New Internet Marketing Director
Article from The Daily Vista
Internet Pawn names new Internet Marketing Director; Dan Stratford
May 19, 2010 Internet Pawn Inc., the first and only online pawn broker in the United States, has named Dan Stratford director of internet marketing, according to the company.
Stratford brings more than eight years of Internet marketing experience and more than 20 years of business development experience to the Centennial, Colo.-based company. He has developed, implemented and managed search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing and social media marketing programs for businesses in several industries.
Most recently, he led online information pioneer LexisNexis’s marketing division in the Western United States from 2007 to 2009. Prior to that, Stratford served as an Internet marketing consultant for Dex Media, a marketing services company. There, he played a pivotal role in introducing the company’s digital media solutions in 2005.
Stratford has also worked with numerous marketing firms including Integrity Internet Consulting, Market Creation Group and HiDef Web.
Launched in 2009, Internet Pawn loans money secured by clients’ jewelry, fine watches and gold for a 180-day period. The company touts that its employees are experts at advancing cash on almost any item of value including watch brands like Rolex, Omega, Tag-Heur, Patek-Philippe, as well as diamonds and gold. Jim McHose, Internet Pawn chief financial officer, spoke with DailyVista about how Stratford will utilize Internet marketing techniques to find and target consumers online.
One segment that the company would like to attract is white collar, non-traditional pawn customers who are in need of short-term cash and are intimidated by regular pawn shops “That is a customer who is very Internet savvy typically and is a customer who is a little more educated in finance and understanding terms and conditions in relations to loans and lending,”
McHose said. “Also, it’s a customer that is very aware and educated of the value of the items that they have obtained and in many cases have bought new.” Our source added that the average age of applicants is 42 and 65 percent of the company’s customers are women, which is why Internet Pawn tries to attract women with its Web site design.
Going forward with a recent $1.5 million is series A equity financing, Internet Pawn is looking to bring the company to market. Specifically, this will include a combination of traditional and nontraditional forms of advertising to increase brand awareness.
The company has already begun marketing online, and beginning in June, McHose said Internet Pawn will advertise in print periodicals and outdoors with billboards. “We have launched a service that hasn’t existed until today, so we’re looking at all sorts of approaches to reach potential customers,” he said.
This includes three types of strategies:
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Marketing geographically because pawn rates change based on location;
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Marketing with the economy in mind because some locations have been hit harder by the recession than others and targeting customers based on their interests. For example, McHose said that Internet Pawn has used social media to reach out to online Rolex Explorer 2 fan clubs.
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Also, the company wants to reach out to other user/support groups focused on topics like DUI and divorce.