Strength In Numbers: 3 Reasons Franchises Should Deploy Websites For Each Of Its Locations

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1 Strength In Numbers: 3 Reasons Franchises Should Deploy Websites For Each Of Its Locations BRIDGELINE WHITEPAPER SERIES Copyright 2014 Bridgeline Digital Inc. BridgelineDigital.com

2 AN INTRODUCTION TO BEST PRACTICES FOR ONLINE MARKETING & WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION Many franchises and large dealer networks only have one website with one domain name that supports hundreds or even thousands of locations. C-level executives may not realize it, but by using just one website to represent the entire scope of their business, they are sabotaging their digital marketing strategy. The counterargument to deploying a website for each local outlet makes sense on the surface: Franchises and large dealer networks want to control their brand and organizational messaging. But from both a technical and customer engagement perspective, relying on one website to represent an entire franchise or large dealer network fails to take advantage of key elements and resources that maximize the effectiveness of a digital marketing strategy. Giving each [The UPS Store] location their own [mobile-friendly] website has increased the power our franchisees have to connect and communicate with customers online. Stores can highlight the products, services and special offers that are specifi c to their location and with the functionality in the platform, our team at headquarters can still monitor the overall messaging from the individual websites. Put together, this hyper-local level of customer interaction allows our franchisees to effectively tap into the power of the brand in a completely different way. - Rob Connelly, Technology Marketing Manager at The UPS Store The following whitepaper outlines three primary reasons why franchisees and local dealers should possess their own website in order to more effectively attract, engage, and market to customers. 1. Search Engine Optimization Benefits 2. Strengthened Local Marketing Strategy 3. Optimized End-User Experience

3 1. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION BENEFITS Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of enhancing the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine s natural or un-paid ( organic ) search results to reach a mass audience. How well an organization leverages pivotal Search Engine Optimization strategies directly determines the size of your megaphone on popular search engines. No matter what the size of the organization, the better your visibility is to Google, Yahoo, and Bing, the easier it will be for potential customers to fi nd you. Let s re-pose the question at hand: One website or many what are the SEO best practices? If you have a lot of store or franchise locations, consider it a best practice to 1.) Make a web page for each store that lists the store s address, phone number, business hours, etc. 2.) Make an HTML sitemap to point to those pages with regular HTML links, not a search form or POST requests. If you want your store pages to be found, it s best to have a unique, easily crawlable URL for each store. - Matt Cutts, Head of Webspam, Google In terms of SEO, when representatives from Google talk, Digital Marketers listen. What Cutts is alluding to is a relevant part of SEO as it relates to large organizations: Local Search. DOWN IN THE TRENCHES OF SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION The benefi ts to local search are endless. For instance, smart phone users completed 12 billion local searches annually in 2012 (a number will only grow in the future). What s important is that Google reported that 9 out of 10 local smart phone searches lead to a customer action (e.g. a store visit, purchase, etc). You would think this is good news, but in the SEO world the size of the dog in the fi ght is irrelevant. As Cutts detailed, failing to arm local dealers and franchises with their own website, without an easily crawable URL, diminishes the infl uence of a large organization s brand and opens up opportunities for small businesses. Neglecting to give your franchisee or local dealer their own website positions your business at a severe disadvantage against the competition.

4 WHAT IS N.A.P. AND HOW CAN YOU MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU? A critical advantage to deploying local websites is building up SEO through basic information. The N.A.P. acronym stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. While it s a simple concept, as Cutts previously pointed out, it s critical that businesses cite their information properly in order to rank well. In addition, this same NAP information should match what is listed in common directories, such as Google+ Local, Yahoo and Bing Local, Yelp, and YP.com.There are directory services your dealers and franchisees can use to make sure their information is accurately displayed across all the directories on the web (e.g. Neustar, Axiom, Infogroup). Don t get caught NAP-ping! Now, you might say to yourself, Isn t that something that every local business would list? Not necessarily. According to BIA/Kelsey, 60% of local business websites don t even have their phone number on their website. Moreover, many websites fail to list consistent NAP information across their properties. Not only does this look unprofessional and cause considerable confusion for consumers, these discrepancies hinder Google s ability to trust the data they have gathered from around the web about a given business. Inconsistent NAP listings cause your web properties to split the web equity and the lack of trust on Google s part can spell ranking diffi culties for the business. To illustrate this mistake, check out the example below:

5 2. STRENGTHENED LOCAL MARKETING STRATEGY When competing in today s hyper-local, socially infused and highly mobile world, a franchises biggest advantage is its brand. As a marketer, you cannot underestimate the infl uence that immediate recognition creates. For franchisees, it breeds familiarity which leads to engagement and ultimately conversion and customer loyalty. At this juncture, most corporate marketing franchise teams are familiar with Glocalization, a term detailing a franchise s ability to market their global brand reach at a local level. Adopting a Glocal strategy restores the balance of power in favor of franchises by reinforcing brand recognition in a personalized manner. A local website gives the franchise owner the opportunity to tell their local story and show local involvement by referencing local community events, activities, pictures, employee information, testimonials, news and press. It s about leveraging the power of a national brand at a local level. HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY GO LOCAL Developing a Local Marketing strategy starts with having a separate, completely autonomous website for each franchise or dealer location. With local websites, franchisees have a portal to point customers to as they develop and execute mirco-scale marketing programs. Meanwhile, they will still benefi t from broad-scale marketing campaigns initiated by the franchisor to all customers that reinforce the power of the national brand. Three Steps to An Online Glocal Strategy 1. Ensure that the Franchise s branding is secure and prevalent by using a main template design for every website. 2. Allow each location owner to easily edit their website with their fresh local content, pictures, employee bios, maps and contact information. 3. Blog, Blog, Blog! Blogging has become a trusted source for consumers when researching businesses. Have a corporate blog or if applicable a blog for each franchise location. Blog pages also have a tendency to get ranked high in search result pages.

6 3. A SEAMLESS END-USER EXPERIENCE We already outlined technical and strategic advantages of deploying websites for each of your organization s locations. Let s examine two common issues associated with all-encompassing corporate sites. 1. DISJOINTED LINE OF BUSINESS. While a corporate website certainly provides a macro-view of a large organization; online consumers covet speed and convenience. Going back to the value of search, giving a customer a direct avenue to the nearest location s specialized products and services as well as basic information (e.g. N.A.P., hours, address) is paramount to conversion. Once you have your visitor s attention, the less clicking and navigation, the better. A local site creates a direct line of business. Here is what we have to offer this is how you can access our products/services. 2. BRAND CONSISTENCY CMOs and CTOs naturally point to an all-encompassing site s ability to maintain brand consistency among the organization and its stores, but this couldn t be further from the truth. Yes, the corporate website has the proper branding and messaging, but what the lack of personalization not only hurts local marketing initiatives, but it handcuffs local outlets who have specialized attributes (products, services, store hours, etc). What would you do if you were a progressive local owner? In many cases, store owners take matters into their own hands and create a rogue, non-brand-compliant website. The consequences here are extremely harmful: You re splitting the SEO equity essentially competing with yourself and hurting the integrity of your brand.

7 FINAL THOUGHTS Taking advantage of these technical and strategic considerations requires a solution that lives on the aforementioned middle ground: iapps ds. THE PREMIER AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE PLATFORM FOR FRANCHISES & LARGE DEALER NETWORKS Easily manage your local content Integrated emarketing & analytics Powerful ecommerce capabilities Optimized for smart phones and tablets Corporate maintains brand control Corporate can distribute unified content iapps ds is a secure, mobile-friendly platform that enables local dealers and franchisees to take advantage of their brand power, while not undermining it. Content publishing on each of your organization s distributed websites is managed through work fl ow approval, giving corporate marketing control of the message. iapps ds also features customizable options which allow syndicates to easily infuse a local appeal in order to cater to specifi c communities, all while preserving the corporate brand.