Attentive is an eight-month-old platform that has already done more than your eight-month-old niece. Sorry, but all she does is drool and roll; so far Attentive has deployed a few dozen successful campaigns for client such as Bliss, Barbell Apparell, and more. The company has just announced the platform officially (as well as their $13 million in Series A funding.) Read More
This post was originally published on October 22, 2014. To celebrate their second consecutive trip to the World Series, we are sharing it again!
Let’s go, Royals!
Our Kansas City-based online marketing firm has baseball on the mind for obvious reasons. After an unprecedented
8-game postseason winning streak — no need to talk about Game One — the Royals are representing our home turf as American League champions in this year’s MLB showdown.
As we watch the boys in blue with bated breath, we’re sharing a few of the ways we’ve noticed brands incorporating the World Series into their marketing efforts — and what your takeaways should be for your franchise marketing strategy.
Perhaps the smartest way we’ve seen a brand use the World Series in their marketing plan? KC’s own Lee Jeans is calling for all Royals fans to support the team by donning local blue jeans, rather than denim made by San Francisco-based Levi’s.
Today, Lee Jeans is hosting a Blue Jean Trade-In at their Merriam, KS headquarters, inviting people to drop off used jeans (whether they’re Levi’s or any other brand). The cast-offs will be donated to San Francisco homeless shelters, and to benefit the KC area, the company will be donating an equal amount of Lee Jeans to shelters in the metro area.
Donors get entered to win an $1,000 Visa gift card, and all receive a coupon for 85% off one item at Lee.com, an homage to the Royals’ 1985 World Series win.
Sure, everything aligned almost cosmically — the fact that Levi’s is based in San Francisco, home of the Giants, makes the Lee vs. Levi’s rivalry a perfect parallel for the KC vs. SF World Series — but your franchise marketing department can still take a few cues from this campaign even if the dots are a little harder to connect.
The Lee’s marketing team did a great job of cheekily appealing to their hometown fanbase with nods to the Royals’ last Series win — 1985 echoed in the 85% discount — and capitalizing on the call to action of supporting the boys in blue by wearing KC’s own blue jeans. Throw in some charitable donations in two cities and an $1,000 giveaway, and — forgive us, we have to — Lee’s campaign is a home run.
One easy way to include any sporting event in your franchise marketing? Individual franchise locations can offer a victory discount to fans. Whether you opt for the Papa John’s route and provide an online discount the day following the win or ask consumers to stop in wearing their team gear to receive reduced rates in person, this promotion is easy to implement for almost any event, and can be customized region to region, making it ideal for franchises.
But what if your franchise has no direct connection to the World Series, no fanbase to nod to? You shouldn’t bench yourself just because your campaign won’t be as resonant. One reliable way to capitalize on any mainstream event that local customers will be watching is offering contingent discounts or giveaways. A classic example is Taco Bell’s giveaway, which they’ve done sporadically over the past few years, most recently offering a free Doritos Locos taco to all guests if a base was stolen during the World Series. Contigent giveaways and discounts like these work regardless of who’s playing. You’ll just want to be sure that the product or service you’re discounting isn’t something that will cost your franchise much.
Ticket giveaways are the ageless classic: a way to drive traffic to a website or social platform as the masses are motivated to win big. Franchise marketers should take note, though, that the big boost in social followers or web traffic shouldn’t be squandered. Make sure you have a plan in place to appeal to contest entrants so that they’ll stick around to hear your marketing messages even after the World Series concludes. Fair weather fans aren’t only in baseball, after all.
The team at Franchise Marketing Group features an all-star line-up of social media strategists, major email marketing maniacs, champion content creators, and more, all of whom can’t wait to help you create a franchise marketing strategy that leverages current public events and trends while providing long-lasting results.
I spent this summer working as an intern at Turn The Page Online Marketing. I worked as a team coordinator for 40 hours a week before heading to my second job in the evenings at a golf course. I knew it would be a challenge, but it proved to be extremely rewarding.
First of all, I need to thank everyone here at TTP for their help and support. No matter how many questions and problems I had, they were there to troubleshoot with me. Granted, the age jokes got old after a while (no pun intended), but I still appreciated the company’s friendly hospitality.
Second, my team was the best. Melissa, my manager, is stellar at her job. I genuinely loved working under her leadership. The table I was located at for the majority of my TTP stay was home to Adriana, Katie, Carlee, and myself. Adriana, who will now be staying as an employee, and Katie were my fellow interns. I’m thankful to the whole group for putting up with me and occasionally laughing at my jokes. Hopefully, I didn’t get under their skin too much. And, I must add, our team meetings rocked.
Third, I learned so much at Turn The Page. This is my first time working in this type of a professional environment, and I learned a lot about company structure, teamwork and organization. I also discovered some of the secrets behind SEO, SMO, SEM and whatever other acronyms you can think of. I wouldn’t say I’m a pro at marketing yet, but my knowledge in the subject has skyrocketed. I want to mention Tyler quickly: he trained me in a lot of what I learned and saw that I got through the summer (and we shared quite a few laughs and memories). I’m grateful for everything I have learned while working here at TTP and hope to keep developing my marketing skills in the future, both online and offline.
1) Never kill the Joe and forget to make mo’. TTP employees take this rule very seriously. While I don’t drink much coffee, I did sit nearest to the pot and witnessed quite a few livid reactions to it being empty.
2) Find a good chair, or your back will die. If there is not one provided, go buy one. Online marketing doesn’t involve much movement, so your body gets rigid and ill-tempered after sitting for hours at a time.
3) Your music is not always appreciated. If you play your music for everyone to hear, chances are someone will be yelling.
4) Be prepared to take on more work than what you were hired for. At growing companies, the extra work piles up. If you are an able-minded person, work will be delegated to you.
5) Have fun! Internships can be a blast as long as you try to make it enjoyable. So talk to people, make friends, network and enjoy your stay.
6) Pranks will happen. You will prank, see pranks and be pranked. Just go with it. And if you are under 20, jokes, comments, statements, references and snide remarks will be made about your age. So be expecting it; the old folks just can’t help themselves.
Here’s one last thank you to all of you Page Turners. You are an awesome group of people, and it was marvelous getting to be involved in the TTP culture for a summer. I will be leaving this week and beginning my college journey at Drake University soon. So here’s to a great last week! Friday will be my parting time with summer, my last good-bye to Turn The Page, and my first hello to a new season in life.
Today, we live in a world where social media dominates the communication sphere. That is a fact, plain and simple. Because of this cultural shift, a number of social media tools have been developed, making the lives of social media marketers much easier. Used correctly, these social media tools can be very effective and have a positive impact on your communication. However, if these entities are misused, your communication can be seriously compromised. So, just how can you decide when to use these social media tools and when to avoid them?
Marketing your business at any time is a challenge. It is particularly difficult in a recession. Where do you spend your money? Can you be sure of a return? Currently businesses are confronted with a staggering array of marketing options. People selling these marketing options are consistently proactive pushing you to do something. So many alternatives spread across a diverse range of platforms is a complex situation with no easy answer. All this, in a climate of change, driven by the advance of Social Media and the Digital Age is in the midst of a recession. What is the answer for local business?
In keeping with “fortune favors the brave”, marketing in a recession is a positive step for local business. From our experience most businesses do cut back their marketing in a recession and in that lies the opportunity for the “brave”. Not all businesses are equally affected by a recession. Those that take a proactive stance by seeing a recession as an opportunity can and do succeed. Online marketing is proving to be a key component for those businesses who decide to thrive. According to the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) internet advertising revenues in the United States surged to 7.3 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2011, the highest first-quarter revenue level on record for the industry which is a 23% increase over the same period last year.
The marketing landscape is in the midst of change. The concept of permission based marketing was first broached by Seth Godin in 1999. Permission means no interruption and by looking at what email marketing had to do to survive, you can see the power of permission marketing. If a marketing platform doesn’t adapt, it disappears, cold calling is a prime example. The whole concept of permission based marketing is continuing to grow almost exponentially and developing a marketing plan that is permission centric is critical for long term growth.
Permission Marketing
The most clear example of permission based marketing is in online applications where a website attracts so many visitors it can profitably sell advertising on the site. Basically giving free information that engages people to the point where engagement reaches critical mass. Obviously that takes a lot of time and money. For local business it is first important to simply understand the permission concept. The first rule is always ask yourself “do I have the customers permission.” In just about any online situation your marketing is permission based. The customer can quickly leave for something new if you don’t provide a reason to stay. Is your business marketing with permission….?
I don’t want to be really stereotypical and say that as a women I am HORRIBLE with directions. I do have the gift that if I have been somewhere once I can typically get back there no problem. But the first visit can take me a bit. So as a girl please don’t tell me to go north on 150 cause I will look at you like you spoke Chinese. You can say go right or left bythe Panera Bread and I guarantee I will know what you mean.
In the course of my work for Turn the Page I am driving all over the Kansas City area and I don’t have to ask for directions usually. WHY, you ask? Well Google Places of course. If you have a smart phone and google the business you are going to hopefully you can find them on Google Places click directions and a map will POP up and lead you directly there. None of this go North on 435 business. A little arrow will lead you on your way like Dora the Explorer. But if you haven’t claimed your Google places account you are missing a great service for your customers. As well as a great marketing tool. Not only can you give directions, you can put pictures and videos, you can share your website, and inform customers what your business is about. People can view all this information either straight from their phones or computers. If you aren’t using Google Places you need to be cause I can guarantee that your competitor is, they may have seen that no one has claimed yours either and made it their own, so I would take a look. Plus if you want me to come see you I will need to know how to get there, without any of this GO NORTH business.
How fitting to give the writer who also happens to live on a cattle ranch the topic of Purple Cows to blog about, right? Absolutely! As I sit here in my cozy chair with my laptop resting comfortably on my lap, I chuckle and applaud myself for choosing a second degree in business.
Google makes more changes to its local directories…
Using images as part of your content marketing strategy has its place in any well run campaign.
