How Narriva Marketing built Baron Hartley Wines' marketing presence from the ground up

Aug 24

6 min read

What does a new wine bar actually need from its marketing?

A logo? A website? An Instagram account? A few nice photographs? Or something more strategic?

When Baron Hartley Wines opened in Hornsea, East Yorkshire, the business had a great concept and a beautiful space. But like many new businesses, the challenge wasn't simply getting people through the door.

It was building a brand and marketing presence that people would recognise, remember and want to engage with.

So where do you start when you're building a business's marketing from the ground up?

And how do you make sure it doesn't become a collection of disconnected Instagram posts, emails and website pages?

That was the challenge Narriva Marketing set out to solve.

So where did it start?

The first question wasn't “What should we post?”

It was: What should Baron Hartley Wines be known for?

Before getting into social media marketing or content creation, we needed to understand the brand. What should the experience feel like? Who was Baron Hartley trying to attract? And what would make someone choose it over another place to eat, drink or socialise?

The answer needed to influence everything that followed...

The brand direction became warm, intimate and sophisticated.

That sounds simple, but these decisions matter. Because when you're building a marketing strategy, your brand isn't just your logo or colour palette. It's the feeling people associate with you. That meant the visual identity, website, photography, social media content and email marketing all needed to feel like they belonged to the same business.

But how do you turn a brand into something people actually discover?

That's where the wider marketing strategy came in....

A new business needs more than a social media account

It's tempting to think that marketing a new hospitality business starts with Instagram.

Take some photographs. Write some captions. Post regularly. Done.

But what happens when someone sees a post and wants to find out more? Where do they go? And what happens if they discover the business somewhere other than Instagram?

Baron Hartley needed a complete digital marketing presence, not just a social media profile.

Narriva worked across the brand foundations, website, social media, email marketing and content to create a joined-up marketing approach from the ground up. The website became the central home for the brand, bringing together the information customers needed while also supporting newsletter sign-ups, ecommerce, social content and basic SEO.

The important part was that these weren't treated as separate marketing jobs.

They were connected.

Someone could discover Baron Hartley through social media. Visit the website. Join the mailing list. Come into the wine bar. And then continue to hear from the business afterwards.

That's when marketing starts to become a system rather than a series of posts.

But what do you actually say about a wine bar?

This was the next challenge. Because “post about the wine” isn't really a content strategy.

What about the atmosphere? The food? The people? The experience? The local area? The reason someone should choose Baron Hartley for an evening out?

The content needed to communicate the experience of Baron Hartley, not simply advertise what was available. Narriva created and managed content across social media, using branded templates and a consistent visual approach to make the content easier to recognise and easier to produce.

The aim wasn't to create content just to fill a calendar. It was to make sure that when someone discovered Baron Hartley online, they could immediately understand what kind of place it was. And that consistency matters.

Because here's something businesses often overlook:

People don't only judge you by the marketing they see; they judge you by what happens when they look for more.

If your last social post was months ago, your website feels unfinished and your messaging changes from one channel to another, the customer has to do the work of figuring you out.

A consistent marketing presence removes some of that uncertainty.

Then came the question: what happens after someone discovers you?

Social media is good at creating awareness. But what happens when someone scrolls past? Or visits the website but isn't ready to book? Or comes into the wine bar once and then gets busy with everyday life?

This is where email marketing became part of the strategy.

A branded email system was created, contact lists were segmented, and campaigns were written and scheduled. The aim wasn't simply to “do email marketing.” It was to create another way for Baron Hartley to stay connected with people who had already shown an interest.

And the results?

The email open rate reached 70%, compared with a national average of 23%.

That's an important distinction. The goal wasn't simply to collect email addresses. It was to build an audience that actually wanted to hear from the business.

What about the content that doesn't get an immediate reaction?

Alongside social media and email, Narriva also created regular blog content. At first glance, a blog might seem like a strange priority for a wine bar. But marketing isn't just about getting an immediate reaction from every piece of content. Different parts of a marketing strategy have different jobs:

Social media can build awareness.
Email can nurture an existing audience.
The website can turn interest into action.
Blog content can provide useful information, support search visibility and create another route for potential customers to discover the business.

The point is not that every business needs to produce more content. It's that the content you create should have a reason for existing.

That's the difference between content creation and content marketing.

So, what happened?

Over one month, Baron Hartley Wines saw:

588% increase in content views
120% increase in followers
67.3% increase in profile visits
200% increase in links clicked
56.7k content views

Those numbers tell us that people were finding the business. But there was another question that mattered just as much...

What happens when the initial marketing project ends?

The real goal wasn't to create a marketing dependency

This is probably my favourite part of the Baron Hartley project, because it's relatively easy to create a burst of marketing activity. You can spend a month creating content. You can launch a website. You can send emails. You can make the social channels look busy.

But what happens six months later? Does someone know what to post? Do they know what the brand should sound like? Do they have templates to work from? Is there a process for email? Is there a reason behind the content? Or does marketing become another thing that gets pushed down the to-do list?

The goal with Baron Hartley wasn't to create something that needed Narriva forever. It was to build the foundations for consistent marketing.

The brand had a clear direction. The website had a role. The social channels had structure. Content had a purpose. Email had a system. And the different parts of the marketing worked together.

So what does this project actually teach us?

Baron Hartley Wines didn't simply need social media marketing. It needed a marketing strategy that connected the different pieces, because without a clear brand, content becomes harder to create. Without knowing who you're trying to reach, visibility doesn't necessarily become customers.

Without a consistent process, marketing becomes exhausting.

And without foundations, every new piece of marketing starts from scratch.

That's why Narriva's approach starts with understanding the business first, rather than jumping straight into content. The work across Baron Hartley included brand foundations, website development, social media, email marketing and content, creating one joined-up marketing presence rather than treating each channel as a separate task.

And that's the bigger lesson:

Good marketing isn't about doing more. It's about knowing what needs to happen, why it matters, and building a system that can keep moving.

For Baron Hartley Wines, that meant going from a new business with a great concept to a brand with a recognisable identity, a consistent online presence and a marketing system designed to keep working. Not just marketing for today. A ladder they could keep climbing.

Want to know what your marketing actually needs?

Every business is at a different stage. You might be starting from scratch. You might already be posting consistently but feel like everything is disconnected. Or you might have a marketing system that's working and be ready to strengthen it.

That's why Narriva uses its Marketing Ladder to understand where a business is now and what it should focus on next.

If your business needs more direction; not simply more content; Narriva Marketing can help you work out what comes next.