Are you inward or outward?

I was recently travelling with one of our sales reps and was intrique by the line of question that wineries asked us. A number of people fell into one of two camps:

Inward Facing: This type of person asked operational type questions about how the website could make their operations easier. Questions like: Does our platform integrate with their POS system? How can they get UPS shipping labels out of our platform? Almost all of the questions centered around the operations at the winery and how we could make it easier.

Outward Facing: This type of person asked sales type questions about how the website could sell more, how customers interact with it, and how they could go to market better or more efficiently with a website.

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I'm not arguing against either of these camps. There is a need for both.  I was just really intrigued by how some people really tended to lean one way.  For myself, when I look at personality types, I typically like to know where I fit in so I can realize that other people think different than me.

So are you inward or outward?

Welcome Brian Zacharias

We would like to welcome Brian Zacharias to the Vin|65 team this morning. (We'll get his picture up someday)

Brian joins are team in a programming and development role.  For the first few months he will be working on some custom development projects. Brian has a Bachelor of Computer Information Systems and has a strong background in webservices, C#, and database development.

If you end up talking to him, seeing him in the office, or seeing him at the gym with us make sure you say hi.

You Are Expected To Do It All!

As a small winery owner you are expected to do it all. You are running the big show. You are on the hook for the results.

Here is a shortened list of responsibilities:

• Grow the grapes
• Pick the grapes
• Fix the tractor
• Manage the workers
• Make the wine
• Ship the wine
• Market the wine
• Create a brand
• Design the labels
• Manage selling channels
• Stay on top of compliance
• Manage the website
• Run the tasting room
• Manage the books
• Collect the money
• Remember the customer is always right
• Enjoy the lifestyle

As a web service provider we also like to add some, because if you have a web site you should also be doing these things:

• SEO - Search Engine Optimization
• Key word optimization
• Managing organic search results
• Managing paid search engine campaigns
• Optimize your site for different visitor profiles
• Run effective google ad campaigns and measure results
• Measure conversion
• Tweak your customers e-commerce experience
• Know everything about Google Analytics
• Create funnels to measure your sites effectiveness
• Know some HTML and CSS
• Keep up on product reviews and ratings
• Put all your content into snooth.com and corkd.com
• Get your facebook group going
• Blog - What was that again?
• vBlog - huh?
• Twitter - come again?

My guess is that all the things that go into making the most of your web site and making your web site great fall between the cracks. Unless you are a larger winery who can afford to have a dedicated staff or multiple staff in the web department most of those web tasks simply don't get thought about, much less accomplished.

At Vin | 65 we are passionate about the web and making your sure your customers have a great experience buying your wine. We also bring a lot of experience and a great tool set to our customers so that they don't have to stress out about a lot of this stuff because it is built right in. We know our winery and wine retail customers are busy enough already. Let us be the web experts in your corner, so that you can focus on making amazing wine.

Want to know more about what we offer, how we can make your life easier, what the heck a blog is...contact us.

Have you used your own website?

Have you used your own website? Try completing an order on your site. Try ordering multiple products. Where does the 'continue shopping' button take you? Can you figure out the shipping easily?

What are the most common questions customers ask? Try finding the answers from the homepage on your website - can you?

Have you tried emailing customer service from your website? How many clicks till you found the customer service email address? How long till someone responds?

Own Your Own Domain Name

Thinking about starting a new winery or a new brand? Make sure you own the domain name.

Do you have an existing winery or brand, make sure you own your domain name. (If a friend, a web developer, or someone else assisted you in purchasing the domain name, make sure the ownership of the domain is in your control)

Also, make sure that you don't let your domain name expire.

Sometimes these things might seem obvious but you would be suprised how many times they are forgotten until too late. (Even large software companies like Microsoft have let their domain names lapse a couple times).

If you need assistance in figuring out who owns your domain name, feel free to call our office. Alternatively you can generally figure out who owns a domain and when a domain is expiring by doing a whois search.

You win by caring.

I don't know where I saw it, or if it just came to me, but I have a little note written on my to-do list this past week that says 'you win by caring'.

Picking up the phone, responding to an email, and in general just adding emotion often is all it takes to win. The biggest mistake is to believe that features and appearance matter the most.

Okanagan Wine Festival - Wine Medal Winners Fall 2008

I attended the fall Okanagan Fall Wine Festival Medal Winner Tastings in Penticton, BC held at the Penticton Trade & Convention Center.

The tasting was in a small meeting room with approximately 25 tasters who were either lovers or industry members. Wine glasses were waiting for us with corresponding numbers on a paper underneath the glasses to remember which wine was which (it came in handy after you've tasted all 10 wines).

One of the judges from the festival led the tasting and explained why wines received gold, silver and bronze and the differences between the different medal levels.

The event started 15 minutes late because the organizers left the white wine outside to keep it chilled but someone walked away with it, all of the white wine was stolen! The delay was to quickly replace the missing wine.

Whites

The first wine that we tasted was the silver medal winning Dirty Laundry Vineyard Unoaked Chardonnay 2007. This wine was very balanced, smooth from start to finish and a great toasting taste emerged on the finish, one of the best Chards I've had.

The second wine was the gold medal winning Lang Vineyards Riesling Farm Reserve 2007. This was by far my favourite wine of the tasting. Of the two typical Riesling types, this is more of the German style. It has a mineral and wet stone hints but is very fruit forward with a burst of sweetness that is perfected with a long finish that ends citrusy. The citrus finish creates the perfect balance that's not overly sweet because the acidity dries out the sweetness. This is a very versatile wine and can be paired with many dishes or enjoyed by itself. I went to the winery afterwards to buy several bottles but it wasn't released yet! I'm picking up a few of these the next time I'm in the area.

Next was a silver medal Cedar Creek Estate Winery Gewurztraminer 2007. This is where my pallet disagreed with the silver medal rankings. I say this because Gewurztraminer is typically my go-to wine and I wasn't overly impressed with Cedar Creeks offering. It did have a long finish that left you wanting anther sip, but I've had better.

We had a surprise gold medal entry (because of the stolen wines) of Road 13 Vineyard Old Vines Chenin Blanc 2007. There aren't too many wineries in the Okanagan experimenting with Chenin Blanc grapes because consumers haven't yet gravitated to this grape in the Okanagan, but Road 13 uses them admirably. This wine had a nice aroma and a consistent taste from start to finish and would be good for aging for 2 to 5 years.

Reds

The first red wine we tasted was the gold medal winning Church and State Estate Winery Merlot Coyote Bowl Vineyard 2006. Church and State is actually located on Vancouver Island, but they have vineyards in the Okanagan and right on their label they'll post where the wine came from (in this case it came from Coyote Bowl, located on Black Sage Bench, Oliver BC). The Merlot was the highest entered grape in the competition (and also received the fewest number of awards). This was a smooth Merlot with good tannins and I think it would age well for 4 to 5 years.

The second Red we tried was the gold medal Sandhill Wines Small Lots Syrah Phantom Creek Vineyard 2006. This Syrah was rated the best red wine from 6 out of the 8 judges. Hands down this was a suburb Syrah, good spice and smoky taste. If you like Syrah, definitely try this one. The bottle we tried in this tasting was corked but I tried another bottle afterwards was amazing.

We tried the Inniskillin Okanagan Malbec Discovery Series 2006. The Malbec is one of the 6 wines used in the making of the red Bordeaux wine blend. It had hints of coffee and chocolate as well as leather and mushroom. This wine is good for drinking right now with its clarity and consistency of fruit. The Malbec is another grape not typically used by itself in the Okanagan.

Gold medal winning Road 13 Vineyards 5th Element 2006 was the next wine we tired. 5 different grapes are used in this blend (hence the name 5th Element), 38% Merlot, 28% Cab Franc, 22% Cab Sauv, 6% Malbec and 6% Petit Verdot. I would describe this wine as raw and aggressive, well crafted with lots of pepper. I seemed to pick up a hint of something new each time it tried it that made me want more.

Sparkling Wine

The gold medal winning Summerhill Pyramid Winery Cipes Gabriel Blanc de Blanc NV (no vintage means different years were used in this wine) was the only sparkling wine that we tried. This wine was dry and a great quote was "this wine has a suck the air out of you sort of dryness". It had a good length, very consistent, small bubbles (generally for bubbles, the smaller the better). Blanc de Blanc means that only Chardonnay was used in this sparkling wine. Summerhill sets the benchmark for sparkling wines from the Okanagan.

Icewine

Jackson-Triggs Winery Proprietors' Grand Reserve Riesling Icewine 2007 won a gold medal. This wine had a great honey taste with just the right sweetness that wasn't overpowering. It has a silky finish with aromas of fresh fruit; I noticed apple and some tropical fruits.

"Be passionate about what you do." - Gary Vaynerchuk

Albeit his speech might be a bit all over the place in terms of topic but one thing stands out loud and clear, Gary Vaynerchuk is passionate about what he does.

In this 15 minute video, Gary gives his keynote speech at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York. He talks about building a personal brand through social media, a topic that he has a LOT of experience with and has used himself. If you can handle some foul language this video is definately worth watching.
 

 

Gary became famous from being the host of Wine Library TV (WLTV), a free daily video blog where he gives wine advice in an abrasively honest sort of way to his cult-like fan base. In a self quote Gary describes himself as having a “unique identity as both a wine expert and a "real person" that has reinvented the concept of wine tasting for a new generation.”

Internet Marketing Conference (IMC) Vancouver 2008

Last week Friday I went to the Internet Marketing Conference (IMC) held in Vancouver, BC. The topics ranged from SEO, visitor intent tracking, A/B testing, Google Website Optimizer, Social Media, website monetization, CMS systems, web 2.0, community engagement, mobile marketing, conversion optimization, website analytics, email tracking, copywriting and online advertising. The conference has previously been held in New York City, Las Vegas, Montreal, Stockholm, Berlin, and Copenhagen.

There were over 50 speakers from Europe, the United States and Canada coming together to speak at this sold out conference held at the Coast Plaza Hotel. The speakers were from companies such as Google, Yahoo!, Victoria Secret, VanCity, and Aeroplan.

I was having lunch with one of the past presidents from the International Internet Marketing Association (IIMA) and after talking about different CMS option and he asked if I would speak on a panel about CMS for them. I’m looking forward to meeting with IIMA and the other panel members.

I feel there were three main topics that seemed to seep through each topic, SEO, testing and social media. (I’ll put these topics into short bullet points to recap for you).

SEO

• LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) and LSA (Latent Semantic Analysis) are now more important than they ever used to be! 
• Go after long term results not the quick fix ranking jump (Don’t use “Black Hat” tactics like link buying and link sculpting)
• Content is King

Testing

• If you're not testing your website (A/B testing, conversion optimization, landing pages, etc.) then you’re behind the game already.
• Test for visitor intent on your site
• Use your analytics to conquer the “big-dog, little-dog syndrome” (the boss going with his hunch)

Social Media

• Use relevant media to correctly seek out your target market
• Go where your market is, get down on their level
• Be authentic, they will be able to sniff you out if you’re faking it
• Use it for the long term, social media might not pay off short term

 

Triathlons And Websites

This weekend my wife Julia placed 13th (out of 146) in a triathlon in North Vancouver. Last year she had a second place finish in a local triathlon, so this year she opted for a triathlon a little further out of town and with more competition (which meant a 5:00am day for me).

Julia will tell you that she isn't competitive, but her twice a day religious training style might tell you a different story.

Competing in a triathlon is a lot of work, and it also requires the right equipment. A few years ago when Julia and I were dating, I watched her compete in a triathlon here in Abbotsford. She placed 15th. However when I was looking at her split times, she had a top 3 finish in the swim and a top 3 finish in run, and was 67th in the bike.

At the time she was riding a fairly old road bike that would be typical of what you would by in the $100-$200 price range at a big box retailer. (This bike suited her budget as she works at a local church). Shortly after the race we went out and bought a triathlon bike for $1500. Let me tell you, the difference between a $200 bike and a $1500 triathlon bike is amazing. The triathlon bike has clipped in pedals, arrow handlebars, completely arrow dynamic frame, racing gears/sprockets, etc.

While there are racers with $5000 bikes, the difference between a $200 generic bike and a $1500 triathlon bike is probably greater than the difference between a $1500 bike and a $5000 bike. (The $5000 bikes are just marginally lighter).

So what does this all have to do with websites?

If you want to compete, it requires both the right equipment, and it requires a lot of work. I see companies trying to boot strap it, they setup a free GeoCities website, or they buy Dreamweaver and find a cheap hosting solution, and they attempt to build their own website in an effort to save a few dollars.

I commend you for trying to build your own site. It's a lot of work, especially if you start doing your own HTML and your own scripting. It's like riding the $200 bike in a triathlon. You are peddling harder than you need to be, and probably not going as fast.

While technically you can ride pretty much any bike in a triathlon, the right equipment makes a huge difference.

If you're a winery or a wine retailer, there is plenty of "right equipment", including our platform, Inertia, eWinerySolutions, and others.

Having the right equipment won't guarantee you a win, but if you want to compete you need the right equipment, and it is well worth the money spent.