Whether you sell a product, service, or experience, there are certain marketing tactics a franchise needs to do differently (and often better) than multi-location or standalone businesses. Here are 7 tips to calibrate your franchise marketing strategy to help grow your presence and your bottom line.
- Maintain control of digital properties (franchisors). Having a franchise “go rogue” on social media can cause collateral damage that can be difficult and time consuming to repair. Even one disgruntled franchise employee with administrative control over an account can cause major headaches, so diligently guard your online properties.
- Stay in your lane. Franchises should focus on local marketing while corporate concentrates on building regional and national brand awareness. Individual franchises often have a very different clientele and business profile depending on the state, city or even neighborhood they’re located in. That’s why it’s really up to each franchise to try to reach their customers while corporate spreads the word about the brand with national or regional advertising and conducts more centralized franchise marketing campaigns.
- Maintain consistent branding. One of the reasons franchises have so much appeal is the reassuring consistency they offer to customers. So you’ll want to leverage that consistency across all your digital platforms. Even when giving franchisors the freedom to create targeted advertising, ensure that they maintain uniform brand standards regarding logos, typography, messaging, and images.
- Manage your reputation. Solicit reviews from satisfied customers — and promptly respond to any complaints in an informative and respectful manner. Individuals considering a franchise purchase know to check review sites to see what the franchise’s existing customer experiences have been, so this is particularly important if you want to see your franchise expand into new areas.
- Provide marketing support to franchisees. This includes tools and resources such as images, copyeditors, branding kits, content calendars, and customizable templates. Running a franchise can be an all–consuming experience. Corporate can lessen that burden and help individual franchises focus on selling locally by providing needed assistance in this area.
- Leverage email marketing. This can be a cost-effective and very productive franchise marketing tool. Encourage repeat business by incentivizing customers to give you their email, and then stay in touch. Thank them for their continued patronage and let them know when a special promotion might interest them. It’s important, however, not to spam their inbox and trigger the dreaded opt out.
- Market with franchise growth in mind. Consider potential new franchisees and craft your brand messaging accordingly. Remember that customers aren’t the only ones looking at your marketing. There are many people out there considering purchasing franchises, and they’re very interested not only in your customers’ experiences, but also any news about the growth of your industry in general — or your franchise in particular (e.g. your plans for expansion).
Kymera is your franchise marketing expert. We’re highly experienced at helping franchises large and small take their game to the next level. Contact us today to schedule a complimentary consultation and learn what we can do for you.
