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Pack Your Bags for FranCamp 2013

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Anne Baum

FranCamp, the IFA’s Digital Marketing & Technology Best Practices Conference is taking place May 14th-15th at the Loews Atlanta Hotel. The conference is designed to help marketing, communications and information technology franchise professionals navigate the maze of digital marketing and technology solutions available to franchises today.

Featured experts will examine how franchise professionals can capitalize on new digital communications platforms and technologies to take their business to the next level.

Representing Location3 Media at FranCamp will be Business Development Manager Anne Dehner, Director of Strategic Accounts Carol Lee (@calee2), and myself, Account Director Anne Baum (@searchdiva). We’ll be at Bar Eleven at 7 p.m. on May 13 for the official FranCamp 2013 Tweetup or at various sessions throughout the conference.

Location3 Media will also be speaking at two of the sessions during the conference. Join us on May 14 at 11:15 a.m. in Ellington Salons ABC for “Strategies for Maximizing Google“. This session will take participants through the following topics:

• Deep dive into the Google eco system
• How to put AdWords to work for your brand
• Driving customers to your franchisee through local search and Google Maps
• Determine your ROI with Google Analytics

After you’ve learned about how your franchise system can utilize Google’s tools, come join us for Lunch and a “Flash Panel” in Overlook East. In this general session featured experts present solutions to common problems we all face. They only have three minutes to present that solution — breaking it down into only the essentials you need to know.

We can’t wait to be in Atlanta and meet up or Tweetup with you!

The Value of Mobile for Brick and Mortar Retail Locations

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Anne Baum

As recently reported by our President, Alex Porter in his post A Tool to Calculate the Value of Mobile Marketing? Google has released a new tool called the Full Value of Mobile Calculator to help consumers calculate the in-store value of mobile activity. This tool is a huge step in the age old question “how do I know what in-store sales I’m getting from my online marketing?”. This is a concern we hear often from franchisees and franchisors and it is one that is hard to validate. Coupons offer a clear connection between marketing dollars spent and consumer good sold, however, coupon usage in 2012 dropped 17.1% and it is unclear whether the trend will continue or usage will bounce back. So, consumers need additional tools to predict the correlation between online marketing and in-store activity.

Here are all of the metrics needed to calculate in-store ROI. The last two values aren’t provided in the tool but can easily be calculated:

Here is an example of the graph that is created once you input the required values:

The great thing about this tool is that if marketers don’t have exact metrics for their stores, Google provides industry-by-industry averages to use. Here are industry standards for the percent of visitors that actually visited your store after clicking on the mobile ad:

Along with in-store value, marketers can also determine the value of calls to their location, mobile app downloads, and cross-device value (for website purchases).

The hope for this tool of course is that marketers will understand the value of mobile and put more resources into key components of a mobile presence like a mobile-friendly website. Have you found out the value of your mobile traffic yet? If so, what are your key takeaways?

Integrated Digital Marketing for Franchise Systems

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Anne Baum

In case you missed our webinar “Integrated Digital Marketing for Franchise Systems”, co-hosted by Google, we wanted to give a recap of the great content outlining why integrated digital strategies are so important and how they can be developed to achieve a balance between the brand and the franchisees. This approach is something Location3 Media calls “Franchise impact, Brand intact”.

The Online Media Landscape

Although many of us are familiar with online usage stats, it is important to revisit them frequently because the landscape changes so often. Here are several statistics about online marketing usage that are great to keep in mind as your brand is determining how to approach investing in digital marketing.

1) People are constantly looking for new information online. Billions of searches are done each day. 16% of the searches have never been conducted before. (Google)

2) Shopping starts online with 94 percent of consumers researching products online before buying. Customers rely on online sources for local information. (Google)

3) Spend on digital has grown by 10 percent in the past five years. (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Wilkofsky Gruen Associates)

Integrated Digital Programs

Integrated digital programs allow advertisers to reach customers on their individual path to purchase. Today’s path to purchase is fluid rather than linear, it is consumer directed versus brand directed and it requires guidance from multiple sources. Managing the path to purchase for franchise systems requires a combined effort between franchisors and franchisees. Some of these efforts include:

1) Providing store locations with marketing plans and approved branding collateral for individual use

2) Managing local listings by centralizing at corporate to ensure consistency and accuracy of data

3) Providing franchisees a website framework and CMS that allows for localized custom content

4) Developing a centralized social media strategy that ensures a consistent brand voice, and is supported by store-level voice

Franchisees can help manage the path to purchase by utilizing the tools provided by corporate including vendor relationships and technology resources.

Paid Search & Display

As we mentioned, billions of searches are done each day with 94 percent of searchers starting their research online. Search also increases the efficiency of TV, print and radio between 3 and 10 percent. Here are a few other reasons why paid search is a must-have strategy for franchise systems:

1) Search drives offline conversions. 89 percent of shopping starts online while 93 percent of conversions happen offline

2) Search can be customized to fit individual franchisees including keywords, ad copy, landing pages and most importantly geographic targeting

3) Call tracking is a must have for franchise systems. We typically see that 70-90 percent of all actions completed from paid search are phone calls

Along with search, the combination of display and search campaigns delivers a 155 percent increase in search activity, speeds up the purchase funnel five times and 27 percent of users perform a search query instead of clicking on a banner.

Social / SEO / Content / Design

625,000 people join Google+ everyday and the Google +1 button is used more than 5 million times a day. In case you didn’t have enough reasons to upgrade your social, SEO, content, and design strategy, this rapidly growing product is the perfect push over the edge. Here are a few additional reminders about the power of these integrated strategies:

1) Google+ is a megaphone for your brand allowing you to add credibilitiy and enhance visibility on the Google Display Network, Google Search, YouTube and mobile channels.

2) SEO has three components that need to be addressed in every strategy: website optimization, content creation, and content distribution. Integrating SEO into the path to purchase for franchise systems requires the franchise system and the franchisors to hold up their responsibilities in each section.

3) As the worlds of design, SEO, content, and collide, findability requires as choreographed effort. The bottom line is that a website cannot be designed without planning your SEO and content strategies at the same time. The are not separate entities.

4) Content marketing is educating and inspiring people enough to do business with you. It’s not about you anymore and your content needs to engage and inspire your customers.

Overall, the success of your integrated digital marketing plan starts with your customers. Learning about their path to purchase and shaping a strategy to meet them at all points along the way will gain and keep your customers. Managing the path between the system and the franchisees will empower the individual locations while protecting the brand.

Do you have any success stories with your franchise system and integrated digital marketing that you’d like to share? If so, we’d love to hear them. Also, a recorded version of our webinar is available here

Google AdWords Upgrade: Enhanced Campaigns

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Anne Baum

Google announced the newest upgrade to the Google AdWords product, Enhanced Campaigns. According to Google’s Blog Post regarding Enhanced campaigns, “Enhanced campaigns help you reach people with the right ads, based on their context like location, time of day and device type, across all devices without having to set up and manage several separate campaigns”.

Enhanced campaign features are being rolled out on an account by account level currently however starting in mid-2013, all campaigns will be migrated to the new Enhanced format. This is very relevant as search behavior continues to shift toward a multiple screen experience for most searchers. From an advertiser’s perspective, Enhanced campaigns should eliminate the need for merging multiple reports together to gauge overall performance. Some additional features include:

1) Two new conversion types were introduced to AdWords in mid-January to help support the new Enhanced campaigns. The first one, Call-on-Site conversion allows advertisers to see how many calls are coming from a click to call number on a mobile website. The second, App Download shows the number of downloads driven through your advertisements

2) Device specific ads. Ads can be created and displayed using messaging and extensions specific to each device. This makes advertising relevant for every situation that a consumer might be searching for your brand

3) Campaign and budget management by device, location and the time of day. It’s imperative to be in front of the right searcher at the right time and the bid adjustment features will allow advertisers to implement their knowledge of search behavior to be found at the right time

Although all of these changes sound great, we’re also excited that we have a few months to fully understand the benefits and drawbacks that this new format might have on our accounts.

Google Introduces Zavers

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Anne Baum

On the heels of their announcement that Google Punchd, will be defunct in the next few months, Google announces the re-release of their newest loyalty and savings product, Zavers. Google purchased Zave Networks in 2011 in order to get a hold of the technology allowing brands to digitize coupons and loyalty programs.

Retailers like A&P (a food store chain in the Eastern U.S.) can sign up with Zavers to host digital coupons for stores. Brands can also use Zavers to promote coupons or connect with potential retailers. Coupons can be found through the Zavers website or through searches on Google.

Along with targeted coupon distribution, Zavers has the ability to track and report on insights like coupon redemption and offers a pay per redemption model for manufacturers using the service. The use of loyalty programs to increase consumerism is an art, with many articles and studies outlining the benefits of loyalty programs. Some examples include:

Coupons and loyalty programs can increase order amounts
Increase frequency of purchases
Create free advertising through a satisfied customers word of mouth.

We look forward to seeing how Zavers is going to fit into the online shopping arena and Google’s suite of online advertising products.

A Guide to the Google Display Network

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Anne Baum

The Google Display Network is sometimes a very tough cookie to crack with all of it’s nuances but it is vitally important to a brand’s online presence. We hear a lot of comments about how display advertising hasn’t worked for advertisers in the past so they are hesitant to revisit this tactic. However, internet users spend 95% of their time online reading and engaging with content, checking social networks, blogging and more. In order to introduce your brand and products to internet users, display is a must.

Along with reaching more internet users, display can also have a direct impact on your brand traffic. Here is an example of a brand that fluctuated their GDN spend month to month. As their GDN impressions changed, their clicks from brand terms followed the exact same pattern. Running display campaigns in conjunction with search campaigns can positively impact your brand.

Although display advertising can be daunting a great new guide (and on-going series) called A Search Marketer’s Guide to Google Display Advertising was published in Search Engine Land today to walk marketers through all of the great new changes, making the Google Display Network easy to manage. Here are a few of the highlights:

It’s all about placements. Once you find several placements that work for you, the possibilities are endless. Finding placements will take some data gathering through targeting options like keyword and topic. Once you start to see placements that stand out, they can be separated out into their own ad groups.
The keyword mystery of creating themes has finally been solved. Updates to keyword targeting encourage ad groups filled with tight knit keywords describing products and services. A tip from Google is that all keywords in the GDN are considered broad match. It might be best to look at your search keyword data to find queries that are more refined
Only 50 negative keywords can be applied to a GDN ad group. This makes it even more important to use a very exact keyword list. Also, consider using negative topics instead to control where your ads are showing
GDN Flexible reach allows settings to be set on the ad group level instead of the campaign level, giving even more control for GDN efforts. This is a continued effort to make the GDN advertiser friendly

Have more quick tips for success on the GDN? Let us know!

Google Custom Targeting Officially Dead

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Anne Baum

Many people still holding onto their custom shapes in Google were surprised by an e-mail in their inbox announcing that custom shapes will be officially removed by the end of the day on September, 15th. Although the custom targeting option was sunsetted in July of 2011, existing shapes were still housed in campaign targeting. Now, these custom shapes will be removed completely from the campaigns.

Example of Custom Shape Targeting

What Does this Mean?

If you have custom shape targeting and any other type of targeting (city, DMA, zip code, radius, congressional district) the shape will be taken away but your campaign will continue to run. However, if you are only using custom shape targeting (like the screenshot above), if you do not add in an additional type of location targeting before the removal on 9/15, your campaign will be paused.

Replicating Your Custom Shapes using Location Targeting Options

Custom shapes can be replicated several ways using a combination of the location targeting options that are currently available. There are several ways to identify these location opportunities:

1) Using the “Nearby” option for your current custom shape to see what regions Google thinks are covered by your current shape targeting

2) Adding in cities covered by your custom targeting by eyeballing your current targeting and then searching for cities that are encompassed

3) Use radius targeting to try and match up to the same shape covered by your custom shape. Once you add in a radius you’ll also be given “Nearby” options for cities and zip codes covered

4) Use internal research to refine your targeting strategy based on cities, zip codes, etc.

Example of New Targeting Using Zip Codes and Cities

Using a Radius to Identify Zip Codes and Cities

Let us know if you have any other suggestions for replacing your custom shapes with the current location targeting options.

Google Location Targeting Improvements

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Anne Baum

Google’s been busy rolling out updated location targeting options. Here is a quick peak at the newest additions:

Canadian Postal Code FSAs

Franchise and multi-unit systems in Canada rejoice! Four months after their initial release of postal code targeting Google has expanded this capability to 1,500 Canadian Postal Code FSAs . Why this is amazing for anyone utilizing Google for advertising:

• Advertiser’s with strict targeting areas can now advertise in their approved area without fear of overlap
• Companies can analyze customer data by postal codes and create campaign strategies for areas they have great results in or that they’d like to expand into
• Companies can align their offline marketing strategies that also rely on postal code lists with their online Google strategy

A few restrictions:
Scale: this functionality is not available in bulk in the AdWords Editor so this is something you’ll have to implement through AdWords front end if you are targeting multiple postal codes
Reporting: The geographic performance report has a new column entitled “Most Specific Location” that will contain the postal code if their systems are able to resolve IP addresses at the postal code level (otherwise the report will show either a city or region in this column)

U.S. Metro Changes

Another recent change was the incorporation of the Nielsen® DMA® (Designated Market Areas) regions into the metro targeting option. According to Nielsen Media Research there are currently 210 DMA’s in the U.S, the largest being New York with approximately 7.3 TV homes in 2012. This upgrade allows offline and online marketing to be further integrated since TV marketing also uses the Nielsen® DMA® system. Some advertisers may see small changes to their traffic levels but this impact should be minimal.

Congressional District Targeting

With election time coming up, Google has added congressional districts to their targeting capabilities. With congressional districts shaped by population patterns and not geographic boundaries these shapes tend to be very odd. Google has taken the guesswork out of political targeting. This new feature can be used across search, display, mobile, and video and it’s available in the AdWords interface

Local Targeting is Expanding into More Countries

The following countries just got expanded targeting capabilities:

Belgium (city), Bulgaria (region & city), Denmark (city), India (city), Ireland (city), Romania (region & city), Sweden (region & city), Taiwan (city), Vietnam (city)

Check back to see what else we discover about these new capabilities!

PPTP: Finding Canning Supplies

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Anne Baum

Ever since we’ve moved to the suburbs I’ve realized I need more hobbies. I’ve thrown around painting and soap making but the other day, I decided I was destined to make pickles. I spent the day looking up recipes and memorizing ingredients including looking on Schemer (I’m really starting to like this app and it’s actually where I got the soap idea).

So last Sunday my husband and I went to the grocery store for our weekly food trip and I started picking up supplies to make pickles. Here’s where the path begins. Halfway through, I said “we need to go to Michael’s after this to buy jars so I can make pickles. There is one over by the PetSmart”. A quick note, I think the fact that I wanted to go to Michael’s is a testament to their position as a brand because in my mind, they are synonymous with crafting activities and supplies. However, I don’t necessarily have any loyalty to their brand and the Michael’s that I was thinking of is about 10 minutes in the opposite direction of our house so I did a quick search on my phone for “canning supplies” to see if I could find a retailer that might be closer. I got a few ads to come up (no screenshots here, my Android won’t let me): one for Amazon, one for Target, an organic listing for Amazon and an organic listing for Ace Hardware. Since Target and Ace are even farther away and I wanted the jars now, I decide to triple check that there wasn’t a Michael’s closer than the one I could think of.

Recreated using my iPad

Lucky for me, there was a location almost right next to where we were. To make sure they had what I wanted, I called on our way out of the grocery store to ask if they have canning supplies. Success! We drove over following our blue dot on the Google Maps app until we pull up to the store.

When we go in the store, I’m immediately overwhelmed with stuff. Knowing that we don’t want to be in there long, we decide to find someone to ask where these canning supplies live. Here is the conversation that occurred.

Employee: Hi, can I help you?

Me: Yes, where are your canning supplies?

Employee: We don’t carry canning supplies

Me (with a confused look on my face): But I just called and was told that you do

Employee: Well, we have canning jars. They are in aisle 7. You asked for canning supplies which we do not have.

Me: Ummm, okay. Thanks?

Whoa.

Now, unlike my last story, this did end in a purchase because my husband had already gone to get some jars in aisle 7 and was headed back in my direction so we could go pay. The cashier was quite pleasant and we got home with the jars and soon to be pickles safely.

Of course, in theory, all will be good. I have my jars and I will have pickles in a few days. But to me, it is just another reminder that customer service is king for several reasons:

1) You can’t build strong brand loyalty (ie repeat customers) without customer service. When we were checking out the cashier asked if I wanted to join their brand loyalty rewards program. In my head I was thinking absolutely not because I will never be back here. Even with the coupon they gave me with my receipt. Although I only go in there once every two years or so, I most likely will not be back.

2) Consumers have options. Next time, I’ll do my research online, make my purchases, have them shipped to my home, and be pickling in three days or so. Or, if I want supplies immediately, I’ll try the Ace or Target that I remember from my initial search. I do not have to go back to that store.

3) Consumers are willing to sacrifice one element of a shopping experience for another if you offer a unique product but your experience with them as a customer will be limited. For example, there is a clothing store that I love with bad customer service, but they have clothes I can’t get anywhere else. But, I will not buy anything for full price there because I don’t like giving them more money so I will only buy things on sale. If they had better customer service I would buy things for full price, and, most likely more frequently (and maybe even with a store credit card).

Anne with mediocre customer service: 2 purchases a year X $80=$160

Anne with great customer service: 8 purchases a year X $250=$2,000

Now, you may think I’m overreacting just a tad, “Oh, it was just one bad experience, it will be fine. But honestly, this was the accumulation of multiple okay experiences capped with one bad experience. It’s unfortunate too, because, for some reason, as I mentioned before, this brand was in my brain as the place to go for craft supplies. Whether it was through years of fliers, strategically placed stores and what not, something they had done worked to win me over as a customer. However, their lack of quality customer service couldn’t keep me as one.

Do you have a PPTP to share with us? Don’t be shy. We’d love to hear how you find what you need through multiple mediums!