John Federman's article "Driving Direct Leads: Are you doing all you can to boost local sales?" appears in this month's Franchise Update.  The article highlights some strategies for generating leads for local franchises through national marketing campaigns by using technology like click to call.

According to the article, " The nature of many franchise businesses makes it unlikely that consumers will purchase something sight-unseen and without engaging in a one-on-one dialog. If that were the case, many franchises would not be franchises in the first place-they would exist in a few central locations and ship their products from there. Jenny Craig and DaimlerChrysler both have found innovative ways to drive sales directly from their online channels to local businesses, using an emerging technology called "click to call." Click to call allows companies to proactively engage customers by offering web browsers a chance to speak to a customer service representative instantly through either their PC or phone, based on the browser's online behavior. "