ABOUT THE CLIENT: QUALITY SUSTAINABLE SOCKS MADE IN THE UK
Rock and Ruby is a fashion startup founded by Ruby Chahlal in East London. The brand produces quality woollen and cotton socks made in Great Britain. Their products are made with expert craftsmanship, have a fun diverse design, and have plastic-free packaging.
Goals
Just like many other clients starting their new businesses, Ruby needed to position her brand in the UK market. The competitive environment calls for promoting the products online using various channels, Instagram being one of them. Understanding the platform and user behaviour, current trends, and ways to increase brand visibility and reach were the main challenges that Ruby faced when she was ready to market her brand.
Goal No. 1: Increasing the Marketing Skillset
Challenge
The brand owner needed to learn how to use Instagram professionally, and essentially take on the role of a content creator and social media strategist.
Solution
Hana trained Ruby on all things Instagram – from the user behaviour through content best practices (grid posts, carousels, Reels and video, Instagram Live), understanding analytics (metrics), ads, hashtags, setting up a Shopify integration on Instagram, using scheduling apps, to building an engaged community.
Results
At the end of the training, Ruby was confident and effective in managing her Instagram account in full capacity and all available tools on the platforms.
Goal No. 2: Increasing Brand Awareness
Challenge
Since Rock and Ruby was a new brand with no online presence, it was important to get it in front of the right audience.
Solution
Understanding how to approach market research is the first step in creating a brand presence that leaves a lasting impression. Then, choosing the right actions to maximise Rock and Ruby’s brand exposure in front of her audience was key to increasing visibility and reach.
Results
Ruby did a number of interviews to find out more about her audience and acquired some important answers on how to get the message about her brand and products across. To maximise brand awareness, we discussed a number of ideas, e.g. joint competitions and giveaways, that could help the brand amplify the messaging and reach.
Goal No. 3: Developing a Brand Voice and Storytelling
Challenge
Finding an appropriate way to communicate the brand’s vision and mission through products, and developing a brand voice can be a real challenge for brands that have “not spoken out” yet. Also, it can seem tricky to create content for a micro-brand with only 3-5 products, and keeping the content fresh is key to not losing the existing audience.
Solution
Finding messaging that clearly communicates the brand’s vision and mission was also a way to differentiate itself from the rest of the brands on Instagram. And, rather than posting product photos, developing a sense of storytelling is a great way of creating a relatable lifestyle image for the customers.
Results
The brand has created an effective way of communicating with its audience. Using Instagram Stories and Reels has helped the Rock and Ruby audience to build a relationship with the brand, show the brand’s essence, and increase interest in the brand’s products.
Goal No. 4: Becoming More Effective with Social Management
Challenge
A typical challenge for many business owners is keeping the right balance between sales and marketing, customer fulfilment, and business development. With little marketing experience and budget, and no dedicated person or a team in the company, online marketing can be time-consuming and seems to get in the way of doing the “real” work for the company.
Solution
Learning how to use scheduling tools for Instagram, and learning how to brainstorm content ideas, plan campaigns and regular content, as well as auto-publish content is the first step in saving a lot of time in social media management. The second step is adapting the right workflow, and knowing which actions will help the brand to maximise results.
Results
Being able to manage Instagram more effectively; scheduling and re-purposing content; creating routines instead of ad-hoc managing to save time.
Goal No. 5: Understanding Current Trends
Challenge
Instagram can be a really fast-paced tool in terms of adapting new communication tools, such as Reels, which also require learning video-editing skills.
Solution
Finding ways how to ease into video creation, e.g. by turning photos into a video, or using the right sounds and music for short video content, is a great way of adapting new tools.
Results
Ruby got more confidence in creating Reels and soon started posting Reels on a more consistent basis.