Traditions are funny things. Sometimes they’re treasured and passed down from generation to generation; other times, they’re meant to be broken. In the case of Dunbar Armored, often recognized by its bright red trucks, the cash management and security organization had to balance maintaining its family owned and operated heritage (dating back to 1923) while appealing to the modern decision makers of today. So, the company tasked long-time partner WebbMason with creating a timeless multichannel strategy.
Dunbar Armored’s relationship with WebbMason spans nearly two decades. The security company first hired the integrated marketing solutions provider about 15 years ago to handle its print fulfillment. In 2012 Dunbar Armored handed over the reigns for its branding to WebbMason. Seth McElroy, VP of marketing and sales administration for Dunbar Armored, says he wanted to get creative ideas from people outside of the company, push work out more quickly, and receive advice on the company’s branding. “Branding is very important to us and how our image is out there because we have a family name on the trucks and in our marketing material,” he says.
The partnership expanded again in 2013 when Dunbar Armored asked WebbMason to redesign its website. McElroy explains that different sections of Dunbar Armored’s website are dedicated to different target audiences. For instance, one section caters to customers in the financial vector; others target education, government, or retail segments.
The goals of the site redesign were to increase brand awareness, acquire more Web leads, and differentiate Dunbar Armored from its competitors. To achieve these objectives, the organization added site features like industry-based navigation and content, as well as more robust e-commerce capabilities for a few of its division’s products and services.
Working with a company that already had a solid understanding of the brand’s marketing and creative gave Dunbar Armored peace of mind that its branding would be cohesive across channels. “We wanted to completely refresh the look and make sure that all of the branding standards were there,” McElroy says.
Along with handing over its website design, Dunbar Armored put WebbMason in charge of its social media outreach. The security company now uses Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter to promote trade shows and convey its support for the community and nonprofits. What’s more, the organization leverages social platforms, such as LinkedIn, as recruiting tools and runs a blog, which it uses to tell stories of the company and its services.
Dunbar Armored’s decision to enhance its social media presence partially stems from its desire to reach younger decision makers, McElroy says. “Not being there is probably what it was like to not be in the yellow pages 25 years ago,” he says.
Since launching the new Dunbar Armored site in February 2014, the security company has experienced a 35% increase in sales qualified leads and the volume requests for price quotes has doubled. McElroy partly attributes this success to the company’s blogging, social media, and targeted content production. In addition, the site’s overall traffic has increased 15% in the past six months due to online marketing efforts.
But the security company isn’t finished updating its marketing mix yet. According to McElroy, Dunbar Armored is currently working to improve its SEO to make prospective customers aware of the products and services it offers outside of the Armored cars that it’s known for—such as its cash manager safes. Plus, the company intends to expand its email marketing in 2015; this will include sending more emails to promote its trade shows and working with local salespeople in various markets to push out relevant content to prospects and cross-sell additional products and services.
“We have a limited strategy,” McElroy says. “We haven’t done as much as we can or could do on the email side of it. It’s been more segmented and tactical.”
So, while change can often make marketers feel unsafe, Dunbar Armored proved that multichannel marketing can help the brand do what it does best: protect—both its history and its leads.
