THE NEW ERA OF DIGITAL MARKETING: HOW BRANDS ARE EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY

By Mary Hanula, Eulerity

Don’t underestimate the effects of automation.

We are no longer waiting for the new wave of technology and digital marketing, but actively riding it. In 2021 alone, there was 153.16 billion dollars spent on online ads in the United States. It’s time to meet your customers where they are and where they are spending the majority of their time — online. If you are still hesitant to adopt a digital marketing strategy, or simply unsure as to why you should be leaning into the concept of marketing automation, we’ve provided a few takeaways to help.

Digital marketing serves as an added, and crucial, avenue to continue nurturing your consumer’s experience with you, and to relay to others why they should be choosing your services as well.

You can have the best of both worlds.

Oftentimes brands have a misconception that in order to take on a digital marketing strategy, you must abandon your traditional marketing tactics. This is not true. Many businesses have both a traditional and non-traditional approach, bringing together what works best for not only their business, but their customers. Clean Juice, a national smoothie and juice bar brand, does both. “Of course we embrace digital marketing, because that’s where our guests are. However, it’s not the only place people spend time, so we can’t avoid non-digital or traditional marketing strategies as a part of our marketing mix,” said B. Quick Chadwick, chief marketing officer of Clean Juice. The brand is a long-standing franchise partner of Eulerity, a digital marketing automation platform that works with Fortune 500 brands to elevate and optimize their digital marketing.

If you choose to delay, or worse, defy the importance of integrating online advertising and marketing, then you risk never reaping its many rewards.

You get to build your brand.

With marketing automation and other digital marketing tools, businesses are able to build their brand presence, awareness, loyalty and outreach online. Chadwick states, “It’s made it easier to manage, and of course, to scale. It’s part of the solution, and it’s not going away — embrace it now!” When you embrace digital marketing, you are embracing the building blocks of your brand and actually doing something with them. Depending on the vendor, you could have the ability to see and review your ads, set standards for brand compliance and engagement from your franchisees and target specific audiences. Reaching your customers online does not mean you have to sacrifice your in-person relationships or connections. Digital marketing serves as an added, and crucial, avenue to continue nurturing your consumer’s experience with you, and to relay to others why they should be choosing your services as well.

Your franchisees will thank you.

A big fear for brands is a low adoption rate of a new marketing strategy. What if it’s too hard to teach? What if it’s confusing and they end up saying no? What if they don’t realize we’re trying to help? If you’ve asked yourself these questions, it means that you are one of many dedicated leaders whose goal is to implement a marketing strategy that not only works, but one that sticks. The best strategy is meant to elevate and amplify the marketing efforts of your franchisees, which we all know can be hard. But, with the right digital marketing strategy, it doesn’t have to be. Shauna Stalker, vice president of marketing for Blo Blow Dry Bar, touched on this, saying, “Marketing automation has allowed us to enhance the tools available to our franchisees and optimize our digital marketing across more channels than would be imaginable by any single individual. Our franchisees get to access their accounts and have control over many aspects of their digital marketing, while being assured that their ads will be brand appropriate, and performance optimized.” Dennis Holcom, senior vice president of franchise support for Workout Anytime, a 24/7 leading fitness franchise, described how partnering with Eulerity’s platform and using marketing automation technology has become a staple for the brand’s franchisees. “For our franchise partners, digital marketing is now 90 percent of their ad budget. It’s an affordable way to take a broad or narrow approach to your monthly marketing campaign,” said Holcom. When franchisees are able to directly see the impact and outcomes of a digital marketing campaign, they are more likely to stick with it and the long-term effects it will bring to their business.

Minimize your marketing team’s stress and maximize the consumer experience.

You don’t just see the benefits of digital marketing online, but in your in-person client visits, experiences, appointments and activities. You see them through the positive effect of your marketing team being able to, finally, have a streamlined approach and workflow. “Automation streamlines the franchisees’ efforts so they can focus on other aspects of their business,” said Stalker. When done right, digital marketing can be your brand’s biggest ally, bringing you tremendous results. If you choose to delay, or worse, defy the importance of integrating online advertising and marketing, then you risk never reaping its many rewards.

The question now is… what are you waiting for?

Mary Hanula is the senior director of marketing for Eulerity. Eulerity brings brands AI-optimized digital marketing, optimized ad spend, seamless ad creation, and automated ad deployment — all available on the first ever online advertising app. Eulerity prides itself on partnering with Fortune 500 companies and top franchise brands to revolutionize digital marketing and give business back to business owners. For more information about IFA supplier member Eulerity, please visit franchise.org/suppliers/eulerity-inc.