Are Your Communications Skills Up to Scratch?
Posted on Tue 21st Jul 2015 at 12:40
Just the fact that there is a Digital Wine Communications Conference should tell you that communications skills are a serious part of doing business for the 21st century wine industry.
Robinson argued that we are in a ‘golden age’ of wine, whereby the knowledge and appreciation of wine by the public is at an all-time high. This coincides with a time when the communication channels available have never been greater. As well as traditional methods such as printed media and talking to customers face to face, you also have opportunities through your website, blogs and social media channels, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Helpfully, given that our industry is based upon the senses, these channels are optimised for photos and videos of your products. As Hamish Nicklin, Director of Sales at Google UK, observed during his presentation, the most successful videos on YouTube (now owned by Google), are for a niche audience - so videos that tell stories about wine, and inspire people to share these stories with their friends, are very likely to be a hit, check out our pilot film here for a taster of what we’ll be bringing you this year. With more opportunities to communicate than ever before, however, it’s a good time to ask yourself if you know how to communicate correctly to your clients. Here are some points to consider.
- Know your audience The key thing about communications is tailoring your message to your audience. If you know that some customers won’t consider buying vintage wine, for example, there’s no point sending them emails with this content. Similarly, if you know they like to browse online but buy in store, then offering printable coupons for discounts is going to be much more effective than online voucher codes. As Master of Wine Justin Howard-Sneyd informed the Conference, furthermore, customers prefer stories to dry facts about wine. Instead of sending them plain facts about your products, therefore, why not publish details of a particular vineyard you buy from, like Stobi, and tell its story? Read more about Justin's comments here.
- Know your medium There are huge number of media channels available, and you need to do your research and find out which ones will best suit your business. Will a Pinterest board full of juicy wine photos help your sales, or should you focus on posting interesting content on Twitter? Remember that, although it’s free to sign up to these sites, it does take a lot of time and effort to build your audience, so it’s worth concentrating on the best ones for your business, rather than trying to do them all at once.
- Decide on a tone of voice Do you know how to talk to your customers, and do you keep this consistent? Whether you’re laid back and chatty or formal and authoritative, you need to decide on a tone of voice for your brand, and ensure this is consistent across all your communications. Above all, don’t patronise people!
- Communicate regularly For communications to work, customers have to feel appreciated and, especially over social media, feel like they are your friends. Regular communications helps this, as does replying to any comments, feedback, likes or retweets promptly.
- Don’t forget face to face Most wine sales are still carried out face to face, so even while you’re putting effort into online communications it’s important not to neglect your in-store activities. Wine and food pairing events are popular, why not host an evening where your customers can come in and discover the full potential of the wines you offer? Take a look at a recent wine tasting event we supported at Wine Rack for some inspirational ideas!