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.

There are 10 Billion unique searches done each month on various search engines and it’s estimated that over 57% of those are for local businesses. Google alone has over a Half Billion unique Local Searches per month. The bottom line is that over 50% of people find what they want through local search.

Online Local Marketing
For most businesses the majority of their customers are local, especially if you are a brick and mortar business, a local service provider or a restaurant. Even with the internet the majority of purchases are still made within 30 miles of home. So it is critical to be found for as many pertinent local searches as possible.
What this means is you want to be found under as many combinations of words as you can, locally. For example, you want to come up in search engines for both “San Jose CA Plumber” as well as “Bay Area Plumber”. The more keywords that relate to your local area the better.

The Challenge for Franchise Marketers
Franchise systems have the particular challenge of showing up local because it’s difficult to have unique websites for each location. Typical solutions franchises implement include such things are micropages (http://franchisename.com/franchisee.html), sub-domains (http://franchisee.franchisename.com) and local websites (http://franchiseename.com).

A branded local website, such as http://pdromaha.com for a Paul Davis Restoration franchise in Omaha, NE, can deliver significant local search impact. The image below shows the results for both Maps and Organic search that a branded local website can deliver.

Significant changes in the way consumers prefer to receive information, coupled with an unpredictable economy, have many franchises reexamining their traditional marketing communication plans to gauge effectiveness. Both retaining Clients and attracting new Clients requires applying the latest digital tools to maximize leads received and covert them to sales. To address these goals, Sport Clips, the nation’s leading men’s and boys’ hair care franchise, has partnered with ElementsLocal™ to maximize their online solutions specifically designed for franchises. Using the latest technology, ElementsLocal™ is providing Sport Clips unparalleled abilities to market online and communicate with their existing clients through email and text messages.

Sport Clips searched the existing product offerings for a solution that would support and encourage loyalty among existing Clients and offer innovative ways to communicate with and attract new Clients. After this search, Sport Clips signed on with ElementsLocal™ to significantly improve its online presence and develop lasting relationships with Clients through local web sites and creative email and SMS campaign strategies.

With 90% of online users conducting local online searches

Don’t forget about the Webinar coming up this Friday, November 20 @ 10 am (PDT). Learn from your Franchise Online Marketing experts how to increase local leads, improve local search engine rankings, and ensure brand consistency. Register now: http://elementslocal.com/register

New technological advances in the past year have ushered in a plethora of opportunities for franchises looking to extend their brand into the digital age, as localized marketing and social media strategies once considered cost-prohibitive have since become more possible. Until recently, implementing local search engine optimization, email/mobile marketing campaigns and social media simultaneously seemed logistically and financially unfeasible for franchisors. But now, intelligent new software platforms such as ElementsLocal offer online marketing solutions that are easily manageable, comprehensive and cost-effective.

As recently as a year ago, it was simply impossible for a franchise to affordably launch hundreds of autonomous, optimized web sites for each of its franchises, not to mention monitor each of them for brand compliance. Today, technological developments allow franchises to effectively leverage and maintain control of their brand marketing online, in email and on mobile devices, without costly oversight

So, just what is the digital age for franchises and why can more companies now participate? LaDuque explains the key components and why they’re now more affordable to implement:
Local Search

Why it’s relevant: A strong, localized search-marketing strategy is now considered one of