If you have lofty plans to purchase or grow a franchise location, it’s essential that you stick to habits and behaviors that have worked for successful owners like you. In this article, we discuss marketing habits in particular, although there are many other daily habits that can help you achieve your goals.
Keep in mind, there’s no magic formula for success in franchise marketing. When you find yourself on what seems like an endless path to get your business off the ground, it’s easy to feel lost, discouraged, or bored. This can lead to a lot of effort and floundering.
This is why it’s essential to build good habits and stick to them. Take a look at the 7 marketing habits of successful franchise marketers below that will help you reach your goals faster.
1. They Know Their Target Market
One of the key ingredients to marketing is knowing your audience. If you’re not sure who is most likely to buy your products or services, how can you market to them effectively?
Successful franchise business owners learn about their target market and use that knowledge to inform how they market their business. What do people in your target market like? How old are they? Where do they live? These are all questions that successful franchise business owners ask themselves when developing a marketing campaign.
2. They Build Relationships With Customers
Another important ingredient in marketing is building a relationship with customers. Marketing isn’t just about attracting new customers — it’s also about keeping the ones you already have happy and loyal.
Successful franchise business owners know this, which is why they make an effort to stay connected with existing customers through email marketing, social media engagement, responses to customer reviews, and referral incentives.
Related: The Best 7 Social Media Tips for Small Businesses
3. They Take Full Advantage of the Franchise Brand
Successful franchise owners know that they can leverage their brand power by following the rules and guidelines that come with it. They make sure their signage is attractive and visible, they use the recommended color schemes in their décor, and they follow the operational procedures that are outlined in their manuals.
When it comes to online marketing, franchise businesses have a distinct advantage over independent businesses. Oftentimes, a franchisee can tap into the marketing budget of the franchisor, which is typically much larger than any one franchisee could afford.
Additionally, the franchisor has already done extensive market research, identified the best audience for their product or service, and developed collateral pieces to help their franchisees advertise. Combined with local photos and videos, these assets give a franchisee the power of brand recognition coupled with authenticity and credibility.
4. They Constantly Monitor Their Competition
To remain competitive, you have to keep tabs on your competitors. You need to know how they represent themselves across multiple channels: in print, online and on social media, for example. This will help you identify opportunities for improvement within your own company.
In terms of social media advertising, you can also see how your competitors handle their ads on Facebook. Click over to their business profile, and then on Page Transparency, where you can snoop on what ads they’re running. Obviously, don’t copy their ads exactly, but you can get a general idea of how they’re reaching out to their audience (and hopefully do it better yourself with your own unique flair).
5. They Make Local Marketing a Priority
As a franchisee, you have the benefit of an established brand name to market your products or services, but you also have the challenge of building your own customer base and reputation within your community.
A successful franchise business owner will have their finger on the pulse of their local market. They will know all about their target audience and we will know exactly what appeals to them. They then match their local marketing to meet their audience where they are.
6. They Use Social Media
Just a decade ago, social media was a new frontier for franchise businesses. As the technology became more accessible and users became more familiar with how to use it, companies were able to leverage social media as a new way to engage with customers and capture their attention.
For many franchises, it’s become an essential part of the business for customer engagement and support. As we mention in this Franchise Business Review article: “Photos of their location, employees, customers and special events or promotions will help them build a local customer base and drive online and offline traffic. It will also help them put their best foot forward when looking to attract new hires.
7. They Embrace Technology to Automate Their Marketing
When you buy a franchise, you’re also buying the entire system. You’re buying the marketing, the products and services, and the branding. The best part about franchising is that owners have already figured out what works and what doesn’t.
The problem is that some franchise owners fail because they think they need to do everything themselves. They think they need to micromanage everything, and so they spend all their time on busy work instead of working on growing their business.
Successful franchisees automate as many business operations as possible, including many aspects of their marketing. This way, they can focus more time on building sales, improving product lines, marketing, branding, and other core functions of the business that only they can do.
Franchise business owners are able to automate a lot of their marketing with the help of technology. For example, they can post content on social media that’s already been created by the company and then respond to any comments. They can create ads using proven templates and images and then tweak them with local information. They can make use of scheduling software like Rallio’s platform for social media management.
Marketing Habits Take Time
While these marketing habits take some time to build, eventually they’ll be so ingrained that you won’t even have to think about them. Focus on small steps you can take every day toward a greater return on your marketing investment.
If you’d like some help establishing your processes and getting your marketing habits in place, reach out to us via rallio.com.
