CASE STUDY

Willy’s Mexicana Grill

About the Atlanta-based restaurant chain serving up smiles and freshly-rolled burritos

One of our clients that is currently enjoying a high degree of success is a restaurant in metropolitan Atlanta known as Willy’s Mexicana Grill. The company’s first location was founded in 1995.

The founder, Willy Bitter, discovered a passion for authentic Mexican cuisine while traveling as a young man. He decided to turn this personal love of Mexican food into a successful local restaurant chain. 

Willy’s Mexicana Grill has expanded to more than 30 locations in the Atlanta area. Throughout this time, the company has maintained its focus on providing excellent customer service and high-quality Mexican food.

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What We Delivered
  • UX/UI
  • Art Direction
  • Design
  • Web Development
  • Email Marketing
  • Reporting
The Challenge

Building an effective digital presence

During the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants relied on their digital presence more than ever before. Willy’s launched a new online ordering system to meet the increased demand. They also partnered with delivery services to supplement their business during the difficult season. 

Leadership at the company wanted to partner with an agency that could enact effective digital marketing for restaurants. They hoped that a solid digital marketing strategy would help to drive online orders for their numerous locations.

The team at Willy’s understood the importance of digital marketing. But, like many restaurants, they had primarily focused on in-person business prior to the pandemic. Because of this, they did not have experience in running extensive digital campaigns.

Willy's Mexicana Grill | Enormous Elephant
Laying Down the Rails

Planning a successful strategy

Willy’s knew that they needed a partner who could help them build a more effective online presence. And when our team assessed the restaurant’s situation, we knew we could help. 

We found it wisest to take the following measures: 

  • Work in tandem with the digital strategy team at InsightsABM
  • Develop a consistent, effective email marketing campaign
  • Develop landing page designs for the brand’s recruitment efforts

Our team had to find ways to enact these tools in a cost-effective manner, as the pandemic had affected the revenue of many local businesses at the time. 

Fortunately for Willy’s, the Enormous Elephant team has extensive experience with high-quality digital marketing for restaurants.

How We Did It

Providing deliverables

Willy’s Mexicana Grill needed to offer their customers a seamless UX to boost sales. To meet this goal, the Enormous Elephant team developed a custom-tailored strategy to meet the specific needs of the company, which included:

  • Social media advertisements
  • Display banners
  • Optimized sales emails
  • Digital recruitment landing pages

Copy and creative development teams crafted unique email marketing content to help the client grow their online customer base. To ensure the success of this marketing strategy, we managed emails sent by the client and oversaw their customer contact lists.

Ongoing website development was provided, including site updates and fixes, along with landing page development for their recruitment efforts – resulting in increased engagement in tandem with the paid campaigns being run by partner InsightsABM.

The Outcome

Delivering results

Willy’s Mexicana Grill saw incredible results after they partnered with Enormous Elephant. The campaigns and email marketing strategies helped to increase their sales significantly. The company saw a total sales increase of 54% when comparing the same timeframe year-over-year.

The digital recruitment efforts were also highly successful. Those campaigns resulted in 662 applicants during the first 60 days. With this increase, the company was able to resolve their hiring issue during a particularly difficult time for businesses. 

Finally, Willy’s saw a drastic boost in their online traffic. They experienced a 17% increase in new site users year-over-year.

The team at Willy’s Mexicana Grill was ecstatic about the results that we were able to achieve.

The Results

54

Sales Increase YoY

682

Applicants for HR in 60 Days

17

Increase In New Site User YoY

Let's make things happen.

Digital marketing for restaurants requires a team that has knowledge and experience, along with a deep understanding of the industry. We can design and launch effective digital campaigns to help you reach new customers in innovative ways. Partner with Enormous Elephant to grow your business and build a successful online presence.

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