One amazing statistic I recently read was that even today there are approximately 50% of businesses that don't have a Web site. While we have already talked a lot about that here, there is one type of business that may think they don't need their own website: A franchise.
I have to admit, I haven't thought to much about the need for that during my online marketing efforts or consulting, but a recent article I read concerning the Hotel business changed my thought patterns.
Talking about a franchisee, this is what they said about an independent website they launched:
"The site was optimized for the search engines, employs search engine marketing, participates in strategic linking, and performs email marketing on a monthly basis. Ongoing changes were made to upgrade the look and feel of the design and add more and better photos, a virtual tour, and local destination content. By Sept 2006, the year-to-date revenues generated from the independent franchisee website was $550,000. The major brand website revenue generated for the property for the same period was $518,000."
From the viewpoint of those that follow the industry, the local hotel earned approximately 65%-70% of the $550,000 they generated from the independent site over what they would have without it.
The industry says that a hotel website is now the “first point of contact” with a huge majority of hotel customers.
Think of the business you may be missing out on if you don't have a website! Don't just count on corporate or official affiliate sites to generate revenue; the best go beyond that.
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