Tell the Truth Tuesday: Home Care Franchise Owner Wants to Know How to Best Market Their Business Online

Dear Valerie,

I own a home care franchise office location. The terms of my franchise contract state that I cannot have a website other than the one the corporate franchise office provides us. Frankly, I think it’s worthless. It doesn’t show up in my local area until the 3rd page of Google. It has no “call to action” as you would say, and never generates any leads. It does have a blog but I don’t have time to add content. The only content that’s on the blog are the generic articles that are not search engine optimized for my local area AND those articles appear on over 100 other franchise owners websites nationwide- so I’m sure Google doesn’t even take notice because it’s all duplicate content. What can I do to actually market myself effectively on the internet?

JBL, Louisville, Kentucky

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Dear JBL,

This is a common problem for home care franchise owners.

On one hand, the franchise has invested in it’s brand, and doesn’t want tons of rogue websites out there that may not be exactly the websites they have created, and less face it, there are a lot of really BAD websites out there created by home care franchise owners using Godaddy Free Website tools. UGH!

Your contract is written to eliminate bad branding and bad websites online. (it’s a control issue too, and maybe rightfully so)

On the other hand, we are all keenly aware that most home care franchisors know very little about internet marketing and proper web development- after all, that’s not their primary business, and not their strength. So, they listen to local or national big wig web developers who are not in the business of search engine optimization (they are in the business of pretty and functional) and are CERTAINLY not primarily focused on the home care industry (cough, we are, cough). Then the national big wig web developer makes lots of promises, speaks their control-it-all language and charges them 6 figures to develop a website, and hundreds of sub-sites that are not built for expansion or local search engine optimization.  We see it time and time again. The franchisor feels locked in, the big wig web developer has them by the money bags.

I’m guessing that as a home care franchise buyer, you probably never considered thinking about how well a home care franchisor manages their online marketing at a local level. You are in good company, because no one else thought to ask that question either! Now you can take the bull by horns and enhance your online presence anyway….

Here are some of the things you can do to increase your internet presence without giving the franchisor’s corporate staff lawyer a reason to send you a piece of certified mail :

1.  Become an expert author on many industry specific websites. Get your name, profile, company name and contact information out there as often as possible. Think that’s impossible or too time consuming? Think again, we’ve already provided a solution: www.SeniorCareAuthor.com It’s fast, easy, and enhances your visibility in your local area both online and offline.

2.  Do you provide great service? Has a client ever written a thank you note, testimonial, or email to tell you how much they appreciate your help? Stop keeping those golden nuggets hidden away, publish them on a third party credible site (no not your own website)  like www.SeniorServiceReviews.com. When you do, each testimonial is search engine optimized for your local service area- giving you the absolute best online reputation locally.

Add these two solutions together, and you can stop worrying about that old corporate website and start seeing your results everywhere in your local area!

Hope that helps.

Sincerely,

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN

LTC Expert Publications

3220 Domain St Saint Charles, MO, 63301 USA 

valerie@ltcep.com • 8884041513

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