ECOlunchbox
Digital Conent Analysis & Assessment
Founded by Sandra Harris in 2009, ECOlunchbox is a leader in plastic-free, re-usable alternatives to the plastic bags and containers often used to pack food for on-the-go consumption. ECOlunchbox offers a wide variety of food containers including the traditional bento styles and also leak-proof containers, made with only stainless steel and food-grade silicone.
The Challenge
ECOlunchbox came to us concerned about a decline in engagement metrics on certain social channels and with goals to increase the overall consumer base, grow its social media communities with quality people, drive direct to consumer sales through the website, clarify its brand voice and messaging, and streamline the process of managing social and digital content for greater efficiency.
Why It Matters
We identify with and naturally do a great job of communicating with people who are like us. It’s a challenge faced by almost every entrepreneur and business owner. In most cases, one consumer profile for a company will always be a mirror reflection of its founders. But what about the other people who love your company but who aren’t like you? Understanding your core consumer groups starts with understanding the people who have already chosen to connect and engage with your brand, in particular the ones who have interests, values and behaviors that are totally different from the founders and the majority of people on the team.
The Goals:
ECOlunchbox came to us concerned about a decline in engagement metrics on certain social channels and with goals to increase the overall consumer base, grow its social media communities with quality people, drive direct to consumer sales through the website, clarify its brand voice and messaging, and streamline the process of managing social and digital content for greater efficiency.
Our goal was to do an in-depth digital analysis of ECO’s digital channels, communities and content to give the team a much clearer picture of their existing consumers; and help them identify the groups they were already doing a great job of talking to, as well as the consumers who represented an opportunity for better communication, brand engagement and loyalty. In doing so, the ultimate goal was to expand ECO’s reach and consumer base and drive sales.
What We Did:
Current Shift conducted an in-depth analysis of ECOlunchbox’s digital channels including the website, blog, email newsletter and four social media networks. We looked at all aspects of brand communication and content integration, analyzing high and low performing content, conducting extensive research into the demographic, psychographic and geographic characteristics of the various digital communities, overall brand voice and personality, and how the brand persona was being portrayed overall and on each different channel.
We evaluated overall channel integration to determine if ECO was effectively driving traffic and engagement from one channel to another, what was working and what wasn’t, and looked at a myriad of other aspects of ECO’s overall digital presence as it related to sales, content and overall brand engagement and consumer loyalty. We identified where and how ECO was delivering a consistent and cohesive message and brand identify across channels, as well as areas that needed some work. We also looked very closely at the trends in engagement across channels to identify the various reasons for the decline on certain channels, and were able to pinpoint a number of reasons, as well as identify a set of strategies and tactics that we worked into our overall Digital Marketing Plan. The 42-page report detailed our findings, illustrating key takeaways with imagery, graphs and charts, and summarized our recommendations for each channel and the brand overall in clear bullet-pointed lists.
Deliverables:
- Baseline Digital Analysis, Assessment and Report
- Training and Team Development: Brand Voice & Personality, Social Media advertising, Digital Marketing & Social Media Trends, Reporting and Data Analysis, and Impact oriented storytelling, conversations and communication)
- Digital Marketing Plan for 2017-2019
- Development of Consumer Personas and Profiles
- Campaign Planning, Implementation, Tracking and Reporting for the launch of ECOlunchbox in Target stores nationwide
- Digital and Social Media Advertising (Facebook, Instagram, Google)
- Management and oversight of all digital content: blog, newsletter, social media, advertising, and website integration (2017)
- Guidance and consulting to support and empower the team (2017)
- Monthly and quarterly tracking and reporting of digital channels and performance (2017)
The Results
The Digital Analysis and Assessment helped us identify three previously unknown core consumer groups, and a whole list of unused content and topic areas that are of interest to ECO’s existing community. These key takeaways, along with numerous other insights gained during the analysis and assessment, formed the foundation of the Digital Marketing Plan and Content Strategy, which we developed with the team after completing the initial baseline report. This plan will guide them through 2019.
Our research into the demographic and psychographic profiles of ECO’s existing consumers on each channel helped us develop more detailed profiles or personas for ECO’s target consumer groups. Because we clearly understood our audience, we were then able to plan content and strategy that is helping reach new consumers, while driving engagement and sales, and strengthening ECO’s relationship with its diverse community.
Within three months of completing the Digital Marketing Plan and beginning to implement the strategies and tactics recommended in the Baseline Analysis and Assessment Report, we saw the following results:
- ECO now has streamlined systems for content planning, scheduling and publishing, tracking and reporting app’s in place, and a system for monitoring key metrics for each channel.
- Creation of an extremely well-received “Recipes” section on the blog
- Creation and implementation of a guest blogger program allowing for collaboration and cross-promotion resulting in reaching new audiences, while simultaneously developing high quality content
- On-brand content on all channels after writing the plan: 100%
- The implementation and tracking of multiple advertising campaigns using a test and learn approach (A/B testing etc.), allowing us to fine-tune advertising and deliver results 200-500% better than the channel averages
- Record high Impressions and Engagement on Facebook in one quarter
- 15% increase in Facebook community size in one quarter (previously, the average growth rate was less than 1% each quarter)
- 269% increase in Engagement on Facebook
- 243% increase in Traffic to the website from Facebook in compared to the same time period one year earlier
- 18% increase in Instagram community (in two quarters)
- 23% increase in Engagement on Instagram (in one quarter)
- 5% increase in Pinterest followers in one quarter (previously, the growth rate was actually declining)
- 42% increase in CTR from Pinterest to the website
- 53% increase in Traffic to the blog
- 23% increase in email Open Rate
- 34% increase in email CTR (click-through rate)
- 7% increase in Revenue from the newsletter compared to the previous quarter