Over the course of just a few years, many changes have occurred across the marketing landscape. These changes are just as relevant to franchises as they are to any other type of business that’s trying to reach new customers. Since marketing has a big impact on how well a franchise is able to do and grow, we want to highlight four essentials of any solid franchise marketing strategy:
4 Keys to Franchise Marketing Success
1. Tell a Story
When it comes to making your franchise stand out from any competitors, having a compelling story to tell can be a significant advantage. By building your brand around a story that resonates with target customers, you can make them feel far more connected to your business. Once you’ve crafted a great story for your franchise, it’s important to look at each marketing outlet and come up with a strategy for the best way to communicate your story.
2. Utilize Customer Reviews
Receiving a great review from a customer always feels good. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you should do with this kind of content. Not only can customer reviews boost the visibility of your franchise in local search engine results, but you can use them in a variety of ways. Whether it’s sharing them through your social media profiles or putting them directly on your website, reviews and any other types of content that customers create are marketing gold mines.
3. Don’t Overlook Email
Because social media has become such a popular form of online marketing, it’s easy to overlook other channels. But not taking advantage of options like email can be a big mistake. By using social media to drive leads to sign up for your email list, you will be in an optimal position to build a relationship with those prospects and ultimately convert them into customers. One of the advantages for franchises that make email marketing a priority is their ability to segment and target their list of email subscribers.
4. Empower Franchisees
Marketing works best when it runs through an entire organization. This fact is why the franchises that are most successful at marketing actively empower their individual owners. By not only creating a marketing system that can be utilized by every franchisee, but also giving them the ability to try new marketing channels and share their results with the rest of the organization, you will create a culture that allows marketing efforts to thrive.
While the essentials covered above will help you build a solid foundation for your franchise marketing efforts, there’s still a lot of ongoing work required for successfully executing this type of plan. If you would like expert, hands-on help with this work, be sure to take a look at the franchise marketing services we offer.
Michelle Hummel is CEO of Web Strategy Plus a full-service digital marketing agency focused on Franchise Marketing. She was recently nominated for the Woman-Owned Business of the Year! She’s a passionate Social Media Trainer with 15+ years of successful online business development, sales, and marketing experience. 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.
She travels Nationwide visiting her 22 Social Media Enthusiasts Chapters she developed Nationwide delivering in-depth social media training. She also provides Social Media Certifications through founding Web Media University. A current contributing editor to The Franchise Dictionary Magazine and she has written 3 books in her series called, “The Social Media Magnet: Everything You Need to Know to Attract Customers with Social Media”, where she shares her best-kept secrets to success. She also specializes in helping Franchisors and Franchisees develop an integrated web marketing program to drive leads. She’s available for interviews via email, telephone, Skype video, news segments on location and more. Just let her know how she can help!