I saved a local business from collapse during lockdown.

2020 was a crazy year I think we can all agree. Mass economic panic spread like wildfire, with business finances and job security very up in the air at the start of the pandemic. I was unfortunately one of those who was made redundant from my marketing job before the furlough scheme was announced. Apparently, marketing wasn’t a top priority for the company I worked for. Blasphemy! Even worse, the job market for marketing roles pretty much dried up in an instant. 

“What do I do now?” I asked myself. In an unexpected turn of events, I eventually caved into my wife’s wish that I join her profession and give teaching a go…purely so we had the same holidays – spoiler alert: I didn’t stay in teaching very long! So yes, I enrolled for teacher training, but deep down I knew I still wanted to do digital marketing. In the run up to my teacher training, I actually had the summer of 2020 off to prepare for training, so I figured I could use this time to keep my digital marketing skills sharp by seeing if there were any local businesses looking for a freelance digital marketer to help their business through the pandemic. 

Interestingly, an old family friend who runs a bar & restaurant called Salway Cookhouse in London happened to need help desperately as they were losing money and needed to restructure their business to abide by Covid-19 restrictions. In old-school fashion, I analysed the business’ strengths and weaknesses as best I could and then walked through their doors and delivered a pitch to the owner there and then on the spot. I was hired and back in business! 

Essentially, prior to Covid, Salway Cookhouse was already struggling to find its identity and its niche in a competitive high street, positioning itself as a high-end bar & restaurant serving Portuguese-inspired cuisine - but more importantly, they were struggling to make a profit. To further exacerbate things, the pandemic struck and establishments such as Salway Cookhouse were ordered to close. This is where I come in. 

What I did to boost Salway’s marketing? 

Working with Salway Cookhouse, we saw this as an opportunity to take the time to re-brand and re-position the restaurant in terms of their cuisine and the way they serve their customers. I identified the local demographic makeup in the area, which helped inform the sort of food that should be sold which happened to be street food-style Lebanese food. This helped inform how I’d re-work the business’ logo in collaboration with the owner of Salway’s brother, a senior brand manager, as well as developing their brand guidelines which were previously non-existent. 

On top of this, I also took the reins of Salway’s Instagram and Facebook accounts and established their content pillars for their social media, showcasing Salway’s re-worked food & drinks menu daily as well as the work being done to prepare Salway Cookhouse for collection only orders in accordance with Covid-19 guidelines. I was in my element, and it felt good to be helping a local business in those difficult times. 

The big task however was to run a geographically targeted paid social campaign across both Facebook & Instagram to promote the re-opening of Salway Cookhouse for collection-only in accordance with government guidelines, as well as promoting the new menu with a discount code customers could use on collection. 

When re-opening day came, the weather was perfect and people were coming in droves, resulting in Salway Cookhouse selling fruit smoothies, boozy smoothies & cocktails in unanticipated quantities to the point at which I even mucked in to run across the street to restock on ingredients! From the food menu, the lamb shawarma pitta was a roaring success and sold out completely within a couple hours of opening up for the lunch period. 

The results 

Drum roll please. 

Through my help, Salway Cookhouse’s re-opening day saw its second largest ever profit in one day – with the discount code from the paid social campaign being used 174 times throughout the day, which was 82% of the purchases made that day. After the re-opening week had run its course, profit made was 21% higher than its pre-covid weekly average. After working with Salway Cookhouse for 2 months to help them re-brand and get back on their feet during the pandemic, I was able to grow their collective social media following from 642 to just shy of 2,000. 

Before I parted ways with Salway Cookhouse, I trained the team on how to use their social media to share appealing and impactful content to drive sales, which resulted in them being able to sustain a higher weekly average profit throughout the remainder of 2020. Not too shabby for 2 months of freelance work if I do say so myself!