With the increasing number of wineries, maintaining visibility among writers and staying top-of-mind for consumers has become paramount. In today’s fiercely competitive market, a well-crafted public relations strategy is not only beneficial—it’s essential for every winery.

Here are five tips and easy-to-implement steps for wineries looking to start their public relations efforts in-house.

Craft a Compelling Story

Before you start any outreach, make sure you have a good story about your brand that’s worthy of attention. Your story can be anything from the owner’s story to how a particular wine got its name to your production process. Why is it worth covering? Consider what differentiates your wine from the many others out there in a saturated market. 

Make a Plan

Once you’ve nailed down your story, identify the online or print publications in which you want to be featured. The type of writers you should target will be in the beverage, food & wine, and travel and leisure publications. Create a targeted media list, samples calendar, and budget. Your budget should cover samples and shipping costs. Consider other costs such as hiring a supplemental PR agency, too.

Send Samples

To spread the news on your product, get your product in front of reviewers and influencers as part of your outreach. It’s a good idea to send media samples of your wine. Samples are a great way to increase the visibility of wine and introduce it to a much broader audience. They’re much more likely to cover a wine that they had the pleasure of tasting.

Pitch, Pitch, and Pitch

Develop your relationship with the media and pitch your winery. While relationships take time to build you can focus on your pitching. While it’s great to have relationships with the media, it doesn’t necessarily mean secured coverage, so don’t feel intimidated by reaching out to someone you don’t know.

Follow Up

Once you’ve sent a pitch don’t stop there. Follow up on all pitches and samples you sent out. If you haven’t heard back, try reaching out. Although, we do not suggest following up more than two times.

If you earned media, take the time to analyze the results. Investing in a media database such as Prowly can provide several insights into the success of your efforts. Of course, this is only helpful and optional. Most agencies like Novatur use some sort of database and can provide analytics and reporting for you.  If you have a small budget or want a more holistic view of your efforts, take a look at your website analytics, social media channels, and email subscriptions around the time the article was published. 

If you’re ready to start a public relations program and need a helping hand, we’re here to answer your questions and provide guidance. Let’s discuss it over a Discovery Call on how we can best help you.