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The Challenge.
Ice Hunters, a pioneering self-service, eco-friendly ice and water vending machine company, began its journey in Colorado and Kansas before rapidly expanding into Texas. With a proven concept and a rock-solid relationship with their machine manufacturer, Ice Hunters' founders were poised for massive scale. Their vision? To offer a financially accessible, technologically advanced, and environmentally friendly franchising model to select cities and states across the U.S.
However, a significant hurdle stood in their way. Ice Hunters needed to build their entire marketing tech stack from the ground up, clearly define their business value and equity, ignite brand awareness, generate high-quality leads, and ultimately attract the right franchisees. With a target launch for their new franchise offering set for January 2024, time was of the essence to establish a robust and compelling market presence.
TheSolution.
We partnered with Ice Hunters to develop and implement a powerful marketing strategy designed to fuel their franchise launch and sustained growth. Our engagement ran from September 2023 to December 2024, packed with multiple key deliverables.
Our ambitious goal for 2024 was to successfully close 60 new franchises/machines in targeted markets. Our work involved meticulously enhancing, defining, and designing all marketing touchpoints, crucial sales enablement materials, and the entire tech stack, all meticulously prepared for the pivotal January 2024 launch.
-Some aspects of the Ice Hunters' strategy:
- Creating a World-Class Brand Identity
We modernized and evolved the Ice Hunters brand to captivate a broader audience. This included defining core brand fundamentals and comprehensive guidelines, ensuring seamless visual consistency as their business expanded rapidly. Crucially, we structured a clear communication strategy for the brand, meticulously defining its mission, compelling value proposition, key messaging pillars, and irrefutable proof points.
- Website Development & Design
We designed and developed a cutting-edge new website for Ice Hunters, integrating updated messaging, persuasive copywriting, modern design, SEO best practices, and an intuitive user experience. This involved planned copywriting updates for over 15 webpages and the seamless implementation of blog functionality.
The website was strategically built to dramatically improve franchise visibility and discoverability, ensuring it ranked for critical target keywords for prospective buyers and investors, aiming for a 40% increase in organic search visibility for franchise-related terms.
- Franchise Marketing
We are actively exploring developing a replicable marketing blueprint for new franchisees to establish a strong local presence in their respective markets. Potential tactics include optimizing local Google Business Profiles and Google Maps, leveraging local Google search ads, and implementing SEO optimization for their specific locations.
We also explored whether this vital support would be covered by the initial franchise cost or offered through a flexible tiered model. We considered creating monthly community resources, standardizing all marketing materials across all franchisees, and establishing a centralized Digital Asset Management (DAM) system for seamless access to marketing resources and internal documents.
Additionally, we explored implementing monthly webinars for franchisees to proactively address questions and challenges, aiming to reduce franchisee onboarding time by 15% through standardized resources.
- Paid Media Management
We expertly managed paid media campaigns to efficiently capture potential leads and generate significant interest. We leveraged Google search ads for prospects demonstrating high intent, and Meta video ads to create top-of-funnel opportunities and powerfully raise awareness of the product/service. LinkedIn ads were also strategically utilized to reach a professional audience, contributing to 35% of all qualified leads.
- Content Marketing
We created valuable resources for their target audience, including in-depth long-form blog articles, insightful white papers, compelling research papers, and engaging lead magnets. These resources were crafted to firmly position Ice Hunters as a dominant thought leader in the industry. We planned for a consistent cadence of one high-quality blog article per month to continuously attract and educate potential franchisees.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
We implemented a robust SEO workflow designed to dramatically improve rankings for main keywords. This involved conducting a full competitive analysis, an in-depth franchise industry analysis, and a detailed search query analysis to pinpoint high-consideration keyword opportunities. Our unwavering focus was on the three main pillars of SEO: technical optimization, compelling content, and strategic backlinks, targeting a 25% increase in relevant organic traffic.
- Social Media Marketing
We took charge of monthly content and design creation for Ice Hunters across LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. This involved developing 4-5 unique graphics or videos along with accompanying, engaging copy, ensuring a consistent and appealing brand presence online.
- Sales Enablement
We defined essential market analysis templates, compelling company sales decks, informative brochures, comprehensive franchisee packages, and clear instruction manuals. We developed fresh copy and design for these vital documents, including a core company brochure, detailed franchise opportunities, a dynamic sales deck for presentations, a thorough market evaluation document, and all necessary materials for effective email marketing and lead nurturing, ensuring the sales team was equipped to convert 20% more qualified leads.
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