Many business are persisting during these uncertain times and we are helping them to adapt, continue operations, and reach their customers in ways they hadn’t previously. This often means enhancing a company’s digital strategy or giving their customers a safe way to purchase products online with limited personal contact. Here are some examples of how we have helped a couple of our clients— specialty sandwich shop, Joe’s Deli, and Buffalo’s only co-op garden market, Urban Roots – continue to provide their services in new ways.
Urban Roots: Website’s Ecommerce Upgrade Compliments Email Marketing Program
Urban Roots already had a robust brochure website to market their business online and an email newsletter program targeted directly to their loyal customer-base. But as many people in Buffalo, NY moved into lockdown with social distancing practices, many small stores simply shut down, but not everyone. After a brief hiatus to regroup, Urban Roots developed a strategy to reopen that included a new online store, an e-commerce enhancement, developed by Otherwisz for their existing website.
Urban Root’s stays in touch with their customers through their email newsletter and social media. Local gardeners receive updates about the latest plants, supplies and gifts available at Urban Roots.
What does it take to set up ecommerce to an existing website?
Like many other businesses, Urban Roots decided that they needed to give their customers a way to purchase their goods without actually going into the store. After announcing their plan to reopen (via their email newsletter), the co-op began accepting orders on the phone with ‘no contact’ pickup and scheduled time periods. But with a robust product line that grew rapidly as gardening season approached, phone orders became lengthy and problematic. So with the help of our website development team, adding E-commerce to the existing Urban Roots website, with the proper planning, was fairly straightforward.
The deadline for this project was expedited in order for Urban Roots to begin selling their products online. In the time that our designers were developing the online store, Urban Roots was simultaneously selecting items, preparing their database of inventory and setting up the process needed to make successful, touchless transactions. All OtherWisz-designed websites are built for growth so clients have the ability change and enhance their sites in the future. By creating a complimentary design that fit within their existing website, in only a few short weeks, Urban Roots will be able to implement products and sell online.
With an online store Urban Roots is able to sell their products to their customers with ease.
Joe’s Deli: Social media maintenance and targeted advertisements
Joe’s Deli is a family-owned restaurant in Buffalo with three locations and a catering division. They have been making the most of a difficult situation and remained open during a time of widespread shutdowns. In order to continue operating, many restaurants have had to make the transition to take-out only service to reduce personal contact to keep employees and customers safe.
How to keep social media relevant in an inconvenient time
Although they faced many challenges, Joe’s Deli did what was necessary to keep the beloved sandwich shop going in a somewhat normal fashion. OtherWisz needed to evolve their social media strategy in order to help Joe’s Deli to continue marketing. Getting the word out that Joe’s Deli was still open for takeout and dropoff catering was the first step. From there, daily updates were focused on the restaurant’s relationship with their customers, acknowledging that the deli needed their customers as much as many people needed healthy food options for their families. Joe’s Deli appreciates all of their customers, especially those who have donated meals to local hospitals and other frontline workers.
Keeping the social media running to support and inform Joe’s customers was a necessity, but the real work of social media is through a thoughtfully crafted message. It’s important to be compassionate, informative and flexible considering social media is a spontaneous platform. As a complete package, we have been running Facebook ads to further expand the reach of their social media posts, grabbing the attention of Buffalonians in lockdown with photos of Joe’s delicious, fresh food.
Social media provides businesses an immediate way for keeping in touch with customers.
OtherWisz Creative encourages the best practices for conducting business online and offers appropriate guidance when necessary. It’s our job to design a creative visual expression of your brand and provide your customers an easy way to access your products. Developing custom marketing strategies with your customer’s experience in mind is always part of what we do, we just need to be even more creative these days as the rules have changed. We can create a streamlined and navigable online experience; which is informed by our 20-years in the business and understanding the expectations of how users navigate the web.
Contact us today to see how the remote-working team at OtherWisz can help you to continue to reach your customers (remotely) and promote your brand.
NOTE: icons in the header image are courtesy from designers at The Noun Project. “Online Shopping” was created by Victoruler, “Shopping” by Adrien Coquet, “Shopping Bags” by Flatart, and “Money” by Sumit Saengthong.
