Steve Bridge

San Luis Obispo, CA (USA)
Role(s):
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C-Level Executive (CEO, CFO, etc.)

ElementsLocal, Inc.

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Location: San Luis Obispo
Industry: Technology/Web
Year Founded: 1999
Number Employees: 10-50 people
Business Stage: Growth (profitable)
Entity Type: "S" Corporation
Description: ElementsLocal is a software development company with 13 years experience building online marketing tools. In 2001, we created ElementsLocal™, franchise online marketing software. Over 4,000 clients currently use this software platform to manage their local online marketing activities. ElementsLocal’s aggressive growth strategy began with the acquisition of Pismo Group in 2007 and continued in 2010 with acquisition of NetFuel (formerly ScreenMatter). The Challenge (Problem) The challenge for franchise companies is to provide a consistent brand message across all franchisees AND to facilitate the creation of local marketing campaigns that are consistent with this brand message. Franchise companies have hundreds of local franchisees to manage, while maintaining and protecting their most valuable asset – the BRAND. Franchise companies have a significant challenge in providing lead generation campaigns for franchisees who do not understand the need to follow brand guidelines. Inconsistent brand messaging creates consumer confusion. This problem becomes exponential when trying to manage hundreds or thousands of franchise owners/operators. To accomplish this, most franchise companies provide each franchisee a single, webpage on their corporate website. This approach has a negative impact on the franchisee’s local search engine presence as well as the ability for the local franchisee to compete in their local community. The Need In today’s world Franchise systems require total presence online. We provide the platform for Franchise systems to deliver total presence across websites, paid media, mobile, directories and social media. This can be controlled in-house or allow franchisees to perform some of it or develop an approved network of vendors who provide various services. It is imperative that each franchisee be seen as part of their local community and that they provide a product or service that is specifically designed to meet the needs of their local market. To accomplish this, franchise companies must provide each franchisee a locally operated, search engine friendly website to interact with the local market, while maintaining centralized corporate brand and marketing management. In addition, franchise companies must provide this in a simple and affordable way for rapid and effective use by every Franchisee. The local franchisee must market and compete against local competitors. They require locally targeted content and company information, Email campaigns to local customers and prospects, approved social media tools, and an established community presence. The franchisee must also show up in search engines, directories and social networks - locally. This is accomplished by providing a fully functional website with locally relevant search content, unique domain name, social media tools and email campaigns on a single web-based dashboard. The Solution ElementsLocal is an integrated online marketing system that automatically creates hundreds, or thousands, of online marketing dashboards for Franchisees, while providing corporate our unique BrandSecure™ Franchisor Dashboard for complete control. The system is designed to power a network of locally optimized, independent websites, including tools for continued search engine optimization, email marketing and social media campaigns, and mobile solutions such as mobile friendly websites, and mobile enabled content and SMS marketing. The ElementsLocal™ technology provides centralized corporate marketing and brand management through a single dashboard, national and local marketing campaigns and consolidated lead management reporting. Through this centralized system each individual Franchisee is able to create and manage local company and community web content, social media posts and online directory information, while increasing inclusion into all major search engines for lead generation and local awareness. At the same time corporate can choose to perform localized, search engine and mobile friendly, marketing as well as Email and social media marketing on behalf of Franchisees.