Top Tips For Winery Website Redesign

How do you know when it is time to re-design your website? More and more consumers are researching online before they visit and are judging your winery by its website. I often tell clients to think of their website as the center of a large spider web. All strands point to your website — Twitter, Facebook, brochures, rack cards, wine labels, Yelp, Google places listings and consumer reviews of your wine. Does your website perfectly translate your brand? Is it time for a website redesign? Here are 6 reasons why you need a new website: YOUR WEBSITE IS NOT RESPONSIVE OR MOBILE FRIENDLY Technology is moving so fast, that a website from 3 years ago isn’t going to have the same benefits as now. With the popularity of smart phones, websites are now are built so they are ‘responsive.” This means the size of your website automatically adjusts based on your browser size. That way phone, tablet and desktop users all see a website that is clean and organized. This makes your brand experience seamless across all devices. YOU HAVE CHANGED YOUR BRAND POSITIONING OR NICHE As a business owner you are constantly trying out new things. What sells best? Which type of wine customer spends the most money? Because of this, what worked for you 3 years ago, may not be who you are targeting now. By re-designing your website specifically for your targeted niche, you can create specific calls to action and convert more visitors to clients. Unsure of your core wine consumer? Read the 6 different wine consumers. YOUR WEBSITE DOES NOT VISUALLY REPRESENT YOUR BRAND Since your winery’s website is the central hub (or part of the spider web) and often the first point of contact for the consumer, you need to make sure the visual’s on your website perfectly tell your brand story. This means, colors, fonts, textures, content and photos need to give the same feeling someone gets walking into your winery. Google published a study called the ‘Zero Moment of Truth” and shared that the average shopper references 10.4 sources online before making a purchase. It’s essential that you accurately visually represent your brand’s position to stand out from the competitors the consumer is also researching. YOU DO NOT HAVE A CLEAR PATH Having a specific wine consumer narrowed down, allows you to create a website with very specific calls to action. Just like print ads should always include a call to action, so should your website. Websites are no longer just informational, instead before designing we now define what steps you want your customer to take to ultimately become a customer. Salesforce recently published a study that found it still takes 7 touch points for 80% of sales. How are you going to touch each of your customers 7 times? Make sure you have a clear path to capture their information. For example, is it sign up for our newsletter, buy wine now, follow on social media or fill out your contact form? Before redesigning your winery website, make sure you define the path that your ideal customer will want to take. YOU NEED TO ADD A BLOG A blog is your opportunity to add new content specifically targeting your niche. For example, do you know that many of your wine clients are also avid golfers? Write to that audience. In ‘A Website that Works” Mark O’Brien shared this tip — if you add a minimum of 2,000 words per month to your website, Google will automatically place you higher than your competitor that has a static website that never changes. While creating content does take a lot of work, O’Brien estimates that you can easily get 20% of your leads through your website. For more reasons on why you should add a blog, read How to be number 1 on Google. Also, read Why your business should use content marketing. YOU WANT TO MAKE DAILY OR WEEKLY UPDATES TO YOUR WEBSITE By using a Content Management System(CMS), like WordPress, you can easily update your website without having to hire a web designer each time you want to add a photo or change text. This gives you more control than past websites and also lets you play around with the order of things. For example, do you get more email newsletter sign ups when the sign up button is first in the sidebar? Or when it is at the end of each blog post? With a CMS like WordPress, you can constantly tweak your website. Rebecca is the owner of Bauerhaus Design, which specializes in building brands for wineries. Take our free 7 week wine marketing class to learn how to sell more wine with a powerful brand, email marketing, social media, online ads and more: www.bauerhaus.com/sell-more-wine/