Simply throwing money into your latest franchise marketing campaign doesn't mean you will achieve the results you need...
The most cost-effective marketing strategies for franchise businesses revolve around using all available channels in both the digital and "real" worlds. This doesn't mean using every channel to the exact same extent - but engagement with every potential audience, and with an audience on every level, demands that all channels be utilised.
Goals and Measurement
When it comes to measuring ROI in marketing for franchise businesses, clearly stating your goals, and the metrics by which you'll estimate the progress on those goals, is the place to start.
To succeed, you need to invest. But you need to invest wisely. And to use the most advanced analytic and measurement tools to determine whether your investment was worth it.
Marketing Automation and Optimisation
Next comes automation and optimisation of your marketing processes. This saves you time, money, and increases efficiency, while simultaneously personalising the user experience and increasing conversion rates. Or at least, it does if it's done right...
Just slapping a label on some relatively smart software does not mean you've automated your marketing processes. You'll end up treating your potential clients as interchangeable sets of links they've clicked or emails they've opened, rather than individuals with their own wants and needs.
Incorporate all of the following approaches into your franchise marketing though, and you'll soon start to see massive savings in terms of cost-efficiency:
1. Lean Marketing
The costs and time required to test and market products have increased. One way of combating this persistent rise is the lean approach. But what is lean marketing?
Lean marketing is an interative technique which allows the rapid development of marketing campaigns. It's a great methodology when measuring return on marketing investment in order to achieve the highest efficiency is your primary goal.
It involves:
- Fast action to get your Minimum Viable Product - in this case your well-positioned but minimally optimised campaign - out of the door
- Clearly defining your KPIs and metrics
- Measuring each marketing channel on a daily basis to ensure it's giving you a decent return
- Quickly pivoting to close channels which aren't working, and support channels which are
The primary ethos in lean marketing is:
Small risks, swift actions.
This means that highly cost-effective marketing techniques like affiliate programs and exchange programs fit in perfectly with this strategy. Leveraging your already-established network of partners, clients and franchisees for marketing purposes means you get the best value for your money.
2. Inbound Marketing Strategies For Franchises
Inbound marketing is all about making potential customers come to you:
You create and distribute content that your ideal customer appreciates, and they come on-board because you provide the answers to all of their questions, as well as feeding their interests. So much so in fact, that they become promoters of your content themselves...
This means you need:
- The Right Content: creating content which both helps and appeals to your ideal customer is key to inbound marketing. Your content needs to attract the clients so that you can convert them into leads, and then franchisees.
- The Right Channels: choosing the right channels to share your content with your potential customers is vital. Because if they don't see it, you haven't said it.
- The Right Timing: smart calls to action and message delivery are other aspects of inbound marketing that require careful planning. You're not pressuring your clients into joining you - you're offering them the chance to at just the right time.
3. Local Marketing
Many franchises fail to get an adequate digital marketing ROI because they neglect to implement a customised local marketing strategy.
Unless they move or travel, clients will usually make use of the services of only one of your individual franchise locations. This makes it critical to appeal to the local audience in each area.
Overall franchise marketing guidelines should still be created and followed, and your main brand should still have marketing of its own. But without appealing to different localized audiences, you are massively lessening the appeal of your brand as a whole.
4. Guerrilla Marketing
Much like the military tactics of the Spanish partisans it's named after, guerrilla marketing relies on being unconventional. To execute it correctly, you need a highly skilled marketing team with the right creative energy and vision...
Guerrilla marketing is by definition:
- Unauthorised, i.e. in some sense not permitted in the area it's being carried out in
- Unique, clever, shocking or outrageous (this was part of the term's originator Jay Conrad Levinson's first definition)
- Newsworthy, in that it must be far enough outside of "mainstream" advertising to strike a chord with viewers
Small businesses often favour this sort of campaign because of the lower investment that's required. For larger companies the savings are obvious, and having a grassroots movement to complement your mass media campaign can be a sizable advantage.
Guerrilla advertising offers some of the best value returns of any franchise marketing strategy, but as a larger company you do also take on a larger risk with this type of campaign. Why?
Because a company with the budget to afford traditional marketing can be seen as cynically attempting to manipulate its audience. This means the campaign needs to be carefully thought out - otherwise the potential Public Relations risks can outweigh the rewards.
5. Social Media Marketing and Paid Marketing
One of the most important factors when determining the best ROI marketing for franchise businesses is the ability to accurately measure the actual returns involved. Social media marketing and paid marketing channels give you the chance to do this with relative ease.
Many social media channels offer their own metrics, such as Facebook insights, and the costs involved are usually clear. So the results of your different marketing campaigns can easily be tracked.
Social media marketing also lets you focus on very specific audiences, meaning it's easy to get your message out to the right people - those you've identified as your potential customers.
Selecting the right channel for your specific type of franchise is vital, as is tailoring the type of content you post to different channels. These factors make professional expertise invaluable when executing social media marketing campaigns for your franchise.
6. Search Engine Marketing and Paid Campaigns
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and paid campaigns offer the same benefits as social media in terms of measuring and managing return on marketing investment.
And because the vast preponderance of people now find the goods, services and information they need through internet searches, SEM is a huge part of any modern marketing campaign.
Creating smart content and using top-notch SEO techniques will allow you to point those searchers towards your site. And by using tools like Google Analytics you'll be able to precisely determine the Return On Investment you're getting.
Of course, the most effective online marketing for franchise businesses can only be achieved with constant monitoring. This might mean that outsourcing your latest marketing campaign to professionals can be another way of making those all-important efficiency savings...
You'll spend nothing when you get in touch with Local Fame today. You'll always find an expert available to discuss your strategy with.
Get in touch now and get a FREE report on the effectiveness and efficiency of your current franchise marketing processes.
