Step 1 for a Franchise Entrepreneur : Crafting

an Expert Franchise Marketing Plan

These days, if you are like most entrepreneurs or franchisors, you have probably received

a lot of different sales pitches. Web designers and search engine optimizers will tell you your site

is not more useful than a store in the middle of the Pacific Ocean if it does not show up on the

first page of a Google search. Also, your website has to be optimized for mobile devices in

today’s world. They will tell you the key to achieving your goals is optimizing both your mobile

and original sites, or have a mobile responsive site design (preferred by Google for search) so

you can get a 2 for 1 deal on optimization.

Public relations is the cornerstone for an effective franchise marketing plan that generates leads.

At least, this is what a PR person will tell you. After all, you can get increased franchise sales

with good publicity provided by third party credibility.

A skilled videographer may pitch that 28 percent of all Google search results are now YouTube

links. Consequently, you can increase your sales by up to 25 percent or more by creating high

quality videos. Plus, if one of those videos goes viral, it can have more impact than any

advertising dollars possibly could.

When making buying decisions, today’s buyers rely on the suggestions from their networks and

friends according to social media firms. You are lost if you are not engaging these folks. The key

to growth is social media, not only for the consumer side of the business but also the franchise

development side.

And, when you hear from an ad agency, they will tell you that public relations cannot be relied

on. Placements are unpredictable, stories have no call to action, and the press is fickle. They will

tell you lead flow is the ticket with advertising using portals, pay per click, and some print

media.

So, which of these methods is right? They all are. They are also all wrong to the extent that they

preach a myopic focus.

Choosing How to Allocate Your Resources

You do not have an unlimited budget for your franchise marketing plan if you are like every

other franchisor. To achieve your goals, you have to choose carefully how you allocate your

resources across different media channels based on their potential for returns. For a lot of

franchisors, this means allocating scarce resources across diverse media.

The starting point is to set specific goals as part of your franchise marketing planning process.

These goals may include, but are not limited to, any of the following guidelines singularly or in

combination: customer retention, new franchisee acquisition, building the brand, and new

customer acquisition. With each of your goals, be very specific. For example, come up with

precise numbers for how many franchisees you want to add and where you want to add them.

You also need to understand your target franchisee. Find out which of your competitors they

most often look at, what they read, how old they are, what drives their decision processes, how

well educated they are, and if they are tech savvy.

Your current situation should also be part of your assessment. Figure out how you are going to

differentiate yourself from your competitors. For promotional efforts, you need to know what in

house resources you have and their capabilities. You need a budget. Plus, you need to make an

honest appraisal of your website and marketing materials. Long story short, you need to start

with a franchise marketing plan in order to prioritize the use of your resources.

The Web Is the Way to Go

Your first priority should be your website if you are a franchisor. Your website will serve as the

hub of almost all of your marketing efforts. You will send people there with your online

advertising. Links that lead them there will be created with your public relations efforts. Social

media, video, and SEO are all designed to send people to your site. Despite all of this, one of the

most underdeveloped marketing assets for a lot of franchisors still continues to be their website.

Keep in mind that search optimization is often theme based and domain focused. This means in

an ideal world, you should have a dedicated consumer site on one url and a dedicated franchise

site on another url. You should link the two together so traffic can flow. It is no myth that the

largest referrer of traffic and leads to your FD site is often your consumer site.

Start with your website if it is not very good. You do not want to skimp on this. If you have a

fifteen year old nephew who is a computer whiz, this does not necessarily mean he should

develop your website. This is not the time to cut corners.

An overarching content strategy communicating your unique selling propositions should be a

part of any good website. However, you want visitors to the site to interact with you, so the site

should not have so much information that they will not need to. Your website should provide a

value proposition that motivates visitors to share their contact information, and it should have

many capture mechanisms to obtain leads.

Your website should seek to maximize the number of qualified leads, not just any leads. To drive

specific traffic to your site, you need to have landing pages optimized around your keyword

phrases and keywords. These keyword densities should never exceed five percent, or else your

site may be penalized by Google.

Digital Marketing Agencies

If you are like most franchisors, this all may seem a bit overwhelming. You may not have the

expertise on staff that can maximize your online marketing. Fortunately, there are digital

marketing agencies like ClickTecs that focus on nothing but designing websites that are

optimized for social media (SMO), search engines (SEO), and mobile devices. In addition, they

can manage your online reputation and get you started with pay per click marketing, if you have

the budget for it.

SEO is one of ClickTecs’ main specialties. By filling your site with original, useful content

relevant to your industry, the search engines will reward you with a prime spot high in the search

results. We have a team of talented writers that can craft high quality articles on any topic and

that will make your company look good. Not only will the search engines give you a good

ranking for having content users want, but the content will be shared on social media, and there

is always the chance it could go viral.

The bottom line is digital marketing is a much too important part of any franchise marketing plan

to be left to amateurs. If you do not have an expert on staff, or even if you do, you should

strongly consider enlisting the help of professionals. What do you think the first steps for a new

entrepreneur should be?

http://clicktecs.com/