Whenever you are looking for a new café or a place to buy a gift for your friend, you go to the search engine and search for “near-me” suggestions. The same goes for the customers.
Whenever they need something, the first thing they do is search for the close by places, which is why local franchise marketing is the most important part of franchise marketing.
If strategically planned, local franchise marketing will certainly give you an advantage over other competitors in the market.
According to an estimate, 97% of people learn about a local business via online mediums, and more than 88% of consumers visit or call them within 24 hours of searching.
In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about local franchise marketing and share tips on how franchisees can grow their business quickly and gain customer trust by incorporating localized marketing into their digital marketing strategies.
Let’s dive right in!
What Is Local Franchise Marketing?
Local marketing, also known as local store marketing or neighborhood marketing, refers to all the strategies used to target consumers in a specific community or geographic area within the physical location of your franchise.
It is often used by small businesses but can work well for any business with a physical location, such as a locally-based business where transactions are mostly face-to-face.
Local marketing enables you to define your buyer personas and hone your resources according to your target audience demographic and psychographic information.
Also Read: How To List Your Locations On Multiple Sites
Why Is Local Franchise Marketing Important For Franchises?
In an increasingly competitive market, local marketing is a key tool for franchise success, but what makes it so compelling to franchises? Well! The answer is pretty simple.
As more and more franchises popping every other day, it is important to have a strong strategy in place to market your franchise and capture the interest of customers, particularly in your local community.
A well-planned local marketing campaign aligns with customers’ unique needs and aspirations and helps franchises reach quality leads via online and offline local marketing and build their brand authority to attract more customers.
More than messaging and high-quality imagery, localized marketing strengthens the profile of individual franchisees as active members of their communities and increases overall brand awareness of the franchise system and its role in the community.
Benefits Of Local Franchise Marketing
Here are a few main benefits of local franchise marketing:
- Specific Target Audience
Local franchise marketing helps you to know your consumers better by targeting specific audiences. When you have a broad audience, it is a kind of blind marketing because you advertise to unknown people.
On the other hand, local franchise marketing enables you to direct all your promotional efforts to the targeted consumers who are genuinely interested in your products and services, and you can come up with valuable offers based on their interests and needs.
- Time And Cost-Effective
Creating a consumer profile narrows down your goals, and you can save a lot of precious time and money by showing ads to a specific location or community rather than chasing large customer targets.
Localized marketing helps you save money for bigger business priorities and handle other aspects of your business.
- High Sales Potential
Every area is unique, and the national store network can’t take advantage of that. Local franchise marketing enables you to focus on the needs and problems of your specific location and modify your digital marketing strategies according to the demand of your area.
Doing this will allow you to realize the full sales potential of your franchise because establishing a business in a community can go a long way.
Top Local Franchise Marketing Strategies To Attract More Customers
Whether you are starting a new business or already have one, if you want to build brand authority and attract more customers, you need an effective local marketing strategy.
Here are some of the highly successful online marketing tactics you can implement to attract customers from your local area:
1. Make Sure You Have A Mobile-Friendly Site
More than half of the internet traffic comes from mobile devices, and around 61% of mobile users said they are more likely to visit a brand if they have a mobile-friendly site.
This shows that to attract local customers, and franchisees must have a mobile-friendly site with a clear interface, visible text, menus, and buttons to make it easy for the users to browse your site on the go.
2. Manage Your Local Listing On Third-Party Websites
Nowadays, people first search online by often using Google or Bing before visiting a store. A free Google My Business account gives you control over much of the information you see in your Google Business listing, including your address, hours, phone number, and images. If you have not applied for your listing yet, then do it now.
3. Participating In Online Professional Groups
Social media sites like LinkedIn give you an approach to groups where you can share your skills and network. This is especially suitable for local B2B businesses.
For example, a Southern California-based company that offers promotional materials such as T-shirts and other printed materials may benefit from joining companies and groups in other regions.
4. Sponsor Local Base Events
Sponsoring a charity event in your local community gives you a unique chance to increase brand awareness.
Make sure the event or occasion is not only something you believe in but one that appeals to your target audience. Sponsoring a children’s sports team is more relevant.
5. Customers Follow Up
Send thank you emails after sales to encourage customer testimonials. Do not give anything in return for a positive review.
But these days, it’s becoming more common to send thank-you emails where feedback is welcomed and a site recommendation letter if the site is willing to provide one.
6. Registration With Local Business Directories
Local clients often search directories for companies and professionals in their specific area. Make sure your business is listed in all relevant directories and correct any inaccuracies.
Don’t forget your local Chamber of Commerce, Better Business Bureau, Yellow Pages, and Niche Directory.
For example, a home improvement professional can list their services on sites such as HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List.
7. Co-Marketing With Other Local Businesses
When you offer special offers and promotions to your customers, you can only reach people who already know your business.
However, if you and another company do a promotion together, customers of both companies may find out about it.
For example, a local restaurant may partner with a nearby movie theater, so it will host a movie and dinner as well.
8. Start A Referral Program
A referral program is as simple as giving happy customers some extra business cards and asking them to refer a friend. Alternatively, you can offer rewards to referrers and referred customers.
Let’s say you are an interior designer, and you can offer a $200 credit to previous customers who referred a friend and an equal discount to the referred customer.
9. Video Tells Your Local Story
Video is now approved by many consumers over all other visual media. 95% of B2B business conversions are powered by video. Keep things personal and local, and target your video content to customer pain points you can solve.
Not all video benefits have to be ads. Embed testimonials and guides on your website or post them on YouTube.
10. Get The Google Call-Only Ads With Phone
If you depend heavily on the phone to generate your business, you’ll find Google’s phone-only ads invaluable and ideal for localized marketing. Like other Google products, you can target your call-only ads to specific demographics.
It’s also good if you don’t have a specific landing page just because your product or service doesn’t need a landing page.
Calling them directly is more effective. The downside of local online marketing is that you don’t get all qualified calls.
11. Feed The Pipeline With Remarketing
Remarketing is an important part of any localized digital marketing vehicle. This works well if SEO or Google Ads didn’t work the first time or if the customer is still in the consideration stage of the buying process.
Remarketing supports other geolocation-specific tactics when considering ways to enhance your local marketing strategy.
Ultimately, remarketing can increase conversions, increase brand awareness, and help you stay in the minds of potential customers.
12. Combination Of CRM Tool
A customer relationship manager (CRM) solution helps you understand your customers better. For example, consider adding pop-ups to your website.
Such as subscribing to newsletters, viewing exclusive promotions, or being invited to announce new products.
If linked to your CRM, the lead generation landing page will automatically update your CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce. Remember, the quality of the captured data is the quality of the output you get.
Read: 13 Tips For How To Make Your Franchise Business Success!
Final Words
Local marketing is the most effective way to reach new consumers, boost your search rankings and online traffic, and help expand your business in your local community.
With the help of the right marketing tools and strategies, you can maximize the effectiveness of your local franchise marketing.
Near-me or close-by searches have skyrocketed in the last two years, so building a community presence can help you engage local customers and level up your franchise.
Just make sure that you have your Google Business Profile enabled and active, your website fresh and easy to use, and have an active online presence to reach your desired audience, and most importantly, stick to the local franchise marketing strategies we have mentioned to bring new customers to your doors.
We hope that a local audience will find your product or service through franchise marketing. Best of luck!
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.