Innovative Marketing Tactics for Franchise Owners: Stay Ahead of the Game

Franchise marketing is a different ballgame and requires its own tactics for the most successful outcome. The goals of franchise marketing include reaching your target customer base and boosting the reputation of both the company and each of its existing locations. However, marketing must also boost franchise growth so you can keep expanding to new locations. That’s a lot to take on, and it’s why a strong franchise marketing strategy is necessary.

To stay ahead and keep growing a franchise, you’ll have to improve customer engagement and brand visibility. Read on for helpful tactics for franchise marketing.

Social Media Tactics and Franchise Marketing

Social media is a huge part of any franchise’s digital marketing strategy. The beauty of these platforms is that they allow franchises to connect with their consumer bases. Social media is also a necessity for reaching younger members of your target audience.

Your franchise should have dedicated social media pages. Remember that social media lets your marketing content show a little personality. Major franchises like Wendy’s, go viral for their unique social media presence on platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). Social media allows lots of opportunities for creativity, so have fun with it. Your franchise’s social media presence can include humor through memes and interactions with followers, surveys and more.

Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube create opportunities for video content. This opens a new world of possibilities for showing off what makes your franchise special. For instance, you can create behind-the-scenes content showing how popular products are made.

Influencer Franchise Marketing

A related tactic is to use influencers in your franchise marketing. Do some research and partner with influencers your target audience already follows. It especially helps if an influencer has a pre-existing connection to your franchise. For example, how Dunkin Donuts collaborated with Ben Affleck after he was spotted drinking their coffee. You should also partner with local influencers for your individual franchise locations.

Search Engine Optimization

Improving SEO is another important digital marketing tactic for franchises. Search engines are the most likely way that new customers will find out about your franchise.

For instance, say your franchise is a restaurant chain. When a consumer searches for restaurants on Google, they are naturally more likely to choose one of the first results. Boosting SEO is how you get to be in that position.

To boost your SEO , create relevant, high-quality content to post on your franchise website. Content can include blog posts and videos. Within your content marketing, research and use the best keywords.

SEO tactics include optimizing your website itself. It should be optimized for mobile use, easy to navigate, and prioritize a faster loading time. Otherwise, potential customers are going to get frustrated and move on to the next search engine result.

Don’t Forget About Local SEO

With franchise marketing, it’s also important to create strategies for boosting local SEO. Each franchise location should have its own landing page as a part of the larger website. Relevant information about the specific location, including the address, phone number and hours of operation, should be easy to find.

Local SEO tactics include producing content that is relevant to an individual area, such as using local keywords. Each landing page should have its own high-quality blog content, which should be optimized for the specific location. Customers are more likely to trust franchises that actually engage with the local community.

Another way to boost local SEO is to create and optimize your Google Business Profile. Include plenty of photos, important information and a compelling description. A thoroughly filled-out profile will boost your franchise location’s reputation. Getting customer reviews and testimonials will also improve your SEO.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a cost-effective tactic that can be used to promote sales and new products. For franchises specifically, email marketing can also draw attention to new locations. There should be an incentive to sign up for emails, such as a discount code or first-to-know status about upcoming promotions.

Franchise emails should be eye-catching and engaging and include calls to action. The subject line should be intriguing to encourage your customers to open the email.

Improve Franchise Brand Awareness and Brand Visibility

To improve brand awareness and visibility, it is essential to have brand consistency across all your marketing, whether it’s for the whole company or a single franchise location. A recognizable brand will help build your customers’ trust. This can include color schemes, logos, typefaces, catchphrases and so on. For instance, major franchises such as Starbucks and McDonald’s use consistent colors, images and slogans in all marketing, keeping their branding consistent both nationally and internationally.

You should also promote your franchise’s charitable, environmental and social justice efforts, both locally and beyond. Many customers prefer companies with similar values to their own and that try to make a difference. Highlighting your efforts boosts trust, draws in new customers and sets your franchise apart.

Location-Based Marketing

It’s important to have consistency in franchise marketing across locations. However, to really stay ahead, you should also enable different locations to create personalized marketing campaigns that will appeal to their local communities. The use of location-based target marketing can also help attract specific audiences to individual franchise locations.

For the most successful franchise marketing tactics, work with an experienced agency. Professionals like InnoVision Marketing Group know the best tactics and have the best tools to create and track successful franchise marketing strategies. Dreaming of taking the franchise global? Those dreams can become reality when you work with the best. Find out more about InnoVision and franchise marketing or contact our team to get started. Take your marketing efforts to the next level.