Pouring New Life into Hop And Vines Digital Presence

Our Findings

After carrying out a comprehensive Digital Brand Review, we identified some critical issues that were holding Hop and Vine back:

1. Outdated Website: Their website was not mobile-responsive and full of formatting errors, which was hurting user experience and search engine rankings.
2. Lack of Social Media Presence: Hop and Vine weren’t regularly posting content across their social platforms as they had fallen into the trap that many distributors do, not understanding the value of their own social media presence. This can lead to missed opportunities.
3. Untapped Local Market: A large number of potential customers were easily identifiable via Google Maps but hadn’t been reached.

It seemed to us that the cost to obtain a lead using Facebook ads would be better spent increasing efforts in emailing and contacting potential customers. We recommended a strategic overhaul focusing on:

• A modern, mobile-responsive website redesign that showcases Hop And Vine, their amazing team, and is optimised for longtail keywords.
• A consistent social media strategy.
• Targeting potential customers through email and leveraging digital tools to find the leads.

"Without a strong digital foundation, investing in Facebook ads would be like pouring money down the drain."

Our Strategy

Hop and Vine, a distributor of over 22 craft beer, cider, wine, and kombucha brands, sells B2B (i.e. to restaurants, bars, and supermarkets), but the end consumers are everyday shoppers. Which means that if their customers turn over more stock, so does Hop And Vine! We developed a dual-layered marketing strategy targeting both the end consumer and hospitality businesses.

How We Made It Work:

Our strategy was to create a community by supporting the brands that Hop And Vine supply and the hospitality businesses they sell to.

1. Engaging Video Reels: We created entertaining, non-salesy video content that subtly showcased their brands, capturing the attention of both B2B and B2C audiences.
2. Social Media Interaction: We actively engaged and targeted potential clients (restaurants and bars) on social media, often being the only ones to comment and interact. This level of attention has turned cold leads warm, and led to sales.
3. Collaborating with Suppliers: By featuring Hop and Vine’s suppliers, we built stronger relationships and supported mutual growth.
4. Customer Features: We highlighted Hop and Vine’s customer businesses by including them in posts which shows Hop And Vines support for their customers.

The Results?

So far this strategy has already resulted in:

• Re-orders from customers who hadn’t placed an order in years.
• New customers.
• Increased order frequency as a result of being top-of-mind.

The results for Hop And Vine exceeded their expectations and having an active social media presence has proven to be more valuable that just the number of followers they have.

Some Key Stats for Hop And Vine’s social media accounts based on the first 3 months:

• Almost doubled the initial number of Instagram followers and their following continues to grow steadily.
• Over 530 interactions with Hop And Vine’s content.