“Digital Evolution” doesn’t just mean AI and machine learning. By revamping bread and butter digital assets, brands can attract and retain customers, and stay current with the latest trends
This article is powered by Scorpion
For many brands, this year’s gradual return to ‘normal’ will be an exciting prospect. A consumer boom could be in the cards, particularly for those within industries that were forced to largely shut down during the height of the pandemic.
To really ride this wave of success, franchises from every sector need to make sure that their online presence and digital footprint are of the highest possible quality. They need to play bigger, by elevating not only their brand experience, but also the fundamental ways in which consumers can interact with the brand.
Level-up the essentials
One of the key mediums that consumers use to engage with a franchise brand is through its website. But as recent years have shown, simply maintaining a basic online presence isn’t nearly enough to compete.
“A website is extremely important for the overall success and awareness of a brand. When building a strong brand, you need a strong foundation and in today’s digital world, your website is that foundation,” says Eric Tanner, senior VP of franchise marketing at Scorpion.
“Over the last few years, websites have transitioned from being a static source of information to interactive and engaging platforms. You see this through functionality like online scheduling and ordering, real-time chat agents, live menus and pricing, and in certain industries, modules that allow you to upload pictures of your home to see various painting schemes, window covering options, or furniture in your room.
“This increased engagement allows users to more quickly make decisions – and could even make the difference between them choosing you versus a competitor.”
“When building a strong brand, you need a strong foundation and in today’s digital world, your website is that foundation”
Refine media mixes
By understanding shifts in consumer behavior and refining media mixes, franchises can meet consumer expectations for an omnichannel brand experience and avoid the misstep of investing hefty sums into areas that are overly competitive or don’t necessarily ensure the strongest ROI.
“While it’s instinctual for a franchise owner to invest marketing dollars heavily or even exclusively in lead-driver spend to see an immediate phone call or lead, such a singular strategy eventually loses to the savvy competitor who understands the importance of building brand strength,” says Stephen Bess, VP of franchise marketing, Scorpion.
“Strong brands are more easily recognized online, more easily remembered to create customer loyalty, and more often chosen in the search engine results pages (SERPs) compared to lesser-known brands. As a bonus, increases in branded searches help to lower overall lead costs, making lead-driver spend even more efficient.
“Educate your owners on branding, encourage them to incorporate long-term brand-spend into their marketing plans, and tangible results are sure to follow.”
Evolving on a legacy
Founded in 1991, Wing Zone has firmly planted itself as a frontrunner legacy brand in the American restaurant scene. But until partnering with Scorpion, the quick-service favorite had no long-term online marketing plan, nor a dedicated digital strategy.
To remedy this, Scorpion enacted a multi-channel approach to ensure consumers would be exposed to the Wing Zone brand wherever they might be spending time online. It used geotargeting to market directly to consumers within 10 miles of their local Wing Zone location, and launched a combined effort of payper- click, Google map, and display advertising.
As a result, Wing Zone experienced 25-27 per cent more customers at each location, 3.4 million online impressions, and over $112,000 in revenue at four pilot program locations, solely from online marketing. Not only that, but the Wing Zone corporate team was able to tap into data that could provide insights for the entire brand.
“Getting new customers in the door, being able to track where they came from, how much they spent, and how they ordered…it’s a game-changer,” said Matt Friedman, co-founder of Wing Zone.
Improve existing campaigns
With its heated indoor pools and worldclass instructors, Goldfish Swim School had no problem attracting new customers. However, its online presence wasn’t delivering how the brand had hoped – more signups were needed fast.
A website redesign was undertaken by Scorpion, which involved researching and mapping how customers used the previous Goldfish site. The brand was generating plenty of leads, but only 10.2 per cent of those were converted into memberships. By adding more questions to signup forms, the brand saw a drop-off in form fills, but more than doubled the number of conversions, with the rate climbing to 25.4 per cent.
This website refresh, combined with focused advertising on channels like Google Search and Facebook, brought Goldfish Swim School record-breaking numbers for its web-driven swim class enrollments. Instead of investing in unproven technology or peripheral channels, all it took was a renewed, in-depth look at the brand’s website and digital strategy.
Rapid development
Unlike Wing Zone, Bloomin’ Blinds did have an existing digital plan before working with Scorpion – they’d just experienced disappointing results from their previous partner.
Following a chance meeting between CEO Kelsey Stuart and Scorpion at a conference, the Bloomin’ Blinds story took on an entirely new direction; one of growth and opportunity. A brand new franchisee-friendly website and more strategic advertising dramatically increased leads for franchise locations, and saw the brand grow from six locations to 29 in just under two years.
Was this the result of a complete online overhaul? No – it was all thanks to a ‘play bigger’ perspective shift that Scorpion was able to walk the Bloomin’ Blinds team through. Bloomin’ Blinds was already acquainted with SEO and paid advertising, but diversifying other channels along with developing more in-depth customer targeting led to bigger results for both the brand and its franchise owners.
