ElementsLocal is unveiling BrandLocal at IFA.  It’s exciting, it’s direct and to the point.  It is designed to escalate LEADS at the local level as well as establishing your National Franchise Brand as the locally legitimized business.  Visit www.ifaconference.com for up to date information on what is happening at IFA 2012 and to schedule a meeting with your ElementsLocal team.

Visit us in booth #724 to find out what all the excitement is about!

1. Build LOCAL Content
2. Deploy LOCAL Domain Names
3. Link LOCAL Websites      Together
4. Insure LOCAL Unique and Descriptive Titles, Headers and Descriptions are written for every page
5. Create Regional Websites connecting your LOCAL websites together
6. Send LOCAL Email Campaigns on a consistent basis
7. Send LOCAL Promotions Via Facebook/Twitter/Foursquare/Yelp
8. Use call/number tracking to capture your LOCAL phone leads as well as your form leads
9. Measure your LOCAL goals using Google Analytics
10. Test, test, test using Google Website Optimizer – Which LOCAL CTA gives the best conversion

All of this equals BrandLOCAL.  Visit BrandLocal.net for more information or call us at 805-547-1160 ext. 205

Google+ Badges for brand pages, is a widget that lets Franchise brands promote their presence on Google’s social network.  Google+ Badges are similar in form and function to Facebook‘s Like Box social plugin.

The easily embeddable widget lets users either +1 a webpage or add that page to their Google+ circles. The widget also displays the faces of other users who have +1ed the webpage. It doesn’t have Facebook’s ability to display your friends’ faces first  though.

The launch of Google+ Badges coincides with Monday’s launch of Google+ Brand Pages, finally giving businesses the ability to create a presence on Google’s growing social network.

The Google+ Badge has a few other tricks. The Google+ badge also contains a snippet of code that connects your website to your Google+ page. And In addition to helping Google better index your Google+ page, this snippet will help you show more personal recommendations around the web by linking your +1’s on sites, your Google+ page, search and display ads.

Google also revealed that the badge is a requirement for inclusion in Google Direct Connect, a feature that makes it possible for users to find a Google+ Page from Google Search. Users type in the “+” operator, followed by the name of a brand participating in Direct Connect. The search result will lead users directly to the company’s Google+ brand page.

The widget was a necessary component for Google+, given the success of its Facebook counterpart. While it doesn’t have the same benefits  Facebook enjoys with Open Graph, the Google+ Badge gets the job done. Google still has a long, uphill battle to convince both brands and users that its social network is an ideal place to do business.

Stay tuned as ElementsLocal keeps track of the impact Google+ has on your Franchise Online Marketing.

As you’ve probably already read, Google has introduced their new social search which is on by default into their “Everything” search.  Adding social circle recommendations and social media posts within the results is not the problem; Bing integrated Facebook social signals into their results almost a year ago.  Most pundits take issue with the fact that Google is showing great preference to their own Google+ social network in their search results.  Some are even going so far as to state, is that Google is willing to sacrifice relevance and quality in favor of their own social results.

Twitter (General Counsel,Alex Macgillivray) fired a salvo at Google claiming that it is a “bad day for the internet” because Google is displaying unfair practices by giving link preference in their search results to their own properties.  Google publicly stated that the Google+ social network would get no preferential treatment if Facebook & Twitter gave them permission to access all of their content, which of course neither competitor is willing to do.

So is Google using anti-trust techniques to bolster their own properties?  Well, it can be argued that Google does not hold a monopoly on search as they currently hold a 66% of the market share and there is no obstacle for consumers to use another search engine.  So most likely Google is not breaking the law, but we can see how the spirit of the law appears to be broken when the 800lbs gorilla of search is showing a lot of results to their own properties in their results.

By showing Google+ profiles in their search results Google is encouraging their users to sign-up for a Google+ account.  See, Google needs a large scale adoption of their social platform in order to pick up social signals which they can then use to base their search results on.  Google’s use of these social signals, such as quality ratings (+1) from trusted Google+ profiles could very well replace the current link graph system.  The existing system assumes that the more links a website has pointing to it the more popular that website is which speaks to its’ quality, but this can easily be gamed.  This paradigm shift from link graph to social signals for search results is a real big game-changer in search engine marketing.

Outside forces and new technologies dramatically affect what happens to your Franchise. You don’t have to respond on a whim, but keep your eyes wide open when major changes occur.

Here are some marketing and business trends that are important to Franchises:

The Cloud – Although social media and mobile get more buzz, the great change-maker for franchises comes from the cloud. Using Internet-based applications to run your business rather than locating those applications on your servers or hard drives sounds pretty liberating, doesn’t it?

Going to the cloud is transformative. You gain powerful functionality, you can spend more of your time on your business and less on your infrastructure.  Now that YOU are mobile, you can access your applications and data from virtually anywhere.  Having your customer contact management, email marketing and document storage is essential.

Social media – Social media is hot.  With good reason, Franchises are entranced with the idea of it. Social media offers the possibility of inexpensive ways to reach and interact with customers, but it seems like it takes up a lot of time with a very uncertain return on that investment.

Keep watching because this year will see the emergence of more easy-to-use tools that help you reach highly targeted customers. More franchises will embrace a wide variety of social media platforms, and Google+ will become a significant player.

Mobile -The mobile juggernaut continues in 2012, both for running your business and reaching customers. Look for greater embrace of mobile marketing, such as offering deals when people check in via Mobile.

Smart Franchises increasingly will use mobile solutions for a raft of business functions. One technology that will explode: accepting payments on smartphones, with tools such as Square (squareup.com).
More companies will embrace the power of being untethered from an office, being mobile and able to run operations on the go, especially when using cloud-based applications and tools.

Hiring – The past couple of years, workers have been “on sale” because of high unemployment, making it possible for franchisees to land great employees at lower costs.  As the workforce recovers, consider college graduates from the past three years who have been underemployed.  They can make great entry-level employees, and big corporations focus mostly on current graduates. Anticipate your needs for expanding your work force.

Credit – Credit for franchisees has been tough for years now. But it will get slightly better this year, making it a bit easier for healthy companies with strong customer demand to expand. Work with community banks that are receptive to local businesses.

Analytics – Knowledge, as they say, is power. One of the great things about cloud applications is they not only give you data, they give you reports.  You can see response in real time to actions you take. For example at ElementsLocal,  we send  monthly newsletters. From our E-Marketing Manager analytics, I am able see exactly how many people opened it, which articles they read, which products interested them and more.

Global – You may not be a global franchise yet, but I’m guessing you may be soon. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to meet many American franchises  who have grown their businesses by going international. I’ve even heard of someone who exports miniature golf courses.  ElementsLocal represents CurvesME,  the middle eastern franchise of the mega company Curves.  Think outside the box by thinking outside your borders.

ElementsLocal is your answer to adaptive Franchise Online Marketing software: Comprehensive and easy to use.

Reflecting back is more than just remembering where you wanted to be. It’s an eye opener about how dramatically the sands shifted under your feet in 2011 and a clear sign 2012 will be no different.

For Franchise Marketers Google introduced significant changes to the way it displays and delivers search results. Many franchise marketers had to quickly react to the importance of social media, blogging and directories. Our own vision of being a complete solution for franchise online marketing was expanded to include new best of breed partners in directory submission and social media. Our dashboard reflects the integrated nature of how pay-per-click, organic search and directories (such as Google Places) inter-relate and converge.

This being said, what does 2012 hold in store for Franchise online marketing? Seeing future trends is exactly what we need to do in order to anticipate change and be at the top of our game.

It’s not just about how to show up, attract and sell to consumers today, but next month, next year and years to come.  Lets transcend ideas like “social network” and “search engine” and focus  on consumers and technologies. Will we be using a search engine like Google in 5 years? Will we be using desktop computers in 5 years? What will future social networks look like? Answers to those questions are answers to the future of marketing and customer engagement.

Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and plenty of other large companies are innovating at amazing speed to gain control of our attention. Some are doing it through devices, some through content, others through infrastructure.

So, what is message we got from 2011? Change… we must take a critical look at what it will take to adapt to change.  Rather than jumping from one place to the next in your franchise online marketing plan, consider developing an adaptive model that allows for rapid assimilation of new technologies and trends.

Creating an adaptive model assumes that you will have to adopt new technologies or new methodologies. Is your company an early adopter? Have you taken on the risk of adopting a technology platform before everyone else? Or have you given up first mover advantage because you felt it was going to be too expensive or time consuming.

Here are some things to consider when looking at creating an adaptive marketing platform:

1. Don’t wait. There is no question that the ramp up time to evaluate and adopt new technologies and trends is expensive. You do not have to play the waiting game by buying expensive technologies. Look for industry specific solutions that are agile, quick to adapt and focused on your exact needs.
2. Buy best of breed. Look for companies who have forged partnerships with other ‘Best of Breed’ providers to bring you a comprehensive solution. This shows a focus and determination to deliver quality solutions.
3. Look for partners who share knowledge. Ensure partners are in tune to trends and data and that they will share that with you so you can more efficiently evolve and innovate at greater speed.
4. Don’t stop.  A key philosophical insight is to not stop when you think you’re at the top or you’ll go the way of the Sony Walkman as the IPod become the norm.
5. Data is the new creative outlet. As search transforms the amount of data needing analysis will multiply tremendously. Find solutions to transform mounds of data into creative content, solutions and insight tomorrow.  Data will move from advantage to basic necessity. Data is something the smartest marketers will leverage again, as a necessity, not a luxury.
6. Never underestimate the power of trying something. What data can you point to that says social media will help you boost your sales or increase your online exposure?  Better yet, what data can you point to that states it will not be an undue risk for your company?  Do not let the rush to data powered marketing trends handcuff you.
7. Personalized = Profitable. The more search results become personal the more the potential for leads.
8. Mobile search will greatly outpace PC Searches. Do not ignore the growth in the popularity of mobile applications and prevalence of local search results.  We ask you, are you optimized for mobile?
9. Lets Franchisees market too. One website will not dominate in search.  In an effort to create competition, variety and a better user experience, search engines will do what they can to ensure your site does not dominate. You can use this to your advantage by delivering truly unique and locally driven websites by giving Franchisees the power to update their own websites.
10. Searchers will continue to gravitate towards content they find useful. What marks the difference between insight and obviousness is the amount of people actually following through.  You have to dedicate marketing efforts to sharing value through search or social channels, rather than simply promotional materials.
11. Search will be about how many times you show up, not whether you’re first. The key to an adaptive approach to online marketing is that you’ll have a multi-pronged approach to showing up in organic search, pay-per-click advertising, directories, mobile, social and more. Are you mobile friendly, local readily optimized, social savvy?

Imagine how many more changes there will be in technology as well as with consumer behaviors in the coming year.

Take a look into 2012 by attending our ElementsLocal Franchise Online Marketing Bootcamp 2012, January 18th, 2012 12:00 p.m. CST.  Sign up by clicking: Franchise Online Marketing Webinar