My agency is all about The Trifecta.

Webster’s Dictionary defines tri·fect·a as a bet in which the person betting forecasts the first three finishers in a race in the correct order. /’sas∙s’ē/ agency has hinged its bets on the first three finishers of the business growth race:

Marketing
Public Relations
Social Media

But, in the case of our race, all three of these business boosters cross the finish line at the same time. All three tie because they all “draft” off of each other’s successIt’s a strategically designed race for business growth and sustainability.

We’ve talked about it myriad times before: marketing, PR and social media are BFFP’s “best friends for promotion.”

In our last blog we asked, do you have a plan that enables The Trifecta to work together to support growth in 2014?

In this blog, we are going to present to you a case study that lays out exactly how a marketing, PR and social media plan that works in tandem can garner incredible business growth and sustainability.

Client: Shoe Train, 30-year-old small brick and mortar retailer in the Greater DC area.

Problem presented: The growing population was buying shoes online.

History: Known for properly fitting children in shoes (something that cannot be done through online sales), Shoe Train’s niche was special needs. For sustainability, a stronger brand was needed and target markets expanded to serve their “special needs” population as well as other markets.

Our agenda: Our agency collaborated with Shoe Train to design and develop a strategy that would provide a “sustainable business model” as the retail market changed. Target market expansion was determined: athlete, first shoe and fashion conscious customer.

Our strategy: The first step was rebranding the shoe store, visually and verbally. We created a logo, tagline (experts in fit, specializing in fashion), mission and messaging; then, we designed, developed, wrote and launched a well branded, target market-based website (a powerful marketing and social media tool) with portals for first shoes, athletic shoesfashion shoes and orthotics (special needs). /’sas∙s’ē/ went to work creating marketing, PR and social media strategies to better establish the retailer as a place to purchase first shoes, athletic shoes and the latest fashion shoes for children.

Our “Trifecta” platform was to educate parents on the importance of properly fitting shoes and further, that one did not need to jeopardize “cool” shoes for “proper” fit.

Marketing: We created a marketing/community outreach series called “Events Engine” that underscored the new brand (show visual). The events created were free and open to the public.

Public Relations: We discussed angles to pitch to attract the interest of the media. These ranged from the community outreach events to in store events.

Social Media: We created a strategic media matrix (SMM) for our client with pre-written posts to help the owner shout out about the marketing events (“Events Engine,” Shoe Tying Clinic, etc.) and PR (media landings in Bethesda Magazine – an article about happenings at the store as well as the awarding of Best of Bethesda — Parenting MagazineSmart CEOMontgomery County Gazette) that was putting Shoe Train in the community and media spotlight.

As part of the “Events Engine” (our new marketing initiative for Shoe Train), we brought in a psychologist who spoke with young parents about their emotions as their baby’s took their first steps, literally and figuratively, toward independence. At the same time, our PR campaign was launched. The event was pitched and landed in the local media while at the same time, nationally, the marketing message (experts in fit, specializing in fashion) was underscored with major media landings, including an article in Parenting Magazine, read by more than 2.2 million people and a local media landing in the Connection Newspapers, read by 100-thousand people in Shoe Trains geographic stronghold. As the marketing and PR events were taking place, the messages were being delivered through strategically planned social media posts and blogs that further underscored not only the first shoes marketing message but also the PR landings.

The result was a measurable uptick in sales of first shoes backed up by measurable traffic to the first shoes portal of the website.

 

With similar campaigns to increase sales of Athletic shoes (“Don’t let your kids’ sports injuries spin out of control”) we brought in a former Harlem Globe Trotter to teach the kids basketball tricks while a pediatric orthopedic surgeon spoke with parents about injury prevention. The media covered the events and Shoe Train implemented the social media posts our agency wrote for the store to shout out about the event, before the event as well as after and also to shout out about each media landing as it was broadcast or published.

The result was a measurable uptick in sales of athletic shoes backed up by measurable traffic to the athletic portal of the website.

 

Our campaign to increase sales of fashion shoes was an “Events Engine” that also had a community give-back angle. We organized an enormous fashion show in the atrium outside the store, ripe with DJ, cat walk and photographers. Spectators brought school supplies for MCPS’s annual back-to-school campaign. As with our other events, “Flip into Fashion,” was pitched to the media (pre and post event stories ran) and shouted out about in strategically written comments for social media posting. 

The result was a measurable uptick in sales of fashion shoes backed up by measurable traffic to the fashion shoes portal of the website.

 

The overall result was that after 33 years in business, for the first time in the store’s history, Shoe Train won Best of Bethesda without even campaigning for the annual magazine award.

So, what is your “Googleability”? Are you splashing yourself strategically?

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