Social Media
MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
In April of 2020, I was approached by Anne Heigham (owner of Eat & Breathe, whom I had worked with before) to help build her online presence. She had a Ayurvedic cookbook coming out in 2021 called "The Ayurveda Kitchen", and her publishers wanted to increase her social media following, especially on Instagram, prior to its launch. Due to the restrictions of COVID-19, Anne also wanted me to create monthly newsletters which she could send to her clients to keep interest and engagement while she could no longer meet face to face, as well as promote online workshops and yoga sessions.
I started managing the Eat & Breathe Instagram account on May 1st 2020 when the account had just 272 followers. Using the marketing platform Later, I was able to organise and schedule posts, effectively research and target hashtags, as well as collaborate with Anne to create engaging content for her page.
I created a linkin.bio to drive Instagram traffic to the Eat & Breathe website, blog and YouTube channel. This allowed me to increase awareness of her business, as well as to generate interest and participation in workshops, recipes and pre-orders for her cookbook. I utilised Instagram analytics to ensure I posted when engagement was at its highest, as well as to see which posts generated the most likes, comments and saves so I knew which style of post to focus on moving forward.
I was able to rapidly build engagement with the Eat & Breathe account, averaging nearly 100 new followers every month. As of the start of April 2021, the Eat & Breathe Instagram account now has 1,274 followers. Engagement has also rapidly increased. Since the start of 2021, the majority of posts have achieved over 4% engagement (the average engagement percentage studies say you should achieve on Instagram if your business is to be successful). Some posts even reached an engagement rate of 16%!
See below for some of my Instagram post designs. Anne showed me her colour scheme for her cookbook, so it was important that I established these colours throughout the posts for strong brand recognition. To do this, I utilised lots of pastel shades, minimalist fonts and hand-drawn illustrations throughout the posts. I also created an eye-catching tiling effect through recurring #motivationalquotes - a feature that is extremely popular with followers, often generating multiple saves per post. I also created a banner to generate interest in the week leading up to the cookbook announcement, which generated a lot of buzz and anticipation amongst followers, as well as creating an influx of new followers.
YOUTUBE CHANNEL
After a couple of months, I encouraged Anne to expand her brand and business even further by creating a YouTube account. I began editing videos for her, utilising videos she had been posting on Instagram during lockdown and turning them into YouTube content. I created end screens, playlists and thumbnails, as well as writing a companion blog for each video. These blogs were posted to her website, allowing traffic to pass between the Eat & Breathe YouTube channel and website, further increasing engagement and site rankings, plus building brand interest. I created the Eat & Breathe channel in June 2020, and as of the start of April 2021, it now has 98 subscribers and 9.5k views.
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EMAIL MARKETING
As an expert in both the email marketing software AWeber and Mailchimp, I was excited to help Anne create monthly newsletters to send to her clients throughout lockdown and the months beyond. Once again, I utilised the colour scheme from her new cookbook 'The Ayurvedic Kitchen' to streamline the brand. I used the brighter, bolder colours as buttons, always citing a call to action to encourage those reading to click the links and drive traffic - whether it be to her YouTube channel, workshop registration page, or even to pre-order her cookbook.
The analytics were always strong. Studies suggest your average email open rate should be between 15-25%, while your average click-through rate should be about 2.5%. Since I began creating the Eat & Breathe newsletters in October 2020, each email has been opened by 40-49% of recipients, while the click-through rate has stayed between 8.5-10%.
