A startup retailer born
during Covid
Benni is a modern startup founded during Covid to deliver the most comfortable reusable mask on the market, geared toward everyday people trying to stay active during a pandemic.
Assisting a small, nimble team, I collaborated with all functions to create a wide assortment of content. Projects ranged from packaging copy, blog posts, web storytelling, SEO editing, social posts, brand voice development, and more.
Website
I was heavily involved in the early stages of Benni’s website development, contributing content creation and management, brand voice, web copy, page creation, blog articles, and more. Providing consistent yet appropriate messaging across all our platforms was a key priority when crafting copy and visuals.
Launch Strategy
During our phase one launch, I led many promotion efforts and strategy plans to ensure a successful presale round. One initiative to tap into our networks and get the product in front of relevant audiences included a shareable graphic package that we sent out to email contacts, investors, PR reps and more to be shared across their digital platforms. With this running in addition to our own social media countdown posts, we quickly sold out first run inventory.
Launch Post Copy:
“Benni launch day is here! Keep an eye out for special discounts and a live website this afternoon.”
“It’s time! Bennimask.com is live and open for orders! We can’t wait to get moving with you. Check our stories for details + a special sale.”
“Hi! It’s launch day here at Benni, and we’d love for you to try our performance face mask. Join us for 30% off pre sales.”
For our Instagram account (primary channel), I created a posting schedule that flexed for both repeated content (weekly motivation, challenges, announcements etc), and responding quickly to current events or content our team delivered randomly throughout the week. I also shot multiple photos for use across social media and other company channels (email, web, PR, etc).
Growth & Engagement
To grow our audience, I collaborated with the team to develop a strategy for running giveaways for our followers. This tactic helped double our following in one week and activated our engaged community members. We saw over 200% participation after my first round of strategy adjustments and got our followers to view Benni as an exercise friend rather than lifeless brand online. I leveraged social and email communication to promote the giveaway, and started a plan to curate prize packages that would appeal to various types of active folks to draw in a more diverse audience.
I also worked with the team to loop in public figure partnerships, influencer relations, and more digital community engagement.
I also utilized Instagram features like polls and quizzes to get a real-time sense of what our audience wanted to see from the brand going forward. These insights informed decisions about color production, packaging, giveaway prizes, and content approaches.
I tracked KPIs each week to monitor our progress and begin to tailor our content and posting strategy to what resonated with our audience.
Giveaway Posts & Email
Outcomes
As a small, frugal team, I was in charge of growing a following exclusively through organic posts, without an ad budget. These efforts resulted in not only growing our follower count, revenue, and impressions, but created a true community that shares Benni's values. This love for community is what drives the brand.
Social strategy documentation
Internal reference guide for social media. To view the document in full, click here.
Packaging Insert
Translating our product information between print, packaging, social, and web channels required consistency in visual and written language, while adapting for unique scenarios to ensure our consumers could find what they needed no matter where they were looking.
Email & Referral Program
When I arrived, Benni had never sent an email. I led our trial of email marketing approaches to reach customers and fans.
I created an email strategy that connects with customers during every step of their journey with Benni: from the first point of contact, to the add-to-cart, order confirmation, review request, and continued engagement through personalized newsletter content delivered regularly.
My strategic contributions to the email presence were also all about transparency and cultivating trust between Benni and its community. Manufacturing products during Covid provided many challenges and I made it a priority to keep our customers updated and informed on their order status to solidify Benni as an honest, agile company who navigates challenges openly and with perseverance.
“Get ready to move…No matter what your passion, with the right tools and the right people around you, you can keep moving, keep caring and keep living—even through challenging times.”
To further expand our reach, the team and I developed a referral program that offers friends the opportunity to share a discount with their networks and receive cash back in return. This quickly grew our #bennifam and got people excited to shop the mask.
