The title of a blog post is extremely important.  Most blogging software takes the title and uses it both internally and external in the management of content.  Some places where the title of the blog appears are:

• The URL of the post.
• The H1 title or the actual post titles that a reader sees.
• The HTML title tag

The problem you will find in most blog posts is that the HTML “title tag” is the single most important piece of content to a search engine but is often written to target human interests.   HTML title tags should be strategically used to drive search engine traffic versus copy that entices human readers.  According to a post in High Rankings, Title tags are considered to be in the big three which also includes visible copy and inbound link anchor text.  Still they are often overlooked by web masters and amateur bloggers.

Most blogging software and websites will allow title tags to be defined independently of content.  This is very important as humans and search engines are two different audiences.  I’m going to use a post on the website/blog of McCuistion TV as an example.

On October 25th, 2009, McCuistion TV broadcast a show on addiction which featured Chris Lawford Kenedy.   The title of the show was “The Causes of Addiction”.  The title of this show is excellent for human beings in that it is a teaser eluding to the fact that the show will reveal some of the causes of addiction.  From a search engine perspective, however, this title leaves a lot on the table.

The 2 word keyword pair “addiction causes” gets about 5,400 searches a month in Google.  The downside is that there are over 10 billion pages associated with this keyword pair in Google’s index.  Chris Lawford Kennedy gets about 2,000 searches per month and Chris Lawford Kennedy adiction only has 38,000 pages associated with it.  Though there are more searches associated with “addiction causes” the real opportunity is around Chris Lawford’s name the competition is much more approachable.  Thus, we published the McCuistion TV post “The Causes of Addiction” with a title tag that read “The Causes of Addiction – Christopher Lawson Kennedy”.  The result is that this post ranks in the top 4 hits in Google for both Lawford’s name as well as his name combined with the keyword “addiction”.

Title tags are very important as they are a blogger and/or webmaster’s interface to search engines.

Marucci Baseball Bats

Name a company these days that doesn’t have to market?  There aren’t many.  Even the toll road system in the State of Texas is advertising and marketing.  One that isn’t and has seen a 45% increase in sales this past year is Marucci, a baseball bat company out of Baton Rouge.

I learned about this story through an episode on NPR’s Marketplace called “High Def A Home Run Bat Maker“.   The angle on the story was that Marucci doesn’t advertise.  However, they are used by a long list of major league players and with the onset of High Definition Television, views can now see the logo and names on a baseball bat.  Yes, viewers are that in tune.  In an industry that is now selling advertising space on practice jerseys, free advertising real estate such as this is an exception to the norm.  On television that is!

Google’s unified search provides natural search engine results that includes both video and images.  This advertising is free!  Here are my recommendations for taking advantage of this:

• Have your web developer use ALT tags on all of your images with a one, two, or three keyword pair. (e.g. Marucci Baseball Bats)
• Name the actual file after your keyword with images (e.g. marucci-baseball-bats.jpg)
• Create a hologram version of your images that includes something such as a phone number or web address.
• Try placing your images on your website as well as others (E.g. vendors, article directories, flickr, press releases, etc)

Images do catch the human eye and they do sell.  Not all of us can be as lucky as Jack Marucci; yet, most of us can still take advantage of Google images today!  For more information, see Matt Cutts official post and video on the topic of images and search.

One of the most common marketing requests we get at Orangecast are franchisees who are looking for ways to market online.  One of the most common goals is to market products and services locally.  However, franchisors generally setup their web presence nationally and struggle with local search engine optimization.  This leaves franchisees in a bind and usually forces them to consider options such as creating local websites, email campaigns, and engaging in social media.  Unfortunately, many franchisors feel threatened by this and often severely limit these avenues per fine print in franchise agreements.  We have heard stories of franchisors sending “cease and desist” for blogs and local websites and forcing franchisees to turn over all customer email addresses of local customers.  The following is a quick list of items to negotiate into your franchisee agreement to ensure you have the flexibility needed maximize online marketing opportunities.

Tip 1 – Investigate Local Search Performance For Existing Franchises

Most regional and national franchisors want to maintain brand control and have a single website for the brand.  There is generally specific verbiage to prevent the franchisee from creating websites associated with the brand.  As a potential franchisee, you should evaluate the search engine presence for the brand.  This list should include:

• Ask to see analytics reporting for traffic in a particular city.  Get specific as to what keywords drive traffic.  If you are getting into a fast casual dining concept and are being sold on catering being a potential revenue stream, verify that the corporate website is driving local search results related to catering.
• Think like a customer and “Google” local terms to see where the concept surfaces in search.  If you are considering buying a franchise in a handyman services company, Google specific services with local city names and see where their site surfaces in Google.
• Ask if they provide Pay Per Click or Search Engine Marketing campaigns for franchisees.  If so, require that any fees associated with it are on a “cost per conversion” basis versus cost per click.

If you receive significant push back in your search for insight into these items, this should throw up a major red flag.  If you are made promises that this is being worked on, consider delaying your signing or specifically gear payments around progress in this area.  Search Engines are a significant piece of “affordable” marketing for local goods and services.  If this marketing is not available to your franchise, you are starting at a significant disadvantage.

Tip 2 – Review Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing is a powerful mechanism for connecting with customers.  Review campaigns provided by the franchisor.  Review content, open rates, and click through rates.  A good campaign will have open rates of 25% or better and will have a 15% click through rate or better.  If the content is too promotional and/or open and click through rates are not good, contractually give yourself the option to execute email marketing locally.  You should be able to drill into these numbers at a local level and content should be local or regionalized.  If it isn’t, opt to run these yourself as you will produce better results for your units.

Tip 3 – Maintain Social Media Rights for Your Personal Brand

Franchisors are very sensitive in the area of social media.  This is understandable as brand impersonation is a huge issue in social media.  Still, you are your own personality and being a franchisee is part of that.  Maintain the right to be “Bob Smith, Dallas Franchisee of XYZ” in your social media profile.  This includes broader initiatives like a Facebook fan page.  Social Media is becoming a very powerful and you should leave your options open in this space respecting the brand management needs of the franchisor.

Summary

There are hundreds of variables to consider when structuring a franchise deal.  Though the above might seem small in the scheme of things, the long term success of a local franchise relies on marketing.  As a franchisee, you can’t completely rely on the franchisor to make your business work and you will want to maintain some control.  If you are being forced into giving up search engine, email marketing, and social media control, consider another franchise opportunity or revisit the concept after they can prove results in these areas.

Marketing Bits co-host Jerod Morris was asked by Glenn Moore to attend Sports Media 360 in Cleveland, OH  to participate on a panel discussing credibility online.   The event was put together by The Dugout Sports Show (OKG Media) and Media Frenzy Communications.
The discussion on the panel was excellent so I thought I’d share with our listener base.  A special thanks to Sports Talk Cleveland for the audio feed and to Glenn Moore putting the event together.

The panel members are:

Brad Zibung – “The Heckler”, Founder/Publisher
Greg Bedard - Green Bay Packers Beat Writer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Jerod Morris – Midwest Sports Fans

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