Innovating on Winery Cross-Promotion Marketing

In Sonoma Valley, 9 boutique wineries have banded together to cross-promote one another. Creating strategic partnerships for winery marketing is a great idea. This group has created a website to list their wineries with links to book tastings. They also have a rack card to give out. You can check out their website at https://sonomavalleysmallwineries.com/.

Geographically close wineries have been doing this type of winery marketing practice in Napa and Sonoma for many years. In the 12 years I have lived in Sonoma Valley, I have seen groups like this come and go. It is a low-cost way to expand your marketing reach, especially for boutique wineries that don’t have much of a marketing budget, if any. But it is time to innovate on this idea.  

Winery Cross-Promotion for the 2020s

1)    Reach Farther. Promoting neighboring wineries is great, but don’t limit yourself. Wine tourists will often visit multiple wine regions and wine buyers don’t just buy wine from one geographical area. People who come to Sonoma or Napa on vacation often spend one day in Sonoma and one day in Napa. If they have more time, they might do whole days in multiple AVAs throughout Sonoma and Napa counties.

Consider building cross-promotion partnerships with a couple of wineries in neighboring AVAs in your region. Have a little extra time to think even farther afield? Create cross-promotion partnerships with a few wineries in other wine regions where you can share links on your websites or invite your club members to visit each other and try purchasing wine from one another. Guests at a winery in San Luis Obispo, CA might also visit Walla Walla, WA. Your club members might love your pinots, but they might also be interested in trying a recommended Willamette Valley, OR pinot.

2)    Membership Has its Privileges. Go beyond just telling your club members to visit your promotion partners. Work with your partners to create special offerings for each other’s club members. Give free tastings or bottle discounts to their club members. If you don’t want to do something for free, you can offer access to member-only wines or tastings in a member-only area.

3)    Pop-Up Craze. Create a Pop-Up Wine Road event for a day or weekend that you can all promote and sell tickets to. Each winery could also invite local artists or artisanal food producers to sell their wares to give more substance to the event, which will give you the ability to increase the ticket price.

4)    Make it Social. Share social media posts done by your cross-promotion partners and create content together. Invite your partners to come taste with you and do a quick video together.

5)    1 Reservation, 1 Recommendation. Many first-time guests to a wine region don’t know the wineries in the area. Maybe they found you online or through a friend, but it can be an overwhelming task for them to figure out other wineries to visit. When a guest books a tasting appointment with you, include recommendations to taste with your promotion partners in their email confirmation. Repeat visitors might also like the recommendations.