The Gin Guide Membership

Membership of The Gin Guide delivers a long list of tangible benefits, promotion, coverage, credibility and exclusives. Membership has a simple aim to enable us to support and promote your gin in the most effective way, including boosting visibility, awareness, interest and typically also sales/bookings too, whether you are a brand new small batch distillery or a long-established gin producer.

Below are additional details and Terms and Conditions on Membership and the benefits, and if you have any questions or queries please email members@theginguide.com. 

Details of Membership Benefits and Terms & Conditions

Reviews of your gin/s

• A sample of your gin will be required for a review and tasting notes to be completed. Your profile will only include comments and tasting notes from The Gin Guide once a sample of your gin has been received, tasted and reviewed.
• When sending samples for review, all shipping, tax and duty costs must be covered by the sender. The Gin Guide is unable to accept any deliveries requiring payments to be made.
• To help reduce costs, you are welcome to send an empty full sized bottle of your clear spirits (to be filled with water for photography and social media content) and miniature samples for tastings/reviews.
• Membership benefits are delivered throughout your Membership year. There is no guaranteed minimum timeframe within the year for the publishing of profiles, reviews, interview features or other content.

Discounted entry into The Gin Guide Awards

• Entry to The Gin Guide Awards opens in January each year. Entry details will be released to Members first.
• Members of The Gin Guide receive 25% off the entry fee for all entries in one occurrence of The Gin Guide Awards per year of Membership. Gins under a different producer's name or brand are considered separate and would require a separate Membership to achieve the discounted rate.
• The Awards are open to all gin producers including non-Members. 
• Some Awards categories are not open to paid entry and are shortlisted by the Awards panel and by consumer panels. 
• Being a Member of The Gin Guide does not guarantee an award will be won or that your gin will be a Finalist, and Members' gins will be judged equally in blind tastings alongside non-Members' gins with a rigorously level playing field.
• Samples of your gin will be requested and required for tasting in order to complete your entry to The Gin Guide Awards. Where possible, you'll be given the option for previously sent samples of your gin to be utilised as your sample for judging in order to help reduce your costs.

Use of The Guide Guide Member Badge

• Members of The Gin Guide will receive the exclusive 'The Gin Guide Member' badge in digital format.
• The Gin Guide Member badge may only be used by current, paid Members of The Gin Guide after confirmation has been received.
• The Gin Guide Member badge may be used on digital and printed materials. When used on websites, the badge image must be hyperlinked to your gin's review on The Gin Guide.
• The Gin Guide Member badge must be removed from any digital materials (including the Member's website) within 14 days of Membership ending. Printed materials featuring The Gin Guide Member badge must not longer be distributed once Membership has lapsed. Continued use of The Gin Guide Member badge after 28 days of Membership lapsing will incur a £50 image usage fee. 

Web Link to Your Website

• Members of The Gin Guide will have links put in place from The Gin Guide's review page of your gin to your website, to help drive traffic and sales, and for SEO benefits.
• The link may only direct to the website of the gin, distillery or brand.

Purchase Links

• The review page for your gin will encourage purchases via your own website and/or via online retailers of your choice.
• Links to Amazon or Master of Malt may also be featured unless requested otherwise.

Inclusion in the Distillery Guide

• 'Distillery Members' of The Gin Guide who offer regular tours, tastings and gin making experiences will be featured in The Gin Guide's online Distillery Guide to help promote them and achieve more bookings. Where applicable, the review page for your gin/gins will link to your page in the Distillery Guide, encouraging readers to find out more and book with you.
• A representative of The Gin Guide will endeavour to visit mainland UK distilleries to complete distillery tour reviews, but this cannot be guaranteed.
• Following any visits to your distillery, an additional 'Behind the Scenes' feature will be created for each Distillery Member, including photos taken by The Gin Guide if we are able to visit, or provided by the distillery. 

Event inclusion in the Events Calendar 

• To help gin lovers discover your events, any one-off and infrequent events can be submitted by the host/organiser for inclusion in The Gin Guide Events Calendar via the Events Submission Form via emails to events@theginguide.com.
• Events will be included at the discretion of The Gin Guide. Frequent and regularly recurring events may not be included.

Multiple Gin Profiles​

• Gins considered to be a different brand rather than a variation of an existing gin range are not applicable to be included under the same Membership. The same benefits can be gained for these gins under separate Memberships

Feature in Articles & Content

• Members of The Gin Guide will be eligible to feature in articles/content pieces produced by The Gin Guide.
• Your gin will typically feature alongside other gins and will include text and imagery as well as 1 or more appropriate link to the gin's review page, Meet the Maker interview, your own website, or an appropriate online retailer to encourage purchases.
• Articles and content will be sent to Members as a notification. Suggested edits to content will be taken into account at the discretion of The Gin Guide. Any factual errors will be corrected.
• Articles and content pieces will be distributed throughout the year, but specific requests will be considered and taken into account at the discretion of The Gin Guide.
• Each article/content piece will be shared using The Gin Guide social media channels and paid social media advertising will sometimes be used to increase the reach, traffic and engagement for each article/content piece. 

33% Discount on Marketing Services 

• The Gin Guide offers specialist marketing services for gin brands, including online marketing, PR, web design and marketing strategy.
• The 33% discount on services includes Consultancy, Online Advertising, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media and Social Media Advertising, Conversion Rate Optimisation, content creation, ghost writing and copy writing.  
• The 33% discount applies to one-off services and to the first 3 months of recurring/ongoing services.

Gin of the Week - Additional Cost

• Invited Members of The Gin Guide are able to make a further payment, in addition to their Membership cost, to be featured as a Gin of the Week. This is an invite-only feature that is typically offered after 1 year of Membership and when your gins have been reviewed.
• Each Gin of the Week gets increased coverage through appearing on The Gin Guide homepage and in social media posts.
• The week in which each gin is Gin of the Week is at the discretion of The Gin Guide but specific requests will be accommodated where possible to tie in with your promotional activities or events.

• Gin of the Week features include an option social media giveaway competition. Full competition T&Cs will be provided on The Gin Guide. The format of the competition (typically 'follow and retweet to enter' on Twitter or 'follow and tag a friend' on Instagram) will be determined by The Gin Guide in agreement with the Member.
• The winner of each competition will be selected at random by The Gin Guide, unless requested otherwise. Contact details of the winner will be provided to the Members to fulfil the prize offered.

Payment Terms and Conditions

• Your Member status and benefits commence on the day of payment receipt.
• Payments are made via the Zoho platform and processed via either Stripe (for card payments) or GoCardless (for bank account payments / direct debits). Please ensure you read the respective Terms & Conditions of Zoho and GoCardless as prompted during the checkout process.
• Your Membership will auto-renew annually following prior notification of the upcoming renewal. This method was previously purposefully avoided, but has been implemented on the request of Members who did not wish to make manual card payments each year. 5 days before your renewal is processed, you will be notified and at all times you have the option to change, pause or end your Membership. To change, pause or end your Membership, please email members@theginguide.com with your instructions in advance of your renewal being processed.
• Failure to renew will result in the loss of Member status, the benefits will cease, benefits such as links to your website and online retailers will be removed, and The Gin Guide Member badge can no longer be used.
• Prices and benefits are subject to annual change. The aim is to include even more amazing benefits each year and even better value for money.
• From the date you become a Member of The Gin Guide (date of receipt of Membership payment), you will have a 14 day grace period if you change your mind. Within this period a full refund will be provided.
• No cancellation is possible after the 14 day grace period and partial or pro-rata refunds cannot be provided.
• If Membership is cancelled within the 14 day period or is not renewed, benefits will end and the Member badge can no longer be used. 

If you have any questions at all, please email members@theginguide.com