Digital Saints CEO Chuck Kim Shares the Mission Behind his Digital Marketing Agency For Franchises
Digital marketing expert Chuck Kim recently launched an innovative new resource for franchisors and franchise suppliers with a catchy name: Digital Saints. Why such an angelic name? You could say Kim is the patron saint of SEO. His full-service digital marketing agency is built on a foundation of education, collaboration and transparency. Kim says he and the Digital Saints team create miracles for franchise brands with a commitment to honesty and virtuous business practices.
Devout students of organic SEO, the Digital Saints team consults franchisors on how to get their websites found by the right candidates. Kim and his team help franchisors and franchise suppliers with custom SEO strategy, website development, pay-per-click management and social ad management.
Digital Saints specializes in building websites that have a logical, easy-to-follow structure to keep users engaged with content that attracts search engine crawlers. “Content is king and distribution is queen,” says Kim.
Digital Saints’ secret sauce is its expertise and due diligence, including keeping on top of Google’s algorithm updates and identifying and acquiring keywords with the most potential for generating revenue. Here, Kim shares what sets the Digital Saint’s services apart and how franchisors and franchise suppliers can leverage its saintly expertise.
FCM: Why do you call your company Digital Saints?
CK: Our brand identity is based on trust, transparency and delivering results. We have a passion for doing the right thing. We pride ourselves on making sure our clients are getting the best results to help their business grow. As entrepreneurs, we understand how important it is for marketing investments to spin positive returns.
FCM: Please share your history and company culture.
CK: I have been in the digital marketing space for more than 15 years. I started with SEO and branched into full digital marketing services. I used to consult and provide fulfillment services for large print companies to help them create digital marketing services. From there, I was one of the founders of Executive Digital. We wanted to deliver transparency and results. I recently parted ways to create Digital Saints.
Our corporate motto is Support. Elevate. Win. “SEW.” In all aspects of our lives, we support each other, elevate each other and win together.
Digital Marketing for Franchises
FCM: Why should franchisors use your services?
CK: My teams and I have helped numerous multi-location businesses with digital marketing and came across a number of franchisees along the way. I discovered that the overall digital marketing strategy franchisors were using was missing fundamental elements. We know how to fill in the gaps.
FCM: How do you work with franchisors?
CK: Franchisors work closely with us for the initial six months. A marketing director, CMO or some point person communicates with Digital Saints for progression calls and collaboration.
For franchise development strategies, we utilize unique forward-thinking technology strategies and make introductions to consultants we’ve known over the years. We take a collaborative approach to meet and surpass franchise development goals.
Digital Saints also communicates directly with franchisees, (depending on the marketing structure of the franchise). It is important for franchisees to collaborate and become educated on how to push the metrics as well as learn what might be preventing lead generation.
Making the Most of A Franchise Development Website
FCM: What’s the biggest mistake franchisors make in regard to digital marketing?
CK: Cheap is expensive. Websites should be developed with forward-thinking. A well-thought-out franchise development website should include:
- SEO strategy
- Scaling
- Lead management
- Integrations
- Ability to pivot
Own your data. Too many times we encounter franchisors who do not own their ad accounts, analytics, websites, etc. Franchisors should own their ad accounts and digital assets. Having direct access to your ad accounts will show you the true numbers of how campaigns are performing.
When you change agencies, you are capitalizing on compound effect and building the performance history of what prior agencies have tried. Avoid having to start over.
Agencies should be added as a manager and should not be the owner or have the ability to hold anything hostage. Franchisees are using a variety of vendors, and the franchisor’s corporate marketing team should be able to analyze how each vendor’s campaign is performing. This improves collaboration.
FDDs often use some ambiguous marketing spend. Franchise owners should have proper expectations of their digital marketing costs. Digital Saints gives projections and conservative expectations. This helps outline the initial goals to achieve with realistic expectations.
Emerging franchises should be focused on growing brand awareness and brand trust. Legacy franchises have brand trust and awareness but are often not capitalizing on the majority of the opportunities hitting the franchise development website. Digital Saints brings unique strategies that can help push the boundaries of digital marketing.
Building Brand Trust With Quality Content
FCM: What do you want franchise professionals to know about Digital Saints?
CK: I encourage you to really get to know Digital Saints.
Set up an introduction call to get an initial overview of how we take care of our clients and educate people about the digital ecosystem. This introduction call is very valuable to me and my team because we want to know more about what each business is focused on and what their goals are. We want to share knowledge and bring value to help you grow your business. Hopefully, everyone who meets us gains something to help them on their journey to success.
There have been many franchise suppliers we built relationships with over the years whom we often recommend to clients. Digital Saints specializes in a lot of strategy execution, and our supplier friends help fill in the gaps of the digital ecosystem to help franchisors and business owners scale properly.
FCM: Anything else to add?
CK: Push boundaries and collaborate. This helps agencies understand how to get in front of your consumer base. For example, chiropractors and health-based franchises should build content around symptoms. Consumers are trying to find answers to their problems. Build brand trust with quality content, get the content ranked on Google. Content is king, but distribution is queen.
SEO and paid media management should minimize automation tools or have humans analyze the campaigns on a frequent basis. You can maximize your ad spends by minimizing these ad platforms that waste your money.
Digital Saints’ Collaborative Approach
Collaboration is key. Ask tough questions to help our team think outside the box. I love it when clients continue to ask good questions about performance and results. This helps everyone potentially see new opportunities within the digital ecosystem.
For more information, contact Chuck Kim at (602) 402-2614 or visit digitalsaints.co.