How to Copy the Marketing Strategy of Wolt To Increase Your Reach by 10x

How did they spread their brand like Covid-19? They knew their audience

When I was living alone, as a student, I didn't have enough time to cook. So I used to order.

E-food.gr was my only solution. It started in 2012, so it consumed the whole food delivery market in an instance. I didn't have to search for another company.

Fast forward 8 years later. It’s 2020, and I’m in a dating app. The only ad I see on my screen below is Wolt. I never click on an ad, so I didn't search about Wolt at all.

But I got a message from my match.

She said something like “Can you order from Wolt and put my code to get 5 euros off your first order, please? We will both earn from this!”

I don't live in a city that Wolt could cover, unfortunately for me and her. But if I did, I‘d of course accept helping her. It’s my match, so I have the urge to help her.

A huge win for Wolt.

Wolt, a company that came to Greece in 2019, is already hitting the market hard.

Why?

They know where to focus on their advertisement. They know their majority of users.

But they could tweak their strategy even better if you ask me (in step 4).

#1. Know Your Audience

As a brand, you need to target your audience with content that they love. Writing on Medium, for instance, requires you to write articles with writing tips, as many of your readers are writers as well.

In Greece, the majority of people that order food are students in Universities.

Wolt knows this, so they have to take advantage of it, in the second step.

There are many different niches, so you need to make yourself this question.

What’s my audience?

To learn more about your audience, running a survey is the best option. It will help you as a brand to understand your audience better.

If you have a sign-up form and let them fill in some information for you, you will end up with a database filled with stats.

Try to take advantage of them to target the audience that will use your product more.

#2. Know What Your Audience Likes

If you want to appeal to your audience better, you need to become their imaginary friend. You need to know them, without really knowing them.

The majority of people that use dating apps, in Greece, are students in Universities, as well.

Wolt appears to know their audience really well. When you create an ad, you want to target the majority of the people who can use your app.

You also want to show the ad in places where your audience will pay attention to. Take a look at the stats below.

Again, to have an idea of what your users are liking, you need to make them your friends.

What do they like more? What app do they use more?

Those are some of the questions you can make yourself understand your users more.

If you’re about to write a story about marketing, you want it to be published in Better Marketing. Not in Better Humans of course. You aim to draw interest from people that like your niche more.

#3. Don’t Forget to Offer Free Stuff

How did Wolt make a name for themselves so fast?

They made users a great offer.

They were giving 5 euros off for the first order!

You are more likely to buy a product that costs $10 with a $5 discount, than a product that costs $10 with no discount.

People love free stuff, it’s covered a million times over. Furthermore, students love them a little more, as they don't have an income, to begin with.

It’s not about milking every penny you can. It’s about helping others first, to get help back later on. Don’t be afraid to offer your brand freely, at the beginning. You want to build a name for yourself, so do it faster.

That applies to everything. From companies, to self-employed. Give freebies to people. They will come for more. Then, you can ask for some in return.

Bonus #4. To Kill [Two or More] Birds With One Stone

If I was Wolt, I would further improve their strategy.

How?

By knowing my audience even better. The idea is this.

Dating apps are in favor of females a little more. They know that their subscriptions come from males in their majority.

Researchers using a female Tinder profile and unselectively liking male profiles got 200 matches within an hour, and 600 by the 4-hour mark

They could save half the money on ads by only showing them to female users.

They will naturally send a message to their male matches, telling them that they should use their code and the rest is history. Like the message I got.

And given by the stat above, a female can spread Wolt like Covid-19. One woman can send to potentially 600 males a code for Wolt. That’s insane marketing if you ask me.

Damn, it's an even better idea than I thought in the beginning…

Faster spread, faster success.

They could even contact their female users and give them codes to share in return for discounts. The ideas are endless.

The person or company that takes advantage of this, will spread faster and save more on ads.

Final Thoughts

Wolt did an amazing job of targeting their ads to the right people.

It reminds me to pay attention to my readers more if I want to succeed. It takes much more than creating great products for people. You also need to know your audience. Your customers.

It doesn't end there, though. You also need to know what your audience’s likes are. This will benefit your brand’s success faster. Tweaking your ad strategy is vital. Having high-priced products doesn't mean more money. Having a bigger customer base means more money.

But if you want to take it to the next level, you need to dig a little further. You need to interact with your audience’s likes, be a part of their routine.

Wolt almost did that. But it’s a lesson that almost is never enough.