Using social media is an increasingly popular way to promote your company. Given the fact that there are more than 2.3 billion people utilizing social media, it is a prudent decision to promote your business on some of the most popular websites on the web.
A franchise business’s use of social media poses numerous difficulties.
Whether you are either part of the franchise or acting independently from it, having your brand become part of the major social media sites requires skill, effort and commitment. A massive amount of collaboration is needed between a franchisor and a franchisee.
Continue reading to find out more about these techniques and advice for achieving success.
What is a franchise?
Any business that allows people to pay to join the franchise and start a store or subsidiary using the franchise’s name is known as a franchise. This particular spot or outlet claims the franchise’s moniker and insignia, and also gets assistance from the franchise.
Some examples of franchises include:
- McDonald’s
- Subway
- Rita’s
- H&R Block
- Ace Hardware
When talking about franchises, as well as franchise social media, you will hear the following terms:
- Franchisor: The franchisor owns the franchise itself. If you’re talking about a franchise like Subway, for example, the franchisor is Doctor’s Association Inc. For reference, this name came about because one of Subway’s founders has a doctorate degree.
- Franchisee: The franchisee owns a franchise location, but not the franchise itself. In exchange for owning a franchise location, the franchisee must pay an onboarding and setup fee, as well as a percentage of their profits or revenue to the franchisor.
Gaining knowledge of what is expected of the franchisee and franchisor will help to clarify the obstacles which come with using social media and advertising to promote a business franchise. These two parties need to work together to make sure users have a consistent, unified experience.
3 Social Media Challenges That Franchisors Must Solve
As a franchisor, you have several challenges when it comes to social media, including:
1. Building a franchise social media guidebook
As a franchisor, you are responsible for maintaining and overseeing a recognizable brand name, and social media amplifies this obligation. You need to create a specific tone of messaging on networks like Twitter and Facebook, as well as assist franchisees in mirroring that same tone if they control individualized social media pages for their spots.
Accomplishing this goal often requires a social media guidebook that covers:
- Tone
- Voice
- Images
- Responses
- Content
- And more
Constructing a manual can be an important issue to tackle, and it can have a great effect on your franchise’s social media attempts. You can assist franchisees in developing victorious social media accounts while also improving the fundamental social media profiles affiliated with the franchise.
2. Developing a franchise social media strategy
You must not only devise a manual for social media usage, but you must also put together a social media plan.
This plan may be applicable to your particular franchises and the places they are located. As an instance, the franchisor may instruct the franchisees to not establish any social media accounts for their various stores. You take charge of your social media activities, including advertising your franchise locations.
If you have authorized franchisees to create their own social media profiles, it is sensible to create some sort of strategy guideline. These rules can be used by franchisees to build efficient profiles and plans by offering methods or imparting tips on what works best.
Either way, creating a strategy requires time and research.
3. Determining the total return on investment
Franchisors should be concerned about what their return on investment from using social media will be. The performance of your own social media accounts can be monitored with ease, but it is difficult to do the same for accounts operated by franchisees.
It is essential to monitor the return on investment of franchisees, particularly if your franchise provides them with money for marketing.
It is harder to measure the return on investment from social media relative to other forms of marketing. It is because social media platforms are capable of generating intangible outcomes, such as higher brand recognition or more people passing through your doors. If a franchise does not have any means of tracking, it can complicate the process of determining the return on investment from using social media.
To combat this problem, your team should establish an approach to keeping tabs on your return on investment. You could invest in a program, such as MarketingCloudFX, that keeps track of ROI in order to make your life more convenient and have your data be precise.
How to Launch a Franchisee Social Media Strategy
Do you feel prepared to launch a social media campaign for your franchise location? Get started with these steps:
1. Review your franchise’s social media policies and guidelines
Before launching into the realm of social media or taking this venture one step further and creating a social media strategy as a franchise, make sure you review the established policies your franchisor has set forth. Franchisees may be asked not to set up social media profiles that are specific to one location.
If your franchisor allows for the creation of social media accounts that are specific to a certain location, then it is probable that they will provide some instructions or suggestions.
Look over and assess these rules because they can assist you in setting up a well adapted, congruent account. The advice could consist of proposals for how a brand should communicate, how it should interact with customers, and more. This data can provide a comprehensive base for your social media plan.
2. Research your local competitors
Next, investigate your local competitors. These competitors may include:
- Franchisees within the same franchise
- Local businesses
- Franchisees from a different franchise
Depending on the type of service you offer, you might need to compete with other businesses that operate online. H&R Block must vie with firms such as QuickBooks, TurboTax, and other similar ones in order to stay alive in the market. Figuring out how they interact on social media can aid in building a stronger plan.
3. Set some realistic goals
Once you have checked the instructions given by your franchisor and investigated your rivals, you can start setting out your strategy and aims. Establish S.M.A.R.T. objectives for your franchise’s social media plan.
You should aim high with your objectives but make sure to keep them attainable.
For instance, you may desire to have more adherents than your closest rivaling business, however be aware that you won’t be able to accomplish that ambition within a month. Instead of aiming for a short-term goal, you should have an ambition that can be reached in three months, making it more achievable.
4. Build a social media strategy
Once you have established your objectives, you can move forward with constructing your social media plan. If you’re unfamiliar with social media, do some research to figure out how to create a social media plan that helps you to achieve your ambitions, such as increasing likes or directing traffic to your website.
A few questions you’ll want to answer when developing your social media plan include:
- How often will we post?
- What kind of content will we post?
- How often will we log in and check for comments?
- How will we respond to comments, questions, or negative customer experiences?
- Will we advertise too?
- What kind of reporting system will we have?
Before you begin your social media campaigns, responding to these queries can assist you in creating an organized initiative. You won’t have to waste time trying to figure out how to answer someone who has had a bad experience, as you will already have the answer.
5. Create a management schedule
Last but not least, put together a strategy for taking care of your social media activity. If you’re in the same situation as most franchise owners, you don’t have somebody with a marketing background to guide your social media plans. It’s you and your core team.
To achieve the top performance with social media, collaborate with your staff to create an appropriate management plan. You could possibly check your social media accounts for comments and inquiries on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Or, you oversee all your social media ads.
Developing a timeline for taking care of your social media will hugely improve the success of your plan. This will also simplify the task for you and your group. Moreover, it will assist you in developing a connection with your desired consumer.
How to Design and Implement a Successful Franchise Marketing Campaign
Step 1. Set your campaign goals
A franchise marketing strategy must meet the needs of both the franchisor and the franchisee. The cost of marketing should be included in the cost for a franchising license, therefore the franchisee anticipates a gain from the return of each advertising action.
Now would be a good time to ponder how you can keep an eye on the objectives of the campaign and distinguish the outcomes for every franchise location.
You could think about incorporating UTM markers to monitor the position in the campaign. This would make it possible for franchisors to furnish franchisees with information concerning their marketing expenditures and the effect it has had on their profits.
Step 2. Establish brand consistency
Brand consistency is essential for franchise marketing to work. No matter where they are, customers should have the same perception of the brand.
As an illustration, if you go into a Starbucks store in the United States or the United Kingdom, you should see the same general brand colors, and the same type of items on the menu. Furthermore, the manner in which your drink will be prepared and served should be nearly identical.
Franchisors should create a marketing brand handbook specifying what is expected of each branch and oversee that this is followed. The manual should ensure that franchisees remain consistent with the business’s established standards, and not deviate from it in their specific location.
Step 3. Plan and implement the campaign
Next, you’ll need to decide which marketing channels to use at a global and local level for your campaign:
- SEO content
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- PPC
Let’s explore the view points of a franchisor and franchisee in relation to certain channels.
SEO content
Most SEO advice focuses on global, or general techniques. Promoting a franchise requires that both global and local search engine optimization takes place in order for it to be successful.
Franchisors can leverage global SEO to make the franchise more visible and well-known in search engine results.
Franchisees can utilize local SEO to boost their franchises’ viewability in search engine results, regional pages, and digital maps. It’s a vital part of local marketing :
Franchisors will have to make a choice on how to set up their website. Do they need one website owned by the headquarters and containinginfo about the local franchises, or should each of the franchises have their own website separately?
At the global level , it provides resources that are relevant to any location, such as guides for guitar, vocals, keyboards, and drums:
Each place has its own subdirectory within the local area.
For each franchise location, you get relevant information, including:
- Business name, address, phone number (NAP)
- Opening hours
- Services on offer
- Website link
- Directions
Social media marketing
Social media is a popular marketing channel for franchises. The primary challenge is making sure every franchisee adheres to the brand’s and campaign’s parameters. Franchisors can get around this by designing a universal framework which franchisees can then modify to accommodate their specific location.
As an example, with Loomly, the franchisor could generate one comprehensive calendar filled with pre-approved, trademarked content and provide access to each franchisee. They were able to take content and add it to their respective calendars in order to publicize and market the brand without any potential harm to its consistency.
It might be advantageous to think about utilizing Facebook Locations Pages, which are suitable for companies with multiple branches like stores, eateries, dealerships, hair salons, and charitable organizations. It’s a win-win for everyone:
- Customers can find local businesses in their area.
- Franchisors can manage all franchisee details in one convenient place.
- Franchisees can offer localized and specific content, including Ads.
Email marketing
Marketers understand that email remains one of the best options for making contact with potential customers and current clients. But how do franchisors control their brand?
The key to success lies in segmenting your contact lists into those focused on specific locales and those focused on the overall company. This helps franchisees direct their potential buyers to the proper content with tailored messaging.
Franchisors should look into using an email marketing service that provides them with the ability to deliver resources such as logos, designs, prototypes, and promotions to each franchised business to keep the corporate brand intact and also allow for promotional initiatives at a local level.
Pay-per-click advertising
PPC advertising can be a great way of boosting your company’s brand awareness, however it requires careful administration.
Franchisors may advertise their brand and services by using display and search adverts. Preserving and reinforcing the brand identity can assist both you and your franchisers in bringing in potential customers and increasing profits.
Franchisees have the ability to personalize ads in order to make the communication more applicable to their area and the people in the nearby area. You could employ the area of the city, town, or region in your key phrases so that it does not get mixed up with a central headquarters that is national or international.
Step 4. Review and assess the results
When your initiative has finished, it is wise to go over the outcomes and analyze them. If you’ve implemented the right tracking and analytics in your marketing, you should be able to identify:
- How many leads came from each franchise location.
- How visitors behave when they reach a location-specific page.
- What you need to improve at a global and local level for the next campaign.
Franchise Marketing in a Nutshell
Franchise marketing requires a different approach to traditional marketing. It is a collective endeavor that involves franchisors and franchisees that necessitates the fullest cooperation in order to protect the name of the company.
If both sides follow the marketing plan for the franchise and accomplish the stated terms, they will both benefit from a consistent brand.
