Ross Allan · R4 Digital
Digital Marketing
the full stop.
Email marketing and social media for an independent, family-run sandwich shop on Clifton Road, Aberdeen. An owned email list built from zero, a structured content operation across Instagram and Facebook, and in-store mechanics designed around a solo owner-operator.
Revenue verified via FreeAgent, year on year. Spend compared like-for-like.
01
The Approach
Two levers, at the same time.
the full stop is a family-run sandwich shop on Clifton Road, Aberdeen: independent, owner-operated, open Monday to Friday. It had regulars. It didn’t have a footfall problem. The opportunity was getting them to spend more, and reaching the people nearby who didn’t know the place existed. Owned channels for depth, social for reach, run in parallel.
Not everything landed. A crisps-in-your-sandwich add-on got good engagement online and barely any uptake in store: no poster, weak photography, no follow-through at the till. The rule since: a promotion has to work everywhere at once, social, signage, staff, or it doesn’t convert.
02
Email Marketing
A list built from zero.
407 subscribers, grown organically since March, with a 49.81% average open rate against a 20–25% industry benchmark. Sign-up mechanics tied to real incentives (a free iced coffee, 10% off), six campaigns sent since March, and two always-on welcome automations doing the follow-up work automatically.
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All results recorded before a price revision in April 2026. Growth reflects genuine increases in revenue, footfall and spend.
Ross has run our social media and email from the start, and this year revenue is up 45% on last year. I've no digital expertise at all and he made the whole thing easy. He just gets on with it and the shop gets busier.
Susan (Owner), the full stop., Aberdeen
03
The Mailers
Six sends, each one earning its open.
Every newsletter ties to a real hook: a new item, a deal, a standing offer. Click through for the story and the numbers behind each one.
Hover for the numbers, click to read →
Recipients, open and click rates from MailerLite, recorded at time of send.
04
Social Media
Instagram built from nothing. Facebook, steadily compounding.
Consistent posting, in-house photography direction and modest paid amplification behind whatever's already working — specials, new menu items, the shop itself. Instagram launched from scratch in March 2026; Facebook has added 361 followers this year on top of an established base.
Facebook: +361 net followers this year. Instagram: built from zero since launch in March 2026.
The posts that performed →
Tap a post to view it on Facebook.
Engagement figures from Meta Business Suite, January–September 2026. Some posts shown were boosted; all reflect genuine customer engagement. Also: 134,000+ combined Facebook and Instagram views in a 90-day window, and a 56.67% landing page conversion rate.
05
What’s Next
Three fronts, moving at once.
Instagram keeps building on a fixed schedule. Paid social stays lean and gets refined as the data comes in. In-store print gets redesigned to be fully on-brand.
Contact
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