How does a local coffee shop compete with nationwide giants like Starbucks and Dunkin’ who have unlimited budgets and universal brand recognition? When Beans & Brews came to us to grow their footprint in Utah, without relying on expensive paid media, we knew we had a tall order to take on. Luckily, being local and ambitious are two things we can identify with.

When you can’t outspend the competition, you have to outthink and outplan them. After conducting industry analysis and using our understanding of our local audience, we put a marketing strategy together that relied on using social media to create engaging, relatable content and building a robust Facebook and Instagram presence, all while keeping a tight budget and maximizing every dollar.

Timed to perfection.

To get the most out of our marketing budget, we knew content timing would be key. By creating a strategic content calendar, we were able to capture the highest available reach at times our target audience was engaged on social media. We also expanded our social media offerings to TikTok to bring in a younger demographic that tends to be very active on social platforms. 

We created a content strategy that combined educational, user-generated content, highly stylized visuals and popular skit/meme style posts. 

• Facebook & Instagram: We leveraged Instagram Stories and traditional posting with a mix of video, photo and animated visuals while using relevant hashtags and geotags improved discoverability.
• TikTok: We used TikTok mainly as a branding platform, creating trending content as well as original content specific to Beans & Brews.

Working with Epic, Beans & Brews experienced substantial organic growth on social media without the help of paid media: 

• Instagram followers increased 36% YoY, plus average monthly profile visits increased by 259% compared to the previous year and generated 51,011 engagements for the first year.
• Launched TikTok and gained 7,755 followers in the first year and generated 40,131 video views.
• Increased Facebook reach to 10.2 million in the first year and saw consistent new followers.