Word-of-mouth referrals and recommendations are the currency of business success today. More than ever, they are key to establishing trust and building awareness. According to Nielsen, 83% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about products and services, making them a powerful resource to amplify your message.  

Tags: marketing process optimization, brand advocacy, MRM, marketing technology, Insurance Marketing, marketing resource management, local marketing, local marketing automation, franchise, financial services marketing, franchise marketing

A client recently asked me, “Why should I consider including direct mail in my marketing mix? And if I were to use direct mail, how would I track it in a meaningful way?”

You may have asked yourself these very same questions. With the shift to less expensive, metric-rich digital channels, many marketers abandoned mail as a way to reach customers and track engagement.

But marketers are always looking for the most effective ways to break through to media overloaded consumers, which is leading a growing number to revisit direct mail, particularly as part of a multichannel marketing strategy.

Tags: multichannel marketing, email marketing, direct mail marketing, marketing resource management, local marketing, multi-channel marketing

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

Relationships have always been at the core of bank marketing success. While face-to-face transactions and handwritten notes have largely given way to mobile deposits, online bill paying, emails and texts, knowing and connecting with your customer on a personal level is as important as ever.

On the path to building lasting customer relationships, bank marketers must distinguish themselves from ever-increasing competition. There’s also the pressure to rise to elevated consumer expectations that are based on the streamlined, personalized experiences perfected by companies like Amazon and Uber.

Tags: brand consistency, local marketing, financial services marketing, banking customer experience

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

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

There are many industries that use some form of MDF, co-op, or local advertising funds. Whether it is manufacturing companies selling through dealers or franchisors selling through franchisees for example, these industries who don’t sell directly to consumers can find it challenging to get a complete picture of their customer at the local level. Fortunately, by effectively managing and tracking how local marketing dollars are being spent, you can gain marketing insights that you may be missing today:

Tags: localized marketing, local marketing, MDF funds, local marketing budgets, sales support, sales and marketing alignment, marketing budget management, co-op dollars

We’ve all heard it before: Content is king. But how are you getting the most out of your content? A big part of what makes content “good” is context – where is the content showing up and who is reading it? Did the audience discover the content on their own, or did the content find them? In other words, localization of content is incredibly important. Local sales channels need to be able to utilize messaging that’s directed toward their audience, not be stuck with a one-size-fits-all approach.

Tags: localized marketing, local marketing, local marketing automation

The onset of the Digital Age has added layers of complexity to the challenges faced by marketing leaders. For those in a distributed marketing environment, where corporate marketing and local sales channels simultaneously represent a single brand, the increase in complexity is exponential.

Tags: marketing resource management, local marketing, distributed marketing