Founded nearly 40 years ago, Schuil Coffee has spent decades building a reputation for crafting high quality coffee. “Schuil became the first coffee roaster in Michigan focused on high-scoring, aka ‘specialty’ coffees, long before you knew what a latte was,” CEO Tim Volkema tells us.
In 2020, the Schuil team consists of a mix of 22 full- and part-time employees, many of whom get in on the game when it comes to marketing Schuil’s caffeinated offerings. That includes approachable, beautiful ecommerce video — but like many small businesses, the team occasionally struggles to make quite as much video content as they’d like. That’s where Vimeo Create comes in.
“Vimeo Create will allow us to do much more video content in-house,” says Tim. “It gives us the tools to up our video quality — and hopefully content engagement — without having to hire a professional videographer.” We wanted to hear more about Schuil’s cohesive approach to visual marketing, so we caught up with the CEO to get some insight into Schuil's social media strategy and hear his advice for fellow small businesses owners.
Tell us about your marketing strategy.
We try to let our products speak for themselves, but we do recognize the need to tell new customers about Schuil. For that, we mostly rely on paid social media.
We use a mix of videos and photos for these ads. For retention, we stick to our organic social platforms (primarily Facebook and Instagram), and our email list. We use a mix of blast emails and triggered emails based on user behavior.
How and why does Schuil use video right now?
Schuil uses video for some of our paid social ads. We started using it because it performs better than photography in terms of customer engagement. We are very new to video, so we are still formulating our longer-term strategy. But we're super excited to continue to experiment with Vimeo Create!
How important is social media for Schuil?
Social media has been very important to us. Three years ago, we embarked on a brand refresh, and social media proved to be a great platform on which to tell that story. It’s visual, but also allows you to communicate longer messages through video or links to blog content.
Has 2020 changed your marketing approach at all?
We set up most of our current eCommerce program in late 2019, but with COVID, that part of our business has become even more important. As a result, we have dedicated more human and financial resources to that channel. But the core strategy remains the same.
What advice can you share for small business owners and entrepreneurs staying operational right now?
Be conservative and manage resources carefully. We could be in this predicament for a long time yet. We are reviewing our sales channels carefully and determining where to dedicate our limited time and financial resources. Nobody knows when things will return to “normal." If you can keep the business risk profile and financial exposure low, you’re more likely to come out the other end of this intact.
