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Local Internet search services have gained raving fans and have forced businesses to rethink their local marketing plans. As customers embrace online services, they leave traditional media (including the advertisements) in the recycling bin. Be forewarned, because the dynamic nature of local online marketing can make managing this transition challenging for even the most technically-sawy advertisers.
Unique Issues for Franchise Organizations
Local online advertising is tremendously complex. Unfortunately, franchise organizations have an additional level of complexity because they have to ensure consistency between national, regional and local campaigns. To compensate, franchise companies must establish logical rules to ensure each campaign runs correctly. Dick Larkin, president of WEBlistic, an online advertising firm, advises organizations to plan thoroughly: "Online advertising seems simple on the surface, but as you peel back the layers, you find that it truly is rocket science. One innocent mistake by a franchisee can have a domino effect which devastates an entire organization. It's important to control all aspects of the online campaigns."
Franchisors long ago-that's about one or two years in Internet time-realized that they had to reallocate their media spend to include advertising on the Internet-first in the area of franchisee recruitment, and then in the overall promotion of their systems (both on their own Web sites and through other properties). But the trend toward local search, as opposed to general search, on the Web has made franchisees take notice, and an increasing number of franchisees and regional cooperatives are now starting to reallocate their own media spending to include local online advertising. The problem is knowing where to start.
Franchisees often expect their franchisors to provide the same direction, guidance and management for online marketing programs as they do for traditional media. This poses a dilemma for franchisors, because online marketing requires knowledge of advertisement serving, specific copywriting skills and technical prowess.
Local Online Advertising
While death and taxes are still more inevitable than finding an advertisement for a local service provider online, the trends are impossible to ignore. In what seems like the blink of an eye, 66 percent of consumers now use the Internet as their first reference source when seeking information about a local business. Local search usage is growing at double the rate of overall Web search,...