Trethowan’s Dairy* produces its Caerphilly cheese Gorwydd (pronounced Gor-with) from a farm in west Wales.
Exported all over the world, this multi-award winning, beautifully mature cheese is made to a traditional recipe.
Trethowan’s business historically relied on very good word of mouth via the distributors that sold its cheese.
But all that was to change when Jess Trethowan joined her partner Todd in setting up the shop in Bristol’s St. Nicholas market a couple of years ago.
“When I became involved there was a basic website for the farm and we didn’t do very much direct selling. Apart from the occasional speaking gig and a few markets and festivals, we hadn’t done all that much in the way of marketing”
Established in the foodie community
Today, Trethowan’s is a highly visible presence in the online foodie community. It’s all down to Jess and some smart social marketing. Jess explains how she uses online to market the cheese.
“There are various elements that work together. The Trethowan’s website is fairly static except for the homepage, which does get updated quite often. For instance, I put a banner on there promoting our heart-shaped cheeses in the run up to Valentine’s Day. That worked a treat.
“My Cheese Press blog is updated pretty frequently. I recently posted about an event we held where Todd spoke about cheese making, and how to buy and keep cheese. These events are usually done in partnership with a wine or beer expert, so there’s lots of good info about complimentary tastes and so on.
"I’ll blog about this: where we’re holding this event, who’s speaking, and maybe link to further info on the venue’s site. I tell people about new blog posts via our Twitter account.”
Cheese wedding cake consultation, anyone?
Trethowan’s regularly receives photos of its decorated cheese wedding cake sent by newlyweds. Jess Trethowan:
“I’ve had three cheese wedding cake consultations this week! And a brilliant American cheese magazine featured our ‘cheese cakes’ in a piece recently. Each cake is worth £250 – £300 so it’s really great publicity for us.”
Being active on Twitter has a lot benefits. Jess has been able to connect with food journalists and writers by sharing ideas and news about her business.
“Back in Sept last year a freelance writer was looking for women-run food businesses to write about. I got in touch via Twitter, and two months later we had one-page feature in Red magazine, just in time for Xmas, which was superb.
“People ask me ‘what is the right number of tweets per day?’ I don’t know the answer. Some people argue about the right time of day to tweet. I don’t have rules like this. But I can say for sure that having conversations with people on Twitter is where I get most value. Hopefully I give something back, too.
“When it comes to getting new followers, all I can say is I know who I find interesting, and I follow them. Some people always follow you back; others are choosier.
“If I see someone that I particularly want to connect with, I try to engage in some way. Maybe I’ll reply to one of their tweets. Or I’ll retweet something they’ve said. It’s about trying to build a relationship. It doesn’t always work but people are often generous and helpful.”
Jess also monitors certain food and drink hashtags and has set up various searches to keep an eye on what’s being said about her subject. Food writers, bloggers, journalists, chefs, cheesemongers, makers, they all discuss cheese, wine and food online. Jess says there are plenty of opportunities to jump in and comment.
“Twitter has been brilliant for our business. There are many, many people who now know about and buy our cheese, people we just wouldn’t have reached before. Sales for Xmas were excellent, and I put some of it down to the buzz we’ve created by getting stuck into blogging, Twitter, and Facebook.”
*Trethowan's Dairy is now The Trethowan's Brothers.
