Looks aren’t everything: Why your website should still be the core of your online strategy

Originally published in WBM Wine Magazine – August 2011

A website should be one of the core assets at the centre of your brand’s communication mix. In fact, it’s imperative. However, gone are the days where a website is purely an online company ‘brochure’ outlining your products and services. Whilst these sites may look good initially, you won’t get you repeat visitors who are engaging and interacting with your brand. Online experts like Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse believe that a website should be the “hub” of any business’s marketing communications plan and be a ‘home base’ to which other platforms drive people to.

If you’re thinking about launching a new website here are a few tips to consider to ensure your website is effective and driving maximum returns for your business:

• Content is king – before you launch straight into the design you need to carefully consider your key messages and how you are going to create content that is compelling and useful to the end user. Coming up with a map of the content and a site map structure upfront is critical so you are clearly aware of what information needs to be incorporated. Too often businesses launch their websites as if it is a brochure and then never update it. Regular updates and information are imperative to ensure an on-going user experience. Allocating resources and time to continually update your website on a regular basis will reap results.
• Appropriate tone and language – it’s worth investing some money into the getting professional help to develop the content for your website once key messages have been identified. Professional copywriters can add a lot of value in getting your messages clear and to communicate your story. An outside perspective is often useful to ensure clarity.
• Take the time to write a brief – spending the time up front thinking about your objectives and writing a strong digital creative brief will give you a stronger and more effective outcome. This will help the designers to understand exactly what you want to achieve and benchmarks for them to provide the best solutions. Key questions to consider might be:
•   Do you want to have transactions on the website? What look and feel are you thinking of? Who is your key target market? What images need to be incorporated? What words are important for search engine optimisation? All these elements need to be part of an agency brief.

• It’s worth also looking around at competitor websites (both inside and outside of your business category) and giving your agency or designer some insight into what you like and dislike about these sites and why. The creative process can often be extremely subjective so it’s useful for designers to understand your style.
• A flashy design is not always best – Some of the best websites I’ve seen and interacted with recently are actually premium WordPress themes allowing you to keep content up to date and giving the brand a consistent look and feel but without the cost of a custom build. You don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money on a website to always achieve a great outcome.
• The right web partner is fundamental to success - Consider whom you are working with and what your relationship is like, as these people will ultimately be the ones you need for support and update in the future. A cheap price doesn’t mean you will get the best of service, and furthermore an expensive price doesn’t mean you will get the best of quality. Spend the time understanding what the costs are, both upfront and ongoing.
• Integrate relevant plug-ins to keep consumers coming back – As much as we’d like to think people will regularly visit our website, you need to give consumers a reason to keep returning. This means incorporating a way for people to sign up – either via e-newsletter updates driving them back to your website for more information, RSS feeds and social media links. You might have the best looking website in the world but if no one is visiting it then it is worthless.
• Consider the old age battle of .HTML vs Flash.  These days there are plenty of alternative software programs that mimic flash are viewable in all browsers. Flash can’t be seen on lots of devices so whilst it may look good when shown to you on a PC, it’s not a great user experience when they can’t see your content from the Internet via a Smartphone or via ipads.
•  Domain name ownership – search for the domain name and think broader than your local market. Don’t just look for a .com.au domain name if you’re based in Australia – see who owns the global domain names and for a small investment it’s worth purchasing others and redirecting them to your own site so you control your domain in key markets.
• Have patience and be realistic – Make sure you establish objectives and conduct appropriate research before rushing in and getting a site built. Think long term and not just about your immediate needs as it will cost you more in the long run to keep adding to a site when you could have longer term functionality built upfront that can be turned on at a future date.
• Track and measure – free analytics tools like Google Analytics will allow you to measure how people are interacting with your site so you can optimise and refine.

Most importantly, continue to think about how you’ll use your website as part of your ongoing communications plan and provide relevant and timely information to the various stakeholders who are visiting it. This might man having a separate section for the trade or media with links where they can find useful information. Think outside the box and continue to challenge how you can engage your audience and create a memorable experience with your brand.

And the #pinotsmackdown title goes to… New Zealand!

Pinot Noir lovers all over the world united last Thursday 18^th August for the second annual #pinotsmackdown. It was country vs country in a flurry of tweets that sought to identify the best Pinot Noir producing region or nation. Pinot Noir lovers used twitter as a medium to taste and tweet about a range of Pinot Noir, many at specific events being hosted to allow consumers and the trade to sample different wines and then used a regional hashtag to vote.

Whilst there’s always a competitive rivalry between Australia and New Zealand, and a win for Australia would have been nice (especially given the recent Rugby Union results), it was exciting to see the New Zealand wine industry, spurred on by @Jayson_Bryant  and @nzwine, get behind a social media event and collaboratively come together to talk about the great Pinot Noir wines being produced from numerous New Zealand wine regions. According to organizer Ed Thralls, the votes were super close with only 23 votes separating New Zealand from Oregon who came in at a close second followed by California and then Australia in fourth place. Full results posted here . Well done to New Zealand wineries!

I discovered and subsequently have sought out and purchased a number of different Pinot Noir wines that I tried on the day with the notable Australian stand outs from my perspective being the Hoddles Creek Pinot Noir 2010  (exceptional value), Heemskerk Tamar Valley Pinot Noir 2010, Tapanappa Foggy Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009 and the Dalrymple Pinot Noir 2010  from Tasmania. Whilst direct sales may not always correlate immediately from these varietals days, it certainly raised awareness of some of the brands and regions producing great Pinot Noir globally.

From the Tweetreach tracker that I set up two days prior to the event, the final numbers taken on 20^th were as follows:

• Reach – 451,404
• Exposure – 9,051,004 impressions
• 5,237 tweets from
• 1,092 different contributors

There’s always debate about what these numbers mean and different reporting systems will show various results. What is important to note is that when a global community comes together, brands who leverage can help to raise awareness and trial of their product.

What you can take out of this – Learnings for future events:

Unlike days like #chardonnay day and #cabernetday – we always expected #pinotsmackdown to have a more specialized audience, but that does not mean it wasn’t worthwhile to get involved. Some learnings for wineries new to these sorts of tweets ups to consider:

• There’s value in participating – Even submitting a sample, it can help to facilitate trial and future purchase of your wine. You never know who will turn up at a tasting to try your product and comment and there’s often cases of new distributions being gained after positive feedback from varietal days like #pinotsmackdown. It’s also a good way to build a two way dialogue to get some feedback on what people think.

• Spread the word to your own followers and get them involved - Don’t just leave it up to the venue to promote different tastings being held, help to build an audience and promote to your audience (or twitter followers) where people can go to get involved. These days are not about a specific brand, but an opportunity to tell a varietal or category story and the success depends on how the wine community comes together.

• Host a Tweet Up at your venue – those venues who got behind the initiative and organized a function, promoting to their own audience well in advance found benefits. If you’re a retailer, bar or winery, why not consider hosting one of these events and getting people along to try a range of different wines.

• Use the opportunity to build a community – following the twitter stream of tweets using the relevant hashtag highlights wineries, influencers and consumers who are highly involved in the topic. It’s an opportunity to find new people to follow and interact with. Start to engage in a dialogue with them and get to know new people

• Prepare in advance – those brands and venues who thought about how they would leverage the opportunity were the ones that got the best results. With so many upcoming events, think about which ones are relevant to participate in and start to think about how you can engage your sales team, distributors, and consumers. This may mean including in your next eNewsletter, organizing special packs to sell to consumers or talking to some of your customers and helping them get involved.

Get ready for the next events:

If you enjoyed the fun of the #pinotsmackdown, there’s more in store over the next few months – get involved in:

• Cabernet Day – 1 September – http://cabernet.eventbrite.com/
• Grenache Day  – 24 September – http://www.grenachesymposium.com/GrenacheNews/
• Rose Revolution Kick Off: 10 November - http://rosewinerevolution.com/

Related Articles

• All the run down from the host Ed Thralls of WineTonite

• Pinot Unearthed Wrap up of what tasted

New to virtual wine tastings? Here’s how to participate

A number of virtual wine tastings will occur online over the next few weeks and there’s lots of opportunities to discover new and exciting wines: #pinotsmackdown (18^th Aug), De Bortoli Bella Riva Ustream Tasting / (25 Aug),  #cabernetday (1 Sept), Best’s Great Western Virtual Tasting (8 Sept),  Grenache Day (25 Sept) and excited to announce that the Rose Revolution  will kick off again on 10 November.

Those of us who have been tasting and tweeting for a while know how these events work, but if you’re new to virtual wine tastings or have never been brave enough to talk about wine online, here’s a few tips to get you started with answers to some of the most common questions I receive:

Q: What do I talk about?

A; There’s no rules on what you need to discuss – it could be about how the wine tastes, the region it’s sourced from, if there’s a food that the wine is going well with, or ask the winemakers a question directly if you have questions. Some people take photos of where they are and get some photos into the stream of activity so there’s a visual reference for others to see what’s happening or if there’s a line up of wines to sample talk about what your favourite selections were.

If you follow the stream of activity close enough you’ll often pick up links to videos or online content that winemakers are sending out – it may be that you watch these and come back with comments or let people know your thoughts after tasting the wine. It’s all about participating in the discussion.

Think of the event as a big dining table where you don’t know everyone but you’re coming together for an event and find common things of interest to chat about.

The key thing to make sure you include is the relevant hashtag so that people can see the thread of your conversations.

Q; I don’t know much about wine, can I still participate?

A: Absolutely – the whole purpose of these events is to help people discover more about wine and have some fun along the way. Those people participating are often very passionate about wine, so if you don’t know something or understand, ask them to explain – that’s the value of sharing on this online forum.

Q: I am not on twitter, can I still get involved?

Most of the action will occur via twitter, but you can still get involved with facebook posts, posting videos or checking in to venues participating if you are using something like facebook places or four square.

If you’re at home and have access to internet, you can watch the activity by putting in the hashtag on sites like www.twitterfall.com, www.kurrently.com or searching for the hashtag on programs like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or Seesmic.

There’s no set rules for these online tastings and one of the core objectives is to help people discover more about wine – new varietals, different regions and styles, brands you may not have come across before.

Hope to see you online tasting and tweeting. Keen to hear about your favourite wine discoveries.

Cheers

Time for a Pinot Noir Party… it’s Pinot Smackdown: 18 August 2011

It’s not just a celebration of Pinot Noir, this is nation against nation to see who is making the world’s best Pinot Noir.  Now in it’s second year the Pinot Smackdown is a concept brought about by Ed Thralls from Wine Tonite in the USA and has evolved to become a global event. More information on http://pinotsmackdown.eventbrite.com/

Did you know Australia had some of the world’s oldest Pinot Noir Vines so it’s an ideal opportunity to get into this smackdown and vote for your favourite Australian Pinot Noir producers.  There’s some great examples of Pinot coming out of many Australian Wine regions:Geelong, Adelaide Hills, Mornington Peninsula, Tasmania, the Yarra Valley, just to name a few – or for our New Zealand friends, why not get some Central Otago or Marlborough Pinot out and join in the fun. International distributors selling Pinot in Australia are also welcome to submit samples to the tastings and get involved so we can see a true comparison of styles across the world.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED:

Like all good tweet ups there will be a virtual tasting from 7.30-9pm AEST on 18^th August where we’re encouraging people to open some Pinot Noir and taste along with #pinotsmackdown. Send out your tweets with the hashtag as well as the country of origin of the wine and these will be assessed on a global scale.

Key regional tags include:

• #AU – Australia
• #NZ – New Zealand
• #OR – Oregon
• #CA – California
• #WA – Washington
• #NY – New York
• #FR – France
• #IT – Italy
• #DE – Germany (Deutchland)
• #EU – Europe, beyond France, Germany, Italy
• #CN – Canada
• #CH – Chile
• #AR – Argentina
• #SA – South Africa
• #WD – World, as in none previously listed

For example, if you are drinking a Pinot from the Yarra Valley, simply tag the end of your tweets with: #PinotSmackdown #AU. Given how many regions globally are producing great Pinot, we’re keeping it top level but keen to also hear favourites from within Australia.

Within Australia, there are also a number of venues hosting events where you can go along and sample some of our finest Pinot Noir.

Sydney

Where: Coast Roof Top Bar and Restaurant

The Roof Terrace, Cockle Bay Wharf,

Darling Harbour, Sydney, NSW 2000

Time: 4- 6.00pm

Wine Dinner will also be held following the tasting – $60 per person – spots limited. Bookings via reservations@coastrestaurant.com.au or (02) 9267 6700 (contact Johnny)

18.08.11 PinotSmackdown Menu

Adelaide

Samples being sent to The Qwoff Boys – see labels below

Brisbane – Organised by The Wine Punter - see details

Wine Experience

150 Baroona Rd,

Rosalie, Brisbane

When: 5pm kick off

Canberra

Lark Hill Winery

Cnr Joe Rocks and Bungendore Road

Bungendore NSW 2621

When – 4-6.00pm

Melbourne

The Botanical

168 Domain Road, South Yarra

5.00pm -8.00pm

$15 per head (with $10 per head going directly to Treasure Chest Charity)

RSVP  03 86444040 or events@winestyleonline.com.au

More information visit the Wine Style Online Website 

Tasmania

Bring bottle of Pinot Noir and a glass

From 6pm

WINERIES WANTING TO PARTICIPATE?

We’d love to see as many Australian wineries involved as possible.  It’s easy to submit samples by using the Pinot-Smackdown-Address-Labels-11Aug and getting your wines out to venues. Help us spread the word to your own consumers so the Southern Hempishere gets to know this event and also participates! Other things you can do to get involved:

• Spread the word – we’re relying on you to help build momentum. This is a community initiative to spread the word about great Australian/ NZ Pinot Noir so success relies on how well we can leverage and co-promote
• Involve your database – it’s not just those in the wine industry who love Pinot – tell your staff, customers, and
• Raid the Cellar and Open Pinot on 18 August and get involved from home.

Hope you’ll get involved and celebrate some of the fine Pinot Noir being produced. Any questions, please let me know below. I’ll update this blog post and the address labels as more venues come on board.