The Spice & Tea Exchange is a multi-location franchise that offers 140 fine spices, 75+ hand-mixed seasoning blends, sugars, salts, teas, gourmet gifts and accessories. With stores throughout the United States, the company was founded in 2008 by a group of talented individuals with a passion for life and food. 

What started as a small shop in St. Augustine, Florida, has quickly grown into a nationwide franchise powered by flavor, passionate franchise owners, and a desire to bring flavorful ingredients to their customers’ kitchens. Spice & Tea franchise owners are the heartbeat of the organization, creating a “close-knit family you’d enjoy sitting with around the dinner table,” the company notes.

Challenge

With a mission of “creating and sharing the experience of a more flavorful life,” The Spice & Tea Exchange strives to provide guests with quality products and flavorful memories. Toward that end, they began working with Rallio to generate a local content strategy that would allow them to better share their high-quality, diverse assortment of products with a larger audience via social media. 

In the absence of the type of sensory shopping experience that one might have when stepping into a Spice & Tea Exchange store, the company sought to re-create on social media the feeling of opening jars, taking in the rich aromas, and speaking with knowledgeable in-store staff. They also needed the right technology to manage their social media posting and presence.

Related: 8 Reasons You Need One Social Media Marketing Provider

Solution

Rallio has been able to provide both the social media technology and the localized content and strategy that aligns with Spice & Tea Exchange’s mission and values —  tapping into a captive social media audience that craves their content just as much as their teas and spices.

Spice & Tea franchisees were given the choice to either use the Rallio dashboard alone for their social media management needs, or opt into the Rallio Local program in order to increase followers, engagement, and brand awareness in their local communities.

Results

For locations that have opted into Rallio Local services, Spice & Tea franchisees receive weekly custom local content, targeted ads and boosts, and daily responses to messages and reviews. Not only does the combination of Rallio local-specific technology, artificial intelligence, and social strategy do all of the heavy lifting to save them time — but they have also outperformed the locations that have not opted into Rallio Local in terms of follower growth, post and page engagement, and review response rate. 

In 2021, locations in the Rallio Local program had:

• 77% more new fans
• 75% more daily engagement
• 9% more reviews left by customers
• 88% faster review response rates than locations not on Rallio Local

Conclusion

Spice & Tea Exchange locations that have opted into Rallio Local have experienced great success month over month and continue to see impressive results. 

With the help of Rallio’s team and technology, they are able to rely on Rallio to handle all aspects of their social media marketing — alleviating the burden of growing their online presence themselves. This also leaves them time to focus on growing their businesses and connecting with their local customers, one cup of tea at a time.

Related: Case Study: Why Localized Social Media Matters