Case Study : Local Retailer Successfully Relaunches New Deli Dinner Menu with Social Media Campaign and Advertising

The Brief

Moloney’s Daybreak Abbeyfeale, a local convenience store, were about to relaunch a revamped dinner menu from their Munch & Co deli in Jan 2021. This store is located on a busy main road in the town of Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick, Ireland. The new menus had been curated by a newly hired head chef. The new menu would include a wider selection of dishes and specials. Customers would be able to order at the store directly, or could also pre-order for collection over the phone. The focus would be to drive customers to call the store for pre-orders and also drive footfall to the store. As a relatively new Socio Client, they asked their Community Manager Parms to create and implement a strategy.

The Solution

The main objectives of the advertising campaign and social media strategy were to create awareness and drive phone calls for pre-orders.

Target Audience

Abbeyfeale is a historical market town in County Limerick, Ireland near the boundary with County Kerry. The town is in the south-west of Ireland, on the main road from Limerick to Tralee. The population is roughly 2,000. During peak summer months (without lockdowns and restrictions) the town sees a lot of tourist footfall. Otherwise, it is predominantly a community-based convenience store and gas station. The main target audience would comprise people living in the area, including families and working individuals in the area.

Content Plan

Strong photography of the products plays a crucial role in organic posts and advertising on social media. Moloney’s Daybreak Abbeyfeale had imagery of the dinner and carvery menu and we suggested mixing this with photographs of the store’s team. Using imagery of people in social posts is very important as it drives a higher engagement of usually 35% and helps provide a community feel. Any graphics created and used were optimised for social media campaigns and ads. Text-heavy graphics can underperform in ads so it is important to keep texts on main graphics to under 25% of the graphic space.

Another important aspect to consider with social media campaigns is the posting frequency. The schedule needs to be aligned to what you currently do but it also needs to give you maximum impact for results. This client had a weekly posting frequency of about four posts per week. The posting frequency worked well for this client and we suggested that 2 of the 4 posts each week be focused on promoting the new dinner menu. For a timing schedule, we reviewed the post analytics from the previous three months which showed that posts scheduled between 9 to midday were performing better.

The store is located in a very community-focused location therefore we wanted to use copy that customers could relate to and that related to their lives. Some captions used were “We're about to answer the most important question of the day, "What's for dinner?" 🤤”, “Don't feel like cooking? But still crave something warm, homemade and satisfying?” and “A homemade roast dinner just hits differently 🤤”. If the customers liked and related to the store, they would be more likely to convert. We made sure that the copy also contained all relevant information about the service including availability and times; and of course a ‘call-to-action’ (CTA). In this case, the CTA was to call the store to pre-order for collection.

Timeline

The dinner launch and campaign went live hand in hand in the last week of January 2021. With COVID level 5 lockdown restrictions in place, the messaging used in campaigns had to be effective to drive awareness and generate sales. As dine-in options were unavailable, this could be a great opportunity to launch the dinner menu. The plan was to run the campaign for an initial period of 3 months. If the launch was successful, they would continue the service, thereafter.

Advertising Strategy

Social media advertising is one of the most cost-effective ways of reaching potential customers right where they are. We started with a brand awareness campaign, with the CTA as Call Now for pre-orders at the store. The aim of this campaign was to drive mass awareness to a wider audience but also bring about conversions immediately with the current customer base.

The ad budget was set to €25 for a duration of 5 days. It generated 647 link clicks on the ad, and the Cost Per Click was only €0.04 (well below the industry average) which indicated the ad was being shown to a highly relevant audience and performing very well. Based on the success of the first ad, we have run a similar campaign each month, for the months of Feb and March 2021. All have resulted in a steady increase in calls and drop-ins for dinners at the store. All ads had a call-to-action, to Call Now for pre-orders. The audience targeted included people within a 5 km radius of the store as the focus was on the local community. With further interests in food, drink, roast dinners, and eating out. The target demographic included families, working professionals and residents in the area.

Results 

Within the first month of launch itself, DB Abbeyfeale had seen a significant uplift in dinner orders for the newly launched dinner menu. By the end of March 2021, the sales of the dinners had seen a steady increase week on week and they were selling dinner better than ever before. The store sold about 20 dinners on average daily during the peak season (summer) in 2020 (with no lockdowns and tourist footfall as well as their indoors seating area open). With the new menu relaunch through Socio Local, the store is now selling an average of 37 dinners daily, each dinner generating an average revenue of €9.50. That is an 85% increase in order frequency and is now equating to revenue of €2,460 per week.

And what did the store owners think?

“We wanted to come out of this lockdown better than before. With Socio Local’s help, we’ve been able to do better than ever before and the lockdown isn’t even over yet! The store is super busy and the parking spots at the forecourt are always packed. We’ve seen a tremendous increase in sales of the dinner menu. Our sales are significantly better than our peak season during the summer months. Even with our indoor seating closed. Social media strategies are definitely working for us. We also see noticeable uplifts in sales of off-license items when social posts go up before the weekend. It’s working for us all in all.”

Anthon Russell, Site Manager, Moloney’s Daybreak, Abbeyfeale

The campaign for this local store helped successfully launch their revamped dinner menu. The right advertising strategies played a key role in getting in front of a large relevant audience. In addition to this, the overall social media strategy was crucial in keeping their current customer base engaged, while also catering for new customers looking for information. With the right photography and the right strategy, social media made its impact. Strategies will inevitably differ and have to be tailored to each individual location, but the overall blueprint remains consistent. Social media is a very cost-effective tool, that when used right, can generate brand awareness and sales.

If you'd like help getting your store sales increased, book in a call with us today and we can discuss how we could help.

Chat Soon,

SL

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