Posts Tagged ‘Brand Awareness’

Get Better Franchise Marketing Through Customized Branding

It’s time for another lesson from the car lot. This lesson is dedicated to our franchisee audience. (If you’re a franchisor, check out our previous post on better franchise marketing.) According to Local Vox, 64 percent of franchisees feel disappointed by the quality of marketing support they receive from their franchisors. It’s not that franchisees think they don’t get any support; however, they feel their franchisors don’t support their individual franchise location. In the automotive world, OEMs provide marketing support to dealerships. However, many of the OEM’s messages market the OEM and its benefits – not a specific dealership and its unique qualities. It seems that franchisees of all types face a similar problem: How can they market their individual location while also taking advantage of and complying with their franchisor’s brand marketing program? Brand compliance matters In the eyes of consumers, franchisees are part of their franchisor’s corporate brand. The actions taken by the corporate franchise brand – and the messages it sends – reflects on the franchisees. The reverse is also true. When franchisees send a message, their […]

Read more

IMN Shares Insights From Inspiring #IFA2015

Recently, IMN attended the International Franchise Association’s 2015 Convention (Feb. 15-18). The convention represented hundreds of franchises from around the world. IMN’s mission at #IFA2015? To connect with franchisors and discuss technologies and strategies to help them better connect with consumers. Mark Born, sales manager for IMN’s Banking, Financial Services, and Franchise solutions, noted franchisors have similar concerns with their digital marketing efforts as their counterparts in the automotive industry might: “Digital marketing—and the results it can drive—is at the forefront of minds in the franchise industry. It’s becoming more and more apparent that a ‘spray and pray’ approach to digital marketing is no longer effective. Many franchisors now are looking to content marketing as a solution for personalized, segmented digital marketing that drives profitable customer action.” Want to know more about the IFA convention? Check out IMN’s news release. Sneak Peek: New Blog Series for Franchises In light of Mark’s discovery, we want to dedicate our next blog series to you, dear franchisors and franchisees. One of IMN’s strengths as a company is how we apply our knowledge of […]

Read more

9 Ways to Increase Brand Awareness

(To the tune of ‘Twas the Night before Christmas…) On a dark night in early February 2013, not a football player was stirring in New Orleans. It was Super Bowl night, and the power was out; all through Facebook and Twitter, people wondered aloud: “Where is our football game? Why won’t it show?” Until one voice responded: “Hey look, an Oreo!” Oreo’s tweet, now famous—“You can still dunk in the dark”—was a smart, timely way to spread branded snark. But take heed, dear reader, should you try to sell your products and solutions on social media “shelves.” No matter how playful your pop-culture roast, readers may not respond to self-promotional posts. They tune out content that doesn’t engage them on platforms designed just for engagement. If you want to increase brand awareness for real, the nine tactics below can help seal the deal: Ask your existing audience on Facebook and Twitter what problems or obstacles they have to feeling good about their finances. The best way to understand a potential client’s problem is to ask your current audience what issues […]

Read more

3 Steps to Increase Brand Awareness, Part 3

3 Steps for Financial Marketers to Increase Brand Awareness

Step 3: Connect the Dots Banking and financial services marketers have told us the primary goal in their content marketing efforts is to increase brand awareness. (If you haven’t already, download IMN’s 2014 Content Marketing Survey to see more things marketers revealed about their content marketing efforts.) This post is the third in a series to help financial marketers build better awareness for their brands using three easy-to-follow steps. Any brand can apply the general practices and ideas promoted in this series, but we’re addressing banking and financial services marketers directly. What have we learned so far? Before you talk about your brand, understand your target audience. That includes understanding audience members’ problems, and even helping them understand the problems in their situation. Before you talk about your brand, guide your audience through possible solutions to those problems. (To learn more about these steps, read the first and second posts in the series.) So far, you’ve helped potential policy holders or members understand the need to improve their current situation, and shown them that help is out there. They want […]

Read more

3 Steps to Increase Brand Awareness, Part 2

3 Steps for Financial Marketers to Increase Brand Awareness

Step 2: Show Possible Solutions When banking and financial services marketers took IMN’s 2014 Content Marketing Survey, they said increasing brand awareness is their primary content marketing goal. IMN wants to break down building brand awareness into three easy-to-follow steps. Although these steps are geared toward banking and financial services brands, any brand can apply the general practices and ideas promoted. As discussed in the previous post, successful brand awareness happens first when consumers understand they have a problem. Until they believe their situation is lacking in some area, they won’t feel motivated to seek solutions—including your solutions—to their problem. So what happens after your potential clients determine they have financial problems or need a new or additional financial service? Before you present your solution to their problems, guide them through some possible solutions. Your audience understands: Their current financial status isn’t meeting their needs. They feel dissatisfied with their current financial status. Maybe they’re reconsidering their choice of agent, or they wish they had more selection in financial products. However, they aren’t quite ready to switch to your brand. […]

Read more