Inbound Marketing Blog

In 2020, when 86% of consumers rely on the internet to find a local business, and visitors judge your site based on aesthetics in just .05 seconds, it’s critical that franchises have a high-functioning website that attracts and engages visitors.

Here, we’ll explore 10 essential practices to help your franchise website hook visitors on the first page they visit. We’ll also explain how to ensure a convenient user experience and use SEO best practices to reach more potential customers. Lastly, we’ll discuss what to look for in a vendor if you need a partner to help you.

SEO and franchises

In the past few decades, the internet and growing popularity of smartphones has changed the way people shop at local businesses. No longer chained to a desktop, Americans are free to research local businesses and make purchasing decisions on the go. Consider these statistics:

Websites come in all shapes and sizes, but when it comes to generating quality leads online, optimized franchise landing pages are absolutely essential.

If you’re not familiar with landing pages, these are simply the website pages where your visitors can submit their information in exchange for something. That something could be a whitepaper, demo, or promise that you'll contact them directly.

If you’re intent on building a website designed to attract and convert the serious buyers out there, it’s crucial to make sure you’re leading interested visitors to landing pages they can use to take the next step.

If I were to ask what the most important page on your franchise’s company website is, I’d be willing to bet most companies would respond with either:

• “Our homepage, of course,” or
• “Our franchise landing page—that’s where visitors are converting on the site.”

While no one page is far and away more important than others on your website, one that seems to fall by the wayside all too often is the “About Us” page.

Want to reach out and present your franchise opportunity to a wider audience of prospective business owners?

This post examines a common mistake franchisors make with their paid advertising campaigns - dropping ad clickers on a bad landing page. Don't worry, we also explore how to fix it.

It’s easier than ever for businesses to design professional-level websites that fit any budget.

What’s more difficult is turning those websites into lead generation tools you can use to grow your franchise.

While great web design is essential for branding and navigation, it’s the site's content that ultimately attracts the attention of search engines and prospective franchisees eager to learn about the opportunity.

Whether you’re building a new franchise website from scratch or looking to make content improvements that push curious visitors into your sales funnel, the first step to creating a franchise content strategy is defining your ideal prospect in full detail.

How can you make sure your franchise website is ready for inbound marketing?

Oftentimes, franchisors looking to add new digital marketing tactics mistakenly believe they can simply tack on such strategies to their existing website and achieve optimal inbound marketing success.

But because inbound marketing strategies in particular work to drive targeted traffic to your website and then convert and nurture them all the way until they buy a franchise (and beyond), it is essential that your entire website is set up to enable success before you just start blogging.

This post provides a short checklist to make sure your franchise website is truly inbound-ready.

Inbound marketing can work for franchises looking to gain traction when web leads are few and far between, but can be a challenge to implement in-house.

This post will walk through the pros and cons of taking on an inbound marketing program yourself vs. outsourcing it to a dedicated inbound marketing agency.

We’ve talked at length about the importance of developing a content strategy built to attract serious franchise buyers combing the web for an opportunity that speaks to them.

The second logical step in the inbound methodology is converting those interested visitors into leads you can nurture through the franchise sales process and eventually close—the final step of the inbound process.

This post will focus squarely on how to create a compelling call-to-action that will earn the clicks of your website visitors, leading them on the start of their conversion path.

What are calls-to-action and how are they used to convert potential buyers?

Simply put, calls-to-action (CTAs) are buttons or links that encourage prospects to take action. Whether it’s downloading a white paper, registering to attend a webinar to learn more about the company, or any other kind of downloadable material or contact form, just about every next step on your franchise website is prompted by strategically placed CTAs. Here's a simple example: