Marketing for a franchise business can be difficult, especially when managing multiple locations across different regions. Here are some franchise marketing techniques to increase sales and have the most successful, efficient marketing plan.
#1: The right franchise marketing techniques start with building strong relationships with your customers.
Engaging with your customers and promoting positive experiences is an essential marketing tactic for any company, but it’s especially relevant for franchises. Sometimes, a customer can feel very small compared to a large franchise with many locations. Replying to comments, responding to both positive and negative reviews, and just increasing your engagement with customers will cultivate a strong, positive relationship with customers. Customers are very likely to complain about your franchise on social media, so being able to combat those and respond directly will salvage those otherwise ruined relationships with customers. They will be more likely to return to your business if they feel as though their problems have been addressed.
#2: Use social media in your marketing plan, but do it correctly.
Traditional marketing tactics aren’t worth the investment according to 42% of franchise professionals. Direct advertising and PR are ‘out,’ and social media is ‘in.’ Social media allows you to post as much as you want whenever you want, and it’s a great platform for two-way communication. However, each social media platform is different and has a different audience. Learning how to cater your message to each of these platforms separately is important. Franchise Wire talks all about how to successfully have a voice on a couple of popular platforms.
#3: Understand how to convert awareness into purchases.
Creating awareness of your franchise digitally and on social media is a great start. However, it’s important to find that connection between creating awareness and driving the motivation to purchase your product/service. Don’t waste the customers’ time; provide plenty of vital information on your website and social media about contact information, sales and price information, and more. One of Burkhart’s recent blogs talks about this as well. Don’t create a great plan if you aren’t going to optimize it!
#4: Don’t generalize your franchise marketing techniques to all your locations.
This rule is especially important for franchises with many locations across different regions. Audience segmentation is an important tool in order to successfully target a wide demographic. Customers in Illinois are different from customers in Florida. Each location of your franchise is different, and acknowledging those differences will help you better market each of them to its own audiences!
#5: Use analytics platforms to track social metrics.
Once you implement your social strategy, you can’t just guess what works and what doesn’t. There are plenty of services that will provide you with social media metrics, so you know which of your campaigns are successful. It’s also important to establish what constitutes success for your brand, whether it be engagement, follower count, or anything else. Measuring these KPIs will tell you what you are doing correctly and what you need to improve on. Not sure where to start? Come up with some goals for your franchise. There should be a KPI that aligns with each goal.
Marketing for a franchise isn’t like marketing for any other business. It takes skill, but it also takes the right resources and the right ideas to truly be successful and increase your sales through the implenentation of proper franchise marketing techniques.
