Undoubtedly, you want your brand to stand out to today’s wine consumers.
So, to be successful, your wine business will need to become familiar with the latest wine industry marketing trends for 2022 to reign in your fair share of the wine market’s profits.
Here’s what you need to know.
Wine Industry and Marketing Overview
According to Statista, the wine industry has seen exponential growth and is expected to surpass $420 billion in revenue worldwide in 2022.
The future of the wine industry looks promising and is projecting more than $528 million in gross sales by 2025.
The wine market’s target consumers in 2022 are Millennials and Gen Zers born in the 1980s to 1990s in the middle of a tech revolution. They grew up in a digital world and are more likely to buy wine from their cell phones or mobile devices.
So focus your marketing campaign in a way that will accommodate their dependency on technology, which leads us to digital marketing.
Focus on Digital Marketing
To seize a sizable market share of wine sales, you’ll need to create a digital marketing plan to promote your wine business.
Successful businesses today understand that they need to meet their consumers where they are, and in 2022, that means marketing your wine business online.
A comprehensive digital marketing plan consists of several strategies to help bring wine consumers to your website and sell your brand.
One of the most important things to remember about digital marketing is that if your wine business doesn’t rank well on Google, you’re losing out to your competitors.
The key to preventing that is staying up to date on evolving wine industry trends and leveraging those trends to connect with your target consumer.
But, which efforts should sommeliers and wine businesses focus their digital marketing budget toward in 2022? Let’s find out.
10 Wine Industry Marketing Trends for 2022
Brand awareness remains the pillar of any sound marketing strategy. Establishing a digital presence is crucial, with so many wine brands for consumers to choose from.
But attracting wine drinkers to your brand in 2022 requires a holistic approach consisting of adapting strategies that match consumer trends.
Here are some wine industry trends to consider in 2022.
Breathe new life into your website
A website reset is always a good idea, no matter what year it is. Sometimes it begins with a catchy website design and maximizing user functionality to hook your visitors when they land on your site.
It also means learning more about your target market and discovering the types of wine they’re looking for. That will help you create compelling and engaging content that matters to them.
Your website has the potential to become your most powerful marketing asset. Your online presence should continually adapt to meet the needs of wine consumers.
That could mean that if you’ve only used your website as a tool to showcase your brand, it might be time to transform your website into a wine marketplace.
Ecommerce has become instrumental to the survival of many businesses, particularly since the onset of the pandemic. Direct-to-consumer wine sales have become increasingly popular and meet consumers wherever they are.
Convey your brand’s story and make your brand stand out
Wine branding is about more than your wine’s bottle or logo, although those things are often what a wine consumer will first notice.
Brand reputation involves consistently conveying your message and image effectively to make consumers remember your product.
The same messaging should be consistent across all marketing channels, including social media platforms, your website, and anywhere else you promote awareness of your product.
Consider what sets your wine product apart and share that with consumers. Think about the brands you grew up with and the television commercials that resonated with you and got your attention. Most of them incorporated compelling content that narrated a story and related it to the product or brand.
Consumers today want a great customer experience and authenticity in their brand more than ever. Fostering relationships with your consumers and connecting with them on a deeper level will set your brand apart.
Develop a digital advertising marketing campaign that drives more traffic to your website through SEO and SEM
You can have the best website, but if you don’t have an effective SEO and SEM marketing campaign to bring the right visitors to your website, you’re not enabling your website to reach its full potential.
Search engine optimization can be challenging as Google algorithms are a moving target. The search engine giant continually updates its algorithms to match queries with relevant answers and sources.
Sometimes, it means outsourcing to experienced wine marketing professionals to ensure that you reach your target audience and have answers to the most asked questions.
Search engine marketing includes organic SEO and incorporates paid advertising to enhance your marketing efforts.
Competition in the digital stratosphere is fiercer than ever. But, with the right tools and strategies, it’s more than possible to dominate the search engines and be at the top of your game.
Connect with wine consumers on social media
Social media marketing has come a long way, and it’s a great way to focus your marketing efforts where potential wine consumers are already spending their time.
There are limitless possibilities for social media marketing, from LinkedIn and Tik Tok to Facebook and Instagram.
Mix it up and incorporate organic and paid marketing efforts to spearhead your social media marketing campaign and increase brand awareness.
Social media is the best way to capitalize on storytelling, build your brand reputation, connect with your existing and future customers, and inspire potential consumers toward your brand.
Engage with your targets virtually
Virtual wine marketing trends are becoming the norm and can help you connect with consumers at a deeper level. The pandemic’s forced shutdowns illustrated this all too well.
During that time, virtual tastings from wine professionals and sommeliers became the norm and will continue to be a powerful tool to reach wine lovers. People are craving more intimate connections after feeling isolated for two years.
Virtual tours of your vineyard, educating wine lovers, and even immersive wine-tasting experiences or happy hour over Zoom are fantastic ways to carve out virtual space and connect with people likely to buy your product.
These virtual events heighten consumer experiences and elevate brand awareness. Best of all, they’re just a click and a sip away for your target consumers.
Hire an influencer to draw consumers to your brand
It sometimes takes savvy, influential players to draw consumers to your brand and win in the wine industry.
If you’ve done everything else right, but something is still just not right with your wine marketing campaign, a wine influencer might be the keynote that’s missing.
Influencer marketing is one of the latest wine marketing trends and is an effective way to reach consumers.
The influencer market is worth $13.8 billion, so it’s an avenue worth exploring. Influencers are often considered credible sources in their field, and their audiences listen to them.
There’s something about an efficient influencer’s messaging that gets the point across and cements itself into the minds of consumers.
An influencer can be a popular vlogger or blogger who is known as a top wine connoisseur with tons of followers. Connecting with one can significantly expand your brand’s reach and instantly win over new consumers.
Consider inviting an influencer or two to a wine tasting event and go from there. Once you find one that resonates and connects with your brand, ask them to become a brand ambassador and influencer for your wine business.
Create lead magnets to grow your sales funnel
A lead magnet is a way to obtain leads for your business by offering something of value to your web visitors.
The way it works is you might offer a free ebook, tasting guide, webinar, discount opt-ins, or a newsletter subscription. In exchange for the free perk, you ask your visitor to provide their email address on a template you’ve included on your web page.
It’s an easy, free way to gather leads, and once you have their information, you can nurture those leads and build interest in your followers.
Create an email marketing and newsletter campaign
One way to stay in touch with your followers and lead magnet subscribers is to create an email marketing and newsletter campaign. That will help keep your brand fresh in their minds.
An email campaign also offers you a way to personalize your marketing efforts. Your company can notify subscribers about new launchings or promotions that make it easier to convert new consumers to try your brand.
Frequent emails and newsletters can help you devise more targeted and personal ways to connect with wine consumers.
Uncork more wine sales by understanding your consumers and leveraging data-driven marketing
Your wine business likely hasn’t harnessed the power of the data you’ve already acquired from your point-of-sale transactions, customer databases, website analytics, email subscribers, and social media interactions.
That data is your brand’s superpower, and it can help you know who your customers are and what they want. It can also help you predict their future behavior and stay a step ahead.
You can also create personalized marketing strategies that will bring you an exponential return on your investment of the marketing dollars you put forth.
A seasoned wine marketing agency can help you identify these crucial pieces of data and drive your marketing efforts to the next level.
Develop a trendier product line and market appropriately
As with any great product, coming up with more innovative ways to deliver wine products to your consumers is paramount.
There are many opportunities in the wine industry that can position you as an expert. For instance, Gen Zers have different values than their elder wine drinkers and are environmentally aware and focused on clean eating and living.
They’re more likely to buy lower-calorie wines with lower alcohol contents. They also want a product they can depend on, no matter what else is happening in the world.
Sustainable practices, overcoming manufacturing and supply challenges, and the use of organic ingredients are just a few ways to meet the standards of today’s consumers.
For instance, bottle manufacturing came to a crawl during the pandemic, leading to a shortage. Some winemakers overcame this challenge by canning their wine products, which also appeased more environmentally-conscious wine lovers because cans are recyclable.
The practice also struck a sweet note with Gen Zers, who prefer to pop a top than unscrew a cork.
Wine Marketing Trends: Key Takeaways
Remember these key takeaways as your company looks to get on board with the most-effective wine marketing trends in 2022:
- The future of wine businesses is promising and expected to continue to grow.
- Wine consumers are younger than they were in years past. Focus your marketing campaigns toward generations born after the baby boomers to reach optimum sales targets.
- Sommeliers and wine businesses today should put most of their marketing efforts into a comprehensive digital marketing campaign.
- Understanding your consumers, meeting them where they are and where they are headed, brand awareness, virtual engagements, and leveraging SEO and data about your consumers can help you gain an edge over your competitors in the wine industry.
If you want experienced marketing professionals to help you implement these wine industry trends to dominate your market in 2022, contact Hearst Bay Area to make it happen.