Slappa's Thongs: Success with targeted marketing
Sam Hutchinson • 26 April 2024
Services used:
- Digital advertising
- Social media marketing
Completion date:
September 2023 - on going
Location:
Northern Territory, AUS
Who are Slappa's Thongs?
Slappa’s Thongs is an arch support thong producer. It all started with Denise Dunn having a problem; she loved wearing thongs, but they provided no foot support. This issue started Slappa’s Thongs, where Denise was first selling her thongs at local markets in the Northern Territory.
Unlike some of their competitors, Slappa’s Thongs has a strong health focus. Each pair of thongs is built to mould to the wearer’s feet, putting comfort first and offering much-needed support for pregnant women and those living with plantar fasciitis and heel spurs.
Her current customers kept requesting for her products to be available both online and in physical stores, rather than only being sold at an annual market. Now the designer thongs are being sold by 150 stockists around Australia and New Zealand.
What was their problem?
Slappa’s Thongs had a simple goal: they wanted to sell more thongs. Their past Google Ad and Search Engine Advertising campaigns hadn’t met expectations, so they were looking to refresh their digital advertising with new creative and strategy.
Previously, they worked with an agency on advertising but didn't see a return on investment (ROI). The team was too small, so when someone was absent, there was no one available to take over the work. They were in need of a dependable team to handle their social media advertising, email marketing, and paid search.
Their needs
A data-driven Google Ads strategy
Increased performance across Facebook Ads
Increased capability with their email marketing
What we did
We worked with Slappa’s Thongs to deliver a complete marketing solution. Combining the creative and strategic wings of the Refuel team, we delivered optimised Google and Social Media ads, in addition to email marketing, to increase their sales and build a consistent brand.
We revamped and rebuilt their Google Ads structure from the ground up, with fresh keywords, creative, and targeting. In addition, we also deployed a Performance Max campaign, initially as a test, but this proved to work well for Slappa’s.
In addition to Google Ads, we also worked on Facebook Ads. We launched a new Traffic campaign with updated targeting and creative. Further, we also worked with Slappa’s to launch new ad campaigns where necessary, such as for Black Friday and new product launches.
Finally, we also migrated Slappa’s from MailChimp to Klaviyo. Here, we were able to better track performance and use AI to increase the effectiveness of their email marketing.
Email marketing
We work with Slappa's to deliver regular email marketing.
We delivered a targeted Black Friday email campaign that used a smart workflow within Klaviyo to target emails based on open and purchase history, allowing us to ignore those who had recently made purchases and zone in on people who had opened emails but not made a purchase.
Google ads
We restructured their Google Ad account top to bottom. So we introduced a brand new structure to their brand search campaigns and their non-brand search campaigns, while we also introduced new revenue streams with Google Shopping ads to help bring in even more new customers than before.
Social media advertising
Once the strategy was in place and had that sort of data driven framework, we still needed to get eye-catching creative in place that would put slappers on a different level to their competitors, help them stand out, and convince customers that slappers are the option for them
Challenges
The main issue came across with the tech stack. Setting up Klaviyo was a bit of a pain, but ultimately we got there in the end and the results are speaking for themselves across the email marketing.
So we're based in Port Adelaide and Slappa’s are based in the Northern Territory. And lots of clients like face-to-face meetings, and that sort of comfort in coming into the office. So building up that same rapport and trust over digital platforms was very important. And as a digital agency, it's part of our bread and butter that we're able to do that fairly consistently, not only across Slappa’s, but across several clients.
They're always looking for ways to improve...I'd highly recommend people talking to Refuel.
– Denise Dunn, CEO & Founder of Slappa's Thongs
The impact
The results
Since taking over digital ads and email marketing in September 2023, we’ve managed to increase their sales, revenue and clicks.
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In conclusion
Slappa’s Thongs were able to see an increase with their sales and revenue from our implementation of a data-driven plan to unlock the business' full potential.
