Vin65 Blog

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.

Do Online Searches Affect Tasting Room Sales?

FutureNow had a blog post yesterday talking about online searches affecting offline sales... while the study they pointed to were about consumer electronics and about pet food purchases, I was wondering how online searches affected offline sales in the wine industry?

On our recent company trip to the Okanagan wine country, 4 of the 5 wineries we visited, we chose because they came from recommendations we received online (specifically from our Facebook group). I can't imagine an out of town guest planning a trip to Napa or to the Okanagan, or to any 'wine country' without doing research online first.

So if out of town people are conducting research online to plan their trip to wineries in your area, what does your website need to do to attract them?

How to create a raving fan

Is having a great wine enough? I don't think it is. I know lots of wineries with great wine, but I'm not a raving fan. 

When there are so many brands, how do you create a raving fan for your brand? How do you reach through the clutter and show your passion and convey your story?

I've been thinking of wineries where I'm a raving fan and why do I like them more than anyone else.

1. Obviously you have to have great wine.  However I have tasted great wine and never joined the club or become a raving fan, so a great product is only part of the equation. 
2. You have to create a great experience. At a winery, often times the tasting room staff make all the difference for user experience. Did the staff really connect with me? Can I feel their passion? Do I know the brand story? 
3. You have to deliver well. Recently I've seen some pretty creative packaging when ordering wine online. From simple additions like a branch from a vine (to help me connect with the vineyard), to having a small jar of jam included in our shipment. Some wineries are really starting to share the story of who they are with me through their packaging.

Too often companies execute well in a few areas (such as making a great product), and then settle for mediocrity in the little things like packaging, delivery, websites, etc, and in my opinion, that’s when the customer remains a customer rather than a raving fan. 

Every touchpoint with the customer either builds or takes away from them becoming this fan.

Tonite I started to look inwards at Vin|65 and when it comes to our own customers how do we create raving fans? We have a great product (which I'm very passionate about) however I'm not sure if we are always delivering the greatest experiences, or if we are settling for mediocrity on the little things. Do we need to improve our sales, our training, our marketing material. Where are all the touch points, and how do we ensure a first class experience at each of those? How can we communicate our passion more with our customers? We don't want to deliver a mediocre experience... we want to develop raving fans. We also want the same for you.

Does Your E-commerce Site Add Value or Headaches?

You’d think by now someone trying to sell something on the internet would remember while setting up their ecommerce site, how frustrating some shopping carts and forms can be.

I host a group on Facebook called Okanagan Wines, each Friday three other guys and myself taste a one varietal from two different Okanagan wineries. We realized we needed to order wine directly from the wineries because of the selection, or lack thereof, in the liquor stores. I started out by visiting wineries websites to order wine and I ended up with a headache.

I was looking to buy only one bottle but the minimums were either 6 or 12, so that they could put it in a case. Is this convenient for me or the winery? Why can’t you allow me to buy whatever quantity the customer wants?! If it’s not a full case just charge the same shipping amount as a full case. I went through more than 20 different websites trying to buy wine and after a while of searching I found two sites that would let me buy one bottle. (Is it me or this strange? I’m trying to buy one bottle of wine but because of their e-commerce sites I can’t).

The second website that we ordered one bottle from had an error during the check out both times I tried to order it.

The forms were a huge part of why the user experience was so terrible. Most of the forms were lengthy and asking for more information necessary for sale. On several site I needed to sign up for an account in order to purchase the wine only to find out later that the minimum as a case of six. This should be clearly outlined before I have to sign up.

Are Okanagan Wineries serious about e-commerce on their websites? If you have an e-commerce site here are a few tips:

1. Easy navigation
2. Logical product categories
3. Clear pricing
4. Appropriate functionality – you might want a:
   • Search box
   • Minimal Clicks to Order
   • Optional Registration
5. Simple checkout process
6. Error-proof payment system

What do you want to see out of your e-commerce site? Have any horror stories from websites you’ve bought from, or tried to buy from?

Out Of Office / Wine Tasting Trip

It's staff road trip time. We will be out of the office Thursday July 9 / Friday July 10th. We are headed to the Shuswap (in British Columbia / Canada) - the long way through the Okanagan Valley, stopping at a number of wineries, with a final destination at Waterway Houseboats for a weekend of Houseboating.

I'm sure we will be putting winery reviews (and maybe some pictures) up on the Okanagan Wines facebook group.

If you need to get a hold of us - it's best to send us an email - but if it's an emergency try one of the numbers below:

Brent - 778.240.4155 - brent@vin65.com
Jason - 778.241.7806 - jason@vin65.com
Peter - 604.615.5494 - peter@vin65.com 
Andrew - 604.613.5343 - andrew@vin65.com

Are you breaking up with your website?

Have you lost the passion? Do you feel like you have lost touch with your website, and somehow it just isn’t living up to its potential. Could it be selling more wine, signing up more wine club members? Are you disappointed that things just haven’t worked out the way you thought they would. Everyone said your website would be a huge contributor, but what happened?

Typically the web sites we work on have a pretty familiar live cycle, and it goes something like this:

1. Winery builds momentum to launch site or redesign current site.
2. New site launches with contemporary design and fan fare.
3. For a while the site is seen as an “integrated team player”, some wine club members sign up and some bottles are sold
4. Over time as staff move on and key personnel switch positions the web site gets taken for granted and is seen as a liability to the winery.
5. Winery recognizes that something is wrong and starts to plan and build momentum to launch a new site or redesign current site.

I think there are alot things that happen to cause a winery to lose touch with their website, and granted sometimes a site does need a visual refresh. If you have a web site only to find that it isn’t all it is cracked up to be...here are some tips to making the relationship last for the long term.

1. Clearly define what measurable tasks your web site is going to do like sell wine or sign up members
2. Understand how much those completed tasks are worth to your winery. Does the web site save your staff time and money, is there real money being made on your site. Give the web site credit where it is due and include that in the reporting.
3. Calculate your return on investment. If you spent $5000 on your web site you should be able to measure how much your web site has returned on that investment based on the measurable tasks. If your web site only makes $100 a month then how much should you spend? If it makes $50,000 then how much should you spend?
4. Measure and tweak - the part hardly anyone does. If your web site is making a monetary contribution to the bottom line of your winery you will want to increase that over time. You want your potential customers to be successful when they come to your site to buy wine or sign up to the wine club. The only way you are going to get more successful at converting your website visitors is to continually refine your site. Understanding how visitors navigate your site and where they leave and why they do what they do isn’t magic, it is just hard work and continuously measuring. Equipped with that knowledge your website will make your winery more money.

Like all successful relationships, the one with your web site will only be realized if you put in the work and make it a priority. A web site is different from a brochure or mailer in that it is a dynamic media piece that can be changed and refined continually to do its job better.