Building a successful wine club means fostering a vibrant community, not just a customer list. Focus on exclusivity, personalization, and engaging existing loyal customers. Strategic planning, unexpected delights, and turning memberships into meaningful gifts are key to creating a club members proudly recommend. It’s about genuine connection and mutual trust, leading to organic word-of-mouth promotion.
If your Wine Club were a person, would you introduce it to your family? Your friends? Would you speak of it with pride, or would you keep it hidden? The answer to this question is the litmus test for everything. Because a Wine Club isn’t an Excel file; it’s not a discounted promotion. It’s a relationship. A community. An act of mutual trust.
It starts with those who are already there: your network is more valuable than you think.
Too often, we search for new clients and forget about existing ones. But those who have already crossed the threshold of your winery, who have already bought, who know you… They are the first ones to involve. If you’re just starting, don’t dream of big numbers: aim for the first 10 loyal customers. Do a test. Build a “pilot” relationship with them and see what really works.
A messy database is a wasted opportunity. If you want to build a Wine Club, start collecting useful data (well): what a customer has bought, their preferences, when they visited you. It’s not useful to know their birthday if you only send them greetings. But if that date helps you give them a gift or send a targeted offer, then yes, it has value.
Planning is the heart of success.
A good Wine Club is designed like a trip: month by month, with content, surprises, pampering, and small unexpected events. Like in a love story, you need to amaze those who have trusted you. Even with a video, an unscheduled gift, a signed bottle, or a private Zoom tasting.
In a world where no one knows what to give anymore, the idea of gifting a Wine Club membership is incredibly powerful. It’s a gift that lasts over time, speaking of taste, style, and emotion. And if you think about it: it also builds loyalty with the gift-giver. Because if the feedback is positive, next year… they’ll buy it for themselves.
The Wine Club that works is the one that makes people say: “I’m in. And I recommend it to everyone.”
It’s not a platform; it’s not an e-commerce. It’s a community, made of people who feel heard, pampered, and involved. And precisely for this reason, they speak of you with pride. Because a Wine Club is successful only when its members want to talk about it spontaneously, just like they would about a great trip or an unforgettable bottle.
Key points
- A Wine Club is a community built on trust, not just a list of names or discounted promotions.
- Prioritize existing customers; they are your most valuable asset for starting and growing your club.
- Collect meaningful data and plan engaging experiences to consistently delight your members.
- Gifting a Wine Club membership is a powerful tool for lasting loyalty, for both recipient and giver.
- Success hinges on members feeling valued and wanting to spontaneously recommend your club.
