One of the primary objectives of a franchisor is to ensure their franchisees are successful. It’s a mutually beneficial goal. In fact, the success rate for franchises is 90%, making this the lowest failure rate for any type of business. But sometimes the franchisee doesn’t have the capital to take it to the next level. Therefore, it only makes sense that efforts toward efficacy are in order. Here are seven ways a franchisor can streamline the process for franchisees:
Localization
- Paid Search
The corporate team can drive customers to individual locations through national paid search campaigns. These expensive campaigns combine geographic targeting with online ad copy to reach the most relevant audience. They do this by connecting with people who are searching online for solutions that may match the set parameters. These types of campaigns require significant resources to manage and thus are best handled by the main office of the brand.
Location Data Management
Location data should be centrally managed. That’s because it’s more convenient to leverage the information for customer acquisition. When data is optimized and distributed across hundreds of channels, it’s easier for customers to find your location/s. All of that big data can become overwhelming to manage and is most effective when a single hub can control it.
Local Content
Nobody knows the location of a franchise quite like the franchise owner. They would at least know better than corporate. Therefore, content creation should really fall to the store itself. Especially when you are looking at nurturing a friendly environment online. People want to see pictures of workers, not branded content. It humanizes a business. This can include any type of media or communication like:
- Blog posts
- Videos (think behind-the-scenes)
- Social media posts
- Polls
- Contests
- Discounts
- Interactive games
- And more…
It’s only limited to your creativity, but one thing is for sure, local content builds deep trust and establishes brand loyalty. This is the type of content that not only engages viewers, but converts them to customers and brand advocates.
Digital Marketing
- Targeted Campaigns
Through ad optimization and advanced targeting, franchises can reach an audience like never before. However, they probably need a little help with this. The landscape of modern media is complex. Brands need to exercise a variety of outlets to reach the most relevant people.
A franchisor can help with advanced targeting so that ads are served to consumers based on a variety of parameters, like demographics, location, and preferred device. They should also be responsible for creating content that requires a bigger budget, like videos, social media advertising, and marketing automation. Driving brand awareness that spurs customers on the national level can only happen with the help of the franchisor.
Search Engine Optimization
Although franchisees should be smart about the keywords they use in their content, a deeper analysis falls more on the shoulders of the corporate office. It would be irresponsible to command deep brand analysis from a franchise owner. Although the franchisee should be aware of basic SEO tactics, the brand HQ should be in charge of SEO strategies like:
- Backlinking
- Meta tags
- Title tags
- SERP analysis
- Long-tail keywords
- Site structure and mapping
This is just as important as if you had someone in a costume waving a sign outside the brick and mortar. It’s all about drawing people into the site so you can engage them once they get there.
Content Marketing
One of the most complicated marketing tasks for a franchisor and franchisee to share is content marketing and establishing social initiatives. Social media can be a daunting landscape and it’s a slippery slope when you mess up. Franchisors are responsible for giving strategic guidance in this area.
A brand style guide that breaks down everything from color codes to codes of conduct is a great idea to get everyone on the same page. This will allow a franchisor to establish well-defined guidelines for posting content. The only way this process works is through frequent communication by both parties. In order to create local content that simultaneously promotes a national brand, collaboration is absolutely essential.
Analytics
To track progress, somebody has to be measuring the analytics. Increasing efficiency across the board means paying attention to growth. Ad tech management can be a lengthy and costly process and includes the analysis of metrics like:
- Attribution measurement
- Conversions
- Return on investment
- Customer relationship management
- Bounce rate and web analytics
- Page views, likes, comments, and social analytics
The list goes on. It’s much easier for the HQ of a brand to keep track of these things from a distance than it is for the busy franchise owner. Besides, most of them are more concerned about running the business itself than the percentage of people that clicked away from the site.
Therefore, if a franchisor craves deeper insight into their brand, it is their responsibility to collect and analyze the data. Proper ad tech management not only shows trends in past performance, it can help predict where future successes lie. This data can then be passed on to franchise owners across the nation.
The relationship between a franchisor and a franchisee should be one of mentorship. The more effort a brand puts into the people working for them, the more they will receive in return. A franchisee needs help with costly and difficult tasks, so they can get on their feet. It’s all about lifting people up. When you do that, it always comes back to you three-fold.
