small business marketing 101

The best thing I could have ever done as a marketing professional is to own a small business. In my case, my wife and I own a small, urban winery in Powell, OH. When we purchased the winery 7 years ago, we decided to split the tasks, she'd handle the day to day and I'd handle the marketing and the finances. I thought I was getting off easy.. boy was I wrong.

What people don't tell you about owning a small business is that the majority of the work is completely unrelated to what that business actually does. Payroll, P&L, Taxes, maintenance... and of course marketing, are an enormous part of what makes a small business successful. Fortunately for me, the marketing would be easy... again, boy was I wrong.

Getting people to come into our tasting room is no small feat. We are tucked back in a small corner of a suburb just outside of Columbus, OH. There is absolutely no "drive-by" traffic and we're in a town that really doesn't have a big draw. The neighboring towns have had great, recent success with revitalizing their downtown's, ours, has a long way to go. So, we we're gonna have to market the shit outta this thing.

Being a winery, the majority of our customers are women, so naturally, Facebook and Instagram would be our go-to form of outreach. And because I specialize in video and photography, this is where I'd channel my energy. I started off with simple, informational videos - who we are, where we're located, education about our wines. Initially, these seemed to resonate with our customers. But how much can one talk about the same thing over and over and over again. It got boring, really fast. Then I started really studying social media trends and thought I'd try my hand at jumping on that bandwagon. This is when things started to change.

Trending audio, silly dances, lip syncing all seemed stupid to me at first. Then, I realized, it was an easy way to come up with new ideas, and the algorithms favored this sort of content. So, I went all-in. The first few videos took off, several thousand views. This was actually fun, but I decided to take it a step further. With my video equipment, I was going to take things to the next level. "I'll make my videos look more professional than just shooting them on a phone" I thought. Scripting, shot lists, lighting, multiple cameras - next level thinking. My videos were (in my opinion) better looking than most. But the view counts weren't. I quickly came to realize that I was just putting too many hours into the production, and not enough into the thinking. And like everyone that owns a small business, my time is valuable. Spending several hours on one video just isn't sustainable, or economical. Especially if I was planning to post a new video every single day.

Fast forward, 500 videos later. Yes, five HUNDRED! And I think I've learned a thing or two about marketing a small business via social media. So here are my takeaways.

1. Plan. This is the biggest takeaway. Every two weeks, my wife and I plan what we want to promote. Then, I'll write the scripts, including shot lists and prepare to shoot. I create enough scripts for 2 weeks worth of content. (typically 14 videos) which commits us to a calendar of events in the tasting room. Then, I shoot all of the videos at one time. Typically a Sunday or Monday evening. Then I edit them right away and check them off my to-do list.

2. Entertain. Posts can't always be about selling a product. That gets old really quickly and people will stop paying attention. People want to be entertained. Funny, emotional, weird, it all grabs attention, gets them wanting more and they're very memorable.

3. Don't over-do it. I've gotten good at shooting quantity over quality. (although the quality is still top notch, if I don't say so myself) I still use my professional camera, but no lights. I use all natural lighting now which decreases the setup time significantly. Because the scripts and shot lists are planned out, we're able to move quickly through the scripts and shoot all the necessary b-roll without the worry of missing a shot.

4. B-Roll and Photos. I take photos of everything I shoot video of. This gives me the opportunity to make simple posts in addition to video posts. More content, more content.

5. Wear the same thing OR bring extra wardrobe. When the video is just me, I always wear a black t-shirt and jeans. This way no one can tell if I shot everything at one time, and it makes the videos evergreen.. I can re-post them a year from now and they'll look like they were just shot...OR, when my wife is in the video, she changes her outfit based on the topic of the video. This way it looks fresh every time, and really makes the dashboard of an Instagram feed look colorful.

6. Sell it. We ask everyone in the tasting room how they heard about us. And if they're not already, we ask them to follow us on Instagram. These silly little videos have really made an impact and are often topics of discussion in the tasting room.

7. Think local. We don't have millions of followers, and that's ok. Our customers are in the Columbus area... sure it's nice to get a ton of views and go "Viral", but in the end, we want people to come see us. So our target audience is within a 30 mile radius of the tasting room. Always remember who and where your audience is.
   

Outside the winery, my "day job" is running my advertising business, Ken Waldron Productions. The things I've learned marketing my winery have benefited me tremendously. I have a much better understanding of the challenges associated with marketing a small business - from time, to money, to re-inventing yourself on a regular basis. All of these things have made me a better small business owner, and a better much, much better resource to assist my advertising clients with their marketing needs. When I started the advertising business, I thought my decades of experience had prepared me to best serve my clients... but now that I've gone through what small business owners have gone through, I realize... "boy was I wrong".

Check out my winery instagram, https://www.instagram.com/powellvillagewinery/

Wine Pouches