In this edition of Marketer of the Week, Ignite Visibility spotlights Amber Theinert, Marketing Manager at Ted’s Cafe Escondido and Ted’s Tacos and Cantina.
Ignite Visibility applauds her and the Ted’s team for the company’s ongoing success in the midst of a global pandemic.
Amber Theinert
“Customers are everything.”
That’s the motto of Amber Theinert. You’ll see it on her LinkedIn page.
In fact, you can’t miss that motto because it’s the first thing she wrote in her “About” section.
But shouldn’t that be the motto of every marketer?
Indeed it should. And it’s that philosophy that makes Theinert so successful at what she does.
She goes on to say that one-on-one marketing is her specialty. That might seem unusual for a person in Theinert’s role where mass-marketing is often the strategy.
But that’s the point. Even though Theinert needs to appeal to the masses, she uses a communication strategy that makes customers feel like she’s speaking only to them.
And that’s why Ted’s continued to succeed in the middle of a global pandemic when many other restaurants went belly-up.
There’s more. Theinert also oversaw the launch of a new concept: Ted’s Tacos and Cantina during November of last year.
Yes. She helped launch a whole new restaurant brand while people were still worried about COVID-19.
But not only that, Oklahoma got hit with a major ice storm that delayed opening of the new spot.
Not to worry. Nothing stops Amber Theinert.
In the midst of that crisis, she managed communications, talked to news outlets, and reached out to influencers.
And after all of that, the opening was a success.
But Theinert does quite a bit more than that. She manages the strategic and day-to-day marketing operations for the entire Ted’s brand.
Not only does she focus on the visual and tone strategy, Theinert built and manages new websites, social media accounts and print collateral.
Since Theinert took over, the company saw its email database grow by 108%. And website traffic increased 39%.
She knows how to get people’s attention.
Theinert also launched a Margarita Day promotion with $4 house margaritas. That event sold more than a thousand margaritas in a single day and set a new record for the company.
And here’s the kicker: she only spent about $100 in social media advertising to promote the event. All the rest of the marketing efforts were purely organic.
Amber Theinert’s Additional Positions
Before working for Ted’s, Theinert was an account director for Koch Communications. While there, she managed client relationships, digital marketing, and public relations.
And before that, she was a marketing director at St. Gregory’s University. During that stint, she developed, implemented, and managed marketing strategies for the school.
On top of her marketing positions, Amber Theinert often takes on various entrepreneurial projects.
For 8 years she pursued her creative passions with Joeben Designs, a company she owned that created paper products (like invitations) for weddings, birthdays, etc.
Now she runs her own blog, is a professor, and has a different side-hustle.
Her blog focuses on communications, management, advertising, public relations, and all things marketing.
Theinert is also an adjunct professor at Randall University. She teaches courses on website design and social media marketing.
She also runs a reselling business where she finds unique items that are headed to the landfill and upcycles them.
Between her position at Ted’s and her passion projects, Amber Theinert does it all.
About Ted’s
Got a hankerin’ for Mexican food?
If so, Ted’s is sure to satisfy.
It all started in a remodeled house on 68th Street in Oklahoma City. The concept was simple: bring great Mexican food to the public. Throw in a fondness for freshness and a made-from-scratch mentality.
Thus Ted’s Cafe Escondido was born in 1991.
By the next year, if you visited the restaurant you might have seen a smattering of lawn chairs across the grass outside the dining area. Those chairs held people on the waitlist.
In the early 2000’s, the company opened its first suburban joint in Edmond. Not long after, Ted’s would open its third location in southside Oklahoma City.
And you probably know how the story continues.
Ted’s is the go-to hangout for countless folks up for quesadillas, burritos, tacos, chimichangas, tostadas, or tamales.
However, you might be out of luck if you’d like to hit Ted’s tonight. It’s only located in Oklahoma as of now.
I say “as of now” because with Amber Theinert leading the marketing strategy, it’s business is likely to go through the roof and you could see Ted’s restaurants all over the country.
Wrapping It Up
Ted’s was in great hands during the pandemic. Now that there’s some light at the end of the tunnel, I can’t wait to see what Amber Theinert does with the Ted’s brand.
I look forward to visiting a location in the future.
