Inner Architect recently compiled findings from a 12-week project we completed a few weeks ago for a boutique Napa Valley winery. Using a CRM tool, we tracked all our efforts and measured the results. The rates in which we converted messages to visitors–unheard of in email or postal campaigns--speaks to the power of targeting, personalized messages, and most importantly, 1:1 marketing.
The Campaign
We were working with a small budget that afforded only an average of 7.5 hours of time per week. Our goal was to generate traffic to the tasting room during the week, Monday through Friday only. We recommended that we could be most effective with a special offer, so we ran with a complimentary tasting for 2 offer.
The Measured Results
A CRM approach to this project provided us with the ability to measure the results of our campaign. Anyone who says that you can’t measure the ROI of social media simply hasn’t thought out the measurement points and set up a disciplined system for tracking.
Our CRM reports tallied that we made 260 unique offers in the 12-week period. These 260 offers were not mass blasts into the general stream. They were targeted messages delivered via Twitter’s @mention feature to prospects we identified using Twitter search.
We sent 84 people to the tasting room, with an average of 3.4 people per visit. That’s a gross conversion rate of 32% generated from 25 users, or a net conversion rate of nearly 10%. Anyone who has experience measuring email or postal campaigns understands that these rates are untouchable in the “traditional” channels.
Key ROI Finding
By keeping track of our efforts, we were able to uncover a key indicator that a prospect will convert to a visitor. Comparing the response rates of the group that visited the tasting room to the non-visitor group enabled us to see that 84% of the visitors responded to our first tweet effort versus only 26% of the non-visitors.
What this possibly points to is an opportunity to increase ROI by investing time only in prospects who respond to our first tweet and shifting more time in searching for targeted propects.
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And what were the sales results of the 84 people who went to the tasting room? Folks go to retail locations all the time and don’t make a purchase.
Craig, unfortunately this particular winery was unable to support our tracking efforts on the sales side. At the very least consider the average sales, average wine club conversion and average lifetime value of every visitor that walks through the door. Add to that the valuable direct marketing list that has been created through 1:1 human contact and how those relationships can continue to support your sales efforts in all channels.
Susan
As we track the source of every visitor to our Tasting Salon here in Sonoma we are acutely aware that Source does matter, and matter significantly. A Yelp visitor (or Twitter for that matter) is very different than a customer referral, or someone came directly from a wine source from a sales standpoint.
Visitors that come to winery tasting rooms and don’t make purchases actually cost the winery money …
Craig you totally miss the point of the marketing effort. The goal was to drive traffic. If the traffic volume increases the sales will increase. That’s obvious. Yet, as with all marketing it only increases the opportunity for sales. After that the brand must sink or swim on its own merits.
Thank you, Craig C., for pointing out that the goal of the campaign was to drive traffic.
Craig H.,sounds like you’re tracking visitor sources more closely than most. I love that. If your plans include increasing your use of Twitter, I’d love to hear how those visitors convert verses other sources.
Generating traffic is important. However if the traffic generated is not purchasing on top of being brought in with a special offer be it comp tasting or reduced fee the winery takes a loss. There is time and effort put into generating the offer plus the time and effort of your sales rep during the customer visit. When retailers fail to take this into consideration that is a factor in their business failing.
The whole idea is getting bodies in the door. Now that you have traffic it’s up to your “energetic” tasting room staff to makes sales. Yes, there are those people who just aren’t buyers, however if you have the right people selling your wine, more traffic will mean more sales, period.
One key point not mentioned in our article was that the prospects were qualified as best as possible before delivering the incentive offer, which is a standard practice in most direct marketing campaigns. A prospect’s Twitter bio data and conversational stream provide much insight from which to make decisions about who to invest time and tasting expenses in.
Great information and post, Susan! I would love a copy of the White Paper!
Thank you, Sarah! I appreciate the feedback.
Great tips for Twitter marketing here! The @ mention is a powerful tool and really is the key technology at work in this case study. But as with anything else, the tasting room has their work cut out for them to convert traffic into buyers. I like this example over random drive-by traffic because of the pre-selling (aka, qualifying) that went into selecting and then educating the targeted recipients. Tasting rooms might prepare for ahead of time by creating a special offer for Twitter visitors if they mention a special code. Tracking is essential in that case, as always!
Hi Joey,
Thank you and all good points! We attempted to steer our winery partners into keycodes or tracking codes in order to begin measuring a value for each channel (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare) and in order to begin documenting lifetime value for each consumer. Unfortunately our experience has been that the industry is not ready to take on the task at hand.
The biggest sticking point remains the unfortunate complications involved in synching transactional databases with all other sales & marketing databases. Many of these databases do not “speak” to each other as they are supported by platforms that technologically can not or will not connect.
With all of that said, the other major challenge still remains getting the winery tasting staff to ask the right questions and then RECORD the responses from tasting room visitors. The challenge here remains when it is busy in the tasting room, no procedure is established to quickly and easily record visitors’ responses to questions ie. “Did you find us on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare?”
Until there is a synergy of efforts between a winery’s marketing dept (if they have one), the IT issues, and the Tasting room staff the current challenges to measure ROI of a channel and customer will remain an unanswered question. Thanks again!
dean