Metrics

Our survey showed that nine out of ten wineries were not even aware of their click-through rate, and two out of three did not track their open rates. Sending out email campaigns without tracking critical email metrics is a fundamental error as it blinds the winery to a wide range of factors that can be utilized to improve conversions and sales. An open rate is essentially the difference between the emails that are being read and the ones that are ignored and trashed. Testing from one campaign to the next and tracking this critical metric can provide invaluable information on improving your email marketing efficiencies. Once an email is opened, the desired effect is that a click on a link leading to your landing page is carried out. The basic principle of email marketing is to get your prospects to become your clients, so analyzing what percentage of your emails turn into trips to your website is also critical. Contrary to popular belief in the winery industry, not every conversion equals a bottle of wine going out the shipping dock. If a customer fills out a contact form, an online survey, a referral, or any action that is considered valuable to your sales efforts, that counts as a positive conversion point. Individual campaign metrics only tell part of the story, especially in a strongly seasonal and cyclical industry as wine. Reviewing your metrics over at least a year or two can help you identify ways to accentuate the peaks and flatten out the troughs.