Full Transcript
[0:00]
Welcome to the 805 Web Minute. And today we're talking about why your wineries website is either capturing or costing you a share of the $2.8 billion tourism market right here in a solo county. It really is that stark. Your website, I mean, it's not a brochure anymore. It's become your most important tasting room. The most important tasting room I like that is the gatekeeper, right? It's the only one that's open 24, seven. Exactly. It is the very first impression for millions of potential customers. And if it fails, they never even get to your front door. You nailed it. Yeah. And to really get this, we have to start with the sheer scale of what we're talking about here on the central coast. Yeah. When we look at Paso Robles wine country, this is not a small, you know, side project. It is an absolute economic behemus. It is. And that engine, that that economic power, it really affects every single local business, not just wineries. We're talking hotels, restaurants, shops, everything, everything. So let's look at the growth because it's kind of staggering. It is. If you go back to say 1983, Paso Robles had only 17 wineries, 17, just 17. And today, today we're talking about over 250. Wow. So that means the competition has just, well, it's increased exponentially. Simply being good isn't enough to stand out anymore. You have to be flawless in how you present yourself online. And the customers are definitely here. They are showing up in force. Yeah. We're not talking about a trickle of visitors, not at all. We're talking about two and a half million visitors coming to the region every single year, two and a half million people. That is an incredible number of people who are actively researching, planning their trips, and they are ready to spend money. And let's put that in a context that really hits home for the entire community. This tourism wave, it generates a total economic impact of $2.8 billion. Right here in Esselot County, 2.8 billion. And to drive that point home even further, just look at the city of Pasarobles. Tourism generates 37% of their entire general fund.
[2:01]
37%. So this isn't just about, you know, tasting fees. This is the bedrock of the entire local economy. If that tourism dollar goes away, local services suffer. It's that simple. Okay. So if you're a local business owner listening to this, the mission is crystal clear. You need to capture your slice of that $2.8 billion pie. And to do that, you have to look really closely at how visitors behave, especially during those key moments, like the holiday surge we just saw. Right, because those patterns, they're reliable. They repeat year after year. The weeks between Christmas and New Year's, I mean, it's a perfect case study in high pressure sales. Wine sales surge 69% above average in that short window. 69% and what about for sparkling wine? I know that's always huge. Oh, that jumps an incredible 272%. People are buying gifts. They're planning the New Year's parties and they're locking in their plans. What's really insightful to me, though, is how that behavior changes when a visitor actually commits to staying here. They're not just driving by on the 101. No, the data shows that 79% of visitors to Paso Robles stay overnight. 79% that changes the entire game. It really does. They're not just popping in for one quick tasting. They are settled into their hotel, their rental home, and they're using their downtime, you know, early in the morning late at night to research and plan out their next few days. That's the critical moment, isn't it? They're comfortable, maybe on some slow hotel Wi-Fi. And they are making concrete decisions. The first search might give them a list of 20 wineries. But it's the website that has to do the heavy lifting from there. It has to sell the experience while they're sitting on a couch, staring at their phone, trying to narrow down the options. It's basically the Taste Human Matendent, the host, and the signout front all rolled into one. All at once. And that brings us to the search funnel. I mean, with 250 wineries, how on earth do millions of people narrow it down to the handful they're actually going to visit?
[4:01]
Yeah, let's unpack that. How does a visitor who might be totally new to the area even begin? Well, they start with intent and they start with Google. A huge majority, 87% of wine visitors use search engines to find experiences. So they're not pulling out a phone book. They're typing things like best wineries near me or pet friendly tasting rooms. Wineries with great views in Paso. Exactly. And once they search, they need validation. They're not just going to drive out there on a hunt. Right. And we know that 78% of those searchers will then visit the wineries website before they decide to actually go in person. So the website isn't an afterthought. It is the absolute maker break decision point. But here's the constraint. And this is the piece of data that should make every business owner just sit up and pay attention, the time pressure. It's intense. We find that 67% of visitors spend less than one hour researching their entire trip. Listen in hour for the whole multi day itinerary. That is that's brutal. It is brutal. Think about it. If you're planning three days of meals, lodging and maybe five or six reinary visits, you are giving each individual website mere minutes of your attention. It's a lightning fast process. And that time pressure forces quick, ruthless decisions. The research confirms it. 70% of visitors only consider five or fewer wineries when they're planning. Five or fewer. That's a psychological cutoff, right? You click on five sites. And if you haven't found what you're looking for, the right vibe and easy reservation button, you just stop. You get decision fatigue. So if your website is slow or it's confusing or it just looks unprofessional, you are instantly cut from that list of five. There is no second chance. No second chance at all, which is why we talk so much about reducing friction. But often the friction isn't just about something being hard to find. It's about a lack of trust, a complete lack of trust. And that brings us to the first major failure point that snap judgment. People make base purely on design.
[6:02]
This part is always so fascinating to me that people are forming judgments about the quality of your wine based on the quality of your website. It feels unfair, but it's just how our brains work, isn't it? It absolutely is. The human brain is wired to make these quick judgments for survival. And that same mechanism just gets transferred to the digital world. People form these impressions in milliseconds. Illness seconds. Yeah. A staggering 94% of a visitor's first impression is purely design related. They haven't read a single word. They haven't seen your awards. They've just judged you based on your fonts, your colors, your images. And we see this disconnect all the time. A business will invest hundreds of thousands in a beautiful tasting room. You know, the lighting, the furniture, everything is perfect. And their website looks like a free template from 2010. Exactly. And that immediately destroys their credibility. It does. We see that 75% of consumers judge a business's credibility based entirely on its website design. So if your site is dusty, slow, or cluttered, the customer just assumes. They assume that same lack of attention to detail applies to the product itself, the wine, the food, the service. And there's academic research confirming that website quality directly predicts consumer trust and even their perception of the quality of the product. An outdated site suggests an outdated business. Okay. So that's the design failure. But let's talk about the technical failure, which is arguably even more damaging, especially when we know that 79% of visitors are planning from their phones in a hotel room. Right. We're talking about the mobile problem. The three second rule, the three second rule. This is a purely technical hurdle. And most business owners just aren't aware of it. When you're on hotel Wi-Fi or, you know, a spotty cell service out in the county, speed is everything. It's paramount. If your site loads slowly on mobile, you are literally handing that customer to your competitor down the road. Without them ever seeing what you have to offer, we know that 53% of marble visitors will leave. If a page takes more than three seconds to load, three seconds.
[8:04]
That is an impossibly high bar. So if a customer is waiting just a little too long for that beautiful, big photo of your vineyard to load, they're gone. They're gone. And the cost of that delay, it just increases exponentially. The data shows that when load times increase from just one second to three seconds, the chance of losing that visitor of them just bouncing right off your site goes up by 32%. And it's usually because of the images, isn't it? These big, beautiful, but totally unoptimized photos. That's the main culprit. They look fantastic on a big desktop screen, but on a phone, they're just, they're heavy luggage. They're slowing the customer down. That's a great way to put it. You're giving them this beautiful, heavy suitcase to carry when all they want to do is move fast. Right. Optimized imagery just means the pictures are resized and compressed so they load instantly, even on a bad connection. Speed has to be the priority over, you know, visual perfection on a tiny screen. And the consequence of failing here is pretty much irreversible. If someone has a bad experience, they hit that three second wall. They can't find the book now button. 88% of those people will not come back. They don't give you another try. They don't. They just scroll down that Google results page to the next winery on the list, which is why we have to shift our focus entirely to friction removal. We need to look at the common traits of the winning winery websites in Paso. The ones that are actually capturing those 2.5 million visitors. Okay. So let's summarize those traits, the things that make the experience effortless. What are the key pillars of success? First, as we've been saying, they are fast loading. That means their development was built for speed from the ground up. Optimized images, clean code, good hosting. Second, they work flawlessly on phones. This sounds basic, but it means the critical info your hours, your directions, your reservation button, all have to be immediately visible and easy to tap on a small screen. Yeah, I've had to pinch and zoom to find your phone number. I'm already frustrated. I'm gone. You're gone. Third, they offer easy booking.
[10:06]
The next step you want the customer to take has to be obvious. It has to be obvious. If you want to call, make the phone number a clickable link. If you want a reservation, make that button big and bright. Don't make them hunt for it. The website's job is to convert lookers into bookers, which brings us to the fourth point, which I think is so important, storytelling. Absolutely crucial. People don't just want the specs on the line. They want an emotional connection. They want to know the people, the passion, the place behind that bottle. Show pictures of the line maker. Talk about the land, tell them why your place is unique. That's when builds loyalty is what moves you from being one of 250 to being a must visit. And finally, that critical first impression. They look current. A modern professional design instantly communicates that you operate at a high level. If the design feels premium, the visitor assumes the line is premium. It has to reflect the quality of your product. That whole package speed, mobile, easy booking story and modern design. That's the formula. And even though we just finished the holiday rush, this quiet time of year, right now, January and February, this is the real opportunity. It's a massive quiet opportunity. The natural tendency is to relax when traffic slows down, but this is exactly when the work needs to ramp up. I see. So the website that was struggling during the holiday rush, it's not going to magically fix itself. If your reservation system was glitchy or your site felt slow in December, waiting until the summer peak means you've already wasted half a year of potential revenue. So the slow period is the perfect time for preparation for improvement. You build that fast, mobile friendly site now. So it's battle tested and ready for the entire year ahead. You're building your digital war chest right now for the spring travelers who are just around the corner. And the urgency here is just it's massive. We mentioned the local impact, but if you look globally, wine tourism accounts for what 25% of global winery revenue at least. And for a destination like Pasa Robles, that percentage is likely much, much higher.
[12:08]
Your website is the most critical gatekeeper for that revenue. If it's not designed to win them over instantly, it's just pushing millions of dollars to your competitors. So the challenge we put to you, the listener is this. When you look at your website, are you truly treating it with the same care and investment as your physical tasting room? You'd never leave a broken sign or dusty furniture at your front door. So why are you accepting the digital equivalent that's costing you nearly 90% of your potential new customers? That's the quick tip for today. If you want a professional website without the agency price tag or the DIY headache, here is the better way at you grow.pro. We build it. We manage it and we handle every update forever for just $79 a month. There is zero set up fee, no contract lock in and it is strictly month to month. So there is zero risk. We're local here in AG and we can have you live in days, not months. Want to see what your site could look like? Go to you grow.pro right now and we'll design three custom mockups for your business. Completely free. No strings attached. Thanks for listening and keep growing.