Do Your Franchisees Hate You?
As a franchise marketing agency, working with more than 20,000 franchisees in the U.S. and worldwide, we often find ourselves in the position of being phone psychologists. In many instances, we hear franchisees speak in glowing terms about the franchisor, but more often than not we hear about their growing frustrations as a franchisee. Fortunately, you can turn things around. But to do that, you need to know why your franchisees hate you. My article outlines six situational examples and how to overcome them. DOWNLOAD THE ARTICLE
by 
Why Your Franchisor Hates You
I recently wrote an article for Forbes, giving insight into some of the frustrations that many franchisees have with their franchisors. Well, there’s a flip side to that coin. Your franchisor knows that without you – and the other franchisees – the business would at best consist of a few company owned locations, that you’re the backbone of the business and whatever else you’d like to hear that would massage your ego. But the truth is, while you may hate your franchisor, your franchisor hates you, too. Fortunately, you can turn things around. Read my follow up article to learn […]
Why Franchisors Whiff on Using SEO to Drive Leads
Why most franchise brands whiff at using organic search to drive online leads. The good news – there are only two major ways to impact your brand’s online search results: organic search and paid search. The bad news – driving real results can be tricky. Just ask the long line of franchise marketing vendors and in-house digital marketing gurus that have been vaporized by impatient franchise execs over the years. The two primary methods for driving online leads are known as search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) and respectively. PAID SEARCH: SEMFranchise marketers have plowed tons of […]
Hook the Media: How To Tell Franchisee Stories
Your business is booming; revenues are up, employees are happy, but there’s still something missing. Or maybe things are a little slow right now and you’re struggling to get people engaged with your brand’s concept. Whichever boat you are in, keeping an eye toward a solid PR strategy is key, so it may be time to take the next step toward long term success. We’re talking about increased brand visibility and presence in the media. You may think sending out a couple press releases about your business will do the trick – talking about the best your business has to […]
by 919Marketing The Press Release is (Almost) Dead
We continue to churn out press releases every day here. But, I can promise you this: We do not need a press release to get coverage. In fact, the press release doesn’t have anything to do with the placements our clients receive. I think the press release is on its deathbed, actually. I am by no means the first person to make this statement: Peter Shankman, Ad Age and many other really smart PR pros have long ago bid their farewell to the traditional press release. I don’t think I’m going to be attending the funeral of the press release any time this […]
by Sue Yannello 919 Marketing Honored in Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500/5000 List
919 Marketing Company, a full-service marketing and PR agency, was recently featured as a top 200 marketing and PR firm on Inc. Magazine’s 2010 Inc. 500/5000 List of the nation’s fastest growing private companies. 919 Marketing was highlighted as number 189 among other national firms and number 5 among other NC-based firms in the advertising and marketing industry with a three year revenue growth of 131%. 919 Marketing, similar to other companies in the Inc. 500/5000 list, has faced brutal economic challenges from 2006-2009. Despite those challenges, 919 Marketing was able to rapidly grow because companies took notice of its […]
PR Technologist: Why You Need One
(And for up-and-coming PR Pros, why you need to be one) Image courtesy of: http://authenticblogging.wordpress.com/ Many of the biggest stories in the last year broke on Twitter first – Whitney Houston’s death, the raid on Bin Laden’s tomb and the verdict in the Amanda Knox trial. Press releases aren’t just for journalists anymore – they help keep your website fresh with content. Many journalists respond better to pitches via Twitter and/or Facebook than email. A story on television is nice, but it’s even better when there’s an online story to go with it. Why? For search engine purposes, of course! The list […]
i9 Sports Knows Its Youth
A survey commissioned by i9 Sports was featured by a wide variety of the nation’s most well-known publications like USA Today, Parenting Magazine, Real Simple, The Christian Science Monitor, and She Knows. These media outlets were interested in the national survey of children ages 8 to 14 because more than 80% of respondents quit or wanted to quit sports and more than a 1/3 wish their parents didn’t watch their games. Articles related to the story appeared throughout Q2 and Q3 and positioned i9 Sports as a vocal leader bringing fun back to youth sports. View the full story here: NewsBrief
Many franchise development execs aren’t leveraging PR and social media to increase franchise business margins and improve close rates
We work with a lot of new business franchise executives and have noticed a wide range of perspectives regarding the use of marketing, and particularly PR as a critical component of company growth. I can reference multiple times where our PR efforts have led to an immediate, direct increase in sales leads and conversions. However, that’s selling short the power of effective PR programs. PR shouldn’t be solely judged on the number of qualified leads flowing into the lead pipeline. This is a misguided perspective, where portals, national advertising, PR, direct mail, telemarketing or the slew of other marketing tools out […]
919 Marketing CEO Explains to News & Observer Why Wall Street Execs Don’t Seem to ‘Get It’
As the recession deepens across the country, there’s a constant question being asked from the corners of Main Street to the sidewalks of Wall Street, where out-of-work stock brokers hand out resumes, ‘Why don’t the big Wall Street executives seem to get it?’ ‘All companies and CEOs have a blind spot,’ David Chapman, founder and CEO of 919 Marketing tells the Raleigh-based News and Observer’s Rob Waters. ‘When you think trees are growing to the sky, when you’re hitting one out of the park, you can lose perspective. They feel like they don’t need to talk to or respect their […]