Although it can yield big benefits, content marketing can be a challenge for any business. This strategy can be especially challenging for franchises. The reason is because it’s common for there to be so many different people involved in the process. While your current franchise content marketing situation may seem like an ongoing headache with no end in sight, the good news is there is a solution. And once you get the right management practices in place, you can follow several additional tips to get the best possible results from all of your efforts.
The Right Way to Approach Franchise Content Marketing
The first tip you absolutely need to have is getting your content marketing efforts under control. This can be done in three simple steps. The first step is deciding if each franchise will have its own website or subdomain. Since that’s a very beneficial practice, most franchisors do follow this approach. If that includes your franchising operation, the second step is to decide on a publishing frequency. In most cases, 1 to 2 blog posts per week plus a newsletter is ideal. The last step is ensuring everyone involved knows what they need to do (as well as what they don’t need to spend their time on).
Track on a Master Level, But Allow Individual Hiring
The second tip that will help you out immensely is to track all publishing in a central location. Tools like Google Sheets make this very easy to do. The reason this is useful is because it will allow for maximum cross promotion and ensure brand consistency. The third tip to implement is putting individual franchise owners or their managers in charge of hiring writers. By creating a comprehensive guide on this subject, you’ll be able to empower owners and/or managers to take care of this task in the manner that’s best for them.
Utilize SEO & Social (and Don’t Forget to Empower Owners)
Not only should all content be properly optimized for search engines, but social media promotion should also be consistently utilized. Since both SEO and social change on a regular basis, it’s very helpful to have a dedicated consultant at the national level who can keep everyone in the loop about current best practices.
Finally, encourage owners to take franchise content initiatives whenever they have time. Whether it’s a guest post or an interview, the effect of even just one piece of content a month that comes directly from a franchise owner will really add up over the course of a year.
If you’re ready for your company to be on social media but aren’t sure how to get started, an experienced social media consultant can help you create and implement a very effective strategy. 
Michelle has been a franchise advisor for 10+ years. She also holds a valuable Internet Marketing Degree – however with the ever changing world of web marketing she strives to learn something new every day. Michelle can help you develop marketing, sales and lead generation strategies that produce real results. 