The Pickwick Place (Pickwick) is a very unique small business. Located on the grounds of a historic horse farm, on the outskirts of Bucyrus, Ohio, the business occupies three large brick barns on the property with a wedding venue, grocery market, and vendor market. In addition, the grounds surrounding the property are used as an active farm and orchard, as well as grounds for seasonal events and outdoor agritourism activities. These various pieces of the overall entity have been steadily added and the company already growing rapidly since the mid 2010s.
Approaching the project, Pickwick was interested in reducing costs and getting their marketing controlled more internally rather than continuing to rely on their previous agency relationship which they felt was an unsustainable cost. A recently website build was completed before this project and was a prerequisite part of the marketing stack moving forward. Additionally Pickwick had seen success that I had previously had in securing influencer marketing and was interested in securing earned media like that as well.
Since then, April 2021, I have been working with Pickwick on a wide-ranging marketing strategy which has helped secure growth, and also an increase in the growth rate, while reducing marketing costs. This work includes:
• brand messaging development
• social media strategy and team coordination
• email marketing
• campaign management for seasonal events
• content creation (videography/photography)
• a comprehensive "day trip" strategy
• paid and earned media (ads, PR, influencer marketing)
Read on for project details and results
Pickwick is a well-loved business which makes for nice positive reinforcement with social media and fits right in the middle of Pickwick's marketing strategy. My work with includes developing a content plan and schedule, coordinating a team of various staff contributors, as well as creating content myself. It also includes management of a comprehensive set of paid ads and influencer marketing campaigns.
With event-based and constantly evolving set of offerings, email fits well in Pickwick's marketing mix. There are plenty of reasons to reach customers' inbox with valuable information. Like usual, email lists are a great way to ensure you have access to your own audience, regardless of potential changes to social media algorithms.
At the start of their 2022 season Pickwick launched a new cafe space. Work for this project included menu photography as well as a wide-range of other marketing tactics: menu design (inspired by Magnolia Table), setup of an online ordering system, social media marketing, and online listing management.
see menu photos
A major part of Pickwick's business model is seasonal events and this is a major part of the marketing project as well. We've been able to implement a wide range of tactics, such as listing management, social media campaigns, paid advertising, email marketing, and influencer marketing as well as partnership with Ohio. Find it Here; the state tourism department. This has lead to YOY growth in every major event from 2020 to 2021.
Coming in to the project, The Pickwick Place already had an impressive growth rate - a high bar for comparison. Still, a year into the project, we saw not only significant growth but an higher growth rate than the previous year while at the same time reducing marketing costs.
