Have you ever searched for a certain fast food franchise, then gone to the location further away because the reviews were so much better? So have your customers, and building an unbeatable online presence can secure your 5-star ratings from here on out.
39% of franchise owners dedicate over 35% of their marketing budget to strategic digital marketing. Why? Because it’s a cash-printing machine!
Through a combination of Social Media, PPC, SEO and other online strategies, franchises have been able to turn their small-potatoes shop into a multi-million-dollar empire.
Do these three things to leverage your franchise membership into an optimized digital strategy:
- Use your franchise name constantly
- Communicate with corporate, and get links from your main company website
- Leverage bottom-of-funnel digital marketing strategies to acquire point-of-sale customers.
Use Your Franchise Name Constantly
…and use the trademark, too! You pay good money to be associated with that name, so use it at every opportunity.
Building out a display advertisement? Use brand colors. Writing a social media post? Find your brand voice. Keep your business consistent with the brand, so customers are aware of what they’re getting. They went to McDonald’s over Wendy’s for a reason, and that reason isn’t your “new concept,” great as it may be!
That said, make the business your own in some small way. Play to your strengths. If you’re a neat-freak, be the cleanest franchise owner. If you’re great with numbers & data, be purposeful about pushing certain products with high profit margins.
Throughout this individualism, keep an eye on customers’ reactions. Many will show reactions literally through their facial expressions, and even their conversations. Whatever decisions you make, watch for their critique.
Communicate With Corporate
Your best source for new links is your brand’s main website. If you’re a franchise owner whose website is inaccessible from the corporate website, you’ll lose traffic.
The other quickest way to lose traffic is to be behind-the-times on what your company is doing. Many have systems in place to roll out special offers at once but staying in touch with your contact at headquarters is easy, and will keep you in-the-know as the business evolves.
Customers notice too, when your company is behind on corporate changes! If you own a popular food franchise like McDonalds but started All-Day breakfast too late, guess what? Your loyal customers probably went to the McDonald’s down the street.
If you’re a Subway owner who removed the $5 foot-long deal too late, guess what? You probably lost big profits.
Post these offers to your website and your social media and enforce automated systems to ensure your business turns over these offers directly with corporate.
The corporate office sets the expectations. You meet them. Do not fail expectations by being behind. Do not exceed expectation to the point of profit loss.
Staying in direct communication with your brand will mitigate so many opportunities for this type of failure. You bought into the franchise for its brand, so own it! Hold yourself directly to brand expectations.
Leverage Bottom-of-Funnel Digital Marketing Strategies
Your corporate office has implemented brand-awareness advertising already, so don’t waste funds getting customers interested in your industry. It’s already being accomplished on a national scale.
If you were ever wondering how franchises can advertise with Google, here is the answer: get a Google Ads account and run ads only in geographic or demographic areas where your corporate office DOES NOT.
Search Engine Marketing is a crucial element to any business, and you don’t want to leave it up to corporate to send you sales over the other franchise owner a mile down the road.
If I’m consulting a big franchise brand, the first thing I say is: only advertise at the top of the funnel. If I’m consulting an individual franchise owner, the first thing I say is: only advertise at the bottom of the funnel.
Why? Because you’re pursuing two vastly different goals. The brand is generating interest, and the business owner is generating sales.
The corporate office would pursue Display, OTT & Broadcast strategies to intrigue the public, and you would pursue Search Marketing and Geo-Fence strategies to make the sale. Yes, it’s that easy!
The franchise system that advertises this way is the greatest one-two punch, the best set-and-spike move in the world of business. Use it to drive exponential sales growth. The ceiling is much higher than you think.
Remember what drove you to buy into a franchise in the first place. Stay consistent with your franchise brand where you must but delight your customers as a businessowner where you can.
Most importantly: give your customers an online dashboard to hold it all together.
Resources:
https://www.webfx.com/blog/marketing/7-digital-marketing-strategies-franchises/
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/most-popular-food-franchises-and-how-much-they-cost-1350254
