Category: Franchise

Franchisors have traditionally faced challenges coordinating brand-to-local marketing support with local franchise owners. Chief among them have been encouraging fuller participation and increased local spending of franchise marketing funds, helping franchise owners become more marketing mature to build on brand awareness and drive revenue, and providing content management tools that allow for the seamless sharing of content and up-to-the-minute reporting from multiple locations through one easy to use content management platform.

A top priority for franchisors should be developing a decentralized or distributed marketing strategy that gives local franchises a full range of brand-adherent marketing materials and support while still allowing the franchise to address its own special needs. It’s up to the franchisor to make it easier for the local business to make better, more informed decisions and to remove any barriers they encounter when attempting to participate more fully in brand-to-local marketing programs. Everyone benefits when brand-to-local marketing delivers higher revenue growth.

Optimizing Brand-to-Local Marketing

Among the steps franchisors can take to improve brand-to-local marketing, three stand out.

1. Encourage Local Investment From Franchises– Despite the fact that local franchise marketing spend can play a critical role in the success of the business, it has been reported that up to 50% of local franchise funds available go unused each year, and only 75% of franchises utilize the total amount of funds available to them. Among the reasons local franchisees cite for not taking advantage of the money is a belief that the national brands don’t always take into account the unique characteristics of local franchise customers and that the local owners don’t fully understand how a national campaign is going to increase their business.

   Franchisors can remedy this by engaging early and often with local owners to build trust. They can empower them to invest in and manage their own local budgets, support local advertising campaigns driven by relevant customer profiles that complement a national one, and give them the tools to determine strategies that include a presence on multiple social channels, maps, and tactics like retargeting that are essential to attract local business.

2. Help Local Franchise Owners Become More Marketing Mature – Most franchise owners do not get into business with a degree in marketing, and there can be an initial heavy reliance on the brand for marketing guidance and expertise. However, as the owners gain a greater understanding of their market and customers, franchisors should focus on giving them the training and support to help them take a more active role in improving marketing performance.

   Franchisors should work with their franchises to help them determine meaningful metrics that can be measured through customer data. It has been reported that only 18% of brands share ROI data with their franchises or explain how to apply it into their business decisions. This is unfortunate, because setting benchmarks based on collected data metrics can provide powerful incentives for franchises and help them identify new opportunities that might be missed without accurate data reporting from a thorough channel marketing platform.

3. Simplify Local Brand Compliance Customization – Franchise owners grow frustrated with lengthy approval processes and what seems to be a quagmire of parameters and standards to wade through in order to adhere to brand guidelines. They also often feel as if they are left on their own when navigating a franchisor’s content management system. It’s been reported that 27% of franchise owners do not understand what is being offered through the franchisor’s marketing program or how to access it.

   Franchisor channel marketing platforms should keep the decision-making and creative process as seamless as possible, with the understanding that busy franchise owners don’t want to recreate the wheel, The only want room for relevant, local customization. The platforms should offer a wide variety of templates that align with brand and that are easy to access and localize with consistent and streamlined approval processes.

How to Manage and Measure Brand-to-Local Marketing Best

There are many moving parts involved in a smooth-running brand-to-local program. Successful franchisors are realizing the efficiencies and cost-savings of relying on an multi-channel marketing platform to manage every facet of these marketing programs with their franchises.

The most innovative channel marketing platforms help franchisors prepare and share assets, monitor approval processes, and provide real-time reporting through powerful, user-friendly portals. Successful brand-to-local franchisor success is established through consistent effort, open lines of communication, and continual training and support. It begins by developing a trust that marketing strategies take into account local franchise preferences, nurturing franchise owner marketing growth, and providing easy-to-use channel marketing platforms that invite participation.

Contact a Marketing.com franchise marketing expert today to learn more about Dot™, our comprehensive, technology-centered, people-powered platform that seamlessly connects the dots across all your franchise marketing channels.

With more than half of 2023 in the rearview mirror it’s time to start thinking about your 2024 franchise marketing programs and evaluate how new technologies will impact your franchisees in their local markets. In this article we breakdown some of the trends we’re watching and predict what it means for your brand.

Need for True Multichannel Campaigns

The simplest way to explain a true multi-channel campaign is that it’s an expanded way to improve the visibility of a franchise –  through its website, email, social media, mobile app, and even outdoor and indoor signage – across multiple devices that potential customers rely on for information during their journey to make a purchase. Consistency and accessibility form the backbone of any multi-channel marketing campaign with the goal of spreading brand awareness, generating wider and stronger audience engagements, and building greater long-term loyalty according to the preferences of their customers at the moment.

Multi-channel marketing provides engagements at multiple touchpoints and meets shoppers on the channels they use while making purchasing decisions. Franchises are turning to content marketing and workflow management platforms to handle the complexities of running multi-channel campaigns and optimize their investment in every channel. Accordingly, channel marketing platforms use and multi-channel content marketing will continue to grow in importance. In 2024, it will become the dominant way franchises and their customers connect. According to Retail Dive, marketers using three or more channels in a campaign enjoy a purchase and engagement rate that is 250% higher than those using single-channel campaigns.

Impact of AI on Franchise Marketing

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting the way companies across every business spectrum apply valuable customer data to streamline operations and make informed decisions. It will add efficiencies to data collection, analytics, and optimization throughout franchises in 2024 as well. According to a  MarTech survey, 64% of B2B marketers consider AI to be valuable in their marketing strategy. 

AI will play a growing role in the way franchises market their business, identify and qualify customers, and allocate resources more efficiently. Many have already integrated AI-powered chat boxes and other natural language programs (NLPs) which enable computers to read text, hear, and interpret information offered by customers and provide real-time solutions without human intervention.

For franchises, however, NLPs are only the beginning in terms of the possibilities that AI brings to the way transactional, marketing, and competitor pricing data can be analyzed, and content created. Based on recommendations powered by machine learning algorithms, franchises can identify trends earlier, tailor localized campaigns based upon specific, unique characteristics, and efficiently manage multiple locations with strategies specific to each, all based on actionable data.  The time to incorporate AI is now or risk falling behind. According to a Forbes Advisor survey, 64% of businesses believe that AI will help increase their overall productivity.

Automation and Personalization

For franchises in 2024, automation and personalization will grow in importance as a means to stay consistently connected with customers. Using comprehensive content management systems that seamlessly integrate customer data into decision making,  every communication can become more personalized and profitable. Franchises can time the messaging they share with customers based on the relationship they have developed and coordinate each with key promotions, anniversaries and birthdays, location, and past purchases. According to Oracle, 63% of businesses that implement marketing automation software expect to see benefits within 6 months.

Together the automation of messaging and flexibility to refine the message to coincide with customer interests and environment gives franchises the ability to remain connected and relevant. They can incorporate personal information in email subject lines, make webpages more significant to visitors with automated localized content, and segment customers for streamlined customer service and reduced wait times. Customers see every communication as providing a service or solution and therefore engage with, rather than ignore, franchise messaging. A Forrester report reveals that 89% of businesses are starting to invest in personalization. 

Systems Approach to Franchise Marketing

In 2024, franchisors and franchisees will more fully employ and embrace a systems approach to structure marketing content through websites, print, email, and social media, and as a way to eliminate inefficiencies between channels and branding strategies. The best marketing content platforms offer a user-friendly interface that provide for customization to adapt to different workflows and management styles, and are scalable to make it cost-effective for any sized business.

A systems approach helps franchises seamlessly collaborate, assign tasks, and keep team members on the same page, even remotely, and gives employees the tools to plan, carry out, manage, and benefit from real-time updates. It ensures greater brand consistency, with tighter control over brand values, image, and messaging across all channels, which is very important if franchises want to continue to grow their business. 

It’s never too early for franchises to take steps now to get ahead of the competition. Understanding the franchise marketing landscape and planning to capitalize on the benefits to be found by integrating new technologies will help you build better and longer lasting relationships with your customers.

Contact a Marketing.com franchise marketing expert today to learn more about Dot™, our comprehensive, technology-centered, people-powered platform that seamlessly manages multi-channel marketing campaigns across your franchise system.