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

The wine industry doesn't have a wine problem—it has a communication problem.

In this episode of The Beverage Business Hub Podcast, Chloe Thomas explores why so many wineries struggle to connect with today's consumers, despite creating incredible wines and unforgettable cellar door experiences.

From outdated social media strategies to disconnected marketing systems, this conversation unpacks the biggest challenges facing winery marketing today and shares practical ways to build stronger relationships with modern wine consumers.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why traditional winery marketing is becoming less effective
• How authentic storytelling outperforms polished promotional content
• Why your marketing channels should work together as one ecosystem
• The importance of email marketing and customer journeys
• How to create content that educates, connects and builds trust
• Why wineries need to think beyond the cellar door to remain relevant in the next decade

Whether you're a winery owner, beverage founder, hospitality brand or tourism operator, this episode will help you rethink how your brand communicates in a rapidly changing digital world.

🎥 Watch this episode on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/mgVbG3RHIHs

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

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

Most wineries are sending emails.

Very few have a system.

In this episode, Chloe explores one of the biggest missed opportunities in winery marketing: email automation.

While many wineries focus on newsletters, social media, and seasonal campaigns, the real opportunity often lies in creating a connected customer journey that continues working behind the scenes long after someone leaves the cellar door or visits your website.

You'll learn about three foundational email automations that can help wineries build stronger customer relationships, create better experiences, and stay top of mind without constantly needing to create more content.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why email automation is often the most underutilised tool in winery marketing

• How to create a welcome sequence that introduces new subscribers to your brand

• The role of abandoned cart emails in continuing the customer conversation

• Why post-purchase communication is essential for customer retention

• How small wineries can use systems to create a more personalised experience

• The difference between sending emails and building a marketing ecosystem

If you're a winery owner, marketer, cellar door manager, or beverage brand looking to strengthen your customer relationships and build a more sustainable direct-to-consumer strategy, this episode is for you.

Resources & Links

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

▶️ Watch on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@BeverageBusinessHub

🍷 Join the Beverage Business Hub

https://crushatsocial.ac-page.com/beverage-business-hub-join-us

Connect with us for more insights on winery marketing, wine tourism, hospitality branding, customer experience, and the future of beverage marketing.

Most wineries don't have an Instagram problem. They have a strategy problem.

Many winery Instagram accounts are still operating as if it's 2018, while consumer behaviour, content preferences, and social platforms have changed dramatically.

In this episode, we explore why so many winery Instagram accounts struggle to generate meaningful business results and what wine brands should be doing instead.

We discuss:

🍷 Why every winery needs a clear objective for Instagram
🍷 The advantage small wineries have over larger brands on social media
🍷 Why raw, authentic video content is outperforming polished content
🍷 How to use Instagram to grow your email list and customer relationships
🍷 Simple profile optimisation tactics most wineries overlook
🍷 How Instagram fits into a larger winery marketing ecosystem

Whether your goal is increasing cellar door traffic, growing your wine club, promoting events, or building long-term brand awareness, this episode will help you think more strategically about social media and winery marketing.

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

🍷 Join the Beverage Business Hub Waitlist
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📺 Subscribe on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@BeverageBusinessHub

The Beverage Business Hub Podcast explores marketing, branding, wine tourism, hospitality, direct-to-consumer sales, and consumer trends shaping the future of the beverage industry.

#WineMarketing #WineryMarketing #WineBusiness #WineIndustry #HospitalityMarketing

Most wineries think they have an audience growth problem.

In reality, many are simply attracting the wrong people.

In this episode, Chloe Thomas explores why traditional winery marketing strategies — especially discount-driven email capture — often fail to create long-term customer relationships.

She breaks down a more modern approach to winery audience growth using lead magnets, Meta lead generation ads, Instagram keyword automation, and email nurturing systems designed to attract more aligned wine consumers.

This episode explores:

• Why discounts don’t always build loyalty
• The difference between attention and alignment
• How wineries can attract higher-quality audiences online
• Lead magnet strategies for wine brands
• Instagram automation and audience nurturing
• Why email marketing still matters more than ever
• Building long-term direct relationships with wine consumers

🎥 Watch on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/iupGRG-SkEU

🍷 ABOUT VINUM VITA PARTNERS

We help wineries and beverage brands grow their online presence through modern marketing, storytelling, content strategy, and audience development.

🌐 https://vinum-vita.com/

In this episode, we had a deep-dive conversation with Courtney O'Brien, founder of The Outlier Initiative, a boutique branding consultancy serving beverage brands ready to break out of the mould.

She spent over 20 years at some of the biggest beverage companies in the world — think Coca-Cola, Danone, and Gallo — where she didn’t just market brands… she built category leaders. Now, she champions challenger beverage brands ready to stand out through strategic positioning, sharp storytelling, and a deeply human-centred approach.

Meet Courtney:

Courtney launched The Outlier Initiative after decades in corporate brand management, where she built her reputation as a go-to expert in brand positioning and cultural relevance. She discovered her "superpower" was guiding brands to self-actualise — helping them become the most compelling versions of themselves. Now, she brings that strategic clarity to start-ups and founders who want to disrupt without losing their soul.

Branding is Not Tactics:

One of the biggest misconceptions Courtney tackles? That branding equals marketing tactics. She emphasises the importance of developing a clear, compelling brand message before jumping into tools like TikTok, email, or influencer partnerships. Strategy should drive execution — not the other way around.

Big vs. Small: How Challenger Brands Can Win: Courtney reveals the strategic advantages small brands have over their larger counterparts:

1. Ability to move faster and take risks
2. High-touch, unscalable actions like direct customer feedback
3. Authentic founder stories that big brands can't replicate

The Foundational Process: Courtney walks us through her 3-phase approach:

1. Learning: Market and competitive landscape, consumer behaviours, and category perception
2. Positioning: Mapping the white space and defining emotional resonance
3. Messaging & Tactics: Crafting a consumer-first narrative before choosing any marketing channels

A Masterclass in Consumer Psychology:

Drawing on frameworks like StoryBrand, Courtney explains how to make your customer the hero. She stresses the need for brands to get crystal clear on the problem they solve — not just describe their product features.

Personal Branding for Founders:

The conversation naturally extends into personal branding. Courtney shares her journey applying her own brand-building process to herself after 15 years in the corporate world — and why every founder should do the same.

Want to learn more from Courtney?

Connect with Courtney O'Brien:

🔗 Website:⁠ theoutlierinitiative.com⁠

🔗 LinkedIn:⁠ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-obrien/

Looking to elevate your brand and marketing strategy?

Join our Beverage Business Hub for exclusive tools, training, and resources designed to help beverage brands thrive in the digital space. From plug-and-play templates to strategy sessions, we’ve got you covered.

🔗 Learn more here:⁠ https://crushatsocial.ac-page.com/beverage-business-hub-join-us⁠