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
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
How to Streamline Communications
Remember the 1990’s? You know – when the height of technology meant you could download the new Bare Naked Ladies album from Napster with your cool, new dial-up internet connection… as long nothing else was open and the stars were perfectly aligned? Fortunately, computers can handle a lot more data nowadays, but us humans haven’t evolved quite so quickly. My rough estimate is that the average person’s capability to take in messages is about that of an old school floppy disk. It’s our nature – we’re easily overwhelmed with data and messages. That’s why it’s so important to keep your messaging consistent. What’s the biggest road block to […]
Avoid Analogy Aneurysms
Analogies are great. We certainly love them here at 919 Marketing and use them all the time. They’re an excellent way to bridge the communication gap with clients. They’re great motivating speaking tools for colleagues seeking advice/help. They can make a big difference…period. But they can also be a huge hindrance when they’re shot out left and right without application. You know what I’m talking about – it’s those days where you take an issue to all the people you care about (your Mom, your boss, heck, your priest) and they all give you different yet similar cryptic analogous responses. […]
One out of three franchise-based companies will change their marketing firm in the next 12 months.
Ironically, the reasons why one out of three companies change their PR and marketing firm each year are largely the same reasons that couples break up. It comes down to communication, commitment, financial arguments and endless rounds of excuses. Is it time to move on to a new PR firm? See below. Your competition is getting all the headlines. Of course you want to be the star of every story written about your category – but you know that’s not going to happen. However, if your competition is always in the limelight and constantly interviewed by the press instead of […]
Can a national agency drive as much media coverage for your franchisees as a local agency?
919 frequently works with franchisees across the country on Grand Openings and local PR campaigns. Many times we are asked “how can you drive local news coverage as well as a firm located in my local market?”. After all, we don’t have local “relationships” to leverage like local shops profess to have. They can take reporters out to lunch or for drinks, can help you stage the event (so can an event planner that is much better versed in successful events) and in some cases may be less expensive. The short answer is that in most cases, we are actually […]
Shiny Object Syndrome Isn’t Cute: 3 Examples of Tech-Love Gone Awry
I proudly wear “early adopter” like a badge. I love being on the bleeding edge of technology – having all the newest gadgets. I’m consuming information and beta testing a dozen different website and tools you probably won’t hear about for months. This “cool kid” status is not poisonous for me, since it’s my job. I’m supposed to have shiny, object syndrome so that I can tell you what is and is not worth your time. But when marketers and business get distracted and shiny object syndrome permeates into a global marketing strategy, the outcome can be harmful. I’ve seen […]