Turn Your Marketing Strategy Into a Helping Strategy
Building Trust and Loyalty as a Wine Brand During the Holiday Season
The holiday season is a high-stakes time for most brands, including those in the wine industry. It's easy to get swept up in the pressure to make sales and push promotions left and right. But what if, instead of solely focusing on marketing to sell, you shifted your mindset (and strategy) to genuinely helping your customers navigate this busy, often stressful time?
Why Helping Is the Best Marketing
When you focus on solving problems for your customers, rather than just selling to them, you’re doing two important things: you’re demonstrating that you understand and care about them and their needs, and you’re building a relationship that goes beyond a transaction. People remember and appreciate brands that made their lives easier or brought a little extra joy when it mattered most.
Here’s how you can shift your marketing to be more helpful this holiday season (and beyond):
1. Provide Gift-Giving Guidance
For many, buying the perfect gift can be stressful and feel like a burden, but you can help lighten that load and decrease decision fatigue in a couple of ways:
Holiday Gift Guides: Create a series of emails, blog posts, or Instagram carousels highlighting gifts for specific personalities. And note that these guides don’t *only* need to include your wine in them.
Personalized Recommendations: Offer a short quiz on your website to help people find the ideal wine gift. You could even host an “Ask the Sommelier” event on social media, where followers can ask your tasting hosts questions about wine pairings and gift ideas.
2. Educate on Holiday Wine Pairings
Wine can elevate a holiday meal, but many people feel overwhelmed when choosing the right bottles. Guide them:
Pairing Posts: Share content on your social media or email newsletter that suggests wine pairings for classic holiday dishes, from turkey and stuffing to latkes and brisket.
Downloadable Resources: Create downloadable holiday recipes, including suggested wine pairings that customers can keep on hand when planning their holiday feasts. It’s a practical resource that also keeps your brand top of mind.
3. Offer Tips for Stress-Free Entertaining
Many of your customers are likely hosting holiday gatherings, which can be both exciting and stressful. Position your brand as a helpful resource:
Easy Entertaining Tips: Share posts or stories with simple, actionable advice, like the best way to chill wine quickly, the best way to open sparkling wine, or how many bottles of wine to have for different-sized groups.
Time-Saving Hacks: Provide content on ways to simplify hosting, like meal prep tips or creating an easy cheese and wine board (you could even collaborate with a local cheesemonger on an Instagram post)
Bonus: Make the Shopping Experience Easy and Enjoyable
Being helpful also means making your customers’ buying journey as smooth as possible. Many businesses lose out on important sales because there is too much friction in their buying process. Here are some things to think about when assessing your buying experience and ways to make it even better:
Simplify Checkout: Ensure your online store is easy to navigate and mobile-friendly.
Meaningful Extras: Offer gift wrapping, pre-packaged gift sets, and/or handwritten notes to make holiday shopping effortless.
Holiday Shipping Deadlines: Proactively communicate important shipping dates and deadlines to avoid disappointment and stress. This shows you’re looking out for your customers.
Building Loyalty That Lasts Beyond the Holidays
By focusing on providing helpful information rather than a hard-sell marketing approach, you’ll both boost sales and strengthen your brand’s relationship with its community. Customers will remember the brand that made their holidays better, simpler, or more enjoyable—and they’ll be more likely to return when the festive season is over.