How Local Media Helped this Coffee Shop Launch During a Pandemic
No one knows the perfect time to upgrade your pop up coffee concept to a full-service coffee house, but hindsight being 20/20 – it wasn’t spring 2020. While the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders delayed their plans a bit, the passionate connoisseurs behind Pair Coffee and Tea reopened their Downtown Mesa location in fall of 2020 to rave reviews. They were making waves in national coffee trade outlets, but they had a problem: only the coffee enthusiast community at large knew that Pair existed.
Industry clout is great for your reputation, but local customers are better for your bottom line. Pair needed neighborhood cred.
The owners brewed up a small marketing budget for local media coverage in pursuit of increased daily foot traffic and local awareness.
The Barnhart Co. team (led by PR expert Angela Muniz) leveraged our extensive network of contacts to reach the valley through hyper-local publications. We highlighted Pair’s unique Downtown Mesa location with a full press release and used shorter pitches to showcase seasonal drinks. We also targeted outreach to community-level print publications with readers in Mesa neighborhoods and Mesa Community College students.
In an eight-week campaign, TBCo secured five in-depth business profile pieces and a handful of roundup mentions for Pair, including:
But did these features turn into foot traffic? The answer is a resounding yes. Not only did Pair see an increase in weekly customer visits, but the online reviews also increased (and because people are always searching mobile maps for nearby coffee shops, these reviews are a hidden driver of customer traffic). Specifically:
New customers did more than increase sales. Our favorite KPI as some of Pair’s biggest fans? With their new steady drip of customers, Pair started taking ground. By the end of the campaign, they had made their first hire, and in subsequent years Pair has expanded to a second location inside of Tempe Bouldering.
Don’t waste the buzz when your business makes moves. TBCo can help you make the most of your momentum.
