Southern Baked Pie

Industry

Food & Beverage

Introduction

In 2012, Amanda Wilbanks founded Southern Baked Pie in Gainesville, GA, growing from family recipes into a business with four stores, catering, and eCommerce.

Results

With every optimization, Southern Baked Pie saw increased success, resulting in a 535% increase in store revenue and 28x AdRoll ROI since June 2019.

Key Products and Services

Springbot Ecommerce, Email Campaigns, Email List Segmentation

Website »

Background

Amanda Wilbanks transformed treasured family recipes and a passion for traditional southern baking into a thriving business that honors the heritage of all-butter pie crusts while adapting to modern consumer preferences and purchasing channels. What began as a small local operation has evolved into a multi-faceted enterprise with four retail locations, a successful catering service, and an eCommerce platform that extends the reach of Southern Baked Pie far beyond Georgia, delivering their distinctive handcrafted pies to homes, corporate events, and special occasions throughout the country while maintaining the authentic southern hospitality and attention to quality that defined the brand from its inception.

Challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for food retailers like Southern Baked Pie, dramatically altering consumer shopping behavior as safety concerns drove customers away from in-store visits toward online ordering and delivery options. This sudden shift required the company to rapidly reconceptualize their marketing approach to maintain customer relationships and revenue streams in an environment where traditional foot traffic and in-person sampling were no longer viable customer acquisition methods, necessitating greater emphasis on digital channels to reach customers who were now primarily shopping from home.

Solution

Southern Baked Pie collaborated closely with their dedicated Springbot Account Manager to develop and implement a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that would adapt to changing consumer behaviors while capitalizing on the increased reliance on online shopping. They significantly expanded their online advertising presence to reach customers who were spending more time browsing the internet during lockdowns, implemented more sophisticated email segmentation to deliver more personalized and relevant communications, and increased their use of automation to maintain consistent customer touchpoints without overwhelming their marketing team during this challenging operational period.

Key Outcomes

The enhanced digital marketing strategy delivered exceptional results across multiple channels, with AdRoll campaigns achieving an impressive 30.5x return on investment between March and September 2020 during the height of pandemic restrictions. This contributed to a remarkable 535% increase in overall store revenue as online sales compensated for reduced in-store purchases. The company’s longer-term digital marketing efforts showed similar strength, with a 28x AdRoll ROI since June 2019, email campaigns generating a 14x year-over-year revenue increase, and automated email sequences producing a 10x boost in year-over-year revenue, demonstrating the effectiveness of their omnichannel approach.

Conclusion

Southern Baked Pie founder Amanda Wilbanks credits the partnership with Springbot as instrumental in not only weathering the pandemic’s challenges but actually exceeding their business goals during this period of retail disruption. The combination of sophisticated email automation capabilities and highly efficient online advertising features enabled the company to pivot quickly as consumer behavior changed, maintaining strong customer relationships and revenue generation despite physical retail limitations. The successful adaptation to predominantly digital marketing demonstrated the resilience of their business model and positioned them for continued growth as they incorporated these enhanced capabilities into their long-term marketing strategy.