About pages matter even more for garagistes and solo operators.
For solo winery owners/winemakers, an effective website that turns visitors into customers is a win. Anything else is a waste of time.
Learn how to get real wins with your About page.
As a solo owner/winemaker, I will assume you do not spend much time parked in front of your laptop reading fluff articles. So, this article focuses on just three things:
- The reason you need to change your About page — now.
- The two essential things your About page must accomplish to turn visitors into customers.
- How to get the job done.
1. The reason you need to change your About page — now.
Winery About pages are generally modeled on those from other industries.
In those industries, they work well to establish legitimacy, authority, or experience — qualities wine consumers do not seek when shopping for wines.
If your About page follows this approach, you are doing it wrong. And it is costing you sales.
Most wine consumers don’t know what terroir tastes like. Likewise, malolactic bacteria is not a topic that gets mouths watering, nor is your alluvial soil or clones.
And your website visitors probably already believe you know how to make wine, so you don’t need to tell them where you went to school.
These are not the burning questions your visitors have when turning to your About page for answers.
The burning question in the minds of visitors to your About page is not “But where did they get their enology degree?”
Your About page visitors want to know if they’ll like your wines.
What’s the urgency? you ask. After all, it’s just the About page. Nobody really looks at it, right?
Wrong.
Firstly, more than half of the visitors to your website want to see the About page.
Secondly, the last page a user will view before they decide to make a purchase or that they care about your winery is, frequently, — you guessed it — your About page.
So if your About page leaves your visitors without answers to their final questions before they can make a purchase, you just learned what your top priority is.
2. The two essential things your About page must accomplish to turn visitors into customers
As mentioned, the last page a user will view before they decide to make a purchase or if they care about you at all is, frequently, your About page.
They have seen the photos of your sloping vineyards, your plaid shirts, and your edgy tattoo, and now they want to know if they will like your wines.
So, there are two things your About page must do.
First, it should give your visitors the feeling that they have a pretty good sense of what types of wine you make. After reading your About page, your visitors should know that they’ll like your wines.
Accomplishing this can be trickier than it sounds. This is not about tasting notes and it’s not about poetic metaphors. This is about providing real-world usable descriptions of your wines in the language your visitors use and understand.
How can you know the level of wine knowledge your visitors have? How can you explain your wines to the wine novice while also satisfying the needs of the expert?
(We’ll cover the How in the next section, but be prepared that it requires strategic and creative thinking.)
Second, it should send your visitors to the next step in accomplishing what they want to do.
Don’t bank on your users looking for the correct link in the top navigation bar.
Instead, give your users two easy options right there in the middle of the page: Buy some wine, or Visit our Cellar.
After reading your About page, your visitors should have all their questions answered, and they should be landing on the appropriate page for their next step.
You can monitor this in Google Analytics.
We all love to hear how the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell, but your About page should not be “About Chemistry”.
Keep in mind that the top priority for your About page is to help your visitors understand your wines, so they can decide if they want to make the trek to your winery.
Describing your award-winning soil will not accomplish that priority.
Winery About Pages:
Where Can we Talk About our Vineyards?
Remember: your About page has a job to do. It is focused on turning visitors into customers.
Your soils can wait.
I’m not suggesting never to mention your sloping vineyards, your cool sea breezes, or your prized alluvial soils.
But these details will find a much better home on your Vineyards page.
Likewise, your adventurous spirit is a crucial element of your story, so put it where it belongs: on your Our Story page.
(Aside: Brand values such as sustainability, land stewardship, and worker equality can be woven into your content throughout your site.)
If your vineyards are a major draw for outdoor tastings, you can reference that in the call-to-action to book a tasting.
This brings us to where to include all the details about your malolactic fermentation.
As Judge Juan Merchan said of Stormy Daniel’s recent testimony, “Some things are better left unheard,” but if you feel compelled to mention it, create a Winemaking Process page and put it there.
Some things are better left unheard.
3. How to get the job done
Do:
Describe the wines you make in clear, simple terms anybody can understand. Words like fresh, light, robust, heavy, oaky, and fruity are words that most people can translate into a sensation in the mouth.
Additionally, there are ways to segment your audience and display different versions of your About page to different audiences.
Don’t:
Use technical wine descriptors that require the degree from Davis you’ve been describing. Avoid volcanic, minerality, clone 667, fog layer, and alluvial — few wine consumers have had the training to translate these terms into flavors. Remember, your average wine drinker struggles to discern between fruity and sweet. Your wines page, not your About page, is where you can get crazy with jargon.
Do:
Mention your philosophy or approach to making wine if there’s a benefit for the consumer, such as making lighter-alcohol wines that are refreshing and easy to drink or if you source grape varieties capable of flavors that are different from what you find on the shelves.
Don’t:
Attempt to educate your readers about fermentation. No one wants your About page to be “About Chemistry.”
Do:
Tell your winery’s story if it’s compelling, entertaining, meaningful, and causes people to buy your wines.
Don’t:
Describe your clones, fog layers, soil, hardpan, or diurnal shift. No one cares. (Feel free to include this on a page describing your vineyards, varieties, or growing practices, but keep it off your About page.)
Do:
Describe what kinds of food your readers could enjoy with your wines if it is helpful (people know what food tastes like).
Don’t:
Attempt to impress your readers by listing ingredients they’ve never heard of or have no hope of finding in the store.
Remember: your About page is for the reader. It should help them determine if your wines are the kinds of wines they like.
That’s all.
A final thought …
Some will tell you to use your About page for SEO. But for wineries, the About page is often the last stop before deciding to visit or buy.
Your most pressing priority is to aid in this decision.
Bradley Squires
ENGAGEMENT CATALYST
Bradley Squires, the founder of Wine Chemistry Creative, helps wineries become memorable. He thinks of this as Creating Chemistry with your customers and future customers. Bradley has provided marketing services for some of the largest (and smallest) brands in the U.S.. Notable brands include Vintrace, UCSF, Ericcson, Grgich Hills, The Nature Conservancy, and Napa Valley Vintners. He holds degrees in Oenology, Viticulture, and Wine Marketing. He doesn’t have a dog.
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