In March of 2022 we got an application from a founder of “The first restoration open workshop” in Vladivostok, Russia. At that moment the company was preparing for the grand opening and they needed to have the event promoted in social networks and on information platforms of the city.
The tasks we had to do:
1. To launch and start promoting the project in social networks.
2. To place information about the workshop on the city online platforms.
3. To fill social networks with the content.
4. To attract the audience to master classes.
The things we did
We carried out monitoring of the competitorsThere were no other restoration workshops in Vladivostok by March, 2022. The most similar workshop was the one which held carpentry master classes for children and adults. According to their content in social networks and information on vl.ru (the city website) their target audience was kids and their parents.
Our client, in contrary, planned to attract the audience over 18. That’s why we decided to check out from our non-obvious competitor in our social media content and focus on the adults only.
We decided to present the workshop as a place where one can relax and relieve stress through creativity.
We also monitored non-local competitors and noticed that the audience was interested in watching the process and seeing the result in “before/after” format.
We analyzed the target audience
As the business was new the founder of the workshop had only approximate understanding of her target audience. We analyzed social networks’ accounts of the resembling workshops and identified three main categories:
· Women aged 25-45 who are unemployed, on maternity leave or housewives. They want to find a new hobby, repaint or restore the furniture.
· Employed women aged 25-45. They spend a lot of time in an office and look for the creativity or communication.
· Women aged 46-65 who are employed or retired. Their children grew up and they have more leisure time to take up something.
The audience which visited the first master classes confirmed the results of our research as mostly there were the women from the categories described above.
We developed a visual strategy and content plan
In the visual content development we started from the customer requests and our professional watchfulness:
· We analyzed the references the customer had sent to us and decided which elements might be adjusted and used and which are outdated.
· We added the corporate purple color, which was already used for the logo, to the layout.
· We made a grid layout of the professional photos and references and sticked to it later.
· We created icons for the Instagram* Highlights in the workshop logo style.
We had a task to start the social media activity and begin to fill it with the content so we created a 12 posts content plan. Our priority was to show:
· the master’s professionalism through the advices and lifehacks about handmade restoration as well as through the photos and videos with the work results,
· the workshop opportunities: training in the basics of the restoration on master classes and courses, work in the coworking space,
· the idea that the creativity is a good way to relieve stress.
To involve followers and sustain the interaction we added polls and stickers to Instagram* Story and posted gluing videos on Reels. Such entertaining content diversifies the selling one and keeps the audience’s attention.
It was a good idea to add posts about the master’s personality and private life. For example, the post which got the biggest response was the one started with “My husband and I…”. There we were telling about a family wardrobe makeover. A lot of followers read the post till the end and commented on it.
The trigger fired and people wanted to find out what was there with the husband. Sometimes such things are acceptable to use but they should be appropriate and true. It isn’t worth creating clickbait headlines and offers if they don’t reflect the content of the text.
We posted information about the workshop on online platforms
One of the tasks was posting information about the workshop on online platforms:
· 2GIS
· vl.ru
· iprim
· Farpost
We managed to post information on 2GIS on the second try only. The first application wasn’t accepted as the business is registered neither as IE nor as a legal entity, the master works as self-employed. In the second application we added this information as well as the owner’s phone number. 2GIS manager called the business owner, asked some additional questions and approved the application. The information about the workshop appeared on 2GIS website within two days and in the mobile app within a week.
As for other online platforms, there weren’t such difficulties. We had only to fill in the forms and go through the moderation process to post information about the company on vl.ru and iprim and create the announcements on Farpost and events on vl.ru Billboard.
On monthly results we noticed that our post on vl.ru had more views than on other online platforms. So, if you have business in Vladivostok, we highly recommend you to post your information on this website. Moreover, unlike Farpost, you can publish events there for free.
The results we got
1. A well-developed visual and content strategies for the workshop’s accounts in social networks.2. Accounts on Instagram* (recognized as extremist on the Russian Federation territory), Vkontakte and Telegram filled with the content.
3. 11 clients to participate in master classes on the workshop’s grand opening. In total during the grand opening event there were 3 master classes for small groups of people attracted via social networks.
4. 2 clients bought the course on home restoration – the most expensive product in the workshop.
5. Information about the company is placed on the main online platforms of the city: 2GIS, vl.ru, Farpost, iprim.
6. 276 new followers on Instagram* (recognized as extremist on the Russian Federation territory) and ER is 9.4% within a month.
*Facebook/Instagram — проект Meta Platforms Inc., деятельность которой в России запрещена
*Facebook/Instagram is a Meta Platforms Inc. project banned in Russia
