Question

Topic: Taglines/Names

Help With A Promotional Products Company Name

Posted by tucson.lisa on 9/9/2017 at 1:31 PM ET 250 Points
Hello, I own a promotional products and decorated apparel franchise and I have just learned that our website (one we have no control over) is not working for us. In fact, if you google "promotional products" in my area, we do not even show up. We also offer web services and print but we are non-existent when googling these services as well. When googling embroidery, screen printing, etc. we are easy to find but we would really like to focus on our other products as these require less labor in house. We would like to create our own website but we cannot, however, use our franchise name so we must come up with something else.
Our dilemma is do we stay close to our franchise name or do we do something totally different? We need people to be able to find us on the web. We have been open for almost a year and have had exactly 2 people, as far as we have been able to track, who have inquired about promotional products through our website.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 9/9/2017 at 5:27 PM Moderator
    Have you tried Adwords yet? If you are relying on search for people to find you, it could take a long time without Adwords. And test different keywords, ads and landing pages. A good testing program can often generate 5-10 times the number of qualified leads.

    Then you can optimize your landing pages and website too.

    Don't be so eager to blame (and replace) the name.

  • Posted by tucson.lisa on 9/9/2017 at 10:16 PM Author
    I don't want to replace the name and I am not blaming it. I have no control over my website as it is run by corporate so I cannot advertise specials, trending items, etc. And, yes, we have tried ad words and others like it with very little return on our investment. I don't know much about how web pages work but I have been told that if my website is not properly built with the tag words appropriate to my business, google is not able to search for it. So, I want to build a website which I can control so that people in my city who are looking for promotional products can find me. I cannot use my company name because corporate does not allow any advertising, websites, business cards, etc, outside of what they dictate us to use. But, I NEED customers who are looking for promotional products in my area to be able to find me. Right now, if you do a web search for promotional products in my area, we do not show up at all. On top of that, corporate just changed our name but they have not yet changed our website so if you search for my company's new name in my area we do not show up either. Corporate moves very slowly and we really can't afford to lose internet traffic. Does that make better sense? I don't think I was clear in my last post.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 9/10/2017 at 8:00 AM Member
    Where are you, geographically, and what's the name of your company?

    The easiest work around here is to set up a new, geo-modified domain name and have it redirect to your current website
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 9/10/2017 at 3:53 PM Accepted
    A new website domain is only the tip of the iceberg. You'll then need to get people to find your domain name, which involves SEO on your dime. That means you'll need to get links from other authority websites to your new domain (simply having a domain doesn't put you on the first page of search results without SEO work).

    Have you connected with your local Chamber of Commerce to get listed on their website?
  • Posted by telemoxie on 9/11/2017 at 7:56 AM Accepted
    I do not know the specifics of your franchise agreement, and I do not know what legal limitations it places on you, but if I were a salesperson for your company, I would strongly consider setting up my own persona, a character, an avatar (e.g. Betty Crocker, Miss Manners, Harry Homeowner). I would create a person with a blog and website who would offer advice on marketing through promotional products. I would seek leads in business for myself completely independently of the corporate name and marketing, providing of course that this is not illegal or in violation of your franchise agreement.
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