As I begin, I’d like to point out you can read the recently released Silicon Valley Bank‘s 2019 State of the Wine Industry Report by clicking here and watch a taped version of their related webinar by clicking here.

After reading the report and watching the webinar, produced by Rob McMillan, Executive Vice President of Silicon Valley Bank and the founder of their Wine Division, several items resonated with me. However, one above the others really captured my attention.

Granted I’m neither a vintner nor a retailer, but I love Napa wines, am a collector of fine wines from up, down, and across the Valley, and have many friends in winery businesses so I have some serious reasons to want the industry thriving.

This is the second straight year in which SVB’s report sounds warnings about the flattening of the wine curve. Certainly the bottle it still more than half full, but as Bob Dylan sang (in 1964 – yikes I’m old) ‘the times they are a-changin’. When you couple the SVB’s report with the recent study by the IWSR (International Wine & Spirits Record) stating for the third straight year Americans are drinking less alcohol, there are unmistakable issues on the booze horizon and they seem worth attending to.

I happen to live over 2,000 miles from Napa Valley. I can only manage to visit once or twice a year. So Rob McMillan’s comment regarding wineries and digitalization hit an important chord with me and give him full credit for the same.

So here are my thoughts on one way smaller wineries can digitally differentiate themselves right now.

Begin integrating one-to-one video relationships with your customers.

I’m talking here of going beyond today’s basics of having a web presence, social media pages, and a DtC interface for ordering.

This is more. It’s connecting you with your customers visually and doing it on the cheap. Simply stated, I say don’t hide your premier asset – you and your team members – from your customers!

Importantly this can be done without a significant capital investment or spending plan. You can whip out your cell phone and as Nike says ‘Just do it!’ Yes, high quality, professionally crafted videos might be the centerpiece of your website, but the environment for visually connecting with your customers today is ripe for the simple, easy, FaceTime-style video.

FaceTime, Facebook Live, Instagram stories, YouTube, etc. are all huge for a reason. And this is not just true for the young cohorts. I know incredibly few Gen Xers and Boomers (aka important wine buying audiences) who haven’t embraced video, love it, use it, and appreciate it. I remember as a kid I thought the most amazing future invention ever would be if I could see who I was talking to on the phone. Now we do it while walking around town on our cells! So, as Rob pointed out, it’s high time wine embraces this technology! Wineries can cheaply and easily use handheld, everyday tech to bring themselves and their tasting room, winery, vineyards, winemaker, blending sessions, wine dinners, and more directly to their key customers. Plus no one expects perfection so far less stress!

The daily bombardment of my cellphone by spam calls frequently keeps me from answering an unknown number. That said I don’t react the same way when I get a FaceTime request. Plus, while right now I look like I went a couple rounds with Mohamad Ali due to skin cancer surgery on my face, if one of my favorite wineries were to FaceTime me, I’d still answer.

Going for a walk in you vineyard? Do it while video chatting with a customer. Blending? Connect a customer so they can watch, real time for a while. Bringing in your star consultant? Perfect time to introduce them to a customer or two. Might not be for everyone, but you may have customers who dream about helping in your vineyards, but can’t get there. So take them along for a pruning, show the views you love so much, see the clusters on the vines, or even be with you at 3:00 am when brix hits perfection.

I got to thinking, too, it must frequently be cost and time prohibitive for a vintner to get to their good customers who live outside major urban areas. So this would be a perfect use of your phone’s video. I venture to say with a short advance conversation about what wines I’d be serving at a dinner with some wine loving friends, I’d be thrilled to be able to patch in the winemaker, owner, brand ambassador, etc. to offer some background and backstory to the wines my guests will be enjoying that evening.

Concerned about ROI? Think about this.

Investment: An hour’s time.

Return: Cementing a key customer relationship. Meeting, influencing, and telling your story to a room full of potential new customers, who now know you, enjoyed your wines, and who I bet would be sharing their evening’s experiences with their friends and families. Heck, your customer even drains a bit of his cellar doing this and may need an early reorder!

Pretty solid ROI!

I’ve begun to see some solid examples of wineries embracing video more and more. Off the top of my head I think of JCB’s series of catchy, camp videos, Roy Piper Wines‘ recent pre, during, and post-harvest series, and Hertelendy Vineyard’s walking tours of his Rockwell Ridge vineyard.

Good, solid stuff, but, to me, missing just one aspect. The key one-to-one connection.

Remember “seeing is believing”!