Are you wasting this powerful online marketing opportunity?
Coke Cola, Nike, Vodafone, top brands who still spend a lot of their budget on marketing. Take Coke Cola – listed often as one of the top brands in the world. Do they need to advertise? One would think not because everyone loves Coke and yet you see their brand marketing everywhere. At every event, every bar, every party. At every movie, at every game, at every sports event. In magazines, on billboards, and on public transport. And let’s not forget TV, radio and now social media with a high online marketing spend budget. Coke is present and visible. What can we learn from this?
Use every online marketing opportunity available at your finger tips and within your budget
When it comes to marketing yourself or your business you can never get enough marketing. When it comes to the virtual world and online marketing it’s even worse, it’s like a never ending black hole. By the time you finished posting something, it’s already outdated or it’s lost in the abyss of your news feed or even worse the algorithms of Artificial Intelligence has decided for you that what you posted is no longer relevant swallowing you into nowhere-land where your posts never to be seen again by anyone other than yourself.
The data in the next paragraph is already outdated.
Stats as of 1st September at 19:40 see live stats
By the time you finish reading this sentence, there will have been
219,000 new Facebook posts,
22,800 new tweets, 7,000 apps downloaded,
and about $9,000 worth of items sold on Amazon…
depending on your reading speed, of course.
As an online marketing specialist I always advise clients that they must use every opportunity available to them to market themselves online. If you get invited to contribute and write articles on someone else’s site, do it! If someone invites you to attend speak at an event or summit… just do it! Use every opportunity as a marketing opportunity.
A well presented, completed listing on the Franchise Association’s directory listing
- builds your franchise or supplier business’ digital footprint.
- builds your own footprint as an influencer in your industry or service sector.
- is good for SEO because you are creating back links/external links to and from a credible website.
- is good for raising social currency. A trusted agent.
- gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise or reason for existence.
- gives your potential buyers an opportunity to find you.
Credibility and the trust factor
Deserved a paragraph on it’s own because ultimately we have all heard the saying, “people do business with those they like and trust.” And in today’s world it is difficult to trust others. People have been lied to, cheated on and abused now more than ever does it matter to have the trust and credibility factor. By Association you have that as a member. FASA membership is a privilege as members have shared that FASA membership is like that stamp of approval, the deciding factor of a quality franchisee signing on the dotted line and joining their team.
Customer Experience
Customer experience is the no.1 trend in 2020 and going forward. I myself am guilty of not doing this as well as I should. Customer experience is ultimately going to be the deciding factor as to whether someone does business with you or buys your product. And customer experience is not just about selling a product or delivering a service.
Customer experience is from the moment they land on a piece of content or sent you an email. Customer experience is at every touch point in your business. From visiting your stand at an Expo, to receiving an email, a phone call. Every aspect of your business. And whilst many of us try and be good at it, there are so many opportunities and key touch points we neglect or don’t know about.
Take your buyers for example. The ultimate goal is customer experience. Ask yourself, what experience are you delivering at every touch point? Do you even know what your touch points are?
Prospective franchisees go onto Google looking to buy a franchise business. Their first touch point entry happens to be the FASA franchise directory where they begin browsing various franchise businesses on offer who are members of the Association. If you are not listed on their directory, you’ve lost a good credible touch point. By being listed in FASA’s franchise directory you are adding to your buyer’s experience, building trust. You are letting your potential buyers know that you have agreed to abide by a Code of Conduct. You are also giving your potential buyers reassurance that as a member you have them covered should something go wrong. And something always can.
So they decide to explore and read further. What do they experience? Is it a marketing opportunity blunder or a customer’s delightful experience feeling satisfied that you have supplied them with sufficient information to help them take the next step?
Have you neglected your listing with very little information and just links to your website making visitors feel like they entered an unattended store or nowhere land nowhere because the link you left there for them to follow is broken or the internet had a disruption leaving your potential buyers having to start over or go somewhere else. Is that a good customer experience? And you may have lost your next top performing franchisee.
Good online marketing practices is to keep a visitor on the page for as long as you can. Even if it is not on your website.
What matters is that you are present, supplying your potential buyers with all the relevant information you think that they would need to help them take the next step. Don’t send them off to another website to find out more. Don’t leave a section blank because you don’t have the time or you think it may not be relevant. Leverage all your options to help you recruit franchisees or find your next company to supply.
What matters is that when someone goes onto the internet that wherever they land, whether it be your website or at the FASA website or on social media that you are present and visible ready to answer their questions. Like being at an Expo. Make it worth your investment. Make it worth your time and make it worth the time and money of your potential buyers who took the time to look you up.
As a supplier of the Association I can say it is a privilege for me to be associated with ethical franchising and I am a fool to not leverage the potential of this opportunity.
Romany Thresher is a strategic thinker and natural connector with a talent for identifying opportunities for your business or venture.
Organising, and overseeing your online digital systems and processes for your webinars and virtual events. Website set up, email communications, social media marketing and set up registration and feedback processes. Ensuring that you collect the necessary information to help you obtain a better understanding of your customer’s expectations.
Romany adds value to your business always being on the lookout for new opportunities to connect like-minded individuals who can add value to each other for a mutual benefit. Assisting you in online networking, lead generation, and giving you ideas and strategies to develop relationships with key stakeholders, sponsors, partners, and suppliers in your industry. Working in the background so you don’t have to.
What do you need to implement and upgrade in your life and in your business and who do you need to align yourself with so that you and those you work with and collaborate with can make a positive impact in your collective environments and communities?
Let’s find out!
