Running a franchise business requires mastery of a combination of skills. You need to be a solid leader, a finance specialist and an effective coach — not to mention an expert in your industry. But with all those hats to wear, you may not have sufficient time to devote to advertising and marketing your brand, much less helping your franchisees with these tasks. And if that’s the case, you aren’t alone. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 73% of managers say that creating, optimizing and repurposing content is a top challenge. This is one example of where an ad agency can step in and really help. But you can help yourself even more by setting up your agency relationship for optimal performance and success. Here’s how to do it.
Communication. Establish a single point of communication between your franchisees and the agency to coordinate priorities and respond to their needs and questions. This can be one employee who acts as a point person or specific communication channels, like a dedicated email account or a web portal. You want one place to look to get a bird’s eye view of any campaigns, public events and social communications the agency is running for your brand.
Workflow. Set up a control center to keep repeat tasks such as onboarding, franchise web development, online review management, monthly marketing and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) consistent and efficient. There are numerous user-friendly collaboration tools available online to help manage workflows, or you can develop or customize your own using a buildable platform.
Feedback. As you build the foundation for a successful brand, your franchisees must help maintain its reputation on a local level in order for it to grow. Establish a feedback mechanism from your franchisees to learn what’s working and what isn’t for specific locations. Armed with this information, you can adjust your efforts and work with your agency partner on developing new approaches or expanding on successful ones. But make sure you’re hearing all voices — not just the loudest ones. Your franchisees work and run their businesses every single day, and their feedback can help you build on success.
TLC. Speaking of loud voices, you should have a procedure for dealing with higher-maintenance franchise owners, maybe in the form of a standing weekly or monthly meeting to address questions and avoid more frequent inquiries. Internal mentoring programs can also be useful in this regard.
Resources. Create an FAQ page on your franchise-facing website to answer common marketing questions and detail procedures for feedback and communication. Add links to stock assets and templates they can use while giving franchisees enough flexibility to customize their content for their specific markets. Consider creating instructional videos for the most popular topics.
When it comes to your franchise marketing and development needs, look no further than Kymera. Working with an agency experienced in franchise marketing can help promote your brand awareness and target desired markets, allowing you to focus on growing your franchise. We’ve helped small franchises take their operations to the next level and mid-size franchises go national. We love to watch our clients succeed, so contact us today for a free franchise marketing consultation.
Source
https://neilpatel.com/blog/drive-more-customers-with-content-marketing-for-local-business/
