Barefoot Wines Falls Short with Email Marketing

Barefoot Wines’ marketing stands true to its message of bringing people together with wine. It is colorful, fun, and eye-catching. With users now being given the option to opt out of cookies on websites, brands have lesser accessibility to third-party data. With this in mind, and with Barefoot being the largest-selling domestic wine in the United States with $582 million in sales, I was curious about its email marketing strategies.

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” — Simon Sinek

My Experience

Last Monday I signed up for Barefoot’s email newsletter. The process was fairly simple. I scrolled to the bottom of their website’s homepage and typed in my email address. I then went to my inbox expecting to receive a “Welcome” or “Thank you for signing up” email. However, it wasn’t until the following Saturday at 8 am that I received my first email from them, telling me about how their products give back to society, encouraging me to purchase more.

As a marketer, my first thought was that they don’t trigger “Welcome!” emails to be sent to potential customers when one signs up for their newsletter, which — as annoying as the number of promotional emails is sometimes — seems like a missed opportunity. I also found Saturday to be an interesting day to send the email as if I keep receiving these emails on a Saturday, as a consumer, I am subconsciously likely to buy Barefoot wine the next weekend I go out. This, however, may be truer for someone like me who isn’t familiar with wines in the US, than for someone who already has a brand they call their favorite.

Best Practices

I believe when it comes to best practices for email marketing, Barefoot missed the mark. While the email was fun, colorful, and true to their brand identity, it didn’t have much text to address the receiver and seemed more like a general email they sent to everyone who signs up for their newsletter. It didn’t hit the mark on being personalized. A simple “Hi, Anisha!” at the start would’ve helped. However, the email was primarily pictures and gifs, telling me, as a potential consumer, that the company cares about more than just wine.

In terms of messaging, however, the email was spot on. It didn’t ask me to buy wine but instead told me about causes the company cares for; it told me why Barefoot is doing what it is doing.

Simon Sinek’s concept of the Golden Circle rings true now more than ever for businesses and Barefoot hit the mark. Sinek says, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” He ends his Ted Talk by pointing out how Martin Luther King Jr. gave the “I Have A Dream” speech, not the “I Have A Plan” speech, focusing on how businesses need to start with “why” and people will follow.

Does Email Marketing Still Matter?

In today’s day and age where the use of social media is prevalent and our inboxes are filled with spam and promotional emails from multiple companies and organizations, we begin to wonder if email marketing is still relevant. While I believe that when done right, it is important and effective, I am also the kind of person who has an email address I use only to sign up for newsletters and promotional emails because I know it’s not something I’m looking at.

However, with consumers now having the option to opt out of accepting cookies on websites, first-party data about consumers — which email can provide — is important to marketers. While Barefoot is doing a good job with the emails it sends, I still believe there is more the company can do in terms of email marketing.