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Barbara Collins (pictured), InterTradeIreland consultant, explains how online marketing has helped businesses survive lockdown

Many businesses haven’t yet set up to sell online and are potentially missing out on millions of euros in sales. They will tell you that they were too busy dealing with the day-to-day demands of production and distribution to even look at it. Many more are simply scared of social media and don’t understand its benefits.

InterTradeIreland’s new E-Merge programme helps with all of that. The programme provides €2,800 fully funded consultancy support to support businesses in developing online sales and eCommerce solutions.

Lockdown forced a go-slow and gave businesses a chance to look at areas they could expand and grow. Throughout lockdown, online sales burgeoned. The post still operated and couriers were still in business. The delivery time may have been slower but people understood that. There has also been a new appreciation of products and services that are home-grown.

I believe that online sales are here to stay and will only become more important. You may go to a shop to look at something but order it to be delivered online. If you buy something once, you may repeat your custom online. If you want to look at what a company does, you will look at their social media. That’s the way things work.

My first client was Armagh Cider Company, which also has a range of non-alcoholic drinks. The business’s customers are in the hospitality industry and in retail, but the hospitality side of the business was decimated by lockdown.

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Armagh Cider Company’s ciders are well-established and they are stocked in lots of supermarkets, but the company wanted to increase the brand awareness of its Orchard Twist sparkling apple-based juices, as well as its range of Troughton’s Premium Mixers.

We did a lot of work on the social media offering, including an Instagram Stories tutorial as well as targeting new followers and influencers in the Republic and in Northern Ireland. They were sent samples, which worked very well in terms of media coverage in Easy Food magazine, Woman’s Way, the Pandemic Pantry podcast and Image magazine. There was also increased social media traction, especially on Instagram and Facebook.

The web copy was updated for all of the drinks, which was overdue, and time was spent looking at other delivery options. I costed couriers against An Post, Royal Mail and Amazon. Brand awareness and online sales have increased on both sides of the border.

Another client was DessertFirst, established by Margaret Fleming in Waterford. The business makes high-end, home-baked products. DessertFirst was primarily based on food service, which had obviously ground to a halt during lockdown. Margaret had made steps towards setting up a click-and-collect online ordering service for local customers but it wasn’t working out.

A new online shop was set up with a streamlined list of products. I introduced Margaret to a food stylist who created superb new images at her home in Limerick, having received the products in a socially-distanced manner.

I did some work on social media posts and scheduled them into a busy week with content that would engage. I also introduced new followers and influencers, and wrote the copy for a new, updated website.

The biggest challenge was getting the online products to the customers still frozen, since the business model is ‘bake at home’ or ‘thaw to serve’. I arranged samples of eco-friendly wool packaging from England. Some manufacturers were refusing to deliver samples because of the lockdown and were requesting minimum orders of 500. I found one which not only sent free samples, but also allocated an account manager for future business.

Margaret delivered a box of product to me with An Post. It took just over 18 hours to get to me from the delivery office in Waterford. I waited until they had been in the box for 24 hours before opening and they were perfect.

This was a great way to see if the packaging/delivery worked, since many couriers were taking up to a week to deliver at that point. They were also prohibitively expensive. Testing it this way worked well. It confirmed for the business that there was a way to deliver frozen product across the island.

I also arranged samples to be sent to a distributor in Northern Ireland, after calling and explaining how they might work for convenience stores without a scratch bakery. Plans are well underway for the products to go on sale in Northern Ireland.

As a consultant, I find E-Merge to be an excellent programme. The technology exists now for connections to be made face-to-face via Zoom. I honestly don’t believe that we will ever go back to doing business exactly the way we did before. The month-long duration means InterTradeIreland can help more companies than ever and that can only be a good thing.

For more information on InterTradeIreland’s  E-Merge programme and to apply for support through it, see here.