Are you measuring the number of offline sales that originate online? If not, the value and returns of your online marketing campaigns are probably being underreported. The beginning of each quarter is a great time to examine the origin of your offline sales to see if they had an online connection. Doing so will help to develop significant performance indicators that will allow you to examine your integration efforts, resulting in better overall sales and conversions. Additionally, an integrated online marketing professional can help you analyze and build on the information collected.

Due to the bleak hiring picture of the recent economy, SEMPO has recently launched a new program to make job seekers become more competitive and qualified for various positions. This four day course is designed to strengthen and improve job seekers' copywriting skills as well as their knowledge of keyword search. Also in the 2009 forecast, a short course on link building and social media. Elsewhere in the industry, a new study has found that for the first time ever, SEM is being allocated into many marketing budgets. According to SEMPO, rather than using traditional marketing budgets for SEM, money is being allotted to SEM ahead of time. In other words, SEM is being considered before budgets are put into place.

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• Within weeks of the site launch, all major search engines had indexed hundreds of the site's pages.
• Within three months of the website launch, the site had more than 175 top-ten positions for targeted search terms.
• Top-ten and top-thirty natural search engine positions continued to climb, increasing 250 percent.
• Search engine optimization and paid search marketing have generated 100 percent of the sales for the site to date.

Hot Off the Desk of Oneupweb CEO Lisa Wehr.

For the past few months, my articles have revolved around social media. I'm sticking with that topic this month but I'm going to switch the focus a bit. While it's crucial that all brands and companies get involved in social media, there is a unique industry that should be taking advantage of it—franchisors. Social networking can be very helpful for franchisors in recruiting franchisees, especially in recruiting retirees as new business operators. Statistics released in January prove that social networking is no longer limited to the under-30 age bracket, in fact, social media giant Facebook says its fastest-growing demographic is the 55-plus age group.

Why does this matter? In the recession that we're experiencing right now, many retirees are choosing to buy franchises as a way to continue working or to add an extra source of income. These new operators also fall into Facebook's fastest growing age group. Therefore, it's crucial for franchisors to start establishing a presence on social media sites—especially Facebook. Be sure that your company has an established Facebook page that is engaging, updated regularly and includes information for those who may be interested in opening a franchise. Facebook provides a unique opportunity to franchisors looking to build their business and relationships. After all, searching for qualified franchise candidates is a feat no short of searching for a business partner.

Once again, social media proves itself a powerful medium franchisors need to be taking advantage of. Get a head start with Oneupweb's latest white paper, Franchisors: Cash In On The New SEO. This paper will arm you with important information about how search results have changed and what you need to incorporate to stay on top, how to integrate social media and SEO into your campaigns and four things franchisors should be doing right now. And of course, feel free to shoot me an email at info@oneupweb.com, send me a tweet @lisawehr or give me a call at 877.568.7477. I look forward to the conversation.

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