Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/873071
continued from page 48 At GoodMart, "videos are by far the most successful online marketing tool we use today, because people really like seeing themselves and their friends in social media contexts," Hoover said of a practice that's helped to both build connections as well as positive opinions of GoodMart's brand. According to Parker, one of Rocket City Drywall's most successful online branding initiatives involved t-shirts left over from the company's 30th anniversary celebration in 2015. "I offered a promo mailing to members within drywall contractor forums on social media, only asking for photos wearing our shirts in exchange," she said. "Over the next several weeks, contractors from across the U.S. and Canada were bombarding the forums with photos wearing their Rocket City Drywall shirts on their various jobsites. While many of these contractors will never be direct customers, it instantly established me and our company as a reputable and 'trending' brand." For IBT Industrial Solutions' Akin, the launch of a new branch located outside of the company's traditional footprint stands as an example of the successful incorporation of digital and traditional mediums, which worked to increase their brand awareness in the new marketplace as measured by Google Analytics. Though he concedes that brand awareness can be difficult to measure, "the launch of our DEWALT 60V Flexvolt cordless line-up of products was our most successful brand and product launch to-date," said Stanley Black and Decker's Braun. "It contained every key element that a brand would require within an online marketing campaign, capped off with a Facebook Live launch." At Hubbell Lighting, "we're in the midst of an enterprise- wide, online transformation which, when complete, will have digitized of all of our product assets, enabling us to share data feeds more effectively for all of our customers' needs," Golden said of a strategy that recognized the demands of a quickly-evolving digital marketplace. "This will dramatically improve the user experience on our websites and customers will be able to move seamlessly across Hubbell's entire portfolio to quickly find solutions to their challenges. Ultimately, we judge our success via our continued growth as an organization. As more transactions move online," he said, "we're confident this strategy is well- aligned to successfully meet those needs." "Success is measured in sales dollars," according to Purvis Industries' Radichel. "The entire concept of branding is to generate a positive feeling about your brand and increase customers' desire to do business with you. Everything comes back to the customer experience – with your company, your associates, your products, and your process — so putting in place a good ROI calculation allows a company to hone in on what's successful and what isn't," he said. To help them with that, Purvis is implementing Pardot (Salesforce Marketing Cloud) to provide a solid handle on digital marketing activities that tie back to measurable sales results for any given activity or event. At Border States Electric, "our week-long 'Lineman Appreciation Day' campaign was a huge success based on metrics," shared Novak, who confirmed that the company's Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter presences saw significant spikes in activity as a result. According to Novak, "one of the best ways to measure success is by how customers respond to your activity, posts, and campaigns. When you see your customers sharing articles or content you've developed with their network or receive direct feedback confirming that the content you delivered socially is providing huge value," he said, "that measures ultimate success." B uil din g a S olid B ran d in a Digi tal Wor l d #ADSTRONG | AD Today 2017 | 51