These are challenging times for franchisors. A competitive landscape, a new generation of digitally savvy consumers, shifting societal values and rising operational costs all contribute to the need for greater efficiency and effectiveness in marketing. When it comes to choosing the best marketing strategy, many franchisors struggle with what works best for their business.
Do you invest your resources in print advertisements or focus on social media? Do you create a brochure or an interactive website? Should you create television commercials or conduct guerrilla marketing campaigns? The answer is a resounding YES. Every one of these marketing techniques can be used to market your brand and drive demand for your franchise. However, not all of them are equal in terms of ROI. To help you make the right choices, we’ve compiled this ultimate guide to franchising marketing strategies so that you know which one is right for you.
What is franchise marketing?
Marketing is the process of increasing the demand for a product or service. When applied to franchising, the goal of marketing is to create interest in your franchise and encourage potential franchisees to buy into your system. The term franchise marketing can also be applied to franchise systems that sell products and not just business opportunities.
As a franchisor, you should consider both aspects of your company when creating a marketing strategy. Franchise marketing combines the use of multiple marketing channels (e.g. email, print, digital, social media) to reach a targeted audience and promote your brand and franchise opportunity. It’s more than just creating a couple of advertisements. While each marketing channel has a unique function, they are all interrelated and play an important role in the overall success of your campaign.
Why is digital marketing essential for franchise businesses?
Online marketing is essential because it gives you the opportunity to reach a wider audience at a lower cost. You can reach people across the globe, 24/7, without having to pay for airtime or print ads. You can also track the effectiveness of your ads through different metrics like click-through rates (CTR) and search engine rankings. However, with increased competition in the digital space, you have to be consistent in your efforts and deliver high-quality content to win the hearts of your target audience.
Unfortunately, many franchisors are unaware that digital marketing is an essential part of their marketing strategy. Others are unsure of where to invest their resources and how digital marketing will impact their bottom line. That’s why we’ve compiled this ultimate guide to franchising marketing strategies so that you know which one is right for you.
Top marketing solutions for franchise businesses
Franchise businesses have different needs and resources than independent or single-unit operators, which is why we see them embracing new technology solutions and services at a slightly slower rate. This article highlights our top picks for franchise marketing solutions that are best suited for franchise businesses. Whether you operate as a standalone operation or through a parent company, these solutions will give you everything you need to thrive in your unique business environment.
1.Franchise Marketing Software
Franchise marketing software is one of the top solutions franchisors use to support their marketing efforts. These cloud-based solutions are designed for franchisors to get the most ROI from their marketing spend through the use of targeted campaigns, social media tools, email marketing, and more.
They also provide analytics, team collaboration tools, and reporting features that help franchisors to understand where they’re getting the most sales and conversion from. These solutions also help franchisors manage their lead generation efforts and capture information from prospective franchisees via social media campaigns, landing pages, and more. You can integrate your franchise marketing software with your CRM and other business systems to get a centralized view of all your sales and marketing activities.
2. Lead generation and conversion optimization
Franchise lead generation and conversion optimization solutions provide franchisors with everything they need to drive more sales from their marketing efforts. They provide a centralized place where franchisees can learn about the lead generation process and follow automated campaigns designed to generate leads and sales. This enables franchisees to capture leads and information they can turn into more sales while giving them the freedom to engage with their prospective customers whenever they want.
These solutions also allow franchisors to create marketing campaigns that are personalized for specific franchisees and customers. This helps franchisees to close more sales and generate more leads from their initial marketing spend. You can also use these solutions to optimize your digital ad campaigns by using machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve your ad targeting, results, and ROI.
3. CRM and Customer Care
Franchise CRM solutions offer franchisors a central place to manage sales, leads, and customer engagement for their franchisees. They include sales dashboards and campaign management features that allow you to track franchise sales and ROI from your marketing activities. They also provide sales force automation features that help you to more effectively manage your sales team and the sales process.
These solutions also offer customer communication and engagement features that let you manage franchisee support requests and inquiries. They allow you to track customer requests and issues so you can quickly resolve them and increase customer satisfaction. You can also use CRM solutions to offer automated marketing campaigns for your franchisees. This lets you send targeted messages that help you to engage with your customers more effectively.
4. Marketing Automation
Franchise CRM solutions offer franchisors a central place to manage sales, leads, and customer engagement for their franchisees. They include sales dashboards and campaign management features that allow you to track franchise sales and ROI from your marketing activities. They also provide sales force automation features that help you to more effectively manage your sales team and the sales process.
These solutions also offer customer communication and engagement features that let you manage franchisee support requests and inquiries. They allow you to track customer requests and issues so you can quickly resolve them and increase customer satisfaction. You can also use CRM solutions to offer automated marketing campaigns for your franchisees. This lets you send targeted messages that help you to engage with your customers more effectively.
5. Franchise training and workshops
Franchisee training and workshop solutions help to engage prospective franchisees, train existing franchisees on key business processes, and build your franchise culture. These solutions allow you to create interactive training modules that are delivered through custom-built video or webinar platforms. You can also use these tools to create franchisee engagement campaigns and promotional activities. You can also use these tools to create franchisee surveys to better understand their needs and engagement levels. This is a great way to improve your overall franchisee satisfaction.
Franchise marketing practices to use in 2022
If you’re planning an aggressive franchise marketing campaign in 2022, you should start with digital strategies first. However, you must remember to align your efforts with your franchise mission, brand values and goals.
- Grow your prospect list:- The first thing that you should do is grow your prospect list. Since you don’t have direct access to your ideal customers, you will have to reach out to them through their decision-makers. Thankfully, most people are connected to social networks today and are open to receiving information through email.
You can start by finding out who the decision-makers are in the industries you want to expand into. Then, create an email list through a service like MailChimp, HubSpot or Constant Contact. Once you have your list, you can start sending emails with valuable information that will interest your prospects. - Create compelling blog posts:- Whenever you write an article or blog post, don’t simply add it to your website and call it good. You must give it life by sharing it on social media and other networking platforms. When your article goes viral, it will bring new readers to your website, which may lead to franchise sales. You can also repurpose your articles and distribute them through email marketing and other content sites like Medium.
- Join relevant communities and networks:- The best way to grow your community is to join other relevant communities and start conversations. Additionally, you can also create your own networks using social media. You can use these platforms to share your content, host discussions and interact with your prospects.
- Invest in digital advertising:- Since you’re now focused on digital marketing, you must also invest in paid advertising. In fact, it’s one of the best ways to quickly grow your audience. There are several ways to advertise online, but you should start with social media ads. You can also test out paid search, paid blogging and paid email marketing. Be careful to invest your resources wisely and monitor your ROI.
Bottom line
When it comes to franchising, it’s all about scale. Franchisors want to grow their business as quickly as possible. However, achieving that goal requires significant investment. To make a profit as quickly as possible, franchisors must invest heavily in marketing. However, not all marketing strategies are created equal. When choosing what type of advertising to do, you must think about who your target market is and what they want from your brand. You must also consider the budget that you have for your campaigns. That’s why digital marketing is essential for any modern franchisor. It allows you to reach a wider audience at a lower cost. With the right strategies, you can grow your customer base, increase brand awareness and drive sales for your business.
