Stacey Schrader, owner of Mesa Del Sol winery

“Hillary has a profound ability to grasp a client’s intentions and express them beautifully in written form. Without ever having seen our property, Hillary eloquently described the feeling we wanted to evoke in anyone visiting our website, seeing our social media posts, staying at our property as a guest, or tasting our wines. That is a true gift. We are so lucky Hillary agreed to take us on!”

Stacey Schrader
Marketing strategy for ecommerce winery & vacation rental

Deep in the heart of Steinbeck country, nestled between the Arroyo Seco Gorge and the Ventana wilderness, lies Mesa del Sol.

Mesa del Sol is a historic estate and boutique winery producing award-winning Sangiovese, Syrah, Zinfandel & Grenache. The property’s soil, geology, and climate prove a perfect environment for complex and flavorful red varietals. Farmed using sustainable, organic, and biodynamic practices, the fruit has proven to be exquisite year after year.

In addition to producing stellar wines, the estate makes for an idyllic venue for family vacations, intimate gatherings, artist retreats, or most any occasion. Steeped in history and graced with unparalleled views, Mesa del Sol offers something for everyone.

Learn more about Mesa Del Sol

The Challenge

When Stacey and Gary bought Mesa Del Sol in late 2021, they knew they had found something special. They fell in love with the secluded estate, distinctive wines, and stunning rental property. But they knew a lot of work lay ahead of them if they were to spruce up the outdated brand and carve out a space for themselves in the competitive Carmel Valley wine market. 

Mesa Del Sol’s former owner hadn’t done much marketing (digital or otherwise) for the rental or wine business. What’s more, the website was straight out of the 90s with very limited functionality, blurry pictures, and poor user experience. 

Neverthless, the husband and wife team set an ambitious goal to rebrand. They just needed someone with the know-how to develop a digital marketing strategy that would increase revenue through wine sales and VRBO reservations.

Mesa Del Sol’s old website
Mesa Del Sol's optimized & improved new website

The Solution

A shiny, new, optimized e-commerce website

First things first, the website had to be revamped.

Stacey and Gary wanted to rebrand the business to reflect the elegance of their wines (with the hire of a new winemaker) as well as the exceptionalism of this storied estate.

After a thorough brand discovery phase, I created a wireframe for the new site and drafted copy to evoke the estate’s rich legacy. In this process, it became clear that we would need a wine industry-specific CRM. I assessed various platforms until we settled on the one that worked best for Mesa Del Sol’s needs and budget.

With our foundation in place, we set out to build a simple yet sophisticated website that could evolve with the brand over time. This included:

  • A brand story that illustrated the unique attributes of MDS’ wine, as well as the use cases for the rental property (weddings, reunions, retreats, etc.)
  • Compelling copy that brought this story to life across core pages
  • E-commerce functionality (in accordance with wine sales regulations by state)
  • Mobile-friendly web design
  • Member/customer log-in workflows
  • The creation of a wine club

”Hillary is a taskmaster with a soft touch. She presents with a focused, yet calming demeanor that is disarming and refreshing at the same time. She is always prepared and extremely knowledgeable, but at the same time, she is willing and open to exploring new ideas. Hillary's ability to adjust to new concepts on the fly as our needs evolve, all while keeping us on task moving forward, is quite impressive.

Stacey SchraderOwner of Mesa Del Sol Estate & Winery

The Solution

A digital marketing strategy to bring Mesa Del Sol into the modern era

With the new website up and running, we turned our attention toward developing a comprehensive (yet manageable) digital marketing strategy.

Stacey and Gary planned to manage most of the marketing operations themselves, so I devised a plan that factored in their technological capabilities and time constraints. The result was a detailed content roadmap and simple software tools to streamline their digital marketing efforts.

We accomplished this by:

  • Conducting a social media audit to establish visual and messaging consistency across all social channels.
  • Setting up a Google My Business account to capitalize on local SEO.
  • Optimizing the website to target keywords relevant to the local wine & rental industries.
  • Establishing a quarterly newsletter and automated email sequences to streamline their e-commerce communications.
  • Creating branded marketing collateral to capture email addresses, encourage wine club sign-ups and collect glowing testimonials. 
  • Designing a guest booklet for all guests to the property.
  • Developing a custom content creation workflow and content calendar to systematize production & posting.
  • Organizing the Google drive so all files were more intuitively accessible.
  • Reporting website and social media analytics quarterly to continuously improve our content strategy.
Mesa Del Sol's social media strategy

The Results

The website launched in the fall of 2021 to much fanfare from friends and family, but the buzz grew beyond Stacey and Gary’s immediate network as time went on.

Our organic social media efforts began to pay off, especially as Mesa Del Sol ramped up partnerships with local winemakers, restaurants, and hotels. The launch of the newsletter expanded our customer base and significantly increased our rate of re-engagement (or repeat buyers).

Some key digital marketing results include:

  • 1st position in Google Places for “Arroyo Seco wedding venue”
  • 6th position in Google Search for “Arroyo Seco wedding venue”
  • 9th position in Google Search for “Arroyo Seco winery”
  • +270% in social reach (across Facebook & Instagram)
  • +42% in social engagements (across Facebook & Instagram)
  • 200+ email subscribers (since newsletter launch in July 202)

As of one year later (October of 2022), Stacey and Gary are reporting a substantial increase in reservations and bookings through VRBO. More importantly, they are starting to see an uptick in wine sales as they move backstock and promote new releases. We expect this to increase exponentially after we launch our wine club in early 2023.

Hillary Lyons copywriter & brand strategist
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