The 10 steps an independent retailer took to increase sales by over 11,000% on the first day of a lockdown

Here we go again. Lockdown 3 is upon us, and this time we all need to dust ourselves off fast to hit the uneven ground running. This may seem like an impossible task, but you don't have to look too far to see other businesses that have taken previous lockdowns by the horns and turned the enforced closure into a period of rapid sales growth.

Like all non-essential UK retailers, Keith Scarrott shoes closed its doors at the start of the second lockdown on November 5. 

Well prepared with their learnings from the first lockdown, Keith Scarrott combined an ad spend of only £200 with a well established email list and a flash sale with 45% off to celebrate 45 years in business.

The results exceeded their expectations. 

They saw an increase in year-on-year orders of 11,367% and delivered an ROI of over 250 times the £200 social media ad spend in just six hours.

Here we show you the 10 steps they took to achieve these incredible results. Why? Because these tactics can be adopted and implemented by any business and success will follow.

1. What is the business goal?

With only one physical store, Keith Scarrott launched its online presence on Shopify three years ago. The first lockdown taught the shoe retailer the value of its web presence, combined with the social media experience they had gleaned from working with Maybe*. So, when the news broke of the second lockdown, Keith Scarrott Shoes were armed with their knowledge they needed to ensure sales continued.

Their goal was to increase sales with a generous 45% discount on the first day of lockdown for a very limited time period of six hours. And they smashed it.

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Orders on 5 November 2020 vs 5 November 2019

2. Telling the Keith Scarrott story

As the business is celebrating its 45th birthday in 2020, Keith Scarrott launched a flash sale offering a 45% discount for six hours on the first day of Lockdown 2. 

Keith Scarrott is a family-run business at the heart of the community and CEO Sophie Scarrott is in the shop everyday. It’s Sophie and her small team that sends emails, chats to customers online and in store, packs orders and delivers them.

The flash sale was no different, with click and collect orders packed by hand and clear guidelines presented on how to pick them up, and how long the click and collect service would be continuing.

Being personal allows Keith Scarrott and any business to build deeper relationships with customers. Be human, people invest in people, especially when it comes to local and independent businesses.

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3. What did Keith Scarrott want its audience to do?

Keith Scarrott wanted its customers to shop in high volumes over a short period of time with the introduction of its online flash sale.

Organic social, paid ads and email all drove traffic to the website with a discount code.

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4. How did Keith Scarrott engage?

Keith Scarrott doesn't just engage with comments and feedback on its own pages or in its own inbox.

The business proactively engages with other conversations such as on other local business pages, or in the conversation about place. This approach not only demonstrates commitment to other businesses and pride in place, but the business benefit of this is that it increases the likelihood of someone who doesn’t know you or your brand, checking out your own social media profiles.

When this happens on a Facebook or Instagram profile, Facebook captures the details of that user. Even though those details won’t make the customer identifiable to you,  it does mean that if you’re advertising, you can then build a custom audience to target anyone who has engaged with your content or even simply visited your social media page. 

This tactic paid dividends with this campaign. Keith Scarrot's team of 2 use the Maybe* platform to engage as it means that can stay in touch across all social media platforms.

Do this for yourself and engage really quickly and easily via the Maybe* platform.

5. Who did Keith Scarrott need to engage?

Keith Scarrott has been building its social media audience for a few years now. And while the team is usually busy engaging a local well heeled, fashion forward, and stay at home mum audience, they've started to branch out; something they did very successfully over the first lockdown.

Keith Scarrott achieved this through its previous investment in community engagement - this included competitions and regular banter with the wider Cheltenham business community on social media. The results of this campaign were a result of the loyal following they had built up. Proof that great content and engagement pays off.

Using the Maybe* Influencer report and See what works report allows Keith Scarrott to see who is creating content about the business so that they can target the right social media users and build relationships with them.

Reaching new audiences has put Keith Scarrott in a great position to talk to new customers, especially when it comes to defining its advertising audiences.

You can also identify influencers and see who's creating content about your business. 

Steps 6 - 10 .

See how Keith Scarrott ran the ads that delivered an 11,367% increase in order and the audiences they used please sign up to a Maybe*. It's free to get started. 

Key takeaway

Keith Scarrott delivered an amazing result because the retailer knew what it wanted to do and how to get there. Impressively it did it on just a £200 investment in ads.

This is the result of knowing who you want to advertise to, knowing who is already engaging with you, and who is buying from you. You need great social content, great product and a smashing story, plus a website - but all of that is within the reach of the smallest of businesses.

Maybe* is here to help businesses stay connected to customers so you can make more sales.

To find out the further steps that Keith Scarrott took to make Social Media deliver an increase in sales, sign up to Maybe*.