How to Produce a Virtual Wine Tasting like a Pro
As your trusted advisor, we are always keeping our ears to the ground in search of the best nuggets of information that will help you reach your customers, sell more wine, and continue to help your brand develop in the digital space. To that end, virtual wine tastings are all the buzz right now. People are consuming digital media at a frenzied pace. If you haven’t performed one yet, it is time to get in the game. If you have performed one or two, you know that it is a bit more challenging than some people make it look.
Either way, we have your back and are here to give you the best practices in the pre, post, and during stages of executing a successful virtual wine tasting. Even more, we have some tips for reaching more of your fanbase and their fellow drinking buddies. I think we all need one of those about now! Let’s get to it!
Pre-Virtual Tasting
Plan your work and work your plan!
Simple right? Well, with many of the tastings we have seen so far, we have seen some virtual tastings appear very disorganized. If you’re Ryan Seacrest that’s not such a big deal, but having the appearance of sitting in a poorly lit room and not having a focus can get stale very quickly. So here’s a pre-tasting checklist for you to think about:
Tell your audience what will be covered. This can be as simple as a time limit, picking 2 wines, planning a walking tour of the winery, talking about the vintage, and having a special offer for attendees at the end.
What do your participants need? Cheese and crackers? Tasting mats? Give a list of must-haves with the tasting so you set them up to succeed. Some things that can truly enhance the tasting experience are no brainers for you but could be overlooked by your fans.
What platform are you using, Skype, Zoom, Facebook Live? Make sure you rehearse your performance with your team prior to the live show. You have most likely gone to a meeting where someone fumbled around with the technology before. Don’t be that person.
Plan the location where you will be hosting the virtual tasting. Dark rooms with a Nirvana poster on the wall don’t say “luxury wine tasting”. Take the time to frame your shot while checking out the lighting and acoustics. You don’t want an echo echo echo…
Get your fans used to the platform you are using. Do they need to download something? Do they need to set a calendar reminder? If you had any trouble setting your virtual tasting up, chances are they will have trouble too. Be a good host and prepare them the best that you can.
During Your Virtual Tasting
Work your plan!
You’ve spent the time inviting and preparing your audience. You have told them what you will be covering. Now it is time to shine. Here are some tips to help you in the live portion of your tasting:
First and foremost, check in with your audience to make sure they can hear you. Thumbs up if they can hear you/thumbs down if they can’t. If you’re using zoom, be sure as the host to mute your audience, show them how to unmute or hide their faces.
You have set the expectations of your audience, now live up to your word. Don’t get off track…well not too far off track. Being spontaneous is good if it is the minority of your presentation, not the majority. Being funny = Good! Telling a drawn-out joke you can’t remember the punch line to = Bad!
Chat with your audience. Although you’ll have a plan to stick to, make sure someone off-camera is responding to the chat board. This can be one of the most entertaining parts of a virtual tasting. You may make wine better than your fans, but chances are that they may be funnier than you. Engaging with a group can be invigorating. Having a tasting where no one on your team engages them is an opportunity wasted.
Where possible, have a special offer that they cannot pass up. This should be better than what you send out regularly. Make them an offer they can’t refuse and make it easy for them to purchase. It can be a link in your chat or it can be having them call your winery, but just make it simple.
Make sure to smile. Unlike the photographs taken in the 1920s, you can see what you look like in real-time. Smiling is always better than the alternative and it even makes the wine taste better for your audience.
Don’t forget to capture your tasting for social media. Maybe a screenshot of attendees or the presenter. Maybe pictures of prepping the wine for the tasting. Give people more ways to connect with your tasting.
After Your Virtual Tasting
Just like a good first date, the follow up is EVERYTHING!
The people that attend your tastings have friends who may love your wine too. Here is how you can reach them post-tasting:
Tell them you love them. I don’t recommend this for a first date, but I do with your follow up to your tasting. Put whatever offer you gave to them in the live stream in an email. Out of sight, out of mind. Don’t let at home distractions for your customers make you lose your opportunity to sell.
Make your offer sharable. Right now, many people are only purchasing things they have tried before, but just like a good stock tip, friends love telling friends about good wines. Let them help you do the work by incentivizing them. Try giving a $25 gift card to your winery for every friend they send your way.
Invite them to another virtual wine tasting. If you’ve ever watched Breaking Bad, you know that waiting for the 5 second Netflix countdown for the next episode is almost unbearable. If you planned and executed your virtual tasting well, people will want to come back!
Ask your fans how they liked it. A simple survey can go a long way to helping you understand what to get better at and what they want to see next time.
So there you have it. A blueprint for a successful virtual tasting. As with most things in life, the devil is in the details and we learn as we go. Take the time to plan each of these stages so you can put your best foot forward and represent your winery authentically.
