For a businessman, there is no better reward than seeing their venture grow into a valuable franchise spread across multiple cities and states.
The original franchise owners will likely invest years, operating multiple locations and fine tunning all the tiny aspects of the business operations to turn it into a viable business opportunity other entrepreneurs look forward to investing in.
However, marketing franchises is easier said than done. More than 63% of franchises believe that generating quality leads for the business is one of the biggest challenges.
If you are in the same shoes and struggling to generate quality leads for the franchise, all you need is the right marketing idea to succeed.
In this article, we’ll give you a rundown of the most innovative franchise marketing ideas that will help all franchise owners and entrepreneurs create a franchise marketing plan that will surely increase their brand awareness, acquire more quality leads and drive solid business growth. Here you go!
Franchise Marketing Ideas
Here are the 15 most innovative franchise marketing ideas that work:
1. Maintain An Image That Matches The Corporate Image
If you own a business that is part of a franchise, you already have a well-developed brand image, and all you need to do is know your target audience better.
Instead, you should look deeper into the company’s brand to learn more about the target customers. Additionally, you must maintain an image that matches the corporate image as a whole.
You should also be clear about what you can and cannot do and what the franchise does and doesn’t allow.
As a Franchise owner, when you know your boundaries and what you are not allowed to do, you can easily shape your franchise marketing idea accordingly to generate more leads.
Read: 11 Franchise SEO Strategies To Outrank Any Real Competitor
2. Research Your Competitors Locally
Franchise owners usually keep a close eye on their competitors on a bigger scale. For example, a franchise like Starbucks knows that Dunkin’ Donuts is its biggest rival.
Similarly, your franchise must be aware of its competitors on the local level. For example, if you are a franchise owner of Starbucks, in addition to Dunkin’ Donuts, do research on other similar coffee chains like Costa Coffee and Tim Hortons that have stores in your area, even the smaller coffee shops, and see what they are doing to capture local customers.
3. Create A Dedicated Social Media Page For Specific Locations
Every franchise runs a corporate social media page to represent their business, promote a new product, and build a closer connection with customers.
However, the main problem is that these corporate pages cannot manage the local issues accurately, and this is where local franchise owners come into play.
Creating a local franchise social media page for your specific location is one of the most effective marketing ideas to connect better with local customers, gain their trust, and grow your business.
4. Participate In Local Events To Connect With Your Community
Getting involved with your target consumers is one of the best ways to build a positive perception of your business, and there is no better way to do it than by getting involved in local events.
You can sponsor community events and participate in community fairs or other events that matter to the people. It is as simple as getting involved with another local business in the area.
It is one of the smartest franchise ideas followed by most franchises to engage local customers.
5. Create An Independent Website Or Webpage Outside Of Your Corporate Website
If you want your franchise to connect more with locals, create an independent website to attract the right audience.
You should check your franchise’s branding guidelines to ensure that it allows you to have a separate website.
If yes, you can create an independent local webpage to connect with your local community, and people can also contact the local owner directly for any query or complaint.
6. Invest In Local SEO To Reach More Local Customers
Whether you have an online store or a brick-and-mortar store in a specific area, local SEO is the best way to engage people in your neighborhood, town, or city.
It allows you to focus on specific keywords that your local customer might use to search for your business.
For example, keywords like “Best coffee shops near me” or the best coffee in Virginia, are some high-converting keywords you can use to attract the right traffic to your website.
Make sure to integrate the local keywords on the multiple pages of your website to make it easy for the local customers to find and visit your business.
7. Get Email Addresses Of Locals To Connect With Locals
Local email marketing is a technique that helps local companies to connect with their potential customers directly and drive sales.
Businesses can get up to $44 in return for every dollar spent! once you have created your website, you can add email signups and have locals sign up to receive information from independent franchisees.
By investing in email marketing, you can connect with locals and get them to your business by sending them valuable content and information.
This franchise marketing idea will help you build relationships with your community.
8. Use Marketing Software And Tools
Targeting local customers and trying to get more customers to your location can make your campaign complicated to manage.
Marketing software and tools can help you better manage your campaigns. For example, you can use a program like MyEmailFX to compose, send, and monitor the success of emails.
This program allows you to manage your email marketing campaigns efficiently. If you are digitally marketing your franchise, you must invest in marketing tools to manage your marketing load.
9. Use Voice Search Optimization To Reach People Conducting Voice Searches
More than 55% of people use voice search to find local businesses or explore their area, making voice searches even more critical for franchises.
With the rapid increase in the use of voice search devices, it is crucial to optimize your marketing campaign to reach people searching through voice devices, including Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Siri.
Many people prefer doing verbal searches to find a place near them, so as a franchise, you must keep in mind that people might search directly for your franchise.
One of the best ways to reach people in search results is creating a Google My Business listing and creating relevant content that Google can easily index.
10. Invest In Page Speed Optimization To Increase Your Page Loading Speed
When a visitor comes to your website, they want quick access to information. If your site has a slow loading speed, you will lose most of your leads to your competitors.
According to stats, 83% of users expect websites to load within 3 seconds or less. If you want to please your audience, you should invest in improving your page speed.
You can use Google PageSpeed Insights to see how long your website takes to load and then follow the optimization suggestion to improve the loading time.
11. Use Geofencing Advertising To Get People To Choose Your Business
Another excellent digital marketing idea to help franchisees get their target customers to their door is geofencing advertising.
It is a type of advertising that allows you to create an invisible virtual boundary around your or your rival’s business.
This boundary tracks whenever someone with a mobile device crosses them and sends a notification that advertises a nearby store, brand, or service to be sent to that specific person’s mobile phone.
Geo-fencing advertising is the most efficient way to get leads to choose your business over the competitor.
12. Incorporate AI In Your Marketing Plan
Global artificial intelligence is increasing reports of Exploding Topics for trending sites. Incorporate AI into your franchise marketing plan today before it becomes a must-have digital marketing capability.
One of the easiest and most popular ways to implement AI is using chatbots on your website.
Digital marketing resource ThriveMyWay reports that businesses have increased sales by more than 65% by using chatbots.
Also Read: Why Do Most SEOs Fail To Produce Results?
13. Send Postcards By Direct Mail
Direct mail is a great way to attain your goal audience. Sending postcards to residents of your franchise community is a great way to let them know about your new location.
Postcards can also offer discounts on first orders. This is a good motivation for people to visit your store, and their favorite brands are nearby.
14. Press Release Distribution
For small businesses, building relationships with their communities through media is important.
Create and distribute press releases to local newspapers, magazines, blogs, radio, and television stations to increase brand awareness and exposure for your franchise.
You can send a press release whenever you want to report something new about your company.
The information must be relevant and engaging to attract media attention and get featured in newspapers and other local media.
15. Communication With Marketing Partners
If you are struggling to keep track of your marketing solutions, finding a marketing partner who brings all your needs together is worth finding.
Having a marketing partner that lets you have all your channels and reports under one roof makes it easier to maintain consistency and track performance.
However, communication is key! Be sure to hold regular meetings with internal teams, site managers, and agencies to ensure consistent attachment across all channels.
This is another chance to distribute the style guide to all marketing partners. So, there is no distraction about brand voice among agencies, marketers, or consultants.
Wrap Up
Combining franchise marketing with digital marketing can increase brand awareness, turn more leads into purchasing customers, provide value and educate customers, increase sales, and strengthen customer relationships.
When you are ready to start your franchise marketing plan, contact a DrFranchises expert.
They are experts in digital marketing and can help you with digital branding, web design, content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, digital advertising, and content creation.
Amit Gupta is the founder of DrFranchises – a digital marketing agency that helps brands rank better on Google Maps through local SEO strategies. Amit has over 11 years of experience in digital marketing, SEO, email marketing, and social media marketing. He’s also the owner of multiple franchises and has helped countless brands achieve success online. When he’s not working, Amit can be found playing with his dog.