The Long Game
The ol' adage: marketing is a marathon not a sprint
Wine is a slow beverage.
Grapevines take years to mature enough to bear enough fruit to make them profitable. Fermentation can’t be rushed. Some wines need a decade or more in the cellar before they’re ready to open. And, at least for me, the enjoyment of wine itself is slow. As the only person in my household who drinks wine, I can take a couple of days to finish a bottle.
My point is that nothing about wine is quick, so why do we expect our marketing to be any different?
Recently, I finally made it to a pizza joint in Cayucos that I'd been meaning to try for a while. Pie in the Sky Pizza had followed me on Instagram a few years back. I was curious, but Cayucos is about an hour north of me, so I never quite made the time. I followed them back anyway, wanting to keep tabs on them, and, because they posted consistently (AND because the comments and tags made it clear that people love their pies), they stayed top of mind. Last month, I finally made the trek up the coast to get a slice. ‘Twas yummy! And the location (right on the beach) was great.
Something similar happened last year with Dang Burger in Carpinteria. They followed me, I followed back because they looked delicious (I fucking LOVE a smash burger), and their consistent posting kept them on my radar until I was able to swing through on my way home from LA one day.
Both of these restaurants played the long game. They got on my radar, and, through consistent posting, they stayed there until I was able to visit.
This is what I think wineries need to be doing more of, because your customers’ timelines are not your timeline.
Someone might discover your winery today and not be in a position to visit, buy, or join right away (or even for a couple of years), but that doesn’t mean your marketing isn’t working. Beyond my own anecdotal evidence, I’ve seen it play out for my clients. People who followed us on Instagram years ago finally getting a chance to come out and visit.
The Rule of Seven
There’s a well-known principle in marketing that it takes roughly seven1 exposures to a brand’s message before a customer takes action. That means someone might see your Instagram post, read your email, see your wine on a restaurant list, hear about you from a friend, and still not be ready to buy, until one day, they are. The thing to keep in mind is that the job of your marketing isn’t always to immediately convert. No matter what, the point of marketing is to keep showing up so that when someone is ready, you’re the first brand they think of.
This is why being consistent matters so much, especially on social media.
Social media may be fast, but connection isn’t.
The accounts that tend to build the most loyal communities of people ready to buy aren’t the ones just chasing trends or trying to go viral (though those things certainly help!). The businesses that get tangible results from social media are the ones that show up week after week and give their audience a reason to keep engaging and following.
I’ve said it before: Virality is not a strategy.
Virality is unpredictable and difficult to reproduce, and although going viral may result in new followers, if you don’t have something to back that virality up, you’re unlikely to keep them.
This is also why I don’t recommend giveaways as a long-term social media growth strategy, by the way. Yes, a giveaway can generate a lot of followers fast. But those followers aren’t necessarily buyers, and they rarely stick around. They’re often people who just really like free stuff (hi, it’s me). When the giveaway ends and they find out they didn’t win, they unfollow. Moreover, these people who are associating you with free stuff are very unlikely to actually purchase from you.
Long story long, these vanity metrics feel really good in the moment, but numbers that don’t convert to customers aren’t giving you the results you ultimately want.
So, How Can You Play the Long Game?
Post consistently on social media (reminder: consistency could be one post per week or five times per week, but you have to maintain that cadence long term; otherwise, what’s the fucking point of this whole conversation?).
Keep sending monthly or weekly emails
Pour at niche events and collect email addresses
You need to have faith that the people you communicate with regularly will show up when they are ready.
Trust is built slowly, and community takes time (alright, bring it home, Heather), just like wine (insert jazz hands here).
Want to help fuel me through the next several posts? Buy me a beverage (or a pizza from Pie in the Sky)! Writing is thirsty work after all!
6/3/26 | Edited to add this correction: My friend Barbara Gorder of Undisclosed Location rightly pointed out that it can take 7-15 exposures for a customer to take action on your marketing efforts, not just seven.
Love this insight and couldn't agree more! It's easy to lose sight of marketing efforts if they're not immediately providing results, but so true that it's a long game and we never know the impact our consistency makes when the timing is right. Anther great piece, Heather!