Documenting Harvest
And how to use that content across your marketing channels
Harvest season is officially here, and while it’s one of the busiest times of the year for wineries, it’s also one of the most content-rich moments you’ll have—not only for your social media channels but across your marketing.
Today, I’ll break down how you can leverage the unique opportunities that harvest provides to create content for social media, your email list, blog, website, and beyond.
1. Social Media: The Magic of Harvest
Harvest offers endless content opportunities that are perfect for social media. Most of my clients’ audiences love to see the behind-the-scenes of how their wines get from grape to glass, particularly on video.
Actionable Ideas:
Behind-the-Scenes Stories: Document the daily activities of your vineyard & winery during harvest. Use Instagram Stories and Reels to show everything from picking, sorting, pressing, punch-downs, heck, even cleaning. Even if you think it’s boring, your audience probably won’t.
Staff Spotlights: People love to see other people on social media. Get as many photos and videos of your team members working as possible.
Time-Lapse Videos: Capture time-lapse footage of key moments like sorting, picking, and tank digs. Here’s an example.
B-Roll: Aim to get 2-3 videos of each task you do. I recommend getting one close up shot, one medium shot, and one far away shot of each “scene” so that you have options when editing your videos later. Here’s a more detailed explanation of this concept.
A Day in the Life: A Day in the Life videos are extremely well-received on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Do a voiceover of all that B-roll you captured! I recommend starting the video with “Come with me on a typical day of harvest.” Here’s an example of how this could look.
Pro Tip I: Sort your photos and videos into folders so you can easily find what you need later. I typically do this by date but you could also sort by activity, grape variety, whatever.
Pro Tip II: If you have multiple team members and if all of your team members have iPhones, you can create a shared iPhone album where your team can drop the videos and photos they capture throughout the day. If they don’t all have iPhones or if that feels too clunky to you, set up a shared Google Drive or Dropbox and ensure everyone has the app on their phone to easily upload to.
2. Email Marketing: Take your biggest fans deeper behind-the-scenes
Email is a powerful tool to connect directly with your most loyal customers. Harvest season gives you a compelling reason to reach out to your email list with longer-form, valuable content.
Actionable Ideas:
Harvest Updates: Send weekly or bi-weekly emails to your subscribers during harvest with updates on what’s happening in the vineyard and winery. Include personal anecdotes, fun facts, or challenges your team is facing.
Feature a “Grape of the Week”: Introduce subscribers to the different grape varietals being harvested, explaining how each one impacts the final wine. If you have the current vintage of the wine you’re picking that week, include a link to it at the bottom of the email.
Wine Previews: Tease next year’s wine releases by showing your audience how the grapes are being processed during harvest.
Pro Tip: Link to your social media posts in your emails to give that content longer legs.
3. Blogging: Keep a Harvest Diary
Long-form content like blogging can help you drive traffic to your website through SEO and keywords and establish your brand as an authority in the wine world.
Actionable Ideas:
Harvest Diary Series: Write a series of blog posts that chronicle the stages of harvest, from the first pick to the end of fermentation.
Deep Dive on Varietals: Create detailed posts about each grape varietal harvested. Share tasting notes, what makes it special, and how it contributes to the final wine.
The Life Cycle of a Grape: Write an educational piece that takes readers from grape to glass, explaining the journey from harvest to bottling.
Employee Stories: Feature stories from your team members who are hands-on during harvest. This adds a personal touch and gives a face to the hard work behind each bottle.
Pro Tip: Include links to your current wines or offerings at the bottom of your posts to help drive sales.
4. Website: Enrich Your Digital Presence
Harvest season is the perfect time to gather content that will refresh and update your website.
Actionable Ideas:
Update Your Vineyard and Winery Photos: Use harvest season to capture professional-quality photos of your vineyard and winemaking process to update your website visuals.
Harvest Video Feature: Create a highlight reel of the harvest season and place it on your “About” or “Our Story” page.
New Wine Pages: Include some behind-the-scenes photos or videos on the product pages for your new wines once they are released.
Pro Tip: Include a link to your social media posts about how your wines are made on your Trade/Media/Resources pages. I’ve heard from multiple wine buyers & sommeliers that they often get a ton of information to share with their guests and customers from Trade pages and social media pages—imagine a sommelier showing your social media account to a guest to show them how the wine they just bought is made!
5. Tasting Room: Elevating the In-Person Experience
Even during the busiest time of year, don’t forget about the experiences you can create in your tasting room that will enhance the customer experience!
Actionable Ideas:
Harvest Tours: If you can (and if it won’t completely piss off your winemaking team😅) consider offering winery tours during harvest. My clients have told me that their tours during the harvest season often yield bigger sales and more wine club sign ups than at any other time of the year.
Interactive Displays: Create a display in the tasting room that shows off harvest-related items like grape clusters or winemaking tools. One of my clients will always bring a couple of clusters into the tasting room on the day they are processing to share with guests.
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to capture customer testimonials, photos, or videos of these experiences! Your guests’ reactions and feedback can be used in future marketing efforts.
Conclusion: Harvest Season is a Content Goldmine
Harvest season is one of the most visually exciting and story-rich times of year for your winery. By using this time wisely, you can create an entire year’s worth of content that will engage your audience on every platform. Trust me, future you will be stoked.
Need help capturing this content? I am available for photoshoots! Though I am based out of the Santa Ynez Valley, I would be stoked to travel to you.
Super glad I came across this!