Master Franchise Tutorial: How to Use the Internet to Grow Your Business and Territory
By Samuel Hirschberg
Several years ago, one of my clients asked me to develop an
Internet marketing program to help them increase sales.
Because customer acquisition on the Internet was not a sure
thing for this company at the time, the company devoted a small
amount to their Internet marketing budget. But, now that more
people are searching online for my client’s products, their Internet
advertising budget has grown about 2000%, since we first started.
Today, all the employees in the office gasp in shock when told
about the size of money being invested to generate more online
business. So, recently I once again reviewed the startling facts
with the company executives.
And after doing so, I immediately got a call from the CEO asking
me to increase their online advertising budget yet again.
Why?
Because a multi-million dollar company that has been successfully serving a growing base of clients for over 10 years does not invest more money into a failing advertising program.
And the fact is that my client realizes a 1000% return on money invested. That is, getting over $10 in new revenue for every $1 spent. After countless thousands of new customers and millions in found revenue for just this one client, Internet marketing is not only proven, but could be a source of business for you as well. A source that simply cannot be overlooked.
You see, most marketing departments would be ecstatic to break even on the first sale, let alone realize better than a 10-1 ratio.
So, if you are not devoting at least some energy towards developing an online customer acquisition program carved out to satisfy your niche market, you could be leaving piles of revenue on the table. But it’s not enough nowadays to get a web page or to simply ‘go online’. You need to specifically design a plan around where your best customers are hiding.
Where Do You Start?
The question I get repeatedly is, “Sam, with the Internet today representing billions of pages of information, where do you suggest I start?
After you have a well designed web site, the work really begins. If you are not sure where to best put your resources to get new potential customers, let’s start with where we can find your target market, rich with loads of people – the search engines. A search engine is a website that gathers, sorts, and reports information from the Internet, based on your topic of interest. Some search engines can bring more people to your web site than others based on your market, product and offer (which can be determined through testing). So, when deciding where to start, it is always a safe bet to begin with the top five most popular search engines.
The following ranking show the popularity of search engines as defined as the those that post the most search queries:
1. Google.com2. Yahoo.com 3. MSN.com 4. AOL.com, and 5. AskSince most people are using Google, that’s where we’ll start.
When you input a “search query” in the search bar, Google will quickly search billions of pages of information and list the most relevant web pages at the top of the search results. There are two kinds of search results, paid listings and organic listings. Paid listings are just that – a listing that an advertiser has paid for to be ranked at or near the top. An organic listing is a free listing based entirely on the relevancy to the words searched for. Your objective is to be at the top, preferably of both categories.
To be at the top of the paid listings, it is not always enough to simply pay more. Search engines are now cracking down on the relevancy of the web site to the ad being paid for. In most cases, web pages will receive good results in the organic listings from simply being ‘who they are.’
If you are a master franchise, an area developer, or a business owner that has a defined teritory to develop, it is suggested that you use the technology known as geo-targeting so you can devliver your message to only those in your target region to generate lead flow and sales.
We will talk more about this in another article. Until then, if you would like a lead generation campaign set up, or an existing one fine-tuned, you can contact Hirschberg Direct at sam @ HirschbergDirect.com
‘til next month,
Sam
How to Contact Us
Samuel F. Hirschberg is the President of Hirschberg Direct, a direct-response advertising and marketing firm with specialties in working with franchisors, master franchises and area developers. Sam can be contacted at
(805) 220-7800.
Hirschberg Direct
(805) 220-7800
Hirschberg Direct
(805) 220-7800
