 |
|
With over 80% of people searching online to find local businesses prior to purchasing goods and services, more and more franchises are responding by getting local with their franchise online marketing.
One way franchises are getting local is by having websites for each franchise location. Using localized websites, franchise marketers are driving more and more traffic from local searches directly to the franchise locations their customers prefer.
However, large franchise systems run into “territory conflict” when they have multiple franchise locations in one densely populated metro area. This can cause confusion with consumers when they type in ‘hair cut Austin TX’ and find five locations near them. And what could be worse is if the first listing they find in the search engine is the furthest from them.
Elements, Inc., developers of the ElementsLocal™ software platform for franchise online marketing, has developed a new concept called “Metro Pages” to help avoid territory conflict. By placing all of the neighboring franchise locations on a “Metro Page”, and placing a Google Map on that page, it allows customers to select the franchise location of their choice. This drives more online leads to every franchise location, unveils more options and simplifies the customer experience.
“One of the great things about our Metro Pages is that our system automatically creates the listings based on the pre-defined metro areas, or regions, of a franchise system. This is just another example of our platform creating automated ways to increase organic, natural listings”, stated Jeremy La Duque, CEO Elements, Inc. “Ultimately, we’re always looking for new ways to improve the expansion of a brand through online marketing while deepening customer engagement with that brand.”
Metro Pages will be released this month as another valuable component of the ElementsLocal™ software platform.
March 15th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Great information and nice component to the software system, this is a system I may refer clients to for managing the back end, seems very well positioned to provide value.
March 15th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Please email me with some information about this software. Thanks
March 16th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Sounds like a nice concept, though I can envision situations where it might not work out. Two examples are (1) where a franchisor wants to compete with its own locations for internet sales (yes, it does happen!), and (2) where franchisees want to compete with other nearby units (for example, on price), so they’d like customers to visit them even if they’re not closest. Still, price competition between neighboring franchisees may not be what the franchisor wants, and a system like this might give the franchisor a way to reduce that.
March 17th, 2010 at 8:27 am
Robin,
thanks for your reply. I agree. This is a concept in our technology platform that we can turn on or off, so item 1 point well taken. Regarding item 2, the metro page is going to conveniently put all locations near you on a single page and map, so you could choose any franchise in that metro area. That could actually promote your idea of franchisees wanting to compete against each other, say on price.
Jeremy