M-Commerce: The New Mobile Shopping Trend and What it Means for You

While the E-Commerce trend has continued to flourish, it’s brought about the sub trend dubbed by some as “M-Commerce,” aka, mobile shopping.

Web-capable mobile devices are everywhere, and people are using their smart phones and tablets more and more commonly to shop for anything and everything.  Further, many cell phone and tablet users research products and prices from their device.  I recently posted about the “SoLoMo Revolution” – Social, Local, Mobile search trends and how mobile devices are changing things.  According to a recent report from Experian Simmons, at least 41 million Americans now report using their cell phones for shopping related activities. (more…)

Are you Tracking Web Traffic?

What is driving visitors to your website, and how?  Having a Google Analytics account for your website is great, but are you using it effectively? If you’re not tracking your website traffic for each of your franchise locations or as a whole, you are missing a vital piece of the Internet marketing equation.
For better overall usability and conversion, it’s crucial to know exact data for your websites regarding:

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How to Optimize Your Website

The Internet is a competitive arena, to say the least.  But it’s also an extremely powerful marketing tool with loads of potential.  These days, every business has a web page, and most have social media pages, blogs and Internet marketing campaign strategies. It may seem daunting, but there are several ways you can optimize your website to improve your search engine rankings.

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Franchise Marketing Strategies: Video Marketing

Video marketing can be a great way to connect with clients and potential clients because it has a personal element to it. But if you don’t consider yourself a tech wiz, you may find the idea of making and editing a video for marketing your franchise a bit intimidating.

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Local Searches and the SoLoMo Revolution

Localeze and 15 Miles, digital marketing research experts, recently released their 5th annual comScore Local Search Usage Study, surveying over 4,000 U.S. adults to document how consumers search for and find local business information digitally.

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Marketing Franchises with Mobile Marketing

It is no exaggeration that smart phones have changed the life as we know it, and as we get further into 2012, they keep getting smarter. So it’s not surprising that the trend of mobile marketing is becoming more and more important for business owners marketing franchises.

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How to Protect Your Business Online

As a business owner or representative, you’ve obviously got your hands full. But there are certain affordable, simple ways to ensure your online presence is monitored and controlled by you – because if you’re not controlling it, who is?

There has been a steady decrease in paid advertising due to free online directory listings for businesses. Have you ever thought about what this means for local businesses? (more…)

Principles for Franchise Marketing at a Local Level

As discussed in this article from the New York Times Small Business page, being part of a franchise system doesn’t mean you don’t have to take your franchise marketing into your own hands at an individual level for your business. While the franchise system definitely has its huge advantages, namely instant brand recognition, there are also constraints put on you as a franchisee, because your promo and marketing activity has to be approved in most cases by the franchisor. That being said, there are plenty of ways you can drive business to your individual location – you just have to be strategic. Some ideas:

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Using Press Releases for Franchise Development Marketing

Many franchisees and small businesses don’t fully make use of press releases when they should. Press releases have a broad spectrum of influence in the industry as an online marketing tool.

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What Makes an Effective Franchise Development Website?

Stark Logic has worked with a number of franchise systems on their franchise development web sites. A franchise development web site is a sales tool aimed at a target market who is looking for a business opportunity and wants to know why your opportunity is right for them. An “effective” franchise development web site converts visitors to prospects who want to buy your franchise. (more…)