Whether you’re a solo franchisee or a multi-brand franchisor, you probably have felt the shift over the past handful of years. What shift are we talking about? We’re talking about how people make buying decisions. 80% of the research is done before people reach out to your local franchise or your sales team selling your opportunity.
When it comes to developing a marketing strategy for your local franchise business, you have more hurdles to work around than most local business owners. You need to consider how your online marketing efforts will affect other franchisees, as well as restrictions placed on you at the corporate level. Before you initiate any type of marketing strategy, it’s important to determine the types of marketing practices that are allowed or preferred by the franchisor. They may also be able to supply you with plenty of artwork and banners to use in your franchise marketing efforts.
Building a web presence for your local franchise business is about more than just having someone design a brochure-style “down and dirty” website and use tricky SEO techniques to drive more traffic to your website. You would be better off to leave the brand building to the franchisor and concentrate your efforts on strengthening your local business presence online. This involves leveraging a local business, organic search engine optimization, local franchise marketing strategies, online business directories, customer review sites, and social media pages that establish your franchise business as a leader in your local or regional marketplace and will make the search engines sit up and take notice.
SEO, or search engine optimization, is another digital marketing essential for your local franchise business. By utilizing proven SEO practices, you can improve your website’s rankings on search engines and drive more customers to your business. There are many aspects that go into SEO, but the first step you should take is hiring a well-respected franchise web development and SEO agency to help you market your franchise business locally. A franchise SEO agency will develop a professional website with optimized content and employ SEO strategies that will help your new website rank prominently in search results for geographically targeted keywords and phrases. This will help you attract customers locally.
In addition to a professional website for your local franchise business, you should also create various social media accounts for your franchise location. Social media networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest, are a great way to target and communicate with your local audience.
To better understand the best path to a successful local franchise marketing strategy, check out our most recent franchise marketing article: SEO for Franchise Businesses – What is the Best Strategy for Local Search? . The article explores how multi-unit enterprises and franchises can work together to develop a strong local online marketing program and narrow the widening gap between corporate control and the local franchise owner’s need for lead generation and business growth.