We’re the Apple of M.Hughes & Sons Eye!

Eighteen months ago we were tasked with creating an ecommerce website to launch the retail arm of the M.Hughes & Sons business.

Our client’s ambition had been to create an e-commerce site that would generate 1000 orders in the first 12 months, of which we achieved in just 5 months of the campaign.

Social media activity was agreed to be the primary marketing channel used to raise awareness and promote  the brand within the surrounding Welsh area to create a new and repeat customer base and 12 months on from the launch, we have just been awarded an MPA Inspiration Award in the Big Bang category, against a shortlist including the BBC and NHS which is awarded for work completed that achieved exceptional, quantified results against clear objectives with a spend under £50,000.

#CuttingVeg

Social media activity for the brand was produced across Facebook and Instagram. Whilst Facebook would allow us to tag products to posts, share blogs and other relevant content, on Instagram we are able to share photography of the fresh fruit and vegetables, an insight into the warehouse where the produce is sent from and other eye-catching graphics to promote the brand’s services.

As well as the above, we also used Facebook Ads Manager:

“As the business only operates in restricted geographical delivery zones Social Media advertising was the ideal platform to ensure we targeted the exact postcodes we wanted to engage. Ultimately long term this will allow us to slowly expand the delivery zones in a controlled way by extending the reach of the advertising to chosen areas or postcodes.” Amanda, Account Director

The Veg Pledge!

As well as being a business-man the client is a father of nine, so wanted to incorporate this into the marketing strategy. Off the back of this and also the current Veg Pledge from ITV and Cancer Research we launched a similar initiative aimed at his customer base. The campaign the #GetFreshChallenge was launched across social media, for the chance to be entered into a prize draw to win a FREE family box worth £25 and a £25 Smyths Toy Voucher, encouragong healthy eating habits in children and families.

In order to take part in our #GetFreshChallenge, children and parents are invited to fill out a daily tracker, provided for free in the new Family Box, which feeds a family of four for two weeks. Our child-friendly tracker logs every portion of fruit and veg eaten per day, with five portions per day earning a red apple sticker. Those who earn five or more red apple stickers a week are awarded a golden apple sticker. The campaign promotes customers to share snaps of their progress and tag M.Hughes on social media and challenge others to eat more fruit and veg!

The Website

As part of our website designs, we ensured that the products were as easily navigable as possible. The fruit and vegetables were broken down into categories and then subcategories such as citrus fruit, tropical fruit and berries. We also added elastic search to the main navigation so that users could search directly for the product they were after. Quantities and price are easily displayed, along with details of how many people a ‘box’ might be suitable for and once in the checkout area, if logged in as an existing customer any previous loyalty points earned are easily highlighted and discounted to an order.

“Eighteen months later we’ve continued to develop the website to be the best it can be. Based on customer feedback we’ve added repeat order and pre-order delivery options, subscriptions and alternate payment methods – which is what we believe has helped to gain such a healthy customer sign-up figure of almost 4,000 repeat customers.” David, Head of Web.

The Results

£80,060 – 12-month revenue

4,129 total orders (12 months)

3,698 customer sign ups

2,790 Social Media Following

“I am so pleased with Platform81 and all the work they have done to get a site that works for me and my company. I had limited experience with ANY social media and was not a fan, but this was clearly the way to go! I’d been working on a trade basis for years, but it was my goal for over ten years to make this work for the everyday customer in Wales – that’s why when we hit 1000 orders I headed straight to their Stockport office with a bottle of champagne and of course some strawberries! ”

Matt Moree | Business Owner | M.Hughes & Sons