Service: 1:1 consultancy for 3 months – marketing strategy + growth plan + business coaching
CLIENT: CUPPLE
“We raised investment funding with Emmie’s input and have a marketing strategy that we’re starting to implement. She is so helpful for those new to business. Very encouraging, incredibly well connected, and has great ideas for how to achieve end results.”
Amanda McDowell, Co-founder, Cupple
Cupple is a Cup + Bottle = Cupple. A reusable water bottle and cup that twist together into one to reduce single-use bottle and cup waste. Cupple is co-founded by Amanda and Eve. They had already completed a successful Kickstarter campaign and had fundamentals in place, with a strong brand and a loyal following. They enlisted Emmie to help them with their marketing strategy and marketing plan in order to raise more funding to continue to grow their business.
Emmie worked with Amanda and Eve over a 3-month period to support them with a strategic plan for sales and marketing and to help them gain the investment they needed for growth. This process consisted of fortnightly coaching sessions with Emmie, a social media strategy session with Emmie’s team, and SEO and website audits.
Throughout their time working together, Emmie covered multiple areas with the Cupple founders:
- market research
- customer research and insight
- competitor analysis
- SWOT
- content and social media strategy
- customer journey
- strategic partnerships
- marketing strategy + tactics
- 12-month marketing budget split by channel
- marketing reporting set up
Emmie also introduced the founders to suppliers and her wider network who could help Cupple with the implementation of the plan including social media, website design, and funding advice.
How did you feel before working with Emmie?
Aware that business required more structure as we started to grow, and strategic direction for sales and marketing.
What was the best thing about working with Emmie?
Her experience and ability to explain concepts and strategies fully. Her ability to listen and understand what we required even if we didn’t explain it very well. Her confidence in us and our product, and her support throughout the time we worked together and ongoing. Her introductions.
What did you find most helpful?
Marketing plan and advice on fundraising, SWOT, and understanding the importance of the customer journey.
What results have you achieved since working with Emmie?
We have raised £150K investment; started commercial manufacture of Cupples; created our own website; sold over 1,200 Cupples since July 2021; started working with zero waste stores and other independent retail outlets across the country; started conversations with two large corporates involved in the tea/coffee business.
We joined 1% for the Planet; donated to The Woodland Trust and Marine Conservation Society; presented at two workshops aimed at encouraging female entrepreneurs; and set up our stall at four Christmas markets.
We have expanded our range of colours from three to seven and started early planning for further product development with our designers. We now have a social media support team from three agencies who work with us on social media, paid ads, and PR.
Have you started to implement the strategy and plan?
The strategy and plan are a constant reference source for our founders’ meetings. We have used the SWOT as a means to look at our weaknesses and build adaptation/mitigation into our business activities.
We have used the social media strategy to guide the work we’re doing on Facebook and Instagram (we’ve grown from 900 to over 1700 organic followers since June 2021). And we’ve used the planning document as a check-in to ensure that the spirit in which we set up the business and the values we considered important are still current and are threaded through all our business decisions.
What are you proud of that you want to share?
We set out wanting to make a difference with our products and to enjoy our working days. We are proud of the fact that we have established great working relationships with a wide number of advisors, suppliers and retailers. We always aim to deal with other businesses with trust, kindness and respect and have been delighted to develop a wonderful set of partnerships with other businesses that support and encourage us, as we do them.
We have grown B2C sales 20% month on month since launching live on our website in July 2021. Our Instagram following has almost doubled since June 2021. We are suppliers to Oliver Bonas, several smaller independent shops, and have supplied Cupples to a Netflix film production company.
We have worked with influencers, including the GP Mum, Martha Ward (Condé Nast Traveller) and Poppy Loves London, and have been delighted with their response to Cupple. We have also featured in articles in The Sunday Telegraph, Country Life, Kent Life, Hip & Healthy, Country & Town House and will be featuring in a number of Christmas gift guides in national journals and magazines in the next few weeks.
Have a read of Emmie’s testimonials or find out more by visiting Emmie’s profile and recommendations on LinkedIn.