Moscow on the Hill
Elevating Tradition: Strategic Marketing Innovations
TLDR: Modest budget, outsized impact. Email list to 27,910 (avg 45.38% open / 5.11% click; $50K gift-card revenue from a single send). Takeout/delivery clicks at $0.05–$0.10 CPC. Lunch awareness at $1.17–$3.00 CPM. Post amplification at $0.01–$0.09 CPE. Brand + site refresh that strengthened trust, consistency, and conversion paths.
Role: Marketing Director & Lead Strategist
Objective
Rejuvenate the brand and strengthen market presence through full-funnel leadership—refreshing voice and web, deepening community connection, and turning digital into a reliable growth engine.
Strategy & Execution
I lead an integrated program across brand, web, email, paid media, social, and PR. In practice, that meant a refreshed voice and site, a lifecycle email cadence, a three-track Meta plan (takeout traffic, lunch awareness reach, engagement amplification), active social/community, and a reporting rhythm that kept decisions clear.
Brand & Web
Established a modern visual and voice system and directed a site refresh to improve clarity, accessibility, and conversion paths. Ongoing food/drink photography keeps creative current and premium.
Email
Built a lifecycle program with clear cadences (seasonal, events, reservations, gift cards, merch), basic segmentation, and test-and-learn on subject lines/offers/creative—supported by a fast, repeatable production workflow.
Paid Media (Meta)
Three workstreams:
Takeout/Delivery (traffic): Hyper-local geo targeting and tuned lookalikes; creative variations by menu/time of day; frequency caps and dayparting.
Lunch Awareness (reach): Local radius targeting with creative rotation by day/season and strict frequency control to maximize unique reach.
Engagement Amplification (content): Boosted high-performing organic posts to targeted local and lookalike audiences; optimized creative hooks and formats to extend reach and social proof without inflating frequency.
Social & Community
Seasonal editorial calendar, UGC amplification, proactive review response, and community partnerships—plus a crisis-comms playbook aligned to brand values.
Analytics & Ops
Dashboard reporting on a regular cadence; translate performance into clear recommendations and next actions for ownership.
Brand Voice Development
From the outset, the voice needed to feel like the restaurant: warm and welcoming, refined but approachable, and confidently playful. We built a tone framework around hospitality first, cultural pride without politics, and invitations that never feel pushy. Language leaned on sensory detail (“crispy,” “slow-braised,” “bright”) and local cues (Saint Paul seasons, neighborhood dining rhythms).
To keep it consistent, we used proven post structures—punchy lead + detail, warm invitations that paint a scene, menu spotlights with ingredient clarity—so every touchpoint read like a genuine invitation, not a hard sell. Over time, the voice became a signature guests recognized and trusted.
Results
Here’s what the program delivered—efficient spend, bigger audiences, and measurable revenue lift.
Email program: List grew to 27,910; avg 45.38% open / 5.11% click; 1.51% unsub; 0.02% spam; single-send gift-card campaign generated $50,000 during COVID.
Paid media efficiency: $0.05–$0.10 CPC on takeout/delivery traffic; $1.17–$3.00 CPM on lunch-awareness reach in the Twin Cities—well below typical restaurant benchmarks. Boosted high-performing posts at $0.01–$0.09 CPE, extending reach and social proof efficiently.
Brand & web: Completed brand refresh and site redesign, improving consistency, clarity, and paths to reservations and gift cards.
Community & PR: Values-aligned communications maintained trust through COVID and navigated unwarranted backlash tied to Russia’s war on Ukraine with care and clarity. On the proactive side, PR behind key milestones like the 25th and 30th anniversaries landed coverage in Pioneer Press, Star Tribune, Bring Me The News, and more — fueled by creative hooks like a free house-infused vodka with any entrée. The result: spikes in reservations, packed dining rooms, and strong local goodwill.
Reflection
This case isn’t defined by one campaign or milestone—it’s defined by how all the pieces we built work together. We created an adaptive marketing system—from a resonant brand voice and updated website to email automation, layered Meta tactics, tactical PR, and meaningful metrics—all driven by a data-ready foundation. It’s that backbone that allowed us to honor traditions, mobilize audience connection during crisis, celebrate anniversaries with impactful earned media, and continually turn modest budgets into sustained growth. That capability—that blend of creative judgment and systems-first execution—is what I bring to every team.
