Whether you’re considering franchise ownership or you’ve already purchased a franchise, you need to think about marketing and advertising. But like any other specialized field, marketing and advertising has its own vocabulary. This blog post defines some common terms you should know as you’re planning or evaluating marketing and advertising options. It’s the third in a series of handy glossaries to help you decipher the jargon you might encounter as a potential or current franchise owner.
Digital marketing
Digital marketing is any marketing that happens via the Internet. This includes email, social media, your website, etc. Think of your website as your digital marketing home base, or the center of your digital marketing web. All your digital marketing should point back to it in some way. One of the advantages of digital marketing is the ability to measure the results you get from the money you spend.
Engagement
Engagement measures how many people actually interact with your marketing. This might include people commenting on your social media posts, clicking on your emails or ads, or filling out lead forms on your website. It’s better to have a smaller, highly engaged audience than a larger, unengaged one.
Email marketing
Email marketing refers to sending mass emails through a service such as MailChimp, Emma, or Constant Contact. Operational software provided by your franchisor might also have email marketing capabilities. Email marketing is governed by the CAN-SPAM Act.
Geofencing
If your franchise is a brick-and-mortar operation or a home-based business that provides services to physical locations, geofencing is a way to capture nearby customers. Geofencing sets a GPS boundary around your business or service area and sends ads or messages to people when they enter the boundary. You can use geofencing in combination with an app, Facebook, or other digital marketing platforms.
OOH
OOH stands for out-of-home and refers to advertising people can see in public places. Billboards are the most common OOH advertising, but OOH also includes digital displays in buildings; ads on buses, taxis, and subways; posters and signs; and more. It can be very difficult to measure the return on OOH because it does not leave a digital trail–you must rely on customers to tell you they saw your ad.
Organic
When you operate a business, some of your customers may come from word-of-mouth or other free activities, such as blogging or social media posts. Organic refers to these free activities and the exposure or traffic you get from them. The opposite of organic is paid.
OTT
OTT is the Internet-based version of television advertising. It refers to ads shown with videos that are hosted or streamed online (for instance, on YouTube or through a service such as Hulu). OTT stands for over-the-top because the ads are often placed on top of the videos.
Print marketing or advertising is done through printed media. This includes magazines, flyers, brochures, newspapers, and more. As with OOH, the return on investment for print can be very hard to measure.
Reach/Impressions
These two metrics measure the visibility of your marketing or advertising. Reach refers to the number of individuals who see your content, and impressions is the total number of times people have seen it. For instance, you might achieve 12,00 impressions with an ad campaign that reaches 4,000 people. This would mean each person saw your ad an average of three times. Reach and impressions don’t tell you whether people actually interacted with your marketing–engagement measures that.
SEM/SEO
SEM stands for search engine marketing and refers to any activities designed to gain higher visibility in search engine results (which means Google, for most people). SEO, which stands for search engine optimization, is a part of SEM and refers to the practice of setting up and maintaining your website so that it shows up higher in search engine results. This is a very complicated process that involves website structure, content strategy, and other factors. Other SEM activities might include advertising on search engines (such as through Google AdWords), setting up a Google My Business page, and more.
Working with a consultant can provide you with a more in-depth understanding of how franchise marketing and advertising work. If you’re ready to learn more, schedule a free consultation with me–I’ll be glad to help!
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