How To Effectively Market Your Franchise Business

Some of the biggest and most well-known food businesses worldwide use the ‘franchise’ business model. The industry is growing, and many companies that operate under a franchise are thinking of new ways to market the brand while remaining true to the franchisor.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can effectively market your franchise business.

The importance of strategic marketing for franchise businesses

A franchise is a business that offers franchisees the chance to license their brand, trademarks, and business practices in exchange for a fee. Some things will be kept the same for each store, such as the name, design, staff uniforms, and HR payroll process.

Franchise marketing isn’t typically approached the same as regular business marketing. That’s because businesses usually stick to brand guidelines and messaging. 

Therefore, it’s essential to be strategic in franchise business marketing. The ultimate goal is to increase awareness and drive revenue for all franchise businesses. 

A good franchise strategy will consider the brand, its target market, the competition, and the tools it can use to stand out. Most importantly, a franchise marketing strategy should focus on the local areas and customers to expand their business.

Using strategic marketing tools is crucial when it comes to a franchise business. Not only do you have to boost your store's reputation, but you also need to uphold the popular franchise name. 

How to effectively market your franchise business

Here’s a look at how you can effectively market your franchise business.

1. Identify the demographics and preferences of your target customers

Franchises somewhat benefit from knowing the type of customers likely to interact with the brand. You can take a look at what other franchises are doing. What age are the people that go there? Do they fit into a certain “stereotype”?

Remember, though, that every business is different, and what may work in one local area may not entirely work in others. It would be best if you also looked at what your competitors are doing, as this will give you an insight into the shopping demographics and their preferences. You can then emulate this in your way for each franchise.

Once you’ve identified your target customers and their preferences, you can form a marketing plan around this. For instance, if they spend a lot of time on social media, then this is where you can assign a large proportion of your budget.

2. Ensure that your franchise locations maintain consistent branding

Maintaining consistent branding across your franchise locations is essential for effective marketing —omnichannel marketing. It helps to build brand recognition and trust among your customers. 

As a franchise, you already have a strong brand identity. Now, you need to ensure it’s consistent across the board. It would be best to put your own flair on things while still adhering to the brand guidelines. Some franchisors offer training programs on brand guidelines and standards to franchisees and their staff to keep everything correct. With new employees coming and going, payroll solutions for small businesses is an easy way to keep on top of it.

Be sure to keep open and frequent communication channels with franchisees. Share updates on branding initiatives, marketing campaigns, and any changes to brand guidelines.

3. Adjust marketing strategies to the local community and culture 

Franchise marketing strategies should be tailored to the local communities and culture. Something as simple as having a sign that says “Hello Seattle” and “Hello New York” in each location makes the franchise feel more personal. You often see this with restaurants with multiple franchises in one city. It even gets as specific as naming the street the franchise is on.

You can use print marketing to help with local advertising by placing ads in newspapers or as billboards across the town. You could also use this strategy when onboarding team members and advertising a job, as people see you’re hiring and also know that you’re a new business in town.

Online marketing can also be effective here. You can stipulate in your adverts that they should only be shown to people within a certain mile radius. 

Each franchise location should have its landing page on the restaurant website so people within those local areas can access information for their location quickly and easily. Blog and social posts should also be optimized to reflect each franchise location. 

4. Engage with customers and build brand loyalty on social platforms

We all know how addictive social media can be. Plenty of people spend a good portion of their days online. So, as a franchise, you need to make the most of this. Marketing on social media is a cost-effective way to target your demographic. 

You can reach people in the local area or people who’ve visited in the past and who’ve already shown an interest in your business. This means you’re not just targeting a cold audience, and they may be more likely to spend with you because of this. 

Social media is also a great tool for engaging with customers and building strong relationships with them. People will feel more of a connection to your brand, which is very important as it can be difficult to feel personal with a franchise business. 

Learn more about the importance of customer loyalty in our "Brands with Byte" report

5. Create content that showcases your expertise and attract customers

Content is key when marketing your franchise chain restaurants. You need to create relatable, engaging content that will encourage customers old and new to walk through your doors. This kind of content should include blog posts, videos, and social media posts. Bonus points if the content is shareable, which means people will expose you to a wider audience. 

If you create informative and useful content, it’s more likely to be shared. For instance, you can reveal a recipe for one of your new dishes for people to try at home or create a video showing your expertise in making a cocktail. This is interesting to people and far more shareable than a cheesy quote or pictures of the food.

The most important thing is to determine which platforms you want to use to share your content and how you will do it. Will you be creating TikToks? Posting on Facebook? Writing blog posts for the franchise website? Many businesses opt for all as part of an omnichannel strategy.

6. Collaborate with local businesses for cross-promotions.

Collaborating with other local businesses for cross-promotions can be a great strategy to increase brand visibility. These different local businesses may not necessarily be in the same industry as you, but you can still complement each other and drive customers to each other’s premises. For instance, your restaurant may place posters in a local cookware store. 

For this to work, you need to set expectations. What do you want to get out of this collaboration? If you’re using social media, you may be able to tap into their audience. 

This means you have the chance to reach more people. How many of their customers would you like to convert, and how will you track this? You could offer everyone who sees that advert a discount code to see how many people you’ve gained from their audience. 

You could also create joint promotions or packages that offer added value to customers. For example, a theater could offer a show and a dinner package with a local franchise.

7. Continuously assess marketing initiatives and modify strategies to achieve the best results

As a franchise, it’s important to frequently reflect on your marketing strategy and modify your processes to achieve the best results. Start by creating specific goals that align with the franchise business objective overall. You can then personalize them more for each franchisee. 

Monitor analytics and data and use tools to track and manage your adverts to see their effectiveness. If you’re running a local ad on social media but are not getting much traction, you need the flexibility to pull it down and see where it can be improved.

You can also try A/B split testing on adverts to see which one yields the best results, you can then spend more on the successful advert. 

Conclusion

Creating a strategic marketing plan for your franchise helps to effectively market your business to your target audience while remaining true to the franchise branding.

A successful franchise plan honors the franchise's branding guidelines while still offering a local touch that makes the business feel more personal to the customer. You need to spend time and budget researching your demographic and their preferences, as this will help you curate content that will appeal to them. 

Then, you can design a strong brand identity that resonates with people. Bear in mind the seven steps listed above as you do this to ensure you’re designing a strong marketing plan. This will improve brand recognition and bring in profits from existing and new customers.