In the very competitive wine industry, one easy way to stand out from the crowd is by winning and then promoting a wine award. Every wine enthusiast, wine distributor or wine retailer will likely pay attention as soon as they find out you have a 90-point bottle of wine that has won a prize in the competition. But how exactly do you get the word out and market your new wine award?

Send out press releases

While social media has fundamentally changed the traditional media landscape, there are still plenty of opportunities to use press releases to generate media attention. Your best options are to send out press releases to local media publications. They might be interested in highlighting a local interest story about you and your wines.

For example, a local newspaper might want to showcase a local winemaker making award-winning wines. Or, a regional wine industry trade publication might want to highlight your award-winning wine as part of a major new trend or movement in the wine world. In addition to local media publications, you will want to send out press releases to industry associations or industry websites that publish news items on a daily basis.

Post updates about your award on your website

There are various ways that you can promote and market your award-winning wine on your website. For example, you could create a new blog post highlighting the special features and tasting characteristics of your wine, and explain why it won a Gold or Silver medal in the competition. If you include photos or video clips, you can create a very engaging piece of content for wine enthusiasts.

But that’s just the start of what is possible. You could also create a dedicated page on your website specifically for this wine. Moreover, since consumers will be interested in trying your wine if they visit your website, be sure to include information on how they can purchase it. A number of large retailers – including Aldi and Costco – do an excellent job of highlighting any award-winning wines on their websites. So if you’re not sure what type of information should be included, just check out the “award-winning wines” section of their websites for plenty of examples.

Generate buzz on social media

The best thing about social media is that you don’t have to wait for the mainstream media to write about you. You can bypass them entirely and reach consumers and fans directly by posting updates on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. For example, you could include an update on your Facebook page, and then follow that up with a photo of your wine (and your winery) on Instagram. Then, over the span of the next few weeks, you could send out regular tweets on Twitter, letting people know about your new award. Since social media is such a visual platform these days, always include a high-resolution image of your wine every time you post something new.

Host in-store or winery tastings

One great way to get the word out about your new award-winning wine is to conduct in-store or winery tastings, especially in your local region where wine drinkers will be most likely to support you. What serious wine drinker would pass up the opportunity to try a new award-winning wine? Right there on the spot, you might make a week’s worth of sales in just a few hours.

Update your label and bottle

With the wide variety of print-on-demand resources available today, it’s easier than you might think to generate new labels and shelf talkers for your bottle of wine. Start by creating attention-getting shelf talkers that will draw the attention of consumers as they are shopping at a wine retail store. On the shelf talker, be sure that your Gold or Silver medal is prominently mentioned and displayed, in addition to basic information on the vintage and varietal.

From there, you can move on to the label itself. Usually, the host of the wine competition can help you in printing new labels that showcase your medal and/or point score. Just remember – if you are mentioning the competition on your bottle, you will need to make sure that you are using the appropriate branding assets that have been pre-approved by the hosts of the competition.

Send out an email newsletter

Email continues to be an enormously important means of communication with fans, partners, and supporters of your wine brand. So be sure to include a mention of your wine award in your next email newsletter. You can either include the full story and details within the newsletter itself or include a link to your main website, where you can publish a more detailed story (along with details on how people can buy this award-winning wine).

Update your sales presentation materials for distributors and partners

If you already have sales presentation materials – such as brochures, sales sheets or other marketing collateral – it’s time to update them with news about your award-winning wine. If possible, make this wine the centrepiece of your sales materials, because this is precisely the type of information that is going to help win over distributors. If given a choice between buying a wine that has won a prize in a competition and one that has not – which one do you think they are going to prefer? So make sure you update all of your sales materials.

Prepare new marketing collateral for upcoming exhibitions and conferences

The wine industry is filled with exhibitions, expos and conferences, and you need to be ready the next time you attend a big new event in California, New York City or London. Most likely, you’ll have your own booth at the event if you are exhibiting, and this is a perfect chance to showcase your new wine. You might organize a mini-tasting at the event, for example, and then provide a quick one-page information sheet that attendees can take with them from the show.

Final thoughts

Wine awards are about more than validating you as a winemaker – they could (and should) also become part of your marketing mix. Over time, the more awards you win, the more you will develop a reputation for quality. And, most importantly, you will have newfound ability to adjust the pricing of your wines to reflect the fact that your winery is now producing premium wines. Using the steps outlined above, you will be able to include your wine awards in your overall marketing mix and come up with a unique way to stand out from the competition in order to sell more wine.