🕒Estimated Reading Time: ~3 minutes
You may have created a franchise business plan already, but what about your franchise marketing strategy? One of the benefits of buying a franchise is working with a company that already has established marketing materials in place. These marketing materials are just a start. To properly market your franchise, you must have your own marketing strategy in place. Here’s why, and what you need to know to get started.
Customers Love Geo-Specific Communications
If your franchise is geographic specific, such as a restaurant that caters to people in certain zip codes, having your own marketing strategy will enable your business to feel autonomous rather than like an out-of-touch establishment. By having your own social media channels, you can promote local sports teams, engage with local organizations, and deepen your connection to the community.
Building a Relationship Happens Between the Franchisee; Not the Franchise
People like doing business with people. Although the benefit of owning a franchise is having a known brand under your wings as you take flight, your store or stores are run by you, neighbors of the community you serve.
Your marketing plan should focus on humanizing the known brand by personalizing the communications you send. This personalization can foster deeper relationships between the franchisee and the community, which ultimately can build the franchise.
Marketing Requires Resources
Franchisors are excellent at providing franchisees with marketing materials. These materials are just the beginning to having a solid marketing strategy in place. It’s up to the franchisee to devote the time and resources to bringing these marketing materials to life.
Franchisees must have a plan in place and a budget to devote to building these resources to make the provided marketing materials come to life. For example, it takes a strategy for how to promote the brand on the franchisee’s social media account. If you’re not skilled up in how to do social media marketing, hiring a social media expert or taking a course will require additional resources from you, the franchisee.
There Are Some Exceptions to These Rules
As a franchise owner, you’re privy to information that the public is not. And, in some industries, such as the financial services industry, the information your clients give you is especially sensitive. The way you promote your business and how you handle that sensitive information is critical and often must be put through the ringer in a legal department before you publish.
In some cases, it makes sense to leave the marketing to the franchisor. If having your own marketing plan has the potential to hurt the overall brand, many franchisors will hold tightly to the marketing reins.
Marketing is Your Responsibility
Each franchise does marketing a little bit differently. Some take a more centralized approach and handle the bulk of the marketing at the corporate level. Others leave marketing up to the franchisee. Knowing what you have available and are able to do under your franchise’s guidelines is the first step to building out your marketing plan.
Susan Guillory is the President of Egg Marketing & Communications, a marketing firm specializing in content writing and social media management. She’s written three business books, including How to Get More Customers With Press Releases, and frequently blogs about small business and marketing on sites including Forbes, AllBusiness, The Marketing Eggspert Blog, and Tweak Your Biz. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.