Franchise digital marketing is becoming a sub-niche of its own. With more franchise owners looking for better ways to grow their franchises, getting more focused on marketing strategies becomes a priority. Franchises face several challenges that regular businesses may not. For instance, a fierce competition is always a concern. Without the right marketing strategy, a franchise might find itself lagging. As such, getting a reputable franchise marketing agency on board will help franchise owner achieve their business targets more efficiently. Of course, if you have the right team in place, you can utilize franchise digital marketing just as effectively.
Below are the 8 strategies to help your franchise build a strong digital marketing plan to achieve your business goals.
1)Have a Multiple Channel Approach
It always helps to have a coordinated effort when it comes to marketing efforts. For instance, running a social media advertising campaign that’s not in sync with other approaches like utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) may lead to inconsistent results. Running a disjointed effort is never a good idea when it comes to effective franchise marketing. Always ensure that there is effective communication between the different teams or individuals involved in the marketing campaign. This ensures that one party is not actively doing something that undermines the efforts of the other teams.
2) Pay Attention to Local SEO
While SEO in general is a good thing for any franchise marketing campaign, local SEO can make a huge difference. Focusing on local SEO ensures that your franchise will rank well in your geographical location. Whether it’s a neighborhood or a specific borough, ranking well locally helps your bottom line. To do this, ensure that you have an optimized and verified Google Business Profile. A complete Google Business Profile goes a long way toward ensuring your visibility to potential customers in a particular area. Ensure that the information provided in it is up to date. Include positive customer reviews and a sitemap, all while ensuring it is mobile-friendly.
3) Use Geofencing to Have an Edge
Geofencing is a targeted online marketing strategy that utilizes wireless fidelity (WiFi), radio frequency identification (RFID), and other such means to selectively make a pitch to a customer. While its use has been around for some time, franchise marketers are now using it to target mainly cellphone users. For instance, if you walk past a Starbucks establishment in a mall, you’ve entered their “virtual zone.” They can send you promotional messages and other adverts as you walk past. Once you’ve cleared their immediate vicinity, the virtual “geofence,” you’re now out of their zone.
With the number of smartphone users ever-increasing, using this technique to promote your franchise brand can be very effective.
4) Utilize Advertisements to Promote Your Unique Selling Point
A good way to give your franchise the edge in a crowded market is to advertise why potential customers should choose you over your competitors. This involves highlighting things that make your franchise stand out. Digital ads are very effective to pass such messages across. Whether it’s a paid search or any such ads, you can sell your value proposition to customers more effectively.
If you want to use ads effectively as part of your franchise marketing strategy, use local keywords relevant to your franchise and local region. You can also create custom landing pages that direct from certain search terms and locations.
5) Find the Right Balance Between National and Local Scales
For a franchise, nationwide coverage is always an attractive proposition. Thinking big is always an advantage for a franchise’s long-term goals. However, your local consumer base is what will build your franchise and get it ready to dominate at a national level. As a franchise owner, focusing so much on the national picture while ignoring your local geographical region can come at a high cost, literally. You’ll lose out on potentially loyal customers. It’s a classic example of looking at the whole forest while losing sight of a lone tree. Your franchise marketing strategy should address both fronts simultaneously.
6) Try to Build a Local Connection
It’s not uncommon for a franchise to struggle to get a foothold in a location because it lacks the “feel” of a local business. In such cases, the franchise will have difficulty competing with similar businesses that have been in that area for a long. To address such a problem, you can gear your franchise marketing to highlight your values. Craft a strong message that the locals can identify with. It won’t be an overnight transformation but by slowly warming your way into the general psyche of the local population, your franchise will eventually get that local “feel” and prosper there.
7) Demonstrate Care for Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is crucial to shaping your success. It helps you gauge the public’s perception of your franchise. In addition to making your customers feel heard, customer feedback can be an effective tool for shaping your franchise marketing strategy. Positive feedback usually means you’re doing something right. This helps you grow and improve.
8) Always be Mindful of Your Ideal Client Persona
Your ideal client persona (ICP) includes those demographics that you most want to reach because they make the best customers. For example, if you’re a massage parlor franchise owner, your ICP would be professionals with a disposable income. As such, your marketing efforts should always target them. Creating optimized landing pages with popular keywords for your niche will help. For example, you can create a landing page that backlinks from a search engine result for the keywords “massage parlor near me.”
Ultimately, franchise digital marketing involves a lot of targeted advertising in order to become profitable.