Tag Archives: Franchise Content Marketing

The 4 Essential Elements of a Franchise Marketing Plan by Michelle Hummel

Most franchisees are already aware that they need a strong marketing message. However, there’s often a significant disconnect between crafting the right message and having an audience to deliver it to. The reality of the franchise industry is very few sales happen by accident. Instead, the types of franchisors that are able to consistently sell new franchises do so by having a clear marketing plan that’s carefully crafted to attract a specific type of prospect. Continue reading

5 Secrets to Successful Franchise Content Marketing by Michelle Hummel

Although it can yield big benefits, content marketing can be a challenge for any business. This strategy can be especially challenging for franchises. The reason is that it’s common for there to be so many different people involved in the process. While your current franchise content marketing situation may seem like an ongoing headache with no end in sight, the good news is there is a solution. And once you get the right management practices in place, you can follow several additional tips to get the best possible results from all of your efforts. Continue reading

SEO

5 Steps for SEO Success for Franchises by Michelle Hummel

SEO stands for search engine optimization. At its core, this practice is simply a way to ensure that a business website shows up in the top group of results when someone searches for a relevant keyword phrase. Because Google is always evolving, the best practices for SEO in 2018 look quite different than even a few years ago.

To help ensure that you’re on the right track with SEO, we want to cover the 5 steps for franchise SEO success during the upcoming year:

1. Start with Key Pages

Franchisors often get overwhelmed by the prospect of diving into all of their SEO needs. That’s why we recommend starting with your most important pages. Good starting points include your homepage, About Us, main blog page and product/service pages. Investing time and resources to get these pages right can then be leveraged as a template for all other pages and online properties.

2. Create a Strong Online Footprint

The best rankings come from having a balanced and widespread online footprint. Instead of falling into the trap of chasing shortcuts, focus on ways to spread the word about your franchise online. More people knowing about your franchise will result in more people talking about it, which in turn will naturally generate the types of links that are so vital for ranking well in Google.

3. Optimize Location Pages

Some franchises have sub-pages for different locations. Others use individual websites for each location. And plenty of franchises take a hybrid approach. Regardless of where you fall on this spectrum, you’ll want to be sure that customers in each target market are able to easily find local franchises online.

4. Understand Local

This ties directly into the above point. The way that Google ranks and displays local search results differs from general queries. As more people do searches from their mobile phones, fully understanding local has become even more important. One of the main things to keep in mind is that Google wants to verify that businesses have a local presence. NAP (name, address and phone number) citations are a key way they measure this. Ensuring NAP consistency across all major directories will help local rankings a lot.

5. Grab the Long Tail

The long tail refers to keyword phrases that are highly targeted but don’t get a ton of search volume. What makes the long tail so appealing is there’s less competition to rank in the first few spots. These highly targeted keyword phrases also have clear intent, which makes them great for converting searchers into actual customers. Integrating long tail content into your SEO strategy is a very smart choice for 2018.

If you want expert help creating the right SEO plan and putting it into practice during 2018, be sure to take a look at how Web Strategy Plus can help.

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Michelle Hummel is CEO of Web Strategy Plus a full-service digital marketing agency focused on Franchise Marketing. She was recently nominated for the Woman-Owned Business of the Year! She’s a passionate Social Media Trainer with 15+ years of successful online business development, sales, and marketing experience. She also holds a valuable Internet Marketing Degree however with the ever-changing world of web marketing she strives to learn something new every day. 

She travels Nationwide visiting her 22 Social Media Enthusiasts Chapters she developed Nationwide delivering in-depth social media training. She also provides Social Media Certifications through founding Web Media University. A current contributing editor to The Franchise Dictionary Magazine and she has written 3 books in her series called, “The Social Media Magnet: Everything You Need to Know to Attract Customers with Social Media”, where she shares her best-kept secrets to success. She also specializes in helping Franchisors and Franchisees develop an integrated web marketing program to drive leads. She’s available for interviews via email, telephone, Skype video, news segments on location and more. Just let her know how she can help!

Franchise Lead Generation: Can Content Marketing Help?

While franchises can be found in just about any industry, they all share some common traits. One trait that all franchisees share is the need to bring in new customers on a regular basis. A big obstacle for many franchises and other types of businesses is creating a strategy for consistently bringing in new leads. Since franchise lead generation can be a definite challenge, we want to focus on an approach that can work very well.

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4 Top Franchise Lead Generation Strategies by Michelle Hummel

If you want to generate more leads for your franchise, here are the best strategies to utilize:

Targeted Marketing Based On Interest Level

Without targeted marketing personalization, there will be a great deal of downturn in the overall productivity of franchise opportunities. While it may take longer for companies to identify their target demographic, the end result will be more lucrative than previously anticipated. Continue reading

franchisees

Tips for Developing a Social Media Policy for Your Franchisees by Michelle Hummel

Social media is one of the best ways for franchisees to market themselves. While social media is a very powerful option for connecting with customers, plenty of franchisors have concerns related to platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Given the immediate and widespread nature of social media, these concerns are completely valid.

Fortunately, there is a way for franchises to fully harness the power of social media and simultaneously protect their brand. The key to striking this balance is to create a social media policy for franchisees. Here are some of the most important elements to keep in mind as you work on creating this policy:

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How Franchises Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Business

It wasn’t that long ago when many franchises were at least a little skeptical about whether or not social media could do anything tangible for their bottom line. However, thanks to the explosion in social media usage across B2B and B2C demographics, franchise social media has become a standard marketing strategy for most organizations. Continue reading

Top 4 Red Flags of Franchise Marketing by Michelle Hummel

Creating a strong and effective franchise marketing plan can help franchisees and the entire organization flourish. However, creating this type of plan isn’t easy. Whether you’re in the process of creating a franchise marketing strategy or are concerned that your current plan has some significant issues, there are quite a few pitfalls that can come up during the planning and execution of marketing. Through our franchise marketing services, we’ve had direct experience seeing and helping to resolve many of these pitfalls. That’s why we want to share four red flags you’ll want to watch out for with your own franchise marketing efforts:

1. Inconsistency

One of the advantages franchises have is the ability to use their scale to continue growing their brand. However, many franchises miss out on making the most of this advantage. This is because they don’t create a consistent experience across their entire brand. A surprising finding of a franchisee survey was that 49% of franchisees “are not required to follow specific corporate recommendations on marketing strategy.” So even though it is helpful to get input from franchisees about what’s working best and which areas need improvement, your marketing plan should ensure consistency across all operators.

2. Scattered Campaigns

Both direct mail and email are channels that can work well for franchise marketing. While plenty of franchises are aware of these channels, they often make a significant mistake when trying to use them. That mistake is not managing these efforts through an integrated platform. Not having a centralized platform will increase marketing costs and decrease the efficiency of campaigns.

3. Lack of Budget

With marketing channels like social media, it’s possible to get more bang for your buck by creating campaigns and content that gain organic momentum. Although increasing marketing ROI is great, getting campaigns up and running still requires having a budget. So if a marketing plan doesn’t include getting at least some financial support from franchisees, chances are very good that it’s going to significantly hamper results.

4. Forgetting About Personalization

As a franchise, you probably want your presence to spread well beyond your home base. It’s normal to have aspirations to create an established presence on a national or even international scale. One important thing to keep in mind as your franchise is opened in more locations is marketing efforts should be personalized to the area. When franchisees don’t take regional or cultural differences into account, they miss out on a big opportunity to tailor their marketing efforts in a way that helps them to resonate even more (while still maintaining a consistent brand image).

If you want to avoid these mistakes and/or need help with your franchise marketing, be sure to take a look at how Web Strategy Plus can help.

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free-consultation

Michelle Hummel is CEO of Web Strategy Plus a full-service digital marketing agency focused on Franchise Marketing. She was recently nominated for the Woman-Owned Business of the Year! She’s a passionate Social Media Trainer with 15+ years of successful online business development, sales, and marketing experience. She also holds a valuable Internet Marketing Degree however with the ever-changing world of web marketing she strives to learn something new every day. 

She travels Nationwide visiting her 22 Social Media Enthusiasts Chapters she developed Nationwide delivering in-depth social media training. She also provides Social Media Certifications through founding Web Media University. A current contributing editor to The Franchise Dictionary Magazine and she has written 3 books in her series called, “The Social Media Magnet: Everything You Need to Know to Attract Customers with Social Media”, where she shares her best-kept secrets to success. She also specializes in helping Franchisors and Franchisees develop an integrated web marketing program to drive leads. She’s available for interviews via email, telephone, Skype video, news segments on location and more. Just let her know how she can help!

 

FREE Lunch & Learn: How Personal Branding With Social Media Can Attract Leads

Want To Learn How Personal Branding With Social Media Can Help Attract More Leads To Your Business?

This training will address how to market yourself online professionally as a Business Owner. Many people Google your name as the CEO and depending on what they find – may or may not choose to work with you. We will dive into best practices for LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook etc.

If you are a: Consultant, Author, Coach, Agent, Advisor, Job Seeker, CEO, Entrepreneur, Small Business Owner or Speaker then this training session is a must attend!

What does it take to create a positive personal brand? You are the CEO of your own brand, it’s up to you to make or break your image. We will show examples of those who do it well. We will help you choose three positive brand words and teach you how to implement them to define your brand. If you believe in yourself, others will too.

Presented by: Web Strategy Plus CEO: Michelle Hummel
11:30 – 12 you can network, meet your peers and enjoy lunch
12 – 12:45 we will deliver the training
12:45 – 1 we will take questions and start the raffle

So bring yourself, a friend, business cards and your think tank to this fun and engaging learning session. We will be giving away many Door Prizes.