Coursey Graves, a boutique 3,000-case estate in Sonoma’s Bennett Valley, has always excelled at high-touch hospitality. With a stunning estate and a 10,000-person contact list, the ingredients for success were present—yet digital visitation and sales had stalled and were beginning to decline.
The winery realized that while their onsite experience was world-class, their digital presence was not effectively converting interest into visitation or sales.
Strategic Implementation: Building a Modern Marketing System
To reverse this trend, Coursey Graves implemented a structured, three-phase approach:
Convert Existing Demand – Fix the website and digital presence so visitors could easily book
Drive New Traffic – Attract qualified visitors through targeted digital efforts
Retain & Repeat – Build long-term value through consistent communication and strong customer experience
Rather than adding headcount, the winery worked with a small group of specialized, fractional partners, managed by the General Manager.
Commerce7 played a key role by providing a centralized system for reservations, customer data, segmentation, and club management, making it possible to understand how different audiences behaved and how they responded to digital marketing efforts.
Fixing the Foundation
Coursey Graves recognized that driving traffic was ineffective if the website was not converting. Many potential guests were arriving with interest—from word-of-mouth, referrals, and search—but leaving without booking.
They replaced their website and created a clear, frictionless path to reservation, ensuring visitors could easily understand the experience and book directly through Commerce7.
This shift transformed the website into a primary driver of visitation.
Using Data to Guide Decisions
With a strong foundation in place, Coursey Graves tested an array of digital marketing efforts (paid search, social campaigns, and referral channels) across different audiences, messages, and offers to see what drove bookings and wine sales.
Commerce7 made this possible by providing clear, usable customer data and simple segmentation of key groups such as club members, buyers, tasters and prospects, making it easy to see how different audiences responded and adjust quickly based on what was working.
Retention as the Growth Engine
As Coursey Graves increased visitation, tasters, and club conversions, they began to focus on retaining those customers and strengthening long-term loyalty.
They simplified the club structure, made it easy for members to customize and manage shipments, and supported this with consistent monthly communication and timely follow-up tied to key moments.
Commerce7 enabled easy club management and engagement by providing flexible club configuration, member-level customization, targeted offers, and integration with SMS (via RedChirp).
Result
Since adopting this full-funnel approach, Coursey Graves visitation increased by 63% and total revenue grew by nearly 60% over two years, while peer wineries saw little to no growth. Club revenue more than doubled, and tasting room sales grew by nearly 50%—even as other wineries experienced double-digit declines.
Over two years, club membership grew by over 40%, while many peer wineries saw declines. The club is not only larger, but healthier.
Want to learn more? Get the exact playbook that Coursey Graves used to achieve this growth.
