There are a lot of options. You can buy leads from the generators. Or you can buy Ads direct from Google, and advertise on the search engines and whichever other websites you want across the Internet.
You could also hire an SEO company and try and generate your own leads, and perhaps pay for work that never amounts to any quantifiable leads or traffic. By nature, SEO comes with no guarantees.
You can go old school and generate leads with a sales team, networking, cold calls and lots of follow up.
You could also try to D.I.Y., on your own, in house, with people who often just aren't very experienced.
Or, you can hire a franchise consulting company that is experienced in all of these areas.
This is just the Internet marketing side of running a successful franchise business model, but perhaps one of the most important. We use a variety of methods to help our clients generate better leads (and often at a lower price per lead).
Some of the methods we use include organic search engine rankings, press releases, article marketing, Google Ads, and social media marketing. We don’t have a set formula, because the tools and method we use are constantly evolving as the Internet changes. But we do always prefer a strategy that focuses on generating leads for both franchisees and franchisor, in a symbiotic relationship, that’s a true win-win model. And we accomplish that by harnessing the power of your network.
THE POWER IS IN YOUR NETWORK
Weather you have 10 franchise units, or 1,000, one of your biggest assets is your network. All of your franchisees are a great asset that is often underutilized by many franchises. With a properly configured website and Internet publication system, you can turn your franchisees into an online army that can push your franchise to the top of Google on a national level, as well as locally.
Here’s a breakdown:
- Connect your franchisees with a properly optimized corporate blogging platform.
- Franchisees drive the main corporate website higher towards the top of Google, where people search for franchise business opportunities.
- Franchisees piggyback off each other and drive each other to the top of their local markets, connecting them with people searching information and how to buy the services they sell.
