Article

Digital strategy produces 119% jump in Tijuana Flats' online ordering

A simplified website, local SEO optimization, Pandora ads and special events for bloggers helped lift sales and drive traffic to Tijuana Flats stores.

December 9, 2014 by Brenda Rick Smith — Editor, Networld Media Group

Tijuana Flats is crediting a comprehensive digital campaign with a 119-percent increase in online ordering.

Thanks to the digital campaign, online orders have grown from hovering around 2 to 3 percent of total sales to more than 5 percent in just two months. The brand has also seen a 2-percent bump in comps.

"Our overall goal is always to drive traffic in the restaurants," said Monique Yeager, VP of Marketing for the 107-unit Florida-based brand. "I do believe that we've done that with sales increases year over year each month."

The brand doesn't have the budget for television advertising, but relies heavily on grassroots community-driven campaigns, said Yeager. The digital campaign fits with the brand's budget and goals.

Tijuana Flats kicked off its comprehensive digital marketing campaign in April with the help of marketing agency EdgeCore.

The key to Tijuana Flats' success was that they didn't put all their eggs in one basket, said David Wheeler, VP of Operations for EdgeCore, but used multiple strategies.

Highlights of Tijuana Flats' strategy include:

Revamped website

The centerpiece of the digital campaign was an overhaul of the brand's website, which went live in September.

While the previous site won awards for its appearance, it was difficult to navigate. The redesign focused on making the site usable for customers and easy to update for the brand.

"The traffic on the website has doubled since we revamped it," said Yeager. Unique users have increased more than 40 percent over the same period last year, and mobile traffic has grown 46.2 percent over last October.

Yeager points to the redesign and the subsequent increase in traffic as the major driver behind the online ordering increase.

"In October and November when we were driving traffic to the website, customers were able to find the online ordering, and I don't think they did before," said Yeager.

Local SEO

Significant effort was also made to improve the brand's visibility, findability and accuracy in search engine results.

Analysts combed through listings on dozens of directory listings for each of Tijuana Flats' 107 locations, verifying details for accuracy and making updates where needed. The Google algorithm prizes correct, consistent local information, Wheeler explained.

The payoff for the tedious process – analysts had to review an estimated 5,000 or more records – improved organic search results for a brand, and a click through rate (CTR) of 3.75 percent, well above the restaurant industry average of 0.1 percent.

Targeted Pandora ads

Tijuana Flats also targeted display and audio ads to Pandora listeners based on demographics. The ad buy yielded 10,223,934 impressions, with a 0.5 percent click through rate.

But feedback from Tijuana Flats' crew impressed Yeager the most.

"When the employees have heard about it and they are messaging you and they are really excited about it, that means everything to a brand like ours, and we heard that quite a lot," said Yeager.

Special blogger events

Tijuana Flats invited bloggers and Yelp Elite members to stores in major markets for special events related to its hemp tortilla limited-time offer.

The events generated considerable conversation on social media, according to Yeager, and helped add stars to Tijuana Flats' Yelp ratings for specific locations where events were hosted. Some locations in North Carolina have jumped from three stars to five out of five, according to Yeager.

"If they have a really great experience, they talk about it online all day long," said Yeager.

The events also paid off internally.

"Our team members are really the core of our business, and we want them to always be happy and we want them to know that we're cool, we're a hip brand, and they enjoy working for us, they have fun working for us, and doing these events did a lot towards that. They just had a great time with it as well," she said.

What's ahead? 

Based on the success of the initial campaign, Yeager plans to double down on digital in 2015, committing a full 20 percent of the brand's marketing budget to digital marketing.

New initiatives may include a loyalty app, which Tijuana Flats plans to begin testing in January, and more updates to the content and features of the website.

About Brenda Rick Smith

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Brenda has more than 20 years of experience as a marketing and public relations professional. She invested most of her career telling the story of entrepreneurial non-profit organizations, particularly through social media.

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