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By the time a franchise candidate fills out your form, they've already sized you up. They've compared you to a few other brands, read what your franchisees have to say, and run their own startup numbers through ChatGPT. All before you even knew they existed.  It’s a shift a lot of franchise development programs have missed. The modern buyer has changed, and so has how they do their research. Understand both, and you’ll land on their short list while [...]

Somewhere right now, your ideal franchise candidate is asking ChatGPT about your brand. And as of last month, you can pay to show up in that conversation. ChatGPT launched its self-service ad platform for all US businesses on May 5. With a minimum daily spend of just $25 and CPCs as low as $3-5, it’s already one of the biggest advancements in paid media in years. We’re testing ChatGPT ads. We’re excited about them. And we think you should be [...]

We sat through every Google I/O 2026 keynote so you don’t have to (you’re welcome). Here’s our honest take: if your marketing agency is still selling you keyword rankings as the deliverable, they’re selling you a 2018 strategy. Google has called its new AI-powered search box the biggest change to search in 25 years, and for once, the marketing language matches the reality. Here are three lessons every brand should be taking from it. 1. Ranking #1 Is Not [...]

We get it, the pitch is compelling: Hire an in-house marketer, plug them into a stack of AI tools, and suddenly they're doing the work of five people. One employee is running full-funnel campaigns, spinning up polished copy and on-brand social graphics in minutes, and pulling weekly performance reports before lunch. Why pay an agency retainer when ChatGPT can write a landing page in forty-five seconds? Plenty of brands are already running that experiment. A 2025 survey found that [...]

Digital PR is the practice of earning media coverage, backlinks, and brand mentions across online platforms. Think of it as public relations built for the internet age. And with third-party credibility quickly becoming essential for GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), digital PR is one of the most important strategies your brand can invest in.  After all, search engines don’t just crawl your website anymore. LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini are scouring the web for evidence that authoritative sources [...]

For years, SEO has operated on one fairly simple premise: the higher you rank in search engine results, the more people will see your brand. In “the good old days,” one hundred users could search the same thing and see the same ten results.  But AI-powered search engines and LLMs like ChatGPT have changed the game. When you ask ChatGPT to recommend a spot for lunch, a doggy daycare, or a reputable marketing agency, the answer you get is shaped [...]