Pop quiz: How do you get a customer to pick up your bottle of wine or visit your winery? Would you like to add another tool to your marketing kit for minimal cost and effort? If so, keep reading.
The Virginia Green Program promotes tourist attractions that voluntarily comply with “green” practices to minimize the environmental impacts of their businesses. The program is a partnership among the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC), the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association (VRLTA) and the Virginia Green Travel Alliance. So, here’s a quick survey to determine whether Virginia Green might be a good fit for you.
1. Would Your Winery Benefit from Extra Promotions to Virginia Tourists?
The Virginia Tourism Department promotes all state attractions that have achieved Virginia Green designation on a special section of its website. Wineries also get an on-sight display certificate to communicate visually with visitors, the use of the Virginia Green Logo, plus a full-page featured profile on the Virginia is for Lovers website.
2. Would You Like to Take Credit for the Progressive Stuff You’re Already Doing?
As a matter of good business practice, progressive-thinking wineries adopt sustainable environmental activities such as:
- Recycling and use of low impact food service products in tasting rooms
- Pesticide and fertilizer minimization
- Water conservation measures
- Energy efficient practices
If you’re already doing these things, then isn’t it time to take credit for them?
3. Is it Important that You Protect Your Family’s Legacy?
For many Virginians, a beautiful vineyard estate is not only a business; it is also a family home. Caring for the land and legacy we want to pass on to our children is far more than good business. It’s the right thing to do. You want to do it, you just don’t know where to start, and the everyday demands of running a business leave little time for long-term planning.
4. Are Interested in Saving Time, Money and Energy?
This one is probably a no-brainer. (Right?) Agricultural businesses are time and labor intensive, answering to seasonal variations on a scale where water resources and energy efficiency have a profound impact on crop quality (in this case, grapes) and profit margins.
5. Want to Claim a Hefty Share of the Millennials Disposable Income?
Millennials are quick to adapt to new trends and new technology. As a group, they tend to buy more organic, sustainably raised and produced products than other consumer brackets. They read labels and do their own research rather than relying on what “experts” tell them to think. With many decades of shopping ahead of them, don’t you want to earn their loyalty early in their wine-buying years?
6. Would You Like a Simple, Quick Win?
With so much hype about being green, sifting through the options takes time away from the work that only you can do to develop your brand and run a profitable business. Virginia Green is a currently a free membership, with a self-certification process involving completing and submitting a short checklist. For a simple place to start, with a minimal investment of staff time (less than 5 hours to complete the checklist, and in most cases only one or two), it’s definitely a quick win.
What Can I Do it I’m Short on Time or Staffing to Get it Done?
Need some additional help? Contact us at info@voldsomenterprises.com or 703.651.2953 for a no-obligation consult.
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