I’ve always been a data-driven marketer, so I’m constantly looking for new insights to help my friends in the wine industry. That’s why I was thrilled to see SimpleTexting’s latest report crossing my desk: “50+ must-know texting & SMS marketing statistics in 2024.” As a world leader in SMS alcohol messaging, SimpleTexting’s annual survey of 1400 consumers, business owners, and marketing professionals always includes hidden gems directly relevant to the wine industry. The first result that caught my eye this year was the enormous impact SMS has on digital marketing success. BOTTOM LINE: If ..read more

Welcome to 2024! If you have a strange feeling, “We’re not in Kansas anymore,” you’re not alone. Consumer tastes have changed, new competitors are multiplying fast, and DTC wineries are now feeling the pain of declining sales and higher costs. So, after the golden age of rinse-and-repeat digital marketing, it’s time to adapt. The Untapped Potential of SMS Wine Marketing One proven way for any winery to adapt is by engaging their customers with text messaging. Text messaging has already eclipsed voice and email to become the most widely used communication method in the U.S. And since fosteri ..read more

For better or worse, 2023 was a stunning year for DTC wineries. Since so much has already been written about our challenges, we're spreading holiday cheer by focusing on the most positive trends we saw in 2023. Topping our list is SMS wine marketing. Why? Because wine consumers and merchants love it. And since most wineries haven't tried SMS, text messaging is one of the few affordable marketing moves DTC merchants can make in 2024. After decades of “rinse-and-repeat” DTC marketing, 2023 was an eye-opening year many wine merchants If you crave DTC marketing data this holiday season, savor the ..read more

Experienced wine merchants know holiday sales drive most of their DTC revenue.  What’s not as widely known is that a simple summertime routine can double the holiday sales of any DTC wine merchant later this year. Leading luxury brands already use this proven tactic to personalize customer journeys that maximize sales. And now it’s available to any wine merchant looking to boost holiday sales in 2023. Use a simple DTC marketing trick to double your holiday wine sales this year What’s the Trick? If you can print a small sign and display it where you pour wine, send one email to your list ..read more

The unofficial flag of DTC marketing — circa 2019 I once asked a pilot what it's like to fly a plane. The answer was "hours of boredom interrupted by brief moments of terror." Over the last decade, many wine merchants could say the same about piloting their DTC marketing. Following the lead of other industries, wine merchants developed a repeatable success formula, neatly summarized by Angelsmith, and adopted as the unofficial flag of an entire generation of DTC wine marketers. During the "rinse & repeat" era, wine marketing became boring and lucrative. Then our brief moments of terror ca ..read more

PreferencePro™ SMS Wine Marketing now includes AI Assist, a new copywriting tool that helps wine merchants quickly create effective text messages using ChatGPT. PreferencePro users can now prompt ChatGPT to compose multiple drafts of text messages expertly written to achieve specific marketing goals. Trained by SimpleTexting on the best practices of SMS messaging, the text messages recommended by AI Assist can be used as-is or edited at will before launch. Quickly write amazing texts supporting any goals using PreferencePro™ SMS Wine Marketing By building ChatGPT directly into the SMS wine ma ..read more

Maybe you’ve heard the news about DTC wine sales.  It’s not good. Word on the street is that visits are down, club cancellations are up, and DTC wineries are looking for answers.  Some pundits blame wineries for targeting an aging demographic, while others blame economic uncertainty. But it seems they all agree the best way for DTC wineries to survive a downturn is by better engaging existing wine club members. “Focus on retention as your number one goal.  Keeping current members is a very efficient use of your resources and ultimately less costly than finding new members.” — Wi ..read more

It seems there was never a dull moment for wine merchants using SMS messaging in 2022. First, telecom providers changed their rules, making it harder for wineries to text customers. Then, many of the most popular SMS vendors abandoned the alcohol industry altogether, leaving hundreds of U.S. wineries and breweries searching for new SMS partners.  But despite these challenges, alcohol merchants texting their opt-in customers last year were richly rewarded with record-breaking sales and marketing results outperforming any other communication channel used in the wine industry. ABOUT THIS R ..read more

It's a fact… Despite the record-breaking sales and marketing results posted by wineries using text messaging, fewer than 10% of U.S. wine merchants used this affordable, ubiquitous communication tool in 2022. Perhaps there's merit to taking a "wait-and-see" approach with many wine marketing opportunities. But what if that's not the case with SMS wine marketing? What if early adopters are the only ones who can reap the benefits of text messaging? I ask these questions because the latest research on SMS marketing shows that the window for generating game-changing success might close much sooner ..read more

Make this your best wine marketing year yet by adding SMS messaging to your mix in 2023. Over the last year, a small group of U.S. wineries discovered a revolutionary way to sell more wine while delighting their guests by offering an easy way to stay in touch using text messaging. With open rates 4-times better and click-thru rates 7-times better than email, wine merchants using text messaging reported game-changing results, with SMS wine marketing yielding 32-times better results than email in 2022. To put these results in perspective, a small wine merchant with just 300 SMS contacts can ou ..read more