Local SEO and Marketing for National Franchises, Part 1

Different business types often require varying approaches to internet marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and related themes, and a great example here is a business formatted as a national franchise. While such businesses often have their national marketing locked down and under control, they tend to be short on tools for reaching local customers in certain franchise areas – but this is an area where experienced online marketing pros can lend a big hand.

At SEO Werkz, our comprehensive SEO services package includes detailed local SEO service for businesses taking this approach, including franchises looking to reach individual local areas and expand their reach. In this multi-part blog series, we’ll go over several themes and recommendations when it comes to building local SEO for franchises, including target audience acquisition, listing basics, branding tips and numerous other areas.

Target Audience Acquisition

The first step to any of these efforts to improve local SEO for a franchise involves identifying and locating your target audience. Luckily, many franchises are at a built-in advantage here: They already have existing franchises in other locations, meaning they can draw from their customer data for insights that help kick things off here.

Here are some of the areas you want to keep an eye on with regard to target audiences:

• Demographics: Basic information on customers, ranging from age and gender to income level, specific location within the city or state, and others.
• Psychographics: Information on behaviors, attitudes and customer beliefs as they pertain to your business.
• Habits: This is all about determining the habits your target audiences take in determining their purchases, from the locations they buy from to whether they shop online and the kinds of platforms they visit.
• Pain points: Which kinds of problems can your business solve for prospective clients?

Sales Funnel

Another big part of the target audience acquisition phase involves detailing the steps involved in the process, from the moment customers discover your brand until they buy products and create a relationship. Many in the franchise world will refer to this as the “sales funnel,” which includes a few distinct areas in a specific order:

• Awareness: When a customer first becomes aware of you and begins forming thoughts about your business.
• Discovery: When a consumer actively looks to learn more about you.
• Evaluation: When a customer has decided they likely need something you offer, but are still determining where to buy it.
• Intent: The customer has decided to buy from you, meaning you must now make their path to doing so simple and easy.
• Purchase: The transaction is completed.
• Loyalty: A vital stage that determines whether customers repeat business and even recommend you to others.

In part two of this series, we’ll dig into some details on listing locations, using keywords and other branding tips for your franchise marketing. For more on this or any of our SEO, PPC, web design or other internet marketing services, speak to the staff at SEO Werkz today.