond to satisfaction surveys (via mail, e-mail, phone) and share their likes and dislikes
- Make the club interactive create a wine club members blog and encourage members to share their experiences as related to the club or enjoying the wine.
- Use video links in email campaigns or via the web made especially for members by your wine maker or club manager
- Ask your wine club members to submit web video’s to share with members via webcasts.
- Create wine club trivia games to engage the members to participate.
- Encourage members to send video, photos or stories of joyful experiences related to the club, travels to the winery or a receipe they created with the wine then share the experience in a newsletter or as a story featuring the member.
The key point: Active club members stay longer, spend more and are the best marketing of the brand due to referral and word of mouth.
- Track who’s active, and who’s not.
- Track which activities they respond to and be creative at engaging the members.
- The web has created a whole new world of interactive connectivity to your wine club member.
- Judge the effectiveness of your club member benefits by how much and how broadly they are used. Each should encourage an activity that will improve member retention.
- Reach out, especially to those members you never hear from, just to see what they like or don’t like about your club.
- A call from the winery owner, founder or the wine maker can go a long way into making a positive lasting impression on the club member.
In order to fight attrition–and realize longer member retention–you need to know what you are up against. That means having a clear and ongoing understanding of how much, when and why members quit…
- Track the percentage of your member base you lose each month and each year.
- How has that changed over time?
- If you have more than one club, is it different for each club.
Understand the lifecycle of your members…
- At what point in their membership are they most likely to quit?
- For the members who have already quit, how long did they stay?
- If on average, most quit after six months, what can you do one month before the danger zone to entice them to stay longer?
- For all active members, how long on average have they been members?
- Is this average “lifecycle” increasing or decreasing?
Finally, track the reasons why people quit…
- Is it dissatisfaction with quality of wine or service?
- Is it their own life issues, such as pregnancy, moving to a state you can’t ship to, personal financial changes or feeling that they have too much wine?
- Make knowing “why” a priority, and make “unknown” an unacceptable reason.
Track these reasons. Share them with your team and respond to them…
- How do they change over time?
- What can you learn?
- What can you do differently?
Finally there is significant information in the data of your club membership. It provides you with the ability to keep an effective scorecard on how well your brand is doing and how well brand initiatives are perceived by the more loyal consumer. Apply the tips above and watch your club grow…