TRANSFORMING LOCAL MARKETING A GUIDE TO ELEVATING FRANCHISEE SUCCESS

TRANSFORMING LOCAL MARKETING A GUIDE TO ELEVATING FRANCHISEE SUCCESS

Contents How Effective Are Your Local Marketing Efforts? Building a Local Marketing Plan Digital Lead Generation Get the Most Bang For Your Buck: Pay-Per-Click Campaigns Setting Your AdWords Campaign Up For Success Social Media + PR Lead Nurturing Reputation Management Measuring ROI Putting It All Together: Local Marketing Solutionst 3 5 8 10 12 14 16 17 19 21

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE YOUR LOCAL MARKETING EFFORTS? How Effective Are Your Local Marketing Efforts? // 3 Running day-to-day operations are not the only obligations a local owner has to their business. Do your franchisees have enough time to execute an effective marketing strategy? Most of your franchisees are at full capacity running their business, and as a result, they are probably not investing as much time as you or they would like into their local marketing efforts. The impact of a marketing campaign may result in de-prioritizing other aspects of business. It s not for a lack of understanding; it s finding the time and resources to execute. Furthermore, the endless options for both traditional and digital marketing strategies can be especially overwhelming for local owners who already have a lot on their plate. Consequently, many franchisees will invest in a poorly planned advertising effort with minimal oversight, no visible ROI, and unclear outcomes resulting in frustration and a lack of trust of available marketing options. In order to successfully market your brand image, it s imperative to understand exactly what your franchisees need to successfully execute a marketing strategy.

How Effective Are Your Local Marketing Efforts? // 4 KEEP IT SIMPLE - The more moving parts there are in your marketing efforts, the more likely something is going to go wrong. Set clear goals and provide your franchisees with the tools they need to succeed. KEEP IT AUTOMATED - Your franchisees do their job best when they re doing just that: their job. With automated marketing efforts, you can keep them in the field and ensure they are running effective campaigns to drive business to their door. AVOID MULTIPLE INTERFACES We ve all been there trying to find that one login to that account that we just can t remember the name of. Keep it simple with a single sign on dashboard that is already tied to every account your franchisee needs. PROVIDE REGULAR REPORTS AND ROI Without visible outcomes on a regular basis, your franchisees will likely not be able to see the value of the campaign. Regular reporting ensures that local owners can keep an eye on where their money goes and what they re getting out of their marketing investment. LEVERAGE THIRD PARTY HELP WHERE NEEDED Most franchisees do not have the professional training or ability to market your brand and attract new customers. Furthermore, your corporate team may not have the capacity to meet the diverse marketing needs of your franchisees. Leveraging local agencies and marketing partners helps bridge this gap. In addition, having marketing partners is an important resource to help educate your franchisees so that they understand the report data and purpose of the marketing strategies, as well as the value of their investment.

BUILDING A LOCAL MARKETING PLAN Building a Local Marketing Plan // 5 Your success and profitability as a franchisor depends largely on franchisee earnings and success. Setting your franchisees up for success at the local level is critical for the success of your brand. Setting your franchisees up for success at the local level is critical for the success of both the owners and the brand. Creating a S.M.A.R.T. goal is the first step in achieving success. Clearly define the perimeters of your marketing plan by specifying what you expect to achieve and how you plan to execute. An example of a good SMART Goal: Increase average transactional value by 10% within one year. S M A R T SPECIFIC MEASURABLE ACTIONABLE REALISTIC TIMELY

Building a Local Marketing Plan // 6 Determine your BUDGET Define your AUDIENCE AND SEGMENTS Develop UNIQUE OFFERS AND PROMOTIONS Choose the most APPLICABLE CHANNELS on which to share your message Track. Measure. Analyze. Optimize.

Building a Local Marketing Plan // 7 SETTING UP NAF AND LOCAL BUDGETS The goal of a National Advertising Fund is to maximize the advertising efforts for the franchisor and franchisees. NATIONAL AD FUND Easy to Compute Limited to 1-2% of Sales Little left after labor costs Committee control Never enough LOCAL MARKETING SPEND 5-7% of sales is recommended Planned based on years in the system Enforcement is a must Should cover tools and digital marketing spend Critical to measure ROI

DIGITAL LEAD GENERATION Digital Lead Generation // 8 When consumers search for your services online, are they finding your franchisees? Are you conquering Online Directories, SEO, SEM, PPC, and Content Marketing Strategies? Your Customers Are Mobile, Are You? Responsive websites are critical to attract mobile customers. Now, more than ever, consumers turn to their phones to search for services and business in their area. Mobile searches are expected to overtake desktop searches by 2016, so having a responsive website is critical for supporting these mobile users who are searching for the services you offer. Nothing turns off a prospective lead like a website that is impossible to navigate. SEO OPTIMIZATION THAT YOU CAN DO Leverage tools from Google Analytics, Google Trends, and Google Keyword Planner, as well as Bing Webmaster Tools Follow Google s Guidelines for SEO (Google Webmaster Tools) Leverage SEO Analysis Tools (e.g. LXRSEO from Netelixir) Have your Marketing partners explain the importance and role of the above bullets

Digital Lead Generation // 9 GET SEARCH ENGINES TO FIND YOUR FRANCHISEES The importance of a locator tool on your website cannot be overstated. Not only should customers be able to find the location nearest them when they are browsing your website, but search engines index these sites as well and it will impact the visibility of your franchisees on local searches. Instead of using a dynamic locator tool, list all locations with an option to filter by state or ZIP code to find a location. Some great ways to build SEO are to: Use schema.org to markup HTML pages in ways that are recognized by major search providers by including the code contact information in the website structure. In this way Google recognizes the page as a local business. Include a static address, links from the home page and support content. Make sure Local Pages contain a full NAP Name, Address, Phone Number with consistent phone numbers, including rich content designed to drive conversions. Take advantage of Business Local Pages and ensure that up-to-date information is included on Google My Business Listings and Facebook Business Pages Leverage content from blogs or reviews to increase your presence Optimize your directory listings by utilizing tools like Zcubator to push directory data to aggregators Encourage your franchisees to focus on asking happy customers to write positive online reviews. Google likes reviews because they indicate whether a business is popular, are unbiased feedback from customers, and consumers look to use them when searching for products or services.

Get the Most Bang For Your Buck: Pay-Per-Click Campaigns // 10 GET THE MOST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK: PAY-PER-CLICK CAMPAIGNS Managing AdWords is a science, and mistakes can be costly. Pay-per-click, or PPC, advertisements allow targeted traffic to click on your ad from a search engine based on keywords and geographic location. While the cost of PPC ad management has significantly decreased thus making it an effective source of lead generation there are a number of factors to keep in mind to achieve the right results. Avoid These Common Mistakes: Creating a long list of less than targeted keywords Failing to identify unique aspects of your product or service A lack of keywords in your ad text Directing users solely to your homepage Do This Instead: Gather a concise collection of keywords that strongly targets your services or products What differentiates you from your competition? Use your strengths to stand out. Keep in mind users are using a search engine to find you. Match their keywords in your ad text to attract the consumers you want. No click should go to waste: drive users to a landing page with a specific call to action or short form to make the most of your campaign.

Get the Most Bang For Your Buck: Pay-Per-Click Campaigns // 11 Avoid These Common Mistakes: Not offering promotions or coupons Not creating single ad groups Using broad match only Failing to optimize ad serving for your ads Failing to track results Entering the content network without modifying bids Do This Instead: Offer incentives or discounts for using your ad, especially in the ad text. Too many keywords within an ad group will trigger your ad to show on all searches with any of those keywords. Create multiple ads to display for specific searches to increase your click-through rate (CTR). Broad match is useful for keyword variation but be careful, as irrelevant keywords might sneak into your list. Instead of paying for keywords that are less optimal, use exact match to choose Optimizing your ad serving allows you determine which ads have the best CTR, improving your quality score. This in turn improves ad placement, having a more positive impact on your overall ROI. One of the biggest mistakes you can make with your AdWords campaign is not measuring your ads. You have no way of knowing how to improve your campaign and there is no visible ROI for you to determine if PPC campaigns are working for your business. Content networks are known to convert at low rate if not properly managed. Use many ad groups and create specific keywords to optimize your ads.

Setting Your AdWords Campaign Up For Success // 12 SETTING YOUR ADWORDS CAMPAIGN UP FOR SUCCESS KNOW YOUR NICHE What makes your brand unique? What differentiates you from your competition? Research your industry, your clients and your competitors and know what kinds of services or products your audience is looking for and define how you stand out. STRATEGIZE YOUR CAMPAIGN Concretely define and structure the goals of your PPC campaign, and allocate a budget. Set up landing pages with standardized design framework for all campaigns to protect the brand image and streamline the setup process. Set up toll-free phone numbers to track leads and conversions. Call tracking allows you to gauge the effectiveness of a campaigns, and call recording helps you train and improve sales process as well as optimizing campaign targeting. CHOOSE YOUR KEYWORDS Now that you have determined the scope of your PPC strategy, it s time to build your initial keyword list. Start off with the most important words and then branch off of those keywords to expand your list. Add relevant match types to these keywords and choose negative keywords to exclude from searches. CREATE YOUR ADS Choose core keywords from your campaign and integrate them into your ad copy. Include a strong call to action and a display URL that directs to a landing page along with that toll-free tracking number so you can track your leads. REVIEW & LAUNCH CAMPAIGNS WITH BUSINESS SCHEDULING Perform a quality check on your ads, test your landing pages, ensure branding and logos are consistent, and schedule your ads to show at peak times. Launch your campaigns and remember to monitor your campaigns to see how they perform.

Setting Your AdWords Campaign Up For Success // 13 ACCOUNT OPTIMIZATION Review your ads constantly. They should be monitored at least twice daily to keep an eye on CTR. Pause ads with low CTR and create new ads with top keywords in your ad copy. Additionally, use A/B testing to see how different ads perform and select ads with better results. PERFORMANCE TRACKING & INSIGHT REPORTING Intuitive reporting allows the corporate team to track key performance indicators of PPC campaigns and determine the outcome of PPC campaigns.

SOCIAL MEDIA + PR Case Study: Pita Pit used an integrated communications approach to achieve growth success. (PR + Social Media + Marketing + Advertising + Digital) Social Media + PR // 14 Pita Pit s challenge was one that many brands face: a lack of a unified presence. This occurred over the course of time as franchisees had each created their own Social Footprints by using different logos, offering varying promotions and creating social media pages and content not in alignment with a singular brand voice. While they had an existing marketing calendar, it wasn t synced with all of the forms of communication including PR, Social Media, Marketing and Advertising. As a result, local marketing efforts were not unified not did they reflect a singular brand image. Pita Pit employed a large ad fund, however, rather than acting as an advisory, the Marketing Advisory Council acted as the final decision. With varying opinions on where and how much to spend, the MAC struggled to identify a unified approach on how to spend dollars to build buzz. THE CAMPAIGN: The key to Pita Pit s success began with creating an integrated communications campaign that started on Social Media and spread to other communication channels where Pita Pit had allocated money from their NAF. The campaign Battle of the Pita Pits asked customers to vote for their favorite location, offering prizes to fans whose Pita Pit location won. While not initially popular with all franchisees, who did not favor sending their local fans to the national page, the campaign gained substantial momentum that resulted in significant return on the investment.

Social Media + PR // 15 THE RESULTS: With the campaign focusing on all communications tactics, the following was earned: Increased the Facebook Fan Page adding 22,338 new fans in consumer markets within a 5-mile radius of each location. The final battle included 80,513 Facebook views, 2.3 million Impressions generated, and 45,132 votes placed. Secured 100 + media placements over 2 months, including 6 TV segments, 20 print publications, and 5 journals a total PR value of $246,125. Secured more than 200 blog posts local and national. A significant increase in sales growth, resulting in 89 franchise units signing on. HOW CAN YOUR BRAND ACHIEVE THIS SUCCESS? When it comes to PR, you d better have a sharp pick-up line. Without a strong story to tell, you will be praying a lot for PR and hoping that it s the good kind. The consistency of your message matters especially when translating it to other communication outlets. Stay focused and set a goal with a vision. The secrets to delivering a great message: Be Significant: Significance creates passion. Passion attracts attention. Attention leads to action. Use Structure: Structure is how you place the building blocks of your story. Make your story convincing, memorable and scalable. Keep it Simple: People should easily be able to visualize your story. Deliver key points. Impress. Stay on Top of Things: Have a plan and stick to it.

LEAD NURTURING How much does your brand spend collectively (on the national and local level) on local lead generation? 40% of that is likely to be wasted. Lead Nurturing // 16 The challenge with local lead tracking and lead nurturing is that your leads likely end up in one of several categories, whether it be a POS system, emails or (worst of all) on paper. 30% of leads never make it into an electronic CRM repository 50% of qualified leads are not ready to buy. Follow up emails increase conversion by 30% Responding to leads within 1 hour can increase conversion by 39% Automating lead capture across channels is a must. Phone calls, internet leads, short form leads, emails, communication with team members should all be captured and tracked so that you have complete visibility and save time when reaching out to leads. Provide your franchisees with phone tracking tools that send automated alerts. Additionally, create automated email campaigns to increase conversion with existing leads. Track your data to know what it costs per lead and where the best conversions are sourced from. Define goals using this data and include a budget that takes into consideration the cost per deal and set expectation for reaching goals.

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT Reputation Management // 17 Online reviews impact 80% of consumers purchasing decisions. With numbers like these, you can t afford to ignore your brand s online reputation, especially since more consumers mean you re more likely to sell more franchise locations. While a solid 70% of consumers trust brand recommendations from friends and family, a staggering 90% trust opinions posted by other consumers complete strangers. Given the impact that business reviews have on revenue, it s especially important for your franchisees to have a positive online reputation. However, not all customers are happy! How your franchisees respond to negative feedback will impact future decisions made by consumers, so it is important that their response: Acknowledges and addresses the complaint Takes the conversation offline as soon as possible Offers a solution to the problem Demonstrates to other consumers that they care about the experience of their customers In fact, 95% of unhappy customers will return to your business if an issue is resolved quickly and efficiently! HOW DO I IMPROVE MY ONLINE REPUTATION? The first step in taking control of your online reputation is ensuring that you have a system in place to keep an eye on customer feedback and respond to any negative reviews in a timely manner. Be Big Brother take advantage of review monitoring software to alert you to any negative feedback about your franchisees Have a Game Plan Create guidelines for handling different types of customer complaints Ask Happy Customers for Reviews satisfied customers are more likely to leave a review if your franchisees ask them and let them know they are supporting their local business

Reputation Management // 18 Track Your Progress Identify any trends that pop up and provide support or training to your franchisee to help them implement a solution. WHAT S THE BEST WAY TO RESPOND TO COMBAT NEGATIVE REVIEWS? Handling customer complaints in a professional and courteous manner is imperative to repairing the relationship with a frustrated customer as well as showing potential customers that your brand is invested in them having a positive experience. Your franchisee s response should follow these general guidelines: Thank the customer for their feedback Take responsibility and apologize for your mistake Offer a solution and offer a direct communication channel to take the conversation offline After the issue is resolved, ask the customer to remove or revise their review to reflect their experience Implement a strategy to prevent future mistakes

MEASURING ROI Brands are spending billions of dollars in advertising at the National and Local level. There is roughly a 9% projected increase at the local marketing level this year, and it s expected to grow at a 6.5% compounded annual growth rate until 2018. It s all about results: Optimize your Ad spend and cut down on campaigns that are losing money so you can generate positive ROI. Use web tracking and analytics to gain visibility over your conversion rates. USE CALL TRACKING According to a recent BIA/Kelsey study, a customer who picks up the phone converts 10x better than those who click a link. Thus, call tracking is imperative to see how your campaigns perform and to understand the true return you are making on your Ad spend. Improve your campaign performance by using call tracking to monitor the best lead generation sources. Landing page based call tracking Ad copy variation based call tracking Email campaign based call tracking Source based call tracking EMAIL CAMPAIGN TRACKING AND ANALYTICS Email campaigns are great ways to reach out to existing leads and reengage them with your brand. Track the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts through an automated system to have visibility of: Delivered: Your email server reputation to build trust with the ISP s Sent vs Opened vs Opt out: Your customers are actually interested in receiving in them. Click though: Your prospects are interested to know more about your offering. Forwards & Social Sharing: Your prospects are sharing your emails with their friends. Conversions: Email campaigns that are generating revenue for you. Measuring ROI // 19

Measuring ROI // 20 LEVERAGING LANDING PAGES FOR CAMPAIGNS A landing page is a simple web page, separate from your main website, used to convert a visitor into a lead through a form. Well-crafted landing pages can help you gain the best possible ROI out of your campaigns. Use landing pages for: Destination URL for your Pay-Per-Click ads Social Media Marketing Email and Direct Campaign Conversion Newsletter signups & Download e-books Launching or Selling a Product Additionally, create A/B split testing with landing pages to help take the guess work out of your landing page optimization efforts. Create two or more versions of your landing page to test one element on a single page or same element across multiple pages. Set a baseline metric to measure results and randomly assign each visitor to a variation. This allows you to gain insight into visitor behavior to achieve your conversion goals. COMMON ELEMENTS TO TEST Call to Action Headline Form length Page layout Images Videos Testimonials, etc. MEASURE YOUR ROI The only way to know if your marketing efforts are worthwhile is to track the results. Having a dashboard with centralized reporting across all marketing activities allows you to gain valuable insight into the overall effectiveness of your campaigns, your marketing costs, and your ROI.

Putting It All Together: Local Marketing Solutions // 21 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: LOCAL MARKETING SOLUTIONS Welcome to FranConnect: Local Marketing Simplified. We offer an integrated marketing suite designed to help your franchisees achieve sales and marketing success. Are you looking for a way to give your franchisees an integrated marketing platform to manage multiple marketing channels and measure and track the effectiveness of every single franchisee s marketing efforts? FranConnect is an easy-to-use interface designed for franchisees it takes less than 4 clicks to perform any marketing activity so that they can put their marketing efforts on auto-pilot. In addition, your favorite marketing applications and POS systems are integrated into the platform. SINGLE SIGN-ON Keeping track of multiple logins and passwords is difficult enough, without the added stress of day-to-day operations of a franchisee. FranConnect allows franchisees to access multiple marketing applications through a single login to the dashboard. FranConnect also includes integrated user management and reporting as users are added or leave the system. CRM AND LIST MANAGER FranConnect incorporates a Single Lead Repository, integrated email and print campaigns, behavioral marketing, analytics and ROI analysis into a single dashboard that gives corporate a high-level overview. MARKETING PILOT The marketing pilot plan provides franchisors with monthly execution plans. Corporate can segment franchisees based on Years in Business or Type, as well as track ROI and Leads Generated. SEM and Google Ads are enabled to help with lead generation.

Putting It All Together: Local Marketing Solutions // 22 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Brand consistency is a key concern for many franchisors with regards to social media management. FranConnect allows corporate to have a high level overview of multiple content pages, monitor social activity, publish content and have access to integrated reporting and analytics for social pages. Franchisees can co-manage their social media presence as well. ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGER With online reputation making such a significant impact on business, it s imperative to monitor your brand s image at both the corporate and local level. FranConnect allows you to monitor your online presence and customer feedback and implement recommended actions through the tool.