We all know that connecting with your customers on a personal level is crucial for your distillery’s success. But that doesn’t just happen at events or in person.
A well-crafted newsletter can be a powerful tool for brand owners and marketers to keep customers informed and engaged. No distillery digital strategy is complete without one.
Here’s why you need to do one and how to do it well.
The basic purpose of a brand’s newsletter is to consistently keep in touch with customers and continue a year-round dialogue, updating fans of the latest happenings.
It’s not just a means to sell product – when done well, it can be so much more – but the fiscal motivations for having a large and engaged database is clear. Newsletters have the potential to convert fans into repeat customers through direct awareness of your latest products and promotions.
Pick any E-marketing company and look through how they justify their costs. Almost all will suggest that effective email marketing will convert $1 spent on email into > $10 return. Considering the rising costs of digital and social media advertising, incorporating a newsletter into your communication and marketing strategy is a smart move.
However, with numerous newsletters already out there, it’s crucial to develop a focused, valuable, and resource-efficient strategy. No point just hitting the span folder.
Moreover, it pays to keep the long-term relationship with your customers in mind. The aim should be to build brand equity by sharing behind-the-scenes information, establishing your brand personality and tone of voice, positioning your distillery as an industry authority, and encouraging feedback and engagement.
Understand that you are in the attention race. It’s a competition, and those vying alongside you aren’t other drinks companies – it’s everyone. The average person gets over 15 marketing mails a day. Only 1 in 5 are opened. You’ve got to offer something a reason to open – beyond a transaction.
• Focus on relationship building, not just sales. Ask how are you going to provide value beyond merely promoting your products. This should be the primary objective as when done well, the sales will naturally follow and remain consistent.
• Get creative with content. Explore you’re the full scope of the drinks industry from bars, home cocktails, production etc. and think about unique angles to make your newsletter stand out while maintaining brand positioning.
• Choose your platform wisely. Research and compare email marketing platforms, considering customisation, personalisation, analytics, and compliance with email laws. (GDPR laws in particular ought to be high on the agenda).
• Prioritise building your subscriber list. Focus on organic growth and easy sign-up processes instead of purchasing or renting email lists as the latter offer short term vanity boosts, and very little in the way of actual results. Many are flat out illegal breaches of data laws.
• Optimise for mobile devices. You may be working on a computer to create it, but 80% will not be when they receive it. Ensure your newsletter looks great and functions well on smartphones and tablets.
Before you start…
Define your audience. Identify who you want to reach and what content they’re likely to engage with. Think of them as a small group of individuals, with names and faces. Personal is best.
Research competitors’ newsletters. Learn from their successes and shortcomings, and identify ways to differentiate your newsletter.
Assess your capacity. Determine if a newsletter is necessary and if you have the resources, time, and budget to create one.
Define your goals and set success metrics. Choose relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) to track and analyse progress.
Set a consistent frequency. Decide how often to send your newsletter, considering your resources, time, and budget. Be consistent.
Create a content calendar. Plan your first newsletter content at least three months in advance, and do the first few all together even if you are looking at a monthly frequency. By doing several to begin with, it’ll help you understand how to vary your content, if your chosen format is flexible and how best to approach long term strategic planning.
Start to promote your newsletter long before the first one. Encourage sign-ups through your website, social media channels, and post-purchase communications.
How to track success and what to look for:
Once you are up, evaluating the success of your newsletter can be done by tracking various metrics related to sales, engagement, and overall value. It’s good to understand these before you start though.
Here are some key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider:
Sales and revenue
Measure the direct impact on sales by tracking conversions from newsletter clicks to completed purchases, as well as any increase in revenue attributable to the newsletter. Pixels, custom url landing pages, cookie setting might all need to be configured to deliver this effectively.
Open rate
Track the percentage of recipients who open your newsletter, indicating the effectiveness of your subject lines and overall relevance to your audience. If it’s not working, change the copy and the timing. A/B testing is built into most providers now – use it!
Click-through rate (CTR)
Monitor the percentage of recipients who click on links within your newsletter, showing engagement with your content and interest in your products or information. It’s one thing to open your mail, but are they doing what you want them to do? If it’s not working, consider sharing less and driving click through for more – it’s always a balance.
Bounce rate
Keep an eye on the percentage of emails that are not successfully delivered to recipients’ inboxes, as it may indicate issues with your email list quality or deliverability. Many platforms will help clean your lists after a few bounces. But be sure to proactively do it too, especially for those receiving but not engaging. If 10% of your audience have received a dozen mails and never opened a single one – what’s the point of mailing them?
Unsubscribe rate
Track the percentage of recipients who opt-out of your newsletter. This number provides insights into your audience’s satisfaction and potential areas for improvement. Unsubscribes will naturally happen each time you send out, so don’t sweat the small stuff. That said, a big surge is usually down to inappropriate content, while a consistently large rate suggests frequency is too high.
Audience growth
Measure the increase in newsletter subscribers over time, reflecting the effectiveness of your promotional efforts and the appeal of your content.
Website traffic
Analyse the volume and quality of traffic driven to your website from your newsletter, and vis versa. If you have 10k unique users on your site each month, but only a handful of subscribers, your sign in and subscribe funnel requires revisiting.
Customer feedback
Collect qualitative feedback from your subscribers through surveys, social media interactions, or direct responses to your newsletter, providing valuable insights into your audience’s preferences and areas for improvement. This can be incentivised through discounts at the shop for those who complete a survey etc. The more you know about your audience, the better you can be at communicating with them.
Subscribed to the idea? Here’s some ideas for what you can include in your CRM…
Content about what you do & how you do it
New product releases:
Introduce your latest gin, whisky, or rum offerings, highlighting their unique flavours, production methods, or limited edition status to entice customers and generate excitement.
Cocktail recipes:
Share creative cocktail recipes featuring your products, encouraging customers to experiment with your spirits. These are well received as a way of following up post sale. For example, an automated mail two weeks after purchase with a thank you and some suggested serves may help continue the conversation with that customer.
Behind-the-scenes stories:
Give readers an exclusive look at your distillery’s production process, showcasing the craftsmanship and dedication involved in creating your gin, whisky or rum. Be candid. Be confident in your personality!
Brand history:
Share the story behind your distillery, its founding principles, and the inspiration behind your spirits, fostering a deeper connection with your audience. Go back to your origins, talk about the journey. Launching a craft distillery is a rollercoaster so there’s always lots to share here.
Thought leadership & education
Industry trends and insights:
Discuss emerging trends in the drinks industry. Taking on trade subjects doesn’t have to be done in a way that alienates the average drinker. For example, you could look at innovative flavours and sustainable practices that are happening in bars and showcase some of the accounts you work with and how people could recreate that at home.
You could look at new production techniques and explain how you harness it (or the reason why you don’t use them) to create your product. It’s possible to do in-depth and nerdy, as well as interesting to all.
Sustainability and social responsibility:
Discuss your distillery’s efforts to reduce environmental impact, support local communities, or engage in other socially responsible initiatives, appealing to customers who value ethical practices. This should be easy as you should have so much going on in this areas!
Collaborations and partnerships:
Highlight collaborations with other brands, bars, or industry influencers, showcasing how your products are used or endorsed by other professionals in the field.
Awards and accolades:
Share any recent awards or recognitions your distillery has received, reinforcing your credibility and commitment to quality.
Upcoming events and tastings:
Promote events, tastings, or workshops that you are hosting. Invite customers to sample your products, learn more about your distillery, and connect with other enthusiasts.
Customer testimonials and reviews:
Showcase positive customer experiences, reviews, or testimonials that highlight the exceptional quality and taste of your products. It’s simple, direct and encourages others to give your spirits a try. Maybe ask a few to make a drink at home and build User Generated Content campaigns.
A mix of all of the above will offer enough content to maintain a monthly newsletter organically. If you are bolting on DtC sales and making that a part of your comms, have a look at how to do it well here. E-Commerce Guidance & Distilling in The Digital Age
With a small investment in time and budget, you can build out your capacity further and increase the frequency.
