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Defining your marketing strategy early on is essential for any brand – but for emerging franchisors, it’s make-or-break. This is the stage where your network forms its identity and your brand is interpreted by dozens (or hundreds) of voices. So, how can franchise headquarters maintain message consistency while encouraging local creativity?
The answer lies in a flexible but strategic marketing framework. These four proven marketing strategies for emerging franchisors help establish a solid foundation while empowering your franchise owners to succeed.
1. Empower Franchise Owners to Create for Themselves
There is often a hesitancy to loosen conformity restrictions when a company is young. Having a uniform code reflects the appearance of a well-organized, professional operation. In some circumstances, this can be beneficial. But this is not always the case.
Franchise owners are individual, local small business owners. Encouraging them to establish their own identity within the context of their own communities will be a major aspect of their (and, therefore, the organization’s) sustainability. With this in mind, we recommend that you motivate the franchise owners to explore (limited) creative avenues of using social media and their online presence. Provide consistent guidelines to make sure no one veers off-brand while still allowing their personality to shine through.
Oftentimes, young franchisors are hesitant to give their franchise owners too much freedom. However, our experience shows that a certain degree of creative freedom benefits both the franchise owner and the brand. The opposite is also true: too tight of a grip results in a hard time creating content that is essential for a local business to thrive. That’s why we listed this as the first of the four marketing strategies for emerging franchisors.
What works:
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Provide brand guidelines and social media toolkits.
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Offer training on tone, image use, and engagement best practices.
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Approve flexible templates they can customize.
2. Giving Franchise Owners Options
Not every Franchise Owner has a marketing background—or the bandwidth to execute campaigns. Some might have limited experience or comfort handling aspects of business outside of their respective fields. Others might just not see the value. Similarly, some franchise owners are just starting up and have to allocate their time and resources toward other aspects of their business first.
Emerging Franchisors should provide regular marketing materials for them, with support from Headquarters. This can include giving them access to branded email templates and tools for them to use themselves. Or propagating social media posts, blogs, and scheduled events on their behalf. Franchise owners will benefit from all of these assets automatically, but can also be encouraged to build upon them themselves.
Options to offer:
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Pre-built email campaigns and CRM integrations.
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Ready-to-post content calendars and assets.
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Done-for-you services managed by headquarters or approved vendors.
This hybrid model lets Franchise Owners opt into the level of involvement they’re comfortable with, while ensuring every location is consistently represented.
3. Encourage Community Involvement and Local Networking
Word-of-mouth remains one of the most powerful tools in marketing—especially at the local level. Emerging franchisors should encourage their Franchise Owners to build credibility by joining local networking organizations.
Direct franchise owners to join their local Chamber of Commerce. These reputable organizations’ primary goal is to further the business interests within their community. Chambers host drives, networking, and charity events. They are also active in lobbying county and state governments on behalf of their members. By joining these groups, franchise owners gain access to many unique marketing opportunities and increased credibility within the community. Moreover, they can easily connect to a multitude of potential business partners in their area.
Where to start:
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Local Chambers of Commerce
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BNI (Business Network International) groups
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Toastmasters or local entrepreneur meetups
These groups offer exposure, build trust, and open up referral opportunities that advertising alone can’t match.
4. Refer Franchise Owners to Approved Marketing Vendors
There are many scenarios where successful and driven franchise owners (or those who aspire to be) see the value of marketing and prefer having a more individualized marketing strategy. But some choose not to, or for some reason, cannot do it themselves. In this instance, the franchisor can (and should) refer them to corporate-approved vendors. Working with approved vendors is the most effective way to ensure franchise owners receive quality services. This is second only to managing this yourself (which, you probably already know, is not sustainable). Approved vendors understand the nature of your industry and know the ins and outs of your business and structure. They adhere to brand standards and truly become a partner in every way. In the best case, the approved vendors become an extension of your own team.
Bright Pink Agency is an experienced franchise marketing partner. We build solid relationships and work closely with both the franchisor’s marketing department and with franchise owners throughout the country. We have identified and know well each of the moving parts that must work together for any franchise network’s marketing systems to work as an efficient machine.
The intent starts at the top with a well-planned corporate perspective. It then carries throughout all locations, promoting the same messaging and company culture for clients, visitors, and potential franchise owners. We also support individual franchise owners to provide consistent and relevant on-brand marketing content, localization services, and to build a strong and effective social media presence.
Bonus Strategy: Know When to Customize
No two franchise systems are identical. Your growth stage, brand voice, and target customer base all influence your marketing approach. That’s why emerging franchisors benefit most from working with a marketing agency that understands the franchise model inside and out.
Need a customized plan for your brand? Let’s talk! Schedule a call with our team to explore your franchise marketing strategy.