After choosing a name, we next needed to find a logo. So we reached out to 99 Designs, asked our friends to vote on the logos we received, and chose Marketing for a logo.
With our concept Marketing for
A name, and a logo, it was time to build our website. We asked a friend to create a unique design and partnered with a small development shop to telegram data build our site on a CMS/e-commerce platform that was soon acquired by Adobe. We wanted the site to be cool, inspiring, and fun.
Finally, we needed to determine the wine’s provenance. Fortunately, our team had contacts in the wine industry, both with wineries and distributors. The idea was simple: if we could sell a significant quantity of a certain wine in a single day, we would receive a significant discount that we could then pass on to our customers.
Wineries and distributors embraced Marketing for the concept, and we were quickly able to offer a range of quality wines at a competitive price. We gave them an estimate of the number of cases we would sell, and they kept them. We then collected and shipped them to our customers.
We felt storytelling
Would be the most important part of our work, so we were excited to interview winemakers, tell the winery’s story, and help our customers connect with the people behind the wines we sold.
Once most of the pieces of the puzzle speed issues on your site were solved, CellarThief was born. It was a small company, with no outside funding. It was simply a few friends trying to create a small, friendly business that helped people drink good wine at an affordable price. And make a big difference.
The first wine we offered was a huge success: a Robert Mondavi Cabernet Reserve.
It was then time to figure out how to attract customers. We knew we had to find a balance between taking care of our existing customers and finding new ones.
So we reached out to get some PR.
We have developed our social networks.
We have made some partnerships and we have tried to develop word of mouth.
And, while we were working to attract new customers, we also invested heavily in customer service for our existing customers. We did this mostly on our own time because, well, we didn’t really have any money.
We included a handwritten note in each box.
We include tasting notes on each wine, including foods to pair with each wine.
We included a card with each mailing asking people to spread the word about CellarThief.
It was a labor of love, and we earned united states business directory incredible customer loyalty. We still consider some of our first customers friends today.
We started to gain momentum and make some sales. Then it was time to try to take the business to the next level.
Like many small businesses that started independently, we had little money and big competition. There were large online wine retailers and newcomers offering daily promotions on great wines. So we had to figure out how to stand out and quickly understand the math of our business.
Ultimately, no matter how passionate you are about a business idea, you need to understand how to attract customers . And, with competition so fierce in almost every industry on the planet, you need to discover a channel you can win and own.
