His experiment was fairly simple: He created three different coupon codes that would give users free shipping on their orders. His billboard coupon resulted in 300 new customers and cost him $7,500. The direct mail brought in a very minimal 200 customers compared to the $15,000 it set him back. But his tweet generated 1,800 new customers at the low, low cost of $0. It doesn’t take a genius to do the math here, the results overwhelming speak for themselves.

The reason for the disparity is also simple. With a billboard, you’ll catch eyes but that doesn’t mean the people actually care about the board’s message. It’s a crap shoot. With mail or even e-mail marketing, people get annoyed when their mailboxes/inboxes are essentially spammed. Twitter is unique in that its users can broadcast a message to followers who have an interest in what they have to say or the products they have to offer. Once you build a group of followers, your stream is essentially permission-based marketing targeted to a large group of people in a very efficient manner, especially when you include links that drive users to your site.

Social media “experts” have been touting Twitter’s marketing power, but here it is for you in numbers thanks to Gary V. And if you don’t believe him, you can have a look at Dell’s $3 million in sales thanks solely to Twitter.

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.