Marketing franchises require a different approach than traditional marketing, and this approach is often much more difficult. The brand’s reputation and success depend on both franchisors and franchisees; pulling everyone in the same direction can be challenging. To help you, knowing what franchise marketing is, why it’s essential, and how to build and implement a successful marketing strategy is imperative.
Franchise marketing is attracting end customers and potential franchisees to help a franchise grow. In addition to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, franchises also use email marketing, content marketing, and SEO. There are two types of franchise marketing:
Franchisors and franchisees participate in franchise operational marketing to gain and retain customers. The goal of franchise development marketing is to acquire and retain franchisees in new locations.
1. By having a consistent online presence.
Having an online presence is essential for any franchise business. Your website should reflect your brand with a simple and clean design, clear calls to action, and easily accessible information about the history and services you offer. Ensure your website is optimized for speed, mobile-friendliness, and easy navigation, so potential customers don’t bounce away within seconds. Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to ensure your web pages perform well on mobile devices.
2. By defining the goals for your marketing campaigns.
To devise a successful franchise marketing strategy, you must determine what you want to achieve and set quantifiable objectives. Ask yourself: How many leads am I looking for? What amount of revenue do I need over a certain timeframe? Monitoring and reviewing key performance indicators (KPIs) will be beneficial when measuring the result of your initiative.
3. By focusing more on local marketing.
Local marketing is an effective way for franchises to reach potential customers and build relationships with them in their communities. You can use several strategies to target locals, such as creating local ads, geo-targeting website content, creating localized content, and having dedicated local business listings. Utilizing these tactics allows franchises to form connections with people in their area, helping them to grow their customer base and succeed.
4. By allowing more focus to be put on brand standardization.
Franchisees must follow a unified brand message and an all-encompassing brand book regarding franchise marketing. This precludes the possibility of franchisees going off message and not adhering to it. You need to develop a robust and convincing brand story to ensure consistency in your brand image. To achieve this, you need to develop a voice that reverberates with the target audience base of your franchise. Identify the words and phrases your brand messaging will repeat regularly and stick with them all the time.
5. By categorizing your audience into segments.
To maximize your franchise marketing efforts, you must keep your core audience in mind when delivering a consistent brand voice and story. Think about the best features of your product/service. Why should they choose you over a competitor? What makes it unique? What channels will get your ideal customer’s attention? How did they find your site or location? Why did they choose you over a competitor?
In addition to getting a sense of how your ideal customer thinks and behaves, you can also gain some insight into their typical characteristics, which will help you design more tailored and relevant marketing campaigns.
6. By capitalizing on different marketing channels.
It’s wise to research and find out which of these platforms your customers are most receptive to. For franchise marketing, you don’t have to use all of them but priorities those offering the best return. Investing money and time in the proper channels can help you reach as many ideal customers as possible.
I. Social media
Social media provides brands with a unique platform for communication by establishing a sense of brand personality and creating two-way engagements with customers. It allows franchisees to target a wide range of consumers and gain customer trust through meaningful conversations and interactions. As billions of people spend time on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok daily, businesses need to take advantage of this direct line of communication.
When marketing a franchise, not all social media platforms are the same. It’s essential to consider your target audience and the type of franchise you have when deciding which channels to focus your efforts on. For instance, if you’re looking to reach young people, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok could be great options, while for an older audience, Facebook may be more appropriate.
Facebook and Instagram can be beneficial if you have a restaurant franchise. Do some research first and ensure that the platforms you pick out will help you connect with the right people.
II. SEO
It’s an organic way to get customers to your business through search engine optimization (SEO). You can improve the search visibility of your franchise website by optimizing it for search, which will help your brand appear at the right time at your target audience’s fingertips. Among the aspects that SEO franchises should focus on are local SEO (Google My Business, Google Maps, reviews, etc.), internal links, keyword research, site audits, good quality content creation, landing page optimization, etc.
III. PPC campaigns
Mastering SEO takes time, but PPC ads provide a faster solution. With platforms like Google Ads and Bing, you can deliver ads to people based on keywords they search for. Social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram also provide laser-focused targeting based on user behavior, demographic data, and past purchases.
IV. Direct mail
Using trackable phone numbers and URLs, coupon codes, and QR codes to measure your direct mail campaigns is an efficient marketing strategy. By evaluating the results of your marketing campaigns.
Keep track of your franchise marketing results to understand how well your efforts are working clearly. Keeping track of how visitors behave on a location-specific page can help you determine what you need to do to improve for future campaigns. Look at the number of leads generated by each franchise location.
7. By getting the most out of email marketing.
Using email marketing is an effective way to reach your target audience. From promoting products and services to hosting events or gathering customer feedback, you can use automated emails to create a regular dialogue with subscribers.
Your messages should provide clear calls to action, such as backlinks to your website, discounts, or other incentives. When done right, email franchise marketing will help you stay connected with customers and ensure they stay informed of all the latest developments.
8. By obtaining reviews and feedback for each franchisee location.
Trust and credibility are essential for any franchise, especially regarding reviews. You can get reviews from customers, business partners, or employees to help build up your franchise’s reputation. You can ask customers to write reviews on sites like Google, Facebook, or Top Rated Local™.
You can also encourage business partners and employees to write reviews on social media or review sites like Yelp.
According to franchise marketing experts, email marketing is one of the most effective ways to get reviews. Create an automated email campaign to request reviews from recent customers. You can also offer a discount or free product or service for those who write a review. Make sure to ask customers to leave reviews through email marketing. Create automated emails that request reviews from recent customers and offer a reward such as a discount or free product or service.
It’s essential to coach franchise owners to respond to negative reviews and resolve the issue. This will show potential customers that your franchise cares about its existing customers and is willing to go the extra mile to make things right. Gaining positive reviews for your franchise can help increase trust and attract more potential customers.
