Marketing a franchise to customers in your area requires a great deal of consideration. While you have the benefit of brand reputation and recognition, you still need to work to get locals through the door. That being said, it’s important you go about marketing the right way to get results. Here are the dos and don’ts of marketing a franchise to buyers that you should always stick to once you open your franchise location.
Do Prioritize Local SEO and Foot Traffic
Investing in a franchise opportunity often means purchasing a brick-and-mortar franchise. Because of this, it’s important to remember that you should be focusing on local marketing strategies. Start by figuring out ways to attract attention as people walk by or drive by your franchise. You can use window signs, banners, and similar signage to draw attention to your new location and get people in the door.
Beyond that, you will want to make sure that you’re tapping into local SEO. Local SEO will help you appear in online searches when people are looking for products or services that you provide. Customers will see photos of your shop, where you are on the city map, and various customer reviews that tell them more about your business. Remember to market to both customers in the vicinity of your business as well as those online.
Don’t Take Risks That Could Create Problems With Your Franchiser
Being a franchisee gives you a lot of freedom, but you still own a franchise location that is someone else’s business model and represent that brand. Doing things that could potentially harm the brand’s reputation can get you in trouble and will not go well with your franchiser. Stick with what they give you, and only think outside of the box if it’s not harmful and is pre-approved.
Do Adhere to Your Franchiser’s Advice and Resources
As a franchisee, your franchiser is going to have promotional and marketing materials as well as set rules and guidelines for how they want you to market your new business. This makes it easy to begin marketing, as there’s no guesswork on your part. All you have to do to begin marketing your new franchise location is to use the advice and resources given to you. If your franchiser offers marketing training and other courses that will help you become more effective as a business owner, take advantage of those as well!
Don’t Establish a Set-and-Forget Strategy
Marketing is not something you can do once and then enjoy the effects of. Marketing plans need to be tweaked often. Establish a system to collect data and read analytics, shift your approach as needed to see which strategies seem to be most effective, and grow and evolve over time to make sure that your franchise location is relevant and in demand. Not having a marketing plan will have a tremendous impact on how successful your franchise is.
Marketing a franchise is a lot easier than it looks when you know the rules. Get familiar with the dos and don’ts, then implement them in your own marketing approach to see success with your franchise location.