Winery email marketing: what to send and when

A winery email programme works best in two parts: automated emails that go out on their own when someone signs up, orders or goes quiet, and a calendar of campaigns planned around your releases and the holidays. Most wineries do well with the automations below running in the background, plus two to four campaigns a month, with more around releases and in the run-up to Christmas.

The automated emails every winery needs

Automations are written once and then work every day. They usually bring in a large share of email revenue for very little ongoing effort.

Automation	Starts when	Emails	Its job
Welcome	Someone joins your list	3 to 4 over two weeks	Tell your story and earn the first order
After the first order	A first purchase ships	2	Serving tips, then an invitation to the club
Abandoned basket	A basket is left behind	1 to 2	Bring back a buyer who was nearly there
Win-back	No order for 9 to 12 months	2	Reconnect with a new vintage or a thank-you offer
Club renewal	Before each club shipment	1 to 2	Remind members what’s coming and confirm details

A campaign calendar for the year

When	Campaign ideas
January to February	Club sign-ups for the year ahead, Valentine’s Day wines, winter tasting events
March to April	Spring releases, Mother’s Day in the UK (March) and Easter
May to June	Rosé and summer wines, Mother’s Day in the US and France (May), Father’s Day (June), visit season opening
July to August	Visits and experiences, picnic and barbecue pairings
September to October	Harvest stories, pre-release allocations, gift club memberships from October
November	Holiday gifting, corporate orders, your biggest release of the year
December	Last order dates for delivery before Christmas, gift cards, thank-you to members

Plan it on a single page before the year starts. When you can see every release and holiday together, you spot the quiet months early and fill them with something worth reading.

What to write

The emails that sell wine read like a note from the winery, with one clear reason to click. A few principles I use:

• Lead with the story: the vintage, the weather, the vineyard block, the person who made the wine
• Give each email one main call to action, usually one wine or one offer
• Write subject lines that say what’s inside, such as “The 2024 Zinfandel is ready”
• Keep discounts for moments that deserve them, so full-price releases stay special

Make sure your emails arrive

Since 2024, Google and Yahoo have required bulk senders to authenticate their email and offer one-click unsubscribe. Even if you send smaller volumes, setting up SPF, DKIM and DMARC on your domain is the simplest way to land in the inbox. Your email platform walks you through it.

Consent rules differ by country. In the UK and France, existing customers can usually receive emails about similar products, provided they were given a clear chance to opt out when they bought. New subscribers should always sign up themselves.

What I’ve seen in practice

For Jeff Runquist Wines, I plan the wine club release calendar so that emails and releases move together. It turns email from a last-minute task into a steady rhythm the whole team can see months ahead, and it’s one of the pieces behind the winery’s 245% growth in online wine sales.

How to measure it

Open rates have been unreliable since Apple began loading emails automatically for many users in 2021, so judge email by what it sells:

• Revenue per email sent, for campaigns
• Revenue per subscriber each month, for the programme as a whole
• Club sign-ups and renewals that come from email

Where to start

1. List the automations above and tick the ones you already have
2. Write your welcome series first, since it reaches every new subscriber
3. Sketch next year’s calendar on one page

If you’d like the whole programme planned, written and sent for you, that’s what I do in email and wine club marketing. For more ways to grow direct sales, read winery marketing ideas that sell more bottles.