General Espresso Equipment Company
Digital Campaign Case Study
Background
Based here in Greensboro, NC, the General Espresso Equipment Company (GEEC) is the North American headquarters for espresso machine manufacturers Astoria and Wega. Their two distinct brands cover a wide range of needs for the discerning tastes of the espresso and coffee industry. While Astoria offers classic, elegant designs that harken back to the Italian origins of coffee culture, Wega brings a more modern counterpoint, with sharp lines and futuristic designs. Together, these two brands mean that GEEC is able to deliver quality design for any sensibility or need..
The Challenge:
There are more than a dozen direct competitors for both Astoria and Wega, some of whom have fiercely loyal users: it’s not uncommon, for example, to find baristas with tattoos of the La Marzocco “lion” logo. The first priority was therefore to distinguish themselves amidst this sea of competitors while generating solid, actionable leads.
GEEC’s main interest in working alongside Bouvier Kelly was to create and implement a solid digitally-focused strategy. They had dabbled in both social media and email marketing, but neither seemed to be generating the results they had hoped for. Our job was to find a way to reinvigorate their digital presence and explore avenues that the team had not previously ventured down.
The Challenge:
There are more than a dozen direct competitors for both Astoria and Wega, some of whom have fiercely loyal users: it’s not uncommon, for example, to find baristas with tattoos of the La Marzocco “lion” logo. The first priority was therefore to distinguish themselves amidst this sea of competitors while generating solid, actionable leads.
GEEC’s main interest in working alongside Bouvier Kelly was to create and implement a solid digitally-focused strategy. They had dabbled in both social media and email marketing, but neither seemed to be generating the results they had hoped for. Our job was to find a way to reinvigorate their digital presence and explore avenues that the team had not previously ventured down.
The Campaign
Before we began the work of dialing in a specific set of tactics, we engaged in an analysis of their competitive landscape. We wanted to see what their competitors were doing well in the digital space—in addition to finding where the opportunities for GEEC lay. While it was clear that both Astoria and Wega needed to bolster their social media presence (particularly on the industry’s preferred platform, Instagram), we also discovered that not many brands were using email to communicate with their customers. And where there is a gap, brands can swoop in to fill a void.
After we completed our analysis, we began building out our proposed campaign. It was clear that our focus would be primarily on a sound social media and email strategy, but because their brands occupy a unique position between the B2B and B2C worlds, we wanted to explore industry/trade advertising options, too. There are several high-quality trade publications in the coffee/espresso world, and each presented an exciting array of tactics to pursue.
However, before diving into a year-long campaign, we started with a 30-day “proof of concept” demonstration of our tactics that would also provide crucial data to shape the later, long-term campaign. This shorter flight was driven by several key components:
- Because our long-term proposal emphasized the need for a consistent educational content program, we focused all our efforts around an “ROI calculator” program the GEEC team had designed to help their distributors and customers better understand their investments. This piece of content would be the destination for all the campaign CTAs.
- Using automated email marketing software, we designed a series of emails around generating interest in this calculator, from initial touchpoints to automated follow-ups to gentle-touch reminders. These emails would be focused on a single CTA with a responsive, clean and minimal design. These emails would be targeted towards their existing email list which is composed of both distributor- and service-focused leads.
- To draw other potential leads into this campaign, we created Lookalike Audiences on Facebook for each brand, showing a variety of different ads to draw users into the ROI Calculator. These ads would be shown on both Instagram and Facebook.
However, before diving into a year-long campaign, we started with a 30-day “proof of concept” demonstration of our tactics that would also provide crucial data to shape the later, long-term campaign. This shorter flight was driven by several key components:
- Because our long-term proposal emphasized the need for a consistent educational content program, we focused all our efforts around an “ROI calculator” program the GEEC team had designed to help their distributors and customers better understand their investments. This piece of content would be the destination for all the campaign CTAs.
- Using automated email marketing software, we designed a series of emails around generating interest in this calculator, from initial touchpoints to automated follow-ups to gentle-touch reminders. These emails would be focused on a single CTA with a responsive, clean and minimal design. These emails would be targeted towards their existing email list which is composed of both distributor- and service-focused leads.
- To draw other potential leads into this campaign, we created Lookalike Audiences on Facebook for each brand, showing a variety of different ads to draw users into the ROI Calculator. These ads would be shown on both Instagram and Facebook.
The Results
The test flight succeeded in setting up the long-term success of the campaign by teaching us what works well and what needs improvement. We were able to draw a high percentage of the audience to the ROI calculator, but did not see the same results in form completions.
Here is a breakdown of our campaign by the numbers
%
Average Email Open Rate
[Benchmark: 23.12%]
%
Average Email Click-Through Rate
[Benchmark: 2.61%]
Average Social Media CPM
[Benchmark: $65]
%
Average Social Media Click-Through Rate
[Benchmark: .22%]
%
Average ROI Calculator Bounce Rate
So as we begin the next phase of the campaign, we can now focus our efforts better knowing:
GEEC’s industry is open and responsive to well-crafted, focused emails
GEEC’s industry prefers Instagram to Facebook
The high percentage of mobile users was likely the cause of the low conversion as the ROI Calculator was not optimized for mobile
We anticipated that the non-responsive landing page would result in a drop-off in conversions, but due to programming limitations, the campaign needed to move forward with the assets available. However, we were encouraged by the overall results and conclusions, and have worked with the team to decide how best to improve their email program going forward, as well as working directly with their existing audience to fine-tune the types of content that would be of most interest to them and their customers. Once these changes have been implemented, we are confident that the traffic their efforts drive will be more likely to convert into leads, who they would then nurture through intentional, tactful emails into customers.
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