Wine clubs are constantly looking for ways to provide more value and stay competitive. Creating a better customer experience requires an investment of resources, and the best way to generate those resources is to increase the number of customers you have – specifically, increasing the number of wine club members. Increasing club membership generates a predictable revenue stream you can use to invest, innovate and increase the value your winery provides to customers. Of course, after you bring in the customers you’ll need to keep them, which is why investing in the customer experience is so important.

If you’re trying to understand the best way to increase your wine club membership, we’ve outlined a few key points below.

Personalized Thank You Cards for Wine Clubs

There’s power in personalization! One of the easiest and most effective ways to personalize your wine club experience is to create and send personalized ‘wine club’ thank you cards.

Thank-you and greeting cards work for both current wine club members and prospects. It’s easy to send thank you cards to existing members as tokens of appreciation, special occasions, renewal periods, birthdays, and more. For prospective members, these thank-you cards may be used as follow up communication that keeps you visible, memorable and motivates them to take action in joining the wine club.

Some examples of when it would be good to send a thank you to prospective wine club members are: 

• • After a typical winery visit
  • After hosting Special Events at Your Winery
  • In the packaging of those who purchase your wine

In all of these examples, the key is making the greeting feel personal to that individual thanking them for supporting your business while also promoting your wine club and its benefits or perks. 

Another key item: Send a unique, signed thank-you or welcome card when new members do sign up.

Printed Invitations for Special Winery Events

While you’re probably already hosting and promoting events at your winery, you may not know how valuable they can be for your wine club. Aside from simply hosting events, additional value is added by sending out well designed and printed invitations that reflect the quality and integrity of your brand.

While you can host events for wine club members only, events are also great for gaining new members. Similar to the thank you cards, sending invitations to previous consumers of your product is an easy way to bring in new members because it makes them feel like they are a part of a special or exclusive event. If promoted well, they will likely continue to support your business and want to be a part of the wine club.

The key to event invitations is ensuring they are unique, of the highest quality and feel really personal to the individuals. Get creative and think of ways to ensure people will want to not only open your invitation but attend your event. Print embellishments like die cutting, embossing, hand stitching, or adding foil accents are a great way to encourage people to open the invitation. Personalizing the contents using variable data printing (which would include things like adding their name, wine selections based on previous purchases, or some other types of personal detail) help create desire to attend.

Promotional Offers for Prospective Wine Club Members

While this may seem like a no brainer, it’s worth mentioning because wineries who aren’t offering special discounts to new members are missing a revenue opportunity. Recent surveys show that 80% (EIGHTY!) of consumers felt encouraged to make a first-time purchase with a brand that is new to them if they found an offer or discount. Using direct mail, send out a postcard or flyer to your prospects that promote a special offer if they join your wine club within a certain date. Offering a time sensitive (limited time) offer with a limited number of spots available is a great tool to increase signups and sales. 

Wine Club Referrals & Loyalty Programs

We’ve reviewed a few tools you can use to bring in new wine club members using print, but we couldn’t write this blog without also sharing the importance of referrals and club member rewards (loyalty programs) to keep them coming back. As we already shared, hosting events for members-only is a great way to make existing members feel like VIPs. For those events, invite members to bring friends or family to these events, too. One of the easiest ways to increase membership is by getting them to sign up on site after experiencing the club, the people and the wines.

For your most loyal members, take advantage of their love and support for your business and offer special incentives to those members. Maybe that’s offering private tours, exclusive access to new wines, tasting workshops etc. But the key is to allow them to invite others so they can see the benefits of being a member of the wine club and convert them into members. 

We’ve seen these tips work again and again by dozens of wineries and wine clubs. Don’t take our word for it, the proof is there and our hope is that by sharing these wine club marketing tips, you too will see growth in your wine club membership!