Hats off to the team at Franchise Update Media for a terrific Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference last week in Atlanta. The Vya team came away from the event with some great connections and an instructive view into the realities faced by today’s franchise marketers. Here are just some of the powerful insights and recommendations we heard from those who are on the frontlines of franchise marketing. 

Tags: marketing resource management, local marketing, franchise, franchise marketing

Experts estimate today’s US consumer is exposed to as many as 10,000 brand messages a day. More than ever, marketers need to deliver relevant messages, through multiple channels, with enough frequency to gain recognition and engagement. Every consumer touchpoint counts. Which means the quality of marketing campaigns is critical to breaking through the noise.

Tags: marketing resource management, local marketing, franchise, ad systems, franchise marketing

Whether you’re a bank with local branches or a franchise business with multiple locations, local sponsorships offer a powerful way for your local representatives to build relationships and visibility in the communities they serve. Sponsorships are effective because supporting local sports teams, charitable causes, the arts and other cultural organizations puts your brand in front of the customers and prospects you most want to reach at the local level.

Tags: brand consistency, local marketing, legal and regulatory compliance, franchise, financial services marketing, community sponsorship, local advertising

Running a local franchise business requires a broad skillset. From day-to-day operations management, customer service, accounting and business planning, to HR, inventory control and facilities management—franchise business owners wear many different hats. For many franchisees, one hat that never seems to fit quite right is that of marketer.

That’s not to say that franchisees lack an understanding of the importance of marketing and promotion to the success of their business. In fact, in a recent survey of franchise SMBs by local media researcher BIA/Kelsey, franchise owners reported more than half of their business is derived from promotions.

Tags: localized marketing, marketing productivity, marketing resource management, local marketing automation, franchise, streamline marketing, scale local marketing, franchise marketing software, getting franchises to do marketing campaigns, turnkey marketing campaign, local marketing resource management

I just returned from Atlanta with my colleagues after attending this year’s Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference. What a terrific event for sharing local marketing best practices. We met a number of truly inspiring franchise marketers and came away with some fresh thinking about marketing through franchisees that can apply across industries with distributed marketing models.

Tags: local marketing, franchise, distributed marketing

Managing local grand opening events can be a challenge when you operate in a distributed marketing model. As a corporate marketer you want to support the success of the new location and ensure brand consistency. At the same time, you want to enable your local team the flexibility to create an event that resonates with their local market.

We’ve supported many clients’ local grand opening events. From franchisors facilitating new franchise openings to banks launching newly acquired local branches, here are some guidelines based on our experience:

Tags: brand consistency, franchise, financial services marketing, distributed marketing, franchisee marketing, grand opening event ideas

Often we are approached by companies that are experiencing tremendous growth. Sometimes it’s a bank that has made an acquisition and is in the process of integrating many new bank branches into their corporation. Other times it’s a franchisor who has many new locations under construction or has several new franchisees under contract. It’s exciting to be part of a growing business; but it can also be stressful, especially for the corporate marketing department.

Tags: localized marketing, marketing productivity, marketing resource management, local marketing automation, franchise, financial services marketing, scale local marketing, franchise marketing software

Franchises face unique challenges when it comes to local marketing. They are reliant on local owners to share corporate-supplied marketing campaigns and messages, but are not always able to measure effectiveness, or even tell if franchisees used materials provided.

That can be a big problem. If franchisees aren’t engaged in marketing strategies and techniques, then customers aren’t receiving carefully crafted materials – representing a loss to revenue and a waste of time and money spent creating campaigns that never get used.

Tags: localized marketing, local marketing, franchise, marketing strategies, marketing techniques, distributed marketing, Drive sales, through-channel marketing, franchisee marketing, franchise marketing campaign, franchise marketing

Brand consistency is more than just typeface, logos and colors. It’s about delivering a brand experience with your products, services and people that customers begin to expect and anticipate. That consistent experience ultimately helps your brand stand out from competition and drive sales.

Make the path to purchase easier with a consistent, compelling brand experience across local markets.

Tags: brand consistency, franchise, brand loyalty, brand development

We all know that feeling when an executive stops by our office or forwards an email about the latest and greatest marketing technology, trend or tool. I don’t know about you, but it usually stops me in my tracks.

Tags: marketing resource management, marketing operations, dealers, Vya, franchise, agents