Winery Marketing: Toast to Success with Print

Winery Marketing: Toast to Success with Print

While some winery patrons come solely for the grape, many stay for sunset strolls through the vineyard, tours of the barrel room and perfectly packed picnics. So how are wineries getting customers to wine and dine in the first place? Creative winery marketing. They’re popping the cork on print marketing to blend the aroma with awareness and attendance.

Unfolded winery brochures lined up in three rows with the center brochure folded closed.

80# Coated Matte White Cover with Soft Touch Coating on both sides, 11 x 8.5″ Gate Folded to 5.5 x 8.5″

Two winery brochures with a closed gate fold and images of wine bottles on the front and back.

Growing Customer Roots

For Eric Grossnickle, Creative Director of 45 North Vineyard & Winery in Lake Leelanau, MI, building a customer base meant building a winery marketing strategy that advertised products and services in both high-level and really personal ways. Smartpress’ custom Brochures and Sell Sheets were particularly helpful for Grossnickle’s Wine Club promotion.

 

“The Wine Club brochures and sell sheets are included in each Wine Club shipment,” he said. Used “primarily to describe the wines included in each shipment, it also gives us a chance to communicate with our members on a personal level – we include a special note about the wines and general happenings at the winery.”

 

Grossnickle used Smartpress’ customizing options to the fullest to include essential information and fun extras, noting that each brochure “usually also features a recipe to cook with one of the included wines.”

A wine membership brochure printed with Comstock Wines on the front.

14 pt C2S Tri Fold with Single Perforation, 18 x 6 folded to 6 x 6″

Full-Bodied Brochures

Brochures make personalizing your promotions easy with more than 10 different folding options. You get to pick the presentation that best fits your design as you create collateral like product and pricing lists, a map to your establishment or services that get your products directly to customers.

 

From a classic single fold to a gate fold that reveals your content dramatically, or even an accordion fold that offers practical versatility, the right fold can mean the difference between a campaign that goes down smooth and one that leaves a bitter taste.

 

Kelly Comstock Ferris, General Manager for Comstock Wines in Healdsburg, CA, turned to online printing with a similar tactic for her Wine Club brochures. “They have helped us share information about our Wine Club and gain new members,” she said.

A winery subscription brochure printed with perforation along one fold line and information about how to join.

 

Comstock Ferris got innovative with her winery marketing design, adding perforation to her brochures. “The perforation allows us to keep the sign-up information and the guest can keep the club information,” she said.

 

Along with wafer seals, scoring and drilling, perforation mixes form and function for a full-bodied finish on any project. The results have been positive for Comstock Ferris: “Guests seem to like the fact that they can keep the information.”

A winery marketing flyer printed with Badger Mountain at the top and images of a vineyard and tractor.

80# Coated Gloss White Cover with 3 mil Gloss on both sides, 8.5 x 11″

Wine club flyers fanned out in a row with images of two wine bottles and a gold strip along the top.

80# Coated Matte White Cover with Flat Matte UV Coating on 1 side, 5.375 x 8.875″

Organic Outreach

Smartpress’ Sell Sheets simplify the promotion process with their one-piece practicality. Grossnickle designed one to offer a winery overview and create business partnerships. “[It’s] used with our retailers as a tool for describing our business in a simple single sheet,” he said. “It’s also used by our local vintners association as part of a larger effort to promote area wineries.”

 

Chris Arsers, Western Regional Sales Manager at Badger Mountain Vineyard in Kennewick, WA, turned to Sell Sheets to enhance his business partnerships. “It is meant as a piece that can be used on displays in stores that are purchasing our products,” he said.

 

Along with designer Joe Farmer of Whizbang Studio, Arsers hopes his winery marketing experiment pays off in the coming months: “The printed version looks great and should bring awareness to our brand.”

Smartpress Brochures and Sell Sheets both offer custom sizes, paper stocks and inks to entice customers. But they can also create a feel that’s right for both the palette and the price range.

 

“We use the Soft Touch coating on most projects and love how it adds an additional level of tangible polish,” said Grossnickle. With its matte appearance and soft, suede-like feel, Soft Touch makes your print projects look professional and keeps them protected for long-lasting use.

Wine tasting menus fanned out with a list of six wines and rating options.

80# Uncoated Smooth Natural Cover, 4.25 x 11″

A custom menu printed with wine and sangria options in red and black text.

10 mil Synthetic While with Flat Matte UV Coating on Both Sides, 8.5 x 11″

Menus Ripe for
the Picking

Part of winery culture is to sit and stay awhile. And for customers to fully immerse themselves, they need Menus that educate and inform them about the flights they’re tasting and the cheese boards they’re enjoying. Whether it’s an expansive list of offerings for a restaurant collaboration or an exclusive selection of wines from the vineyard, the right menu enhances the customer’s experience.

 

Jason Villamil, CEO and Creative Director of Sky Marketing U.S. LLC, understood this exactly when designing one “to showcase the wines menu but still connecting the interior design.” A brand development agency, Sky Marketing U.S. used “custom typography to give that extra touch of detail to the actual menu and to the environment the restaurant offers.”

 

Smartpress’ Waterproof Menus are an essential resource for customers to visit wineries safely. With UV coatings, they are easy to sanitize and guard against moisture, thus standing up to multiple uses. Convenient drilling options let you insert them into binders for a clean and simple solution.

A stack of winery menus printed with a saddle stitch binding and a teal cover with "Le Cuvier" in white.

80# Uncoated Smooth White Cover Throughout, 6 x 9″

 

 

For menus that require more space for more information, Smartpress’ Saddle Stitch Booklets transform the traditional menu format into a professional portfolio. You can personalize your page count to include background stories about your business and insights into seasonal products, events and wine and food pairings.

The most convenient and budget-friendly feature of both Menus and Saddle Stitch Booklets is Versions, which allows you to print various designs and content with the same size, stock and finish to vary content on multiple menus. It couldn’t be easier to create separate menus for white and red wines, specialty drinks, appetizers and flights.

A marketing poster printed with and orange and yellow design and Sparkling Peach Wine.

80# Coated Gloss White Cover with Ultra Gloss Coating on Front, 11 x 17

Two custom posters with a peach and Sparkling Peach Wine between two winery menu posters.

Black Poster: Poster Paper, 13 x 19″

Fruits of the Vine

With customers and guests socializing in and around the grounds, wineries have seized the opportunity to market, advertise and promote with Smartpress’ other online printing services. Grossnickle went with a poster designed by Hired Guns Creative to do just that.

“[The poster] is displayed in the tasting room and given to retailers to promote one of our most popular products,” he said. “It’s also for sale in the tasting room.” Small and Large Posters are an old-school marketing strategy that’s always effective in encouraging visitors to tour your facility or advertise events at your location.

A stack of wine brochures with Wine Night Every Monday and a blue, red and gold design.

100# Coated Matte White Cover, 3.5 x 8.5″

 

Two of our other tried-and-true favorites? Rack Cards and Wine Labels. Perfect for reception areas in hotels, visitor bureaus, local cafes and stores within your community, the rack cards catch customers as they pass by, while personalized labels brand your bottles in totally unique ways.

Two winery mailers with an image of a vineyard on the front and winery details on the back.

130# Uncoated 100% Recycled White Cover, 6 x 4″

A custom business card with contact info on the front laying on top of a pile of scattered business cards.

100# Uncoated Smooth White Cover, 3.5 x 2″

Harvesting Connections

While the wine is the star of the show, events bring a wider audience to wineries and vineyards. Reaching that audience is simple with Direct Mail. With complete fulfillment services like list processing, addressing and mailing, Direct Mail makes it possible to target your local community and create personal connections with those in your area.

 

Promote family picnic nights and seasonal festivals, advertise tasting and pairing events and market your space for weddings, parties and celebrations. (Hint: For those not so close to home, Postcards extend your marketing reach with ease, as you engage with potential partners and vendors.)

And to ensure your marketing strategy is ready to pop and pour, there’s no better tactic than a unique Business Card. So simple yet still so effective, it keeps your brand top of mind as you network with others in the industry, make new friendships in your community and build relationships with clients near and far. Slip them into mailers, leave them at local businesses and include them in subscription boxes so your contact information is conveniently available.

Winery print marketing materials laid out in rows, including a brochure, menus, posters and flyers.

Sipping on Success

Just as wines need to be aged to perfection, wineries and vineyards need print marketing produced to perfection. For Grossnickle, partnering with Smartpress makes that possible: “We love the quality of the print products,” he said. “The precision, print quality, flexibility and consistency are always top-notch.”

 

Villamil agrees, understanding the importance of a reliable online printer like Smartpress. “Our final impression was top-of-the-line quality and design,” he said. “Smartpress designs for agencies like mine where attention to detail is number one on each of our projects.”

 

We’ll cheers to that.

 

 

 

 

Hint: Not in the winery marketing biz? Check out these other industry inspirations:

 

FEATURED DESIGNS

45 North Wine Club Sell Sheet & Brochure Designs by Eric Grossnickle
Comstock Wines Trifold Brochure Design by Comstock Wines
Badger Mountain Certified Organic Vineyards Sell Sheet Design by Chris Arsers
La Taberna Waterproof Menu Design by Sky Marketing US
Le Cuvier Winery Saddle Stitch Booklet Design by Lindsay Masten, Creative Director of Web & Wolf
Peach Sparkling Wine Poster Design by Hired Guns Creative
Beer & Wine Poster Design by Danielle Mouledoux, The Avalon Theatre
Wine Rating Rack Card Design by Megan Pettingill
CIRCA Wine Night Rack Card Design by Renee Rojural, Metropolitan Hospitality Group
Hawkes Stone 2014 Postcard Design by Hawkes Wine
MAWBY Business Card Design by MAWBY Sparkling Wines

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