Have you ever noticed that none of the Technorati’s top wine blogs are written by people who actually own wineries: Vinography, Fermentation, Dr .Vino. That may seem counter-intuitive, but not if you examine what makes a good wine blog. Here are some best practices for wineries’ blogs—if you’re a winemaker that wants to get found and loyalty online.
Cultivate your terrior
Are you a California winery or an Indiana winery? Spell that out. Talk about the grapes endemic to your area, and what makes them different from those of other regions in America, and even the world. Make sure to use keywords people looking for information on the subject might type into a search engine: “Indiana grape varieties,” “Indiana wine varietals,” “Indiana chardonnel,” etc. Blog about this enough, and you’ll be an authority on the subject in search engines.
Talk about other wineries!
You’re not going to engage a lot of people just talking about your winery. But you can keep them coming back to your page if you’re a genuinely good source of information on wine—especially a niche aspect you know well. Do you use sustainable wine practices? Have some especially cool wine packaging? Feature and focus on other wineries that do the same. Trade links so you reach a larger audience. And blog regularly on these chosen niche categories.
Don’t name your blog after your winery.
It sounds like a good idea, but … if people aren’t familiar with your winery, its name certainly isn’t going to get them to your blog. Like the most popular, name your wine blog something catchy, preferably something that will get searched a lot.
Use multimedia.
Don’t just blog. Do wine tasting videos, a la Gary Vaynerchuk’s infamous Wine Library TV (by the way, he’s a wine seller!). Wine is a sensual product—you don’t just want to read about it, you want to see it and virtually smell it. Video will go so much further than print tasting notes, which will give you a leg up on the competition.
Connect your events to your blog.
Have tastings? Of course you do. Trivia night? Promote your blog at these events, whether it’s telling people to leave a comment or register for a small coupon online, or just letting them know about its existence.
