What happens when a winery pairs a clear digital marketing strategy with a website built to support it? Coursey Graves shared its experience in Commerce7’s Free Training Friday education series, with Sue Wollan Fan of Winery Growth Co. and Coursey Graves General Manager Maeve Smith explaining how they connected their website, marketing, and hospitality to grow the business. (Watch the Commerce7 session)
Vinbound Marketing was the website partner behind that effort. Working in tandem with Sue, who helped develop Coursey Graves’ digital marketing strategy, we built the website that brought that strategy online. Today, we continue to support Coursey Graves with website hosting, analytics, consulting, and ongoing technical oversight.
The session offers a useful look at our work together, but its value goes beyond one website project. For wineries considering where to invest next, our takeaway is straightforward: make sure your digital experience can turn interest into action before spending more to attract attention.
Start by capturing the demand you already have
Coursey Graves’ challenge was not a lack of memorable hospitality: Sue and Maeve described a winery where guests responded enthusiastically in person, but word-of-mouth recommendations did not reliably translate into online bookings. Maeve explained that prospective guests previously had to call or email to arrange a visit, creating an unnecessary barrier between discovering the winery and experiencing it.
The team’s strategy followed a deliberate sequence: improve the website and capture existing demand, bring in new visitors through targeted marketing, then strengthen retention and repeat business. Sue emphasized that spending money to drive more traffic made little sense until the winery could confidently convert the interest it already had into bookings.
That is the role we believe a winery website should play. It should communicate what makes the experience worthwhile and give interested visitors a clear, convenient next step.
Translating the strategy into the website
Sue and the Coursey Graves team identified the experiences that made the property distinctive, including its mountaintop setting, gardens, and personal hospitality, and brought those qualities forward in the winery’s presentation. Vinbound’s role was to translate that direction into a functional website, with Commerce7 describing the result as mobile-first, fast-loading, easy to navigate, and built around frictionless booking.
During the session, Sue highlighted several parts of the website that mattered to the broader marketing effort:
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A visit-focused customer journey: The visit page gave prospective guests a direct route to understanding the experience and making a reservation, rather than leaving them to work out where to go next.
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A strong technical foundation: Mobile usability, loading speed, clear navigation, and readability for search and AI systems were part of Sue’s criteria for a website that could support the marketing program.
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Room to grow: Sue described how the site expanded from its initial pages to include events, a blog, and press content as the winery’s needs evolved.
For us, those are not separate considerations from design. They are the reason to invest in a winery website in the first place: to create something attractive that also works for guests, staff, and the business.
A website the team can manage, with support behind it
A small winery team needs to be able to keep its website current without becoming responsible for every technical detail. That balance was one of the most encouraging parts of Sue and Maeve’s feedback.
Maeve explained that she could make content edits and add information herself while leaving the underlying technical work to a specialist partner. Describing the value of that ongoing relationship, she said, “So that’s a big peace of mind partnership for me.”
Our relationship with Coursey Graves did not end at launch. We continue to provide hosting, analytics, consulting, and website oversight, giving the team a technical resource as its content and marketing needs change.
Sue also specifically called out Vinbound’s reporting, explaining that it brings together Google Analytics information to help the team evaluate website traffic. She described monitoring both traffic volume and engagement over time, rather than treating a larger audience as the only measure of success.
That distinction matters in how we approach ongoing website support. The goal is not simply to keep a site online, but to help the winery understand how it is being used and where to focus attention next.
The results of a coordinated marketing effort
Commerce7’s published case study reports substantial growth across Coursey Graves’ business:
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Visitation: Increased by 63% as part of the two-year growth story.
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Total revenue: Grew by nearly 60% over two years.
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Club membership: Grew by more than 40% over two years.
The same case study reports that club revenue more than doubled and tasting room sales grew by nearly 50%, while Sue noted in the webinar that website traffic had tripled since 2023. These are results from the broader marketing and hospitality program, not an isolated measurement of the website redesign’s impact.
That distinction is central to the story. We see Vinbound’s contribution as the website foundation and ongoing support within a collaborative effort led by Sue’s strategy work and the Coursey Graves team’s execution.
What other wineries can learn from the playbook
The website was the starting point, not the entire program: Sue and Maeve also described improving directory information and Google Business Profile, building social proof, testing visit-focused advertising, and following up with guests through email and other communications. Their approach combined specialist partners with clear responsibilities inside the winery, rather than placing every marketing task on one person. (Commerce7 session recap)
For wineries evaluating their own digital presence, we suggest starting with a few practical questions. Does your website make the tasting experience compelling? Can someone on a phone easily book a visit? Can your team update the content, and do you have reporting and technical support to guide what happens after launch?
Coursey Graves’ story illustrates the kind of collaboration we value: clear strategy, thoughtful implementation, and an ongoing commitment to making the website useful. We are proud to work alongside Sue Wollan Fan and Winery Growth Co. and the Coursey Graves team.
Watch the Coursey Graves Digital Marketing Playbook
Watch the full Commerce7 education session for Sue and Maeve’s walkthrough of the strategy and their experience working with Vinbound. You can also explore the Coursey Graves website.
If your winery is ready for a website that better supports visitation, sales, and ongoing marketing, talk with Vinbound about your website. We can help you assess what is working, what needs attention, and the right next step.
