AIA Corporation, Appleton, Wis., hosted its first virtual Marketing Lab event earlier this month, bringing together nearly 90 owners and seven speakers for two days of hands-on learning and collaboration. Topics discussed included social media, email marketing, company stores, and website and email analytics.
“In today’s competitive selling environment, marketing can no longer simply complement a sales strategy,” said Katrina Willis, senior vice president of marketing and supplier relations at AIA. “But with limited hours in a day and the inability to stay on top of the latest trends, we know this can be challenging. That’s why we wanted to provide our owners with direct access to the experts who could share relevant information, tools and best practices needed to launch and run a successful marketing campaign for promotional products.”
The event kicked off with keynote speaker Chris Burns, a digital marketing expert, entrepreneur and author, providing tips and best practices to leverage various digital marketing strategies, such as email marketing, social media, content marketing and SEO—finding the right mix and implement a program that creates value.
Burns then led a social media panel discussion with industry experts including Charity Gibson, national account coordinator at Peerless; Melissa Haen, North America marketing manager at Goldstar; and Christina Maag, an AIA owner of Hoopla. The group shared best practices for leveraging Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to build visibility and grow business.
“The Marketing Lab was incredibly productive and informative,” said Joe Miller, owner of AIA LogoTools. “So much has changed in the past year, and it’s always helpful to have a pulse on the latest marketing trends so we can continue to stay relevant, and engage with our customers and prospects.”
AIA Marketing Lab was produced by the AIA marketing team, a full-service, agency-formatted department that partners with owners to help grow their businesses. Through the Experience AIA platform, all owners have access to AIA’s On-Demand Promo Library, which offers email templates, digital flip books, custom presentations, supplier sales materials and more.
Additionally, owners can opt in to AIA’s monthly campaign management offering, or engage AIA for custom marketing project support.
Marketing Lab joins AIA’s educational programing schedule, which aims to meet the evolving needs of today’s distributor. Other programming includes Ask the Expert, a webinar series that connects owners with experts on topics ranging from customer behavior and PPE to marketing trends.
“We look forward to making AIA’s Marketing Lab an annual event, while still providing monthly updates, so we can continue to give our owners access to leading marketing experts and collaboration opportunities with their peers to ensure that they not only have a marketing strategy, but it’s designed to meet the specific needs of their company and the promotional products industry,” Willis said.
For more information on AIA, visit www.aiacommunity.com.
