SEO
Gain greater visibility for the chain if you have more than one location.
Companies with multiple locations
Although many chain managers and franchise owners know how important online marketing is to achieving sales goals, it is not always prioritized. The reasons for this may be a lack of time to develop and implement a strategy, or a lack of insight into what opportunities are available.
Therefore, here we give 7 tips for what you should include in your strategy, in order to achieve greater visibility for the chain.
In contrast to "old" media such as newspapers, sponsorships and flyers, everything can be done online marketing is measured. This means that you can always keep track of how many clicks, visits, sales and other conversions your marketing budget contributed to. From this data you can thus always see where it makes the most sense to place the effort. As with all other marketing, the first step in online marketing is to make a plan as well as setting goals for what success looks like for the company. It gives a clear targeting, as well as the possibility to follow up on whether the effort produces the desired results.
Plan and measurements for chains
Set strategy and budget for marketing
Assemble the local marketing strategy around the local departments
Focus on the products that provide the greatest profit
Purpose
The strategy for the online marketing must be built on the basis of what you want to achieve. Therefore, you must decide whether the purpose is, for example, branding, lead generation or sales. Here you should also have a common goal for the entire chain as well as individual goals for the individual departments. The sum of the goals for the departments can advantageously constitute the overall goal.
Customers
Find out who the customers are so you can target the campaigns directly to them. In the online marketing of the chain, it is also important to find out how customers are searching
the local departments - including which words and platforms they use. Is it e.g. Google or Facebook? Then it should also be there that you advertise.
Budget
Decide how much of the overall marketing budget you are willing to spend online. Be realistic and don't start too low, as this may result in you not achieving your desired goals. Also consider how the budget should be distributed among the individual departments. For example, if you have a department in Copenhagen and one in Hjørring, there is a good chance that the department in Copenhagen will require a larger part of the budget.
Price per customer
Look at how much a customer is worth to the business once he or she has come in as a customer. Then figure out how much you're willing to pay to get the customer. In this way, avoid paying more for the customer than what he/she is worth - and don't miss out on customers you make money from.
Focus Products
Consider which products to market. Look at which products are popular and which generate the most profit out of the individual departments. Also avoid spending advertising dollars on products you end up not making money on because you have spent the profit on advertising instead.
Messages
Consider carefully what messages you want to convey. The messages must be sharp and clear directly aimed at the target group you wish to communicate to. Make sure that the individual departments "speak with one voice" and focus on e.g. on:
The areas where your chain is stronger than the competitor (price, quality, service, other)
The chain's core values and any slogan
Platforms
There are a large number of platforms within online marketing. Here you have to decide, which combination you want to use among Google Ads, Display, Shopping, Bing, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, SEO etc.
Responsible for Marketing
Furthermore, it is important to consider whether you already have the skills to prepare and execute an overall strategy for Ads, SEO and Facebook in-house. Otherwise, there may be new marketing staff are hired, or you can use an external agency that can handle the task.
The advantage of using an agency is that they often have the experience and know how to get the most out of your marketing efforts. You can read more about what you need to pay attention to in connection with choosing in-house or external handling of Ads in the guide: Choosing a Google Ads partner.
Tracking
One of the biggest advantages of online marketing is that everything can be tracked. This means that you can always keep up with the results of the marketing efforts. Set up tracking in the form of call tracking, Google Tag Manager and Analytics and see exactly what you get out of your marketing - among other things in the form of leads, sales and visits to the website. In addition to that, in some cases it is also possible to use conversion tracking to see how your ad clicks affect visits to the business itself.
2. The optimal website
Build the website around the different locations
Make sure customers find the right location
88% of people who make a local search from their mobile phone visit a related store within a week;
Therefore, be visible when the customer needs your product
Subpage for each local branch
Each department must have a unique subpage so that customers can be directed directly to the local page that is relevant.
Here there should be information that tells
the visitor something about the individual department.
The most important keywords
Find out which keywords customers use when searching for the chain's products.
Use the most important keywords on the department pages and combine it with the city name of the individual
department.
Unique text for each subpage
Even if the different departments sell the same products or services, all department pages must contain unique text that describes the specific department. Write at least 300-500 words for each subpage, as longer quality content often ranks better on Google.
URL structure
Build the url structure of the department pages so that
the city name is included in the url.
This and the measures above contribute to Google perceiving the page as a chain.
TIP: Add address and phone number to all department pages. This contributes to Google reading the various pages as local parts of a chain, and at the same time, of course, it becomes easier for the visitor to contact the department.
3. The most important company profile on the web
Get control over how information about the company is displayed on Google
Ensure that potential customers can easily contact the local branch
Control over Google My Business
Take control of all the chain's Google My Business profiles and make relevant information visible directly on Google's search results page. The advantages of taking control of your Google My Business profiles are also:
More impressions on the Google search results page
Greater visibility on mobile
Featured Caller Feature
Direct link to your website
Free visit to the website
Visible address, telephone number and opening hours on Google's search results page
Strengthen the site if you have control over all departments' Google My Business profiles
Google Posts
Use Google posts to display a selection of news, events, etc., relating to the chain, directly on Google's search results page.
4. Local Marketing with National Effect
Be visible when your products or services are in demand in a certain area
Make the ads more relevant with geographic targeting
Limit the wasted advertising costs
Cut down on the inquiries you don't make money from
Limit yourself geographically
Enter the geographical area where you want to market the company. Save money on irrelevant, out-of-town customer inquiries and target the marketing towards areas with the most paying customers. In this way, you also ensure that the department shown to the customer is the right one.
Local tracking
Set up the tracking so that you can see the results of the online marketing for the local departments in the chain. This allows for targeted optimization of marketing for the individual departments.
Analytics
Use Analytics to learn more about customers' online behavior; which videos get the most clicks, how do the visitors navigate the website, do the visitors come from a smartphone, tablet or desktop, etc. Interpreting this data provides valuable insights that can help make decisions about how to optimize online performance.
5. Make your marketing scalable
Makes it easy to expand with multiple locations
Build the marketing so that it can be scaled to several countries
Scalable website
Build the website so that new departments can be easily added. The new department pages must of course also have their own subpage, unique text, keywords, address and telephone number as well as url in which the city name is included. In addition, make sure to use a system that the company does not "outgrow", understood in the sense that it is too small and does not have enough functions and options in relation to what will be needed in the long term.
Scalable campaigns
Set up the campaigns in e.g. Google Ads so that they can be easily duplicated and new departments can be set up. Here you can build a thorough campaign for one of the departments and subsequently use it as a starting point for the other departments. Although the starting point is the same, of course, unique targets must still be created.
Out to several countries
Scaling the chain in some cases also means expanding to more countries. Here it can be one advantage that the business partner you use for your online marketing also has the opportunity to help you with marketing in other countries. In connection with expansion into new countries, there are of course also a number of other areas that you must be aware of, including the following:
Are there language modules in your cms system?
Can the marketing be translated more or less directly or must messages be adapted?
Can you get the same domain name just with a different language variant? (e.g. .dk and .it)
6. One overall effort for the chain's marketing
Take advantage of the marketing advantages of the company having several locations
Create recognition
Collect the stake
Make sure you make a concerted effort rather than letting the individual departments stand for their own individual marketing. When the strength from all the departments is added together, it is strengthened common fire too.
Recognition to the local branches
Prepare all campaigns with respect for the brand, so that you create uniformity and recognition for the local departments. At the same time, ensure that the individual departments' specialties are highlighted and form the basis for the overall chain.
Price advantages
As with so much else, there is also an opportunity to save money when you buy in larger quantities. This means that you have the opportunity to get a better price from the marketing agency you work with by pooling your efforts in one place.
7. Have a chain analysis done
Are you a marketing manager or manager of a chain or franchise? Then we offer a free and non-binding chain analysis where we review your setup.
With an analysis of the current situation, there is a basis for making the present visible challenges and opportunities in online marketing. When we carry out the analysis, we look at, among other things, some of the areas that we have reviewed here.
Based on the experience we have with online marketing for other chains, we give advice on how you can get the most out of advertising in your particular business.
Are you interested in a free and non-binding chain analysis?