When it comes to marketing your franchise, the options available are endless. Digital marketing, email marketing, and local level marketing should all hold a place within your franchise marketing strategy.
In the modern market, competition for customers is fierce. However, if you devise an effective marketing strategy for your franchise business, you’ll be well on your way to success.
This article will detail essential marketing strategies you should try to incorporate as a franchise owner to ensure your success. Each marketing channel will suit a certain type of franchise business best. The best strategy also depends on your target customers. This is just one of the many factors to consider before purchasing a franchise.
Digital Marketing
There is no right and wrong way to market your franchise business. Marketing can be a lot of trial and error in the early stages – trying multiple things and seeing what sticks. Over time, developing a marketing plan and a strong, unified marketing message is paramount.
Be sure to carefully track your leads and conversions from different sources to determine which strategies are working best. Once you have some data collected, you will be able to determine which channels are most effective.
Effective marketing through e-mail campaigns, social media, website content, and blogging are great marketing strategies. If your business can rank well for key SEO search terms in your area, even better.
1. Content Marketing
Content can take the form of blog posts, videos, social media posts, and articles. In addition to increasing website traffic, these also help establish brand credibility and recognition.
To create great brand content, focus on the following things:
- Target the local market with relevant keywords and headlines
- Incorporate the name of your city or location throughout your articles and posts
- Diversify your content by creating a mixture of videos, blog posts, articles, and infographics
2. E-mail Marketing
E-mail has remained one of the most powerful online marketing methods, even as social media seems to be taking over. Email marketing provides you with a direct line of communication with your target market. It is also very powerful when it comes to building rapport with existing customers. Detailed below are a few tips to make your email marketing strategy more powerful:
- Use local marketing insights to create email content that is relevant to your target demographic
- Leverage data from social media to see which content or offers people respond to best
- Re-establish communication with potential customers or existing customers with retargeting campaigns
3. Social Media
Social media marketing is a powerful way to build rapport with your audience and turn likes/followers into sales and revenue. Social media has the ability to pick up traction for an extremely low cost (or even free when used organically!).
Social media is also an effective platform for customer feedback and testimonials. Customer reviews, for example, offer social proof and create trust between your business and your future customers.
A healthy amount of positive reviews can entice people to want to visit your location. Be sure to respond promptly to negative comments, however, and reach out to the unhappy customer to alleviate the situation. Having just a few negative reviews can quickly kill your brand’s reputation.
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter will likely be the three main players of your social media marketing strategy. These will become a powerful force within your franchise business strategy. Even before you open, you can start developing an online presence and create a demand for your products or services.
Community Marketing
Even with the importance of these digital marketing techniques, community marketing is still a powerful tool for your business. It should be at the forefront of your franchise marketing strategy. Make sure your customer service is top-notch!
Word of mouth marketing often happens on its own accord when people have a positive experience with your business. There are, however, ways in which we can speed along the process. These include customer referrals, community events, open houses, fundraisers, and more.
This is one area of marketing that lets you get creative! There are always new ways to reach people and promote your business.
Understanding Your Role
Often, your franchisor will have a set theme or strategy they will ask you to follow. This helps to maintain the integrity and effectiveness of brand marketing efforts. Leverage the pre-existing marketing material used by the brand across the board.
All questions and concerns regarding the brand voice and brand marketing strategy should be discussed with the franchisor early on. You’ll want to ensure your strategies are sufficient and congruent with the franchise as a whole.
Think about what you need to put in place to create an effective marketing strategy for your business. As a business owner, you will have several decisions to make that will directly impact the success of your business.
It is your responsibility to take the resources you are provided and make something of them. Business experience is usually not required prior to purchasing a franchise. But being well-versed in business and marketing will help you effectively meet the unique needs of your particular market.
If you feel intimidated by marketing, remember that you can always outsource to a marketing agency or hire a specialist marketer.
An effective, powerful marketing strategy is central to the growth and survival of your business, especially in the early stages. Don’t make the mistake of treating marketing as an afterthought or relying solely on the franchisor for your advertising.
Tags: franchising, marketing