is your brand’s online reputation killing your franchise sales efforts?
TRANSCRIPT
Is Your Online Reputation Killing Your Franchise Sales?
Webinar
How to Evaluate
Your Franchise Brand’s Online
Reputation
Case Study
How to Protect and Repair Your
Online Reputation
Tracking and Measuring
Online Reputation
THEOVERVIEW
Online Reputation
Management for
Franchise Sales
Questions
001
ORM FOR FRANCHISE SALES
Online Reputation Management for Franchise Sales
91% of all franchise deals can be traced back to self-directed internet activity, referrals and broker networks.
–Franchise Update’s 2014 Annual Franchise Development Report
42% Internet
32% Referral
17% Broker
9% OtherLEAD SOURCES
Online Reputation Management for Franchise Sales
“Even with franchise sales that you can’t source back to the Internet, you can safely assume that a vast majority of candidates will research your franchise system online either before or during their decision making process.”
–Entrepreneur.com
Trend No.1: Franchise candidates will conduct more self-directed research and demand more transparency of information before they talk to a franchisor representative.
– Franchise Update’s 2014 Annual Franchise Development Report
Self-directed in their research of franchise opportunities, the information prospective franchisees find online about a brand can seal or kill a deal.
You may be losing franchise prospects without ever knowing it.
If Ripoff Report, Unhappy Franchisee or other negative review sites come up on the first two pages of a Google search for your brand and franchise opportunity, the candidate most likely will become uninterested in the opportunity... but you may never even know this information.
CASE STUDY
Case Study
A few well-placed negative reviews were driving franchise leads away from our franchise client and damaging the exceptional reputation that the brand had built during its 30 plus years of being in business.
Sites like Ripoff Report were dominating the online search results.
At first glance Ripoff Report my look like a credible website, but in reality it's a for-profit review site that's known for publishing unvalidated complaints and “exposés” and charge a fee to companies and individuals to remove their negative reviews.
Case Study
Background
Our franchise client was experiencing the pain of a negative online reputation and came to Fishman PR for help.
Every search query related to the franchise opportunity and founder showed negative results including reviews and complaints by disgruntled franchisees, lawsuits and bad press.
Case Study
The Options
Our client was angry that unfounded complaints by a few troublemakers were having a negative impact on franchise sales.
They were considering taking legal action, but battling the negative search results in the court room would have led to costly litigation, and more often than not the cases are thrown out of court.
The Solution
Fishman PR saw an opportunity to use the power of high-quality content, strategic online reputation management and search engine optimization (SEO.)
To create a new, positive picture of our franchise client online– the kind of reputation prospects want to invest with and customers want to support.
Case Study
The Process
Through the development of exceptional content that’s worth sharing and optimized to rank in search results, the right distribution tactics and a branded hub, Fishman PR could promote our franchise client as a thought leader and create a positive brand identity online.
Campaign Components:
High Quality,
SEO CONTENT
BrandedHub
Weekly online reputation
scorecard to track and
report progress
Strategic Content
Distribution Tactics
Case Study
Branded Hub
The Fishman PR team developed an optimized branded hub that features the latest in SEO tools and plugins.
The right background technical support allows for Google’s “crawlers” to scan content so that it may rank higher in searches.
As the cornerstone of the online reputation management strategy, the branded hub works to feature our franchise client as a thought leader and directs valuable website traffic toward positive branded content.
Case Study
Content Distribution
We used existing branded social media and created new accounts for our franchise client and the company founder to distribute the positive, high-quality content we created and published on the branded hub.
By utilizing a variety of distribution channels, we’re able to distribute new and existing content like articles, videos, images and presentations across a wider network.
The content was further distributed as users shared links to blog articles and other content pieces, giving the SEO efforts a boost through “social juice.”
Through strategic content distribution, we were able to improve the reputation of the brand online by boosting SEO efforts and increasing brand awareness.
Case Study
Results
ORM is an ongoing process that doesn’t happen overnight. Fishman PR worked to battle negative search results for our franchise client and its founder.
Between January 2014 and April 2015 we were able to show:
• 11% positive search result increase
• 11% negative search result decrease
• An overall more positive brand image on the first 2 pages of Google search results for keyword terms.
78% (216) PositiveResults
22% (60) NegativeResults
January 2014 April 2015
89% (245) PositiveResults
11% (30) NegativeResults
Case Study
Results
In addition to Google search rankings,we also focused on achieving positive suggested search results.
At the start of the process our client had almost entirely negative suggested search results.
As of July our progress is as follows:
• 50% negative suggested result decrease• 50% positive suggested result increase
75% NegativeResults
25%PositiveResults
January 2014 July 2015
75% PositiveResults
25% NegativeResults
Freebie Alert!Email [email protected] to receive a case study on our ORM Scavenger Hunt
HOW TO EVALUATE YOUR FRANCHISE BRAND’S ONLINE REPUTATION
1. Choose a list of keywords that franchise prospects are likely to search for when researching your franchise opportunity
Examples: franchise name + reviews, franchise name + complaints, franchise name + opportunity etc.
2. Download Google Chrome
3. Clear your cache
Open browser, click the three horizontal lines in the top right corner, click “history
Click “clear browsing data Make sure all boxes are checked and top row says “from the beginning of time” and click “clear browsing data.”
4. Close browser
5. Right click on the Google Chrome icon on your desktop and click “new incognito window”
6. Go to Google and enter in the key word and examine if the results are positive or negative
HOW TO PROTECT
& REPAIR YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION
Feeling pretty good about your brand’s online reputation? Don’t get too comfortable.
If your franchise brand currently has a positive or neutral online reputation, now is the time to start a proactive online reputation management campaign to protect against future issues. As franchise brands grow, it is inevitable that at some point they will have a disgruntled franchisee who turns to the Internet to vent.
When this happens, the complaint can go straight to the top of the search results, immediately impacting franchise sales.
Create high quality content using select branded keywords that promote the franchise opportunity and brand
Distribute the content on a consistent, ongoing basis to create a buffer in the search results.
It is much easier to maintain a positive reputation than it is to fix a negative one.
HOW TO TRACK AND MEASURE YOUR FRANCHISE BRAND’S ONLINE REPUTATION
To track and measure progress or to ensure that your branded search results stay positive, it is important to track them on a weekly basis. We use a weekly score card…
Search results fluctuate week to week.
TAKE AWAYS
1. EVALUATE
2. CREATE & DISTRIBUTE
3. TRACK & MEASURE
Free Consultation
ALL WEBINAR ATTENDEES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR A FREE 30 MINUTE ONLINE REPUTATION CONSULTATION.
Contact Rachael after the webinar for more information.
847.947.1300
Questions?
Contact Us
Rachael WachsteinFishman PRVice President of Content Marketing
847.947.1300
Rachael joined Fishman PR in 2009 and developed our content marketing practice. In her role, Rachael creates effective strategies to help franchise brands achieve their consumer awareness, franchise lead generation, search engine optimization and online reputation management objectives.