Marketing is an essential part of growing any business. It helps you get your brand name in front of potential customers and sends a message about who you are and what you do. Franchise marketing strategies can be more complex than marketing for independent businesses because it’s vital the marketing efforts of all the franchises are in alignment. Conflicting messages from companies bearing the same name could water down your message and confuse customers.
Franchise marketing services help franchises devise campaigns that can be shared across the franchise. They take care of the little details, such as logos, typefaces, company colors, and even uniforms, that are easy to overlook but contribute to the public perception of your brand. If you don’t have an in-house marketing team taking care of these things, working with a franchise marketing specialist could help you create a positive impression.
Franchise marketing is any promotional activity that helps the franchise grow. That could be operational franchise marketing, where your objective is to attract new customers. Alternatively, it could be franchise development marketing, which refers to marketing to new franchise owners to expand to new territories or open new locations.
You likely have both types of marketing in your franchise business model. However, simply having a line in your business plan that says “market the franchise” is not enough. Effective franchise marketing requires careful planning and good communication between the franchise owner and the franchisees.
One of the challenges franchise owners face is ensuring all of their franchisees market the brand in a uniform way. The success of the brand depends on the success of individual franchises and the image those franchises create.
A consistent approach to marketing, from flyers and store branding to the frequency and format of email marketing and the company’s online presence, is a must. Outsourcing your marketing efforts to a company with extensive expertise in franchise marketing can help you avoid common mistakes, maintain effective communication between franchise branches, and create a regional, national, or global brand that has a consistent, uniform appearance.
Your brand’s logo, letterhead, colors, and even the bags and packaging you use all send a message. For the franchise to truly succeed as a whole, every involved company must use consistent branding across all of the marketing materials they produce and for any storefronts, products, uniforms, and anything else that’ll be seen by customers.
Franchise marketing experts can assist with building your digital presence, spearheading digital marketing campaigns, creating content marketing guidelines, and helping you track the performance of your campaigns, so you always know where you stand.
Poor social media marketing or an inconsistent voice across social media is often the downfall of franchises. As the franchise owner, you may have a policy of keeping your brand out of political conversations and engaging with people on social media in a polite, formal way. If a franchisee decides to make a joke about a controversial event, the whole brand name will be associated with that joke in the minds of anyone who sees it.
Franchise marketing services can help you formulate marketing policies that cover social media platforms and other forms of digital marketing, ensuring you and all your franchisees create a good impression with every online interaction.
In addition to having a digital marketing strategy, it’s useful to consider other ways of reaching your target audience, such as trade shows, sponsorships, and community events. Choose a franchise marketing service supplier that understands your products and industry, and they’ll be able to help you find the right places to engage in outreach campaigns.
If you’re the owner of a large franchise, a franchise marketing team could help you arrange a nationwide promotional program, for example, sponsoring local youth sports teams or attending a variety of professional networking events, to broaden your reach in a cost-effective way.
Franchise Supplier Network helps franchisers and franchisees access the support they need to make their businesses a success. We assist early-stage organizations and growing franchises, connecting them to the support they need to manage their organizations effectively.
We carefully vet all the suppliers in our network to ensure they have the expertise required to work with our clients. When you choose Franchise Supplier Network to source your suppliers, we’ll take you through our tried and tested four-step discovery and support process, where we get to know your business and identify the partners that’ll be the best fit for your requirements.
Our service is free for franchisers and gives you access to our vast network of marketing and branding experts and companies with expertise in other areas of running a business. If you’re looking for support to grow your business, contact us today to get started. Click here for our list of marketing services suppliers.
