Your Guests Can't Show Up to an Event They Never Heard About

I’ve had some version of this conversation more times than I can count.

A tasting room owner announces a Saturday night event — a new flight, a winemaker dinner, a club pickup weekend. They post on Instagram Thursday evening. Twenty-something likes. A handful of comments from regulars who’ve been following them since they opened.

Saturday comes. The room is quiet.

“We posted it,” they tell me. “Why didn’t anyone come?”

Here’s the honest answer: your guests didn’t ignore the event. Most of them never saw the post.

Instagram Doesn’t Deliver. It Distributes.

There’s a distinction that matters here, and most operators never draw it.

When you send an email to your list, everyone on that list receives it. The open rate might be 35% or 65% — but the message arrived. It sat in their inbox waiting for them. That’s delivery.

When you post on Instagram, the algorithm decides who sees it, when they see it, and whether they see it before the window closes. A guest who visited your tasting room three weeks ago, loved the experience, and follows your account — Instagram may show them your Saturday event post on Sunday afternoon. Or not at all.

That’s distribution. It looks like communication. It isn’t.

The behavioral reality of Instagram is scroll, stop, scroll. It’s a feed of infinite options, optimized to hold attention, not to ensure any specific piece of information reaches any specific person on any specific timeline. When your event needs an RSVP by Friday, that’s not the right channel to carry the message.

What Instagram Actually Does Well

This isn’t an argument against Instagram. It’s an argument for using it in the right lane — and for understanding the difference between channels you rent and channels you own. We covered that distinction here.

Instagram is a discovery and personality channel. It’s how a guest who has never heard of your tasting room stumbles across your feed, sees real people enjoying a Saturday night pour, and files you away as somewhere worth a visit. That job it does exceptionally well. It’s also how your regulars are reminded — mid-week, mid-scroll — that you exist, that the space is alive, that there’s something worth looking into this weekend.

That last part matters: looking into. The Instagram post should be the trigger that sends them to your website or their inbox. It shouldn’t be the whole message.

Social media is the front of house that attracts guests who don’t know you yet. It conveys personality, vibe, and proof that the experience is worth their time. Think of it as the entertainment layer — the thing that keeps your tasting room top of mind between visits, that makes someone pause and think “we should go back there.”

What it cannot do — reliably, predictably — is ensure that your existing guests know about Saturday’s event before they make other plans.

The Channels That Actually Communicate

Your regulars — the guests who’ve visited twice, joined your club, bought a case last quarter — didn’t opt into your Instagram feed to be communicated with. They opted into a relationship with your venue. There’s a difference.

The channels that honor that relationship are the ones where delivery is predictable.

Your email newsletter lands in their inbox. It doesn’t compete with seventeen other posts from accounts they follow. It doesn’t disappear into a feed. A well-written event email sent on Tuesday will reach more of your regulars than a well-crafted Instagram post ever will — because email was built to deliver, not to distribute. At Uncorked Wine Tastings in Dublin, Ohio, email open rates run at 65–67% consistently. The hospitality industry average is 25–35%. The difference isn’t the subject line — it’s the channel.

Your website is where guests go when they’re ready to act. Someone who remembers they wanted to come in this weekend doesn’t open Instagram — they search for you, or they go directly to a site they’ve visited before. If your events aren’t current on your website, that guest has nowhere to land. They’ll make other plans, and they won’t know they missed anything.

A push notification from your mobile app is a direct line to the guests who have already told you — by installing your app — that they want to hear from you. It arrives. It’s read or dismissed. There’s no algorithm between you and the guest.

None of these are complicated. They’re just reliable in a way Instagram isn’t.

The Practical Distinction

Here’s the framework I use with every operator I work with:

Instagram is for guests who haven’t found you yet, and a gentle tickler for the ones who have.

Email, your website, and your app are for guests who already chose you — and need to know what’s coming next.

Most tasting rooms get this backwards. They post events only on Instagram because it’s fast and familiar. They spend no time building an email list because “our guests follow us on social.” They have no push notification capability because apps feel complicated or expensive.

The result: strong social presence, empty Saturday rooms, and a mystery that never gets solved.

The operators with full event nights in July and packed club pickup weekends in November share one common habit: they don’t leave event communications to a channel that was never built for it. They send an email. They update the website. Instagram is the proof that something great is happening — not the only way guests find out it’s there.

Where to Start This Week

You don’t need a full mobile app to fix this. You need two things, and both are this week’s work.

First: an email list you actually use. Every guest who walks through your door should have a path onto your list — a QR code at the bar, a sign-up prompt at checkout, a field in your club confirmation. When you have an event, they should hear about it in their inbox before it’s on Instagram.

Second: a current events page on your website. Not “check our Instagram for updates.” An actual page with dates, details, and a way to RSVP or get on the list. When a guest searches for what you have going on this weekend, your website should answer the question, not redirect them to a social profile.

The mobile app is a later conversation — after the foundation is solid. But the email list and the events page? Those are the difference between a post and a communication your guests actually receive.

Find out where your tasting room’s guest communications are falling short — in 5 minutes. Start your free Digital Leak Check

My Pub Marketing builds digital operations for independent wineries, taprooms, and craft beverage brands — CRM, email, club management, custom apps, and website strategy. mypubmarketing.com