Most wineries aren’t short of marketing ideas. The harder part is knowing which ones actually deserve your attention.

Should you be investing in Meta Ads? Email marketing? Your wine club? Cellar door bookings? Content? Customer retention?

The answer depends on where the real opportunities — and problems — are within your DTC customer journey.

In this episode of the Beverage Business Hub Podcast, I’m sharing real examples from wineries we’ve worked with around the world to explore how to decide what your winery should actually prioritise in marketing.

We look at a cellar door campaign that generated around 70 bookings, another winery that stopped a campaign after spending $100 without a single booking, and a wine club that appeared to be growing — until the data showed members were leaving at almost exactly the same rate they were joining.

We also explore why more customer acquisition isn’t always the answer, how to identify where customers are getting stuck, and why sustainable DTC growth is often the result of making a series of better decisions rather than finding one brilliant marketing tactic.

If you’re wondering where your next marketing dollar — or your team’s next 10 hours — should go, this episode will give you four questions to help you decide:

1. Where are our customers actually coming from?
2. Where are we losing them?
3. What is already working?
4. What are we assuming?

Because instead of asking, “What else should we be doing?”, the more useful question might be:

“What problem should we solve next?”

🍷 Vinum Vita DTC Growth Audit

If you know your winery’s DTC business could be performing better but you’re not sure where to start, the Vinum Vita DTC Growth Audit helps identify what’s working, where customers are dropping off, and which opportunities deserve your attention next.

Visit www.vinum-vita.com and click Growth Audit to learn more.

The cellar door isn't the finish line—it's the starting point.

Many wineries invest enormous amounts of time, money, and attention into creating an unforgettable cellar door experience. But once visitors leave, the relationship often fades into a generic newsletter and a forgotten email list.

In this episode of the Beverage Business Hub Podcast, we explore what I call The Cellar Door Trap—the belief that the winery visit is the relationship rather than the beginning of one.

We discuss why cellar door visitors are your highest-intent customers, why generic follow-up quietly undermines memorable experiences, and how wineries can extend hospitality beyond the tasting room through thoughtful digital communication.

If you're looking to grow your direct-to-consumer wine business, improve customer retention, and build a stronger wine club, this episode offers a different way to think about the customer journey.

• Why cellar door visitors are your most valuable marketing asset

• The hidden cost of treating every customer the same after they visit

• Why most winery email marketing fails to create lasting relationships

• How hospitality should continue long after visitors leave your winery

• The mindset shift needed to build stronger customer loyalty and sustainable DTC growth

🌐 Vinum Vita
https://www.vinum-vita.com

Want to uncover the hidden opportunities inside your customer journey?

Our Vinum Vita DTC Growth Audit analyses your website, Commerce7 setup, Klaviyo automations, CRM, customer journeys, and wine club to identify exactly where customers are getting stuck—and what to improve first.

🍷 Join the Beverage Business Hub
https://crushatsocial.ac-page.com/beverage-business-hub-join-us

If you're a winery owner, beverage founder, hospitality brand, or tourism operator looking to build stronger customer relationships and a more sustainable marketing strategy, subscribe for weekly insights on wine marketing, brand building, digital strategy, customer retention, direct-to-consumer sales, and the consumer trends shaping the future of the beverage industry.

Healthy sales don't always mean healthy growth.

In this episode of The Beverage Business Hub Podcast, I unpack a real winery DTC audit that revealed how a business with strong sales and loyal customers was quietly losing momentum through customer churn.

We discuss why wineries should focus less on acquiring new customers and more on helping existing customers progress—from subscriber to buyer, buyer to repeat customer, repeat customer to wine club member, and ultimately to brand advocate.

If you've ever wondered why your wine club isn't growing despite consistent sales, or why repeat purchases aren't happening as often as you'd like, this conversation will help you identify where hidden revenue opportunities may exist within your existing customer base.

• Why retention is often a better investment than acquisition
• Understanding the Customer Progression Gap
• The importance of intentional customer journeys
• How onboarding and pre-shipment communication impact wine club retention
• The five customer transitions every winery should be measuring

🍷 Book a Vinum Vita DTC Growth Audit
Want to uncover the hidden opportunities in your own customer journey? Our DTC Growth Audit analyses your website, Commerce7 setup, CRM, Klaviyo automations, customer journeys and wine club to identify exactly where customers are getting stuck—and where your biggest growth opportunities exist: https://www.vinum-vita.com

🎥 Watch this episode on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/LTRWLXbFYmo

🍷 Vinum Vita
https://www.vinum-vita.com

🍇 Join the Beverage Business Hub
https://crushatsocial.ac-page.com/beverage-business-hub-join-us