Does your winery website speak your brand? Does your winery website have an easy to understand layout? Does it have a call to action? Is it responsive? When the owner and winemaker of Meramec Vineyards, Phyllis Meagher, contacted me after taking our free 7 week Sell More Wine email series, she realized her current website wasn’t helping her get more customers.
Before the re-design:
Phyllis had a lot of great info on the Meramec Vineyards website, but the design did not match their current branding and did not have the content laid out in an easy to read way. Plus, their website was an old HTML website and needed to be updated to be mobile friendly.
We started the website re-design process by having a few Skype conversations about who Meramec Vineyards really is and how they are different from other wineries. From this conversation, I suggested we showcase her key differences in the gallery slideshow on the home page: wine bottle shots, show the location and/or building, brag about their gourmet lunches, vineyard photos to illustrate they do indeed grow their own grapes, and the next special event. Showing these five photos really gives the potential customer a good idea of what Meramec Vineyards is like in person.
I presented several website designs, but this design was ultimately chosen because the header showed off their attention to detail: the beautiful wine bottle stainglass window that is at their winery along with the gold bars that are on their wine labels.
The new winery website:
Here is a breakdown of the key features of the new website:
- Defined goals: An updated mobile friendly website, a responsive design that represented their brand and to ultimately get more customers
- Differentiation: I worked one-on-one with the owner Phyllis and helped choose what her key differences: female owned, their location right off the highway in St. James, Missouri, and how their winery is all about the details – their wine, gourmet lunches, wine bottle window art (featured in the header design), corks used as potting soil, etc.
- It’s responsive: No matter what device you use – smartphone, tablet or desktop – to view the website, the website will adjust to the size of your browser. No more pinching and zooming to try and figure out what that tiny text says. How does your own site look on a mobile phone?
- Easy to update website: The website is built in the Content Management System (CMS), WordPress, which is super easy to update. There is even a mobile app, where you can type in blog posts from anywhere. Turn those unproductive times like waiting to get your oil change, into blog time.
- Call to Action: With every website I build, I emphasize – what do you want visitors to do? For this website, we wanted people to sign up for their email newsletter. Phyllis does a great job of emailing her customers a ton of content on the vineyards, wine and events.
- Custom WordPress theme design: Each website I create, I present 2-3 website design options. For this site, the final design I created a custom header showing their wine bottle stained glass at their winery, and custom layout that loads fast, along with a custom color scheme.
- Custom Home Page Gallery: I skyped and had several conversation with Phyllis from Meramec Vineyards on which photos to include in the home page gallery. For instance, I suggested the following type of photos: wine, show the location and/or building, gourmet lunch, vineyard photos. We chose photos to represent each of these.
- Fonts: The sans serif fonts on this website were picked to show the modern feeling of this winery.
- Color Scheme: The color scheme that I chose – gold foil lines paired with purple showcases the serious side (gold foil) and the fun side (purple).
- One-on-one training: For each website I create, I provide one-on-one training to explain how to use to WordPress. This can be done by phone, Skype or in-person if you are close.
- PDF instructions: I know it’s hard to learn everything within an hour. That is why I provide a PDF with instructions on how to make changes to your website.
What does Meramec Vineyards say?
Becca is extremely patient and understanding of how hard it is to fit in website development tasks while operating a working winery. While I often missed deadlines she NEVER did. She was available for quick questions to guide me through uploading content to the new site. She helped us zero in on the exact style and content we wanted. I love the look of our updated website. The process and the outcome were worth the effort. Already we have had positive response from people who have viewed our new website.
– Phyllis Meagher, Owner of Meramec Vineyards
Want to learn more?
Check out the live website at www.meramecvineyards.com. If you want to read more about Phyllis, the owner and winemaker, check out the Midwest Wine Press story, “More Women making wine in the Midwest.”
Does your website need a re-design, so its responsive and easier to update? Contact me at [email protected]. Are you ready to learn how you can increase the number of customers to your winery? Take our free Sell More Wine email course.