• by Dianna Dilworth , July 2, 2014

Katie Jones, an independent wine maker based in France, had her vineyard was vandalized in 2013. The intruders destroyed her entire vat of white wine and she thought she was going to have close down. Naked Wines, a UK-based online wine seller that connects wine drinkers or "angel investors" with independent wine makers, took to email to help. 

The retailer launched a campaign and sent out an email series to its angels in order to help. The first email recounted Katie's story and asked recipients if they'd like to help. They followed up with emails promoting the vineyard and a call to order wine from the vineyard in order to help them stay in business. In a couple of hours, the email raised about £ 200,000. The story became the subject of a series of emails over the last year and helped the vineyard stay in business and thrive.

After the wine shipped, Naked Wines followed up with an email encouraging customers to rate the wine after the shipments went out, as well as emails promoting other wine makers in the south of France. In May, they ran a competition via email inviting customers to win a trip to visit the vineyard.

James Bagley, marketing director at Naked Wines, says that the key to the success of this campaign is that it appealed to customers. "Make it matter for the customer," he said. "Create customer love."