Franchises operate within a unique framework where maintaining brand consistency across multiple individual locations is crucial for building trust and achieving success. This presents a challenge where a one-size-fits-all marketing approach might not be effective in connecting with the broader public in a way that inspires trust in the brand. Staying current on social media advertising trends can be a tough thing to do, but in this blog, we will share some examples of franchises that have utilized social media to their benefit and why their strategies worked.

Influencer Marketing

Subway is a great example of a franchise that leverages influencers in their marketing to help bolster brand awareness as well as associate their products with positive characteristics such as health and athleticism. Their star-studded ensemble of celebrity athletic endorsers such as Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Tom Brady, Steph Curry and more for their “eat fresh” campaign has brought positive attention to the brand. When they faced criticism over the healthfulness of their food, rather than shying away from calling themselves a healthy brand, they leaned into it and found a way to convince consumers they were wrong to think otherwise. They have successfully parted ways with the challenges of the past and now find themselves back in the good graces of the general public.

Social Engagement Strategies

One franchise brand that has nailed social media marketing is Anytime Fitness. Their social engagement strategy encourages members to post their fitness journeys to online communities, and it has worked. Anytime Fitness rewards user engagement with giveaways and offers challenges to gamify their marketing. Members have built such a community around Anytime Fitness that they voluntarily post workout tips, health advice and anything related to fitness. Their goal was to tap into the fitness culture and become a leader in the minds of the public, so that when you think about getting into shape you think of Anytime Fitness. Their initial strategy was to lean heavily on the idea of being open 24/7, catering to those with busy schedules who still want to stay active and healthy. However, through their skillful use of social media, they have expanded their marketing message and as a result have built an engaged community of like-minded people.

Hashtags

One franchise brand that sets the standard for how to use hashtags on Instagram is Dunkin’. Their #DunkinLove campaign, in which customers share love stories and images on Instagram and tag them with the hashtag #DunkinLove has garnered massive engagement and provided the franchise with tons of great user testimonials. Dunkin’s original marketing play was centered around the utility and function of the brand, with its “America Runs on Dunkin’” message.

However, with its Instagram campaign, it has forged a new marketing message that it is more than a necessary part of the daily grind.

The Social Media Edge

So what are the common threads behind these franchises successful and instrumental uses of social media?

  • Brand Consistency: Much of a franchise’s success is dependent on maintaining brand consistency, which not only attracts new customers but also franchisees. However, it’s more than that: The way a brand looks and sounds needs to be the same, whether messaging is coming from the franchisor or from an individual location – just as the customer experience is reliable and consistent across each location. In a way, a franchise’s social marketing strategy informs customers what to expect when they interact with the brand.
  • Community Building and Engagement: The franchises mentioned have used social media in creative ways to build strong communities, which has enhanced the brand and strengthened the value proposition. They listen to their audience, which allows them to keep delivering relevant content and further deepen the relationship and brand loyalty.
  • UGC is King: A robust and timely social media strategy that leverages multiple tactics will also deliver tons of user generated content (UGC) that enhances the authenticity of the brand while achieving marketing goals. Over-produced marketing content may not resonate with all of the demographic segments a franchise is trying to reach, so having the community that actually uses your brand create real content is extremely powerful. UGC is also much more cost-effective than other marketing tactics. Every franchise should incorporate UGC into their marketing mix.
  • Real-time Responsiveness: More than ever, consumers expect nearly-instant responses from companies when we encounter an issue. Social platforms are a great place to deliver excellent customer service for franchises and maintain active social listening. When a franchise listens to their customers, they make course corrections before issues balloon into problems.

The transformative power of social media in franchising is evident. When deployed correctly, social media trends have time and again helped franchises pivot, strengthen, and grow their brands to new heights.

For franchise businesses investing in cross-channel lead generation strategies, it is important to know how and where leads are generated in a customer relationship management (CRM) system.

At its core, a CRM helps oversee a company’s engagements and connections with both current customers and prospective ones. So, it is critical to ensure your lead sources are tracked properly in the CRM.

For the best results, it must ensure the delivery of the appropriate message to the customer precisely when needed. Marketing alignment, resource allocation, personalization, continuous improvement, and forecasting are just a few of the benefits CRMs provide to manage leads and track lead sources.

Sales and Marketing Alignment

Tracking lead sources enables franchise marketing and sales teams to be more aligned. Alignment helps teams focus their energy and resources on channels that produce the highest quality leads. In turn, that can lead to a more effective sales process.

Resource Allocation

By knowing which channels or campaigns yield the best lead results, budget allocation can be more effective. This helps teams ensure that money is being spent where it is most likely to produce a strong return.

Personalization

Knowing where leads come from can help sales and marketing teams tailor their overall approach, personalizing interaction to help a lead work his or her way toward a conversion. For example, a lead from a Facebook campaign that has not made it completely through the sales funnel could be retargeted with an Instagram ad that speaks more to where the lead currently is in the funnel.

Continuous Improvement

By tracking lead sources and then measuring which ones convert best, businesses can create a loop of feedback that allows them to refine their strategies. Over time, a continuous improvement strategy ensures that marketing and sales processes are evolving and becoming more efficient at converting leads.

Forecasting and Planning

More consistent data on lead conversion rates allow for more accurate forecasts and strategic planning. This sets up your team for success in the future.

Optimization of Marketing Channels

By identifying which lead channels are working, your team can make even more optimizations to ensure marketing budgets yield the best possible results.

Understanding Audience Behavior

Tracking lead sources also gives insights into where potential leads are spending their time and what content or platforms attract them. This information can be extremely useful in determining the best strategies to target your audience.

Faster Response Times

Some CRM software can immediately notify sales reps after a lead comes in from a specific source. Faster notifications allow for more timely follow-ups, which can increase the chances of conversion.

ROI Measurement

By tracking lead sources, businesses can calculate the return on investment (ROI) for specific marketing campaigns, channels, or strategies. This helps marketers determine which sources are the most profitable and which ones might need more adjustments.

In a world driven by data, tracking lead sources in a CRM is crucial for any franchise business that wants to maximize its marketing efforts and improve its bottom line. Proper use of this data can lead to more effective strategies, better use of your marketing dollars and better alignment of sales and marketing objectives.

As franchise brands strive to optimize their marketing efforts and generate qualified leads, understanding the customer journey through the marketing funnel becomes crucial. The marketing funnel, which represents the stages a customer goes through before making a purchase, consists of three main sections: top, middle and bottom. Focusing on the bottom of funnel marketing and exploring effective strategies can enhance conversions and drive sales growth.

Tailored Content for Bottom of Funnel                   

At the bottom of the funnel, potential customers have shown interest and are considering making a purchase. To effectively target these leads, businesses should deliver highly relevant and personalized content. Craft compelling product descriptions, case studies, testimonials and comparisons that highlight the unique value propositions of your offerings. Implementing a content strategy that addresses specific pain points and showcases the benefits of your solution can significantly influence purchase decisions.

Remarketing and Email Marketing

Remarketing and email marketing are powerful tactics to engage leads at the bottom of the funnel. By leveraging tracking pixels and cookies, businesses can retarget website visitors who have already shown interest in their products or services. Displaying personalized ads to these prospects across various platforms keeps your brand top of mind and encourages them to take the next step. Additionally, sending targeted emails with tailored offers, discounts and incentives can further nurture leads and push them toward conversion.

Social Proof and Reviews

One of the primary concerns for leads at the bottom of the funnel is whether your product or service can deliver on its promises. Strategically utilize social proof and customer reviews to address these concerns. Showcase positive testimonials, ratings and reviews on your website, social media channels and third-party review platforms. Highlighting real customer experiences and demonstrating the value your offerings have provided can instill trust, remove doubts and expedite the decision-making process.

Provide Decision-Making Support

Leads at the bottom of the funnel often require additional information or support to make a confident purchasing decision. Offer resources such as product demos, live chats, interactive tools and comprehensive FAQs to address any remaining doubts or questions. Providing a seamless and informative experience during this stage can help prospects overcome barriers and guide them toward conversion.

Limited-Time Offers and Incentives

Creating a sense of urgency can be highly effective in converting leads at the bottom of the funnel. Use limited time offers, exclusive discounts or special incentives to encourage prospects to take immediate action. Promote these offers through targeted digital marketing channels such as email campaigns, social media ads and display advertising. By providing tangible benefits for making a purchase within a specific timeframe, you can effectively drive conversions and capitalize on the interest of bottom-of-the-funnel leads.

Targeting leads at the bottom of the funnel requires a strategic and personalized approach. By leveraging some of these strategies , franchises can effectively engage prospects who are on the verge of making a purchase decision. Implementing tailored content, remarketing, email marketing, social proof, decision-making support and limited time offers can significantly enhance conversions and drive revenue growth. Understanding the customer journey and applying the right strategies at each stage of the marketing funnel are key to achieving marketing success in today’s digital landscape.

Persona development begins with recognizing that your brand is not for everyone. 

You don’t want to market to all 8 billion people on the planet — that would be unaffordable and inefficient. Instead, you only want to market to those people who are a good match for your product or service: people who need it, can benefit from it and/or would like it. 

But who are these people? Where are they? And how can you connect with them?

These are good questions, and a buyer persona is the answer to them all.

What is a buyer persona?

A buyer or customer persona isn’t a real person. Rather, it’s an imaginary character with the traits that typify your ideal customers. Usually, a persona description will include:

  • An easy-to-remember, evocative name. A family-friendly restaurant franchise might identify “Supermom Sandy” as its ideal customer, while a lawn-service brand might name “Grillmaster Gary.”
  • Demographic information. All the basics: age, gender, education, occupation, income, ethnicity and marital and family status.
  • Lifestyle description. This is a mini-biography that spells out what this character is like: how they spend their days and what they do for fun.
  • Groups and memberships. This might be a gym, a parent association, a church, a bowling league, a chamber of commerce or a motorcycle club.
  • Mindset. An explanation of what the persona wants and needs in life — their goals, values and beliefs.
  • Frequent whereabouts. Wherever the ideal customer tends to spend their time and attention.
  • Influences and information sources. All the media the persona uses: podcasts, blogs, radio, websites, magazines, television shows, and social media platforms.
  • Brand-relevant beliefs and emotions. A pet care franchise brand would want to explain how their persona feels about entrusting their fur baby to a stranger; a beauty brand would want to spell out how their persona feels about their appearance (and spending money on it).
  • Pain points. A clear description of the problematic “before” situation that will change into the desirable “after” when the buyer persona becomes a customer.

How to create a persona.

What you’ll need: brand familiarity and insights, multiple perspectives and the data you’ve gathered in your CRM.

Everyone who works at your company, from the service team to the C-suite, possesses knowledge about the consumers who need and appreciate what your brand has to offer. Who are the happiest customers? Who provides the best reviews and testimonials? Who comes back for repeat business?

Get folks from every facet of your staff to share their perspective about your ideal customers — the ones you have today and the ones you think you could win in the future — and contemplate their defining characteristics.

Here are some of the questions you’ll want to answer:

  • What traits do your best customers have in common? Consider everything — the way they think, the way they behave, their habits and headaches, their passions and aversions. Any commonalities are worth noting and exploring.
  • What problems do they have that your product or service solves? What do these problems feel like to them? How are they dealing with the problems now? What kind of solutions have they tried and found lacking?
  • What objections are they likely to have to your offerings? By identifying these potential obstacles, you can also figure out the best way to address or prevent those objections.

The best source for persona development? Real customers.

You can’t make a good buyer persona without understanding your real-life buyers. 

You have a lot of valuable data in your CRM. But you can go even deeper by interviewing your customers and digging into their online comments and questions. 

Figure out what they love about your brand and where you could appeal to them more effectively. Quantitative data is helpful, but you especially want that personality-packed, truly human qualitative information. Capture your customers’ language. Get a sense of their priorities. Notice their emotions. Then you’ll be able to weave the most salient, similar qualities into a customer persona that everyone at your company can truly understand and work to serve.

You’ve probably noticed that your average cost per lead (CPL) has been moving upward over the last year or so. Whether your franchise brand focuses on food, wellness, home services or something else, it’s been getting more expensive to move consumers into your marketing funnel. From Google, Meta and TikTok to radio and TV, chances are that you’re paying more to connect with your prospects.

What’s that all about, anyway?

1) Competition.

More and more companies these days are vying for consumers’ attention and dollars, using a finite amount of ad space. And as the law of supply and demand tells us, the result is higher prices.

Some advertisers have deep pockets, too. Marketplace Business News reports that after an initial decrease in spending at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, large companies quickly began overcompensating, spending big bucks to gain dominance. Digital marketing is auction-based, so it’s no surprise that ramped-up spending drove prices higher.

2) The ever-growing appeal of social media.

Social media’s popularity is huge and continues to expand. According to Statista, as of April 2023, 4.8 billion people were using social media worldwide. And that number is projected to reach almost 6 billion by 2027.

Where there are consumers, there are advertisers trying to court them. Worldwide spending on social media ads will increase 9.3% in 2023 and reach $207.1 billion, says Statista.

Despite social media’s popularity, it still costs less than traditional media for lead acquisition. So, advertisers continue to gravitate toward social media, pushing up its prices.

3) Inflation and other economic factors.

Though there’s now talk about the Federal Reserve potentially pulling off a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy, our long stretch of inflation and stratospheric interest rates has caused consumers to exercise more caution with their dollars. In July 2023, McKinsey reported that although U.S. consumers felt relatively optimistic about the economy, real year-over-year spending had declined for the third month in a row.

4) Political campaign season. 🇺🇸

You’ve doubtless noticed that we’re heading toward an election cycle. That means political advertisers are gobbling up much of the available ad space, and they’re willing to pay top dollar.

But wait — there may be a silver lining here! Your target audience will likely be more receptive to nonpolitical advertising. In a sea of political posturing and propaganda, consumers will probably appreciate seeing ads featuring delicious food or a pleasant retail experience.

5) Annual buying seasons.

During certain times of the year, the competition for digital ad space becomes even tougher. Anyone in the children’s services and education space, or in the world of retail generally, knows about “BTS” ¾ back to school. And of course, the wintertime holidays, Valentine’s Day, Halloween and other special occasions can make it costlier to capture leads.

What can you do about the rising cost per lead?

In addition to acknowledging reality and allocating your media dollars carefully, here are four other approaches to consider:

Get creative.

Effective guerilla and experiential marketing campaigns can capture remarkable attention, press and brand recognition without your having to actually pay for media placement.

You can also get creative with your media buys. For example, if you find that traditional 30-second broadcast spots have become too expensive, you might want to opt for shorter commercials. A well-done 15-second spot might go a long way toward earning you new leads. 

Remember the value of awareness.

Awareness advertising doesn’t directly convert people into leads. Instead, it makes them familiar with your brand so that when they are ready to buy your product or service, they’ll remember you. Despite marketers’ focus on cost per click, cost per action and cost per acquisition, it’s awareness that will ultimately help reduce all those costs.

Zero in on your ideal customer.

All leads are not created equal. You only want those leads that are going to convert to sales. Make sure every dollar of your ad spend is aimed in precisely the right direction.

Curious Jane is a big believer in the power of persona marketing.  By understanding your ideal consumer well, you can ensure that all your advertising efforts (and expenditures) are strategically pointed at them.

Make the most of every lead you get.

Too often, once leads get captured, they’ll receive nothing but a quick, generic series of emails. Sometimes, those hard-won leads get abandoned altogether.

But every lead is an opportunity to forge a relationship by using informed, targeted lead nurturing. Customer lifecycle marketing is a journey, and lead capture is only the first step.

It is never too early to start thinking about 2024 planning. Whether your industry is B2B or B2C, crafting a holistic multi-channel marketing/media plan is imperative for driving franchise business growth. Diving into brand strategy, data and insights are among our favorite things at Curious Jane, and it may not surprise you to know your customer data should drive strategy recommendations. As you buckle in for your 2024 marketing and advertising planning, gather your marketing campaign and customer data and review these five essential steps to creating your franchise brand’s consumer media plan for 2024.

Step 1: Define Advertising Goals & Objectives

Your 2023 data is the best tool to help you determine 2024 goals and objectives. While the year isn’t over just yet, this data set and current performance is the best tell of how next year will look for your franchise brand. As you review this year’s performance against goals, take a dive into some of these results:

  • What is your total marketing budget for 2023?
  • How is your sales and lead volume for 2023?
  • Are you where you would like to be, or are you looking for a 10% increase for 2024? How about a 20% increase?
  • What is your average cost per sale/lead?
  • What is your average cost per sale/lead per advertising platform?

Working through these businesswide marketing goals will naturally lead to some tactical and strategic questions – both of which should absolutely be a part of the conversation.

  • How does my brand define and measure success? (Is it a $25 cost per sale? Is it a 0.75% click-through rate?)  
  • Is my brand looking to increase brand awareness?
  • Is my brand looking to drive website traffic?
  • Is my brand looking to generate leads?
  • Is my brand looking to boost sales?

As you navigate this discovery process, start to identify your goals for 2024. It’s important to look at these specific and measurable goals across the board and set the expectation that your costs will follow. For example: If you are building a strategy to reach a 10% increase in sales for 2024, your marketing budget should also have a 10% increase. A boost will not happen without dollars to drive it there, so ensure that your media goals are backed by media dollars.

Step 2: Understand Your Target Audience

Once you have determined your goals, it’s time to dive into customer data. Develop a thorough and robust understanding of who is using your product or service. By reviewing your own client and customer data as your source of truth, you take the guesswork out of identifying your target audience, and instead, rely on the tried-and-true data at your fingertips. Use your customer data and insights to help your franchise make strategic decisions, and help answer important questions like:

  • Who is my customer? (Age, gender, location)
  • Where does my ideal customer go for more product information?
  • How do they research?
  • What values are important to my customer?
  • What doesn’t my customer like?
  • Where do they spend their free time?

Step 3: Select the Right Channels

In 2024, the advertising landscape offers an overwhelming number of channels. Selecting the right mix of channels is essential to reach your target audience effectively with your multi-channel marketing efforts. Using your client persona from step two, tap into those media locations where your customer spends their time and money. You may want to start with three to five ideal channels, or more if your budget allows. The more you know about your customer, the more naturally platforms will emerge.

For example, Franchise A is an emerging beauty product franchise. Their target demographic includes females in California, ages 13-30, who enjoy beauty products, are shopping on a budget, who rely on mail-delivery for their shopping needs and who prefer a virtual experience. Their goals are product sales.

This tells us a lot about how to best use our ad dollars:

  1. We can look at multichannel opportunities and creative to align with the seasonality and messaging for a young female Californian.
  2. Because our consumer prefers virtual experiences, we can learn more into digital marketing efforts (instead of traditional channels like direct mail).  
  3. Because our consumer skews younger and more digital, social media emerges as a natural fit. We know this demographic relies on social media and video content to learn about new products and brands.
  4. This user may rely on TikTok search engines, YouTube product testimonials, Google searches for the website or check out hashtags and reviews on Instagram. Therefore, we may want to consider these platforms as our primary channels.

Step 4: Put Yourself in Their Shoes and Allocate Budget Accordingly

The best thing your franchise brand can do to allocate your media budget is put yourself into the shoes of your consumer. Continue that trek as you align marketing efforts with the customer experience.

Curious Jane recommends a full-funnel marketing strategy, regardless of the product or service your franchise brand offers. “Full funnel” speaks to the user’s research journey and decision-making, and we recommend aligning it to your marketing strategy.

When evaluating your target persona’s sales journey , it is important to identify which platforms are the right fit at each phase. For example, does your customer use Facebook to find new brands or do they rely on LinkedIn to review business services?

Once you’ve identified platforms and their place in a customer’s sales journey, set a realistic budget for each platform at each phase in the funnel. Allocate your budget strategically, considering the cost of each channel, how they are used by your consumers and their potential return. (It’s important to strike a balance between high-impact channels and cost-effective options.)

Step 5: Monitor, Analyze, Optimize and Repeat

The final and ongoing step is to put your plan into motion in 2024 and keep a pulse on performance. It’s important to know your franchise consumer media plan is fluid and flexible, meaning it will ebb and flow just like your business does. It is meant to serve as a backbone or structural support to your marketing execution, so there may be times when things need to shift to accomplish those goals.

Marketing, advertising and sales insights will be the true basis for your analysis. Use tools like Google Analytics 4 on your website, tap into your CRM and review campaign data provided by your advertising platforms. Pulling these types of data sources together will help you track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, conversion rates, click-through rates and customer acquisition costs. Monitor the performance of each channel and campaign to identify what works best for your franchise business. Most importantly, regularly review and optimize your plan based on your findings.

Franchise SEO tips are everywhere, but many are complex or long-term tactics. If you’d rather jump in and take quick action, we’ve put together five things your franchise can do right now to improve SEO, or search engine optimization, right away.

SEO Action items to send to your digital marketing team: 

  1. Fix your top speed issues.
  2. Optimize your server setup.
  3. Boost content on the verge of success.
  4. Add strategic internal links.
  5. Evaluate underperforming content.

Let’s start with your website’s speed. Google prefers websites that deliver a better experience for search engine users, and since the 2015 mobile-friendly update, speed has been a top factor for their algorithm.

Fix Your Top Speed Issues

Websites have grown more complex, so it can be tricky to address speed problems. But there’s a terrific tool for identifying speed issues and their degree of impact on your site.

  1. Go to Page Speed Insights and enter your franchise’s URL. You should get results in about two minutes. (Note that these are page speed insights, not site speed insights, so they can change from one day to another and from one page to the next.)
  2. Beneath your performance metrics, you’ll see an “opportunities” section listing improvements you can make along with “estimated savings” in load time.
  3. Talk to your developer about tackling these issues, prioritizing whatever will deliver the biggest improvement.
  4. After each fix, go back to Page Speed Insights to see the difference.
  5. Check multiple pages to discover any sitewide issues.

Note: What may seem like a small issue summarized in one line of text can actually be complex to remedy. Give your developer the time they need and consider pacing your to-do list if your resources are limited.

Optimize Your Server Setup

This one’s easy. It’s a service called a content delivery network (CDN). CDN uses servers that are geographically distributed so anyone accessing your site will be connected with a server that’s physically nearby — and therefore, more responsive.

You might find CDN on your hosting company’s website as an add-on, or you can ask if they have any integrated options that are ready to go. If necessary, you can choose from a number of CDN service providers. You probably won’t need to migrate your website to another host to get CDN.

If you don’t have the resources to make the upgrade now, you can at least verify that your site is being hosted on a server within the same country as your customers. All you need to do is make a call. (This is the only SEO tactic that’s almost as easy as ordering a pizza.)

“If Google’s users like you, Google’s algorithm will like you, too.” – Anonymous 

Enough about speed; let’s talk about content.

Boost Content on the Verge of Success

This is one of the few tactics where you can get lucky and unlock a ton of traffic quickly.

You probably already have a list of keywords you want your franchise to rank for. If your content is showing up on the first page of results, then great job! But your best opportunity lies in tweaking the content showing up on page two. Depending on the competitiveness of the keyword, you might be able to dig into data that’s been stuck on the second page and earn new organic traffic.

So how do you do this? It starts with a little light keyword research and assessing the data you already have.

  1. Log into the Google Search Console and look under “Performance” on the left-hand side of the screen for the feature called “search results” (with a fancy modern “G” logo next to it).
  2. Sort the queries by impressions and see which keywords are ranking the highest in search engine results.
  3. When you see a word with potential value ranking between position 10 and 19, click it to peek at which page is ranked for that word. Now you know which page needs to be expanded upon.
  4. Reach out to your writer and ask them to take that page to the next level.

Pro tip: If you need hints on how to expand on certain keywords, check out the suggestions in the pages ranked 1–9 on the search results page.

Add Strategic Internal Links

You don’t have to commit to a total content marketing campaign or a full website architecture restructure to benefit more from the content you’ve already created. You can build semi-optimized groupings of content called “clusters” by adding internal links. Here’s how:

  1. Gather all your content and see if you have a batch of posts that relate in some way to a particular page.
  2. Go into each post and verify that it contains a link pointing to the main post on that subject.

The main post is called “cornerstone content” and it should be lengthy, covering more than just the surface levels of the topic. Cornerstone content will also serve as a critical part of your site’s structure when you’re ready to redesign.

Evaluate Your Underperforming Content

If you have a blog with more than 100 posts, this one’s for you. It’s simple if you use a content management system (CMS) like WordPress. The goal is to remove anything that’s not helpful or engaging while making sure any lack of engagement isn’t due to your site’s design.

  1. Look for anything with a previous year in the title. If it can’t be revised to be evergreen, it probably needs to go.
  2. Remove any duplicate content.
  3. Go to your analytics platform and see which blogs have a low number of views or clicks in the last two years.
  4. Evaluate how relevant your low-performing content is today. If it’s still relevant, find a way to make it accessible within two or three clicks.
  5. Make a note to remember the change during future analysis.
  6. Resubmit your updated page to Google and give it six months to see if engagement improves. If it doesn’t, you may want to add the best info to another post or remove it entirely.

The best SEO improvements are the ones you can accomplish — and the quicker, the better. We hope these five tips help your franchise website get discovered by more people in less time.

In terms of digital marketing trends, email might seem as antiquated as the rotary phone, however, it’s still one of the best ways to build a loyal customer base for your franchise brand.

Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to reach and engage with customers. But it has to be professional. It must look good. That’s what will help you stay in contact with customers on a personal level, reach them in real time, all while being affordable and tracking a variety of data. And while it has now been around for decades, it’s a proven method that should remain in your marketing toolkit. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.

To give it more of an updated 2023 polishing, franchise brands should now consider leveraging the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, systems to enhance their franchise marketing campaigns to improve customer engagement in every step of the process, from content creation to when the customer receives and acts on it.

For starters, AI machine learning can assist marketing teams in getting personal. The algorithms used in these systems are able to create a more customized email campaign based on a customer’s purchase history, browsing behavior and product preferences. Through this customization, franchises can get more targeted and increase the likelihood of conversation.

By using an AI-powered email marketing platform, franchise companies can leverage its ability to create dynamic content that adapts to your customer. These systems generate personalized subject lines, email copy and visuals based on your customer’s data. It makes the interaction between you and your customer more engaging.

The algorithms used can also help to send your emails to specific customer segments, which can help improve your company’s marketing analytics. Think increased open rates, click-through rates and overall engagement. Through precise programming within the applications, your AI system can segment your email lists by demographics, purchasing behavior and engagement levels. An AI system can identify patterns and trends in customer behaviors and use them to predict future customer actions. Franchises can use these insights to optimize email content and timing.

AI email systems can also assist with A/B testing of different versions of email campaigns on subsets of your customer audience and analyze the results. Testing helps identify the most effective email elements, such as subject lines, calls to action or visuals to optimize future campaigns.

After you’ve put your content together, it’s time to send it out into the internet universe. But have you ever wondered what’s the best time to send your customer that email? AI can help with that, too. The system can analyze your customer data and behavior patterns to determine the optimal time to send emails to individual subscribers. By considering factors like time zone, historical engagement and open rates, franchises can increase the likelihood of emails being seen and acted upon.

And as a final step in the process, AI can help make sure that beautifully crafted email doesn’t end up in spam purgatory by identifying filter triggers and increasing the chances of the emails reaching the customers’ inboxes.

By leveraging your AI systems in these ways, franchise companies can enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of their email marketing campaigns, leading to better customer engagement, increased conversions and improved overall ROI.

Preview text: Personalization, automation and mobilization are the key words for 2023.

Dear [FIRST NAME] [LAST NAME],

With all the talk among marketing gurus about email marketing, you may think email is back in vogue – but frankly, it never really went anywhere. There are email marketing trends you need to be aware of, however, and the big ones for 2023 are personalization, automation and mobilization.

At least 91% of people check their email every day. Hubspot estimates 4 billion people around the world use email daily, and that number grows each year.

Email marketing is getting lots of attention currently because marketers are realizing how cost-efficient it is. Email marketing has one of the highest returns on investment (ROI) among digital strategies, with an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. That’s a 3,600% return!

Additionally, email marketing content is very flexible – it can be whatever you need it to be, whether that’s a graphic or a photo or text or some combination of those things – and thanks to the increased sophistication among customer relationship management (CRM) systems, it is easy to scale. Marketing emails are set up essentially the same way, whether your leads list includes 100 names or 100,000.

And while we’re on the subject of your leads list, [FIRST NAME], let’s start by getting personal.

Personalization

Perhaps the most significant email marketing trend is personalization. In this case, “personalization” goes much deeper than just inserting someone’s first name in the salutation line.

Personalization means using the data that your customers give you so that you can send them more relevant content. How do you do that? You segment, or filter, your lists using what you know about your customers, their preferences and what kind of content engages them. Conveniently, most CRMs are also email providers, so look at the benefits of using them to their fullest capacity.

For example, if you know half of your customers engage with emails that feature images of dogs, and half engage with emails that feature cats, then you can build personalized emails that will show the dog people images of puppies and the cat people images of kittens. [INSERT DYNAMIC IMAGE]

One way to determine which images or subject lines perform best is through testing. Simple A/B tests can lead to a 28% higher ROI, according to Hubspot. You do need a large enough sample to collect good data.

The good news here is that you have artificial intelligence (AI) on your side. AI can help you figure out what your leads like to interact with, and you can then use that information to automate your email marketing.

Automation

So, AI learns what users like and ensures they get content tailored to their interests. That’s helpful to the user, who’s getting more relevant content; to the email marketer, who’s building the email content; and to your sales team, who’s trying to sell something.

A word of caution: “Automation” in email marketing does not mean set it and forget it. It means technology can make it easier for you to stay in touch with your leads. Think of email marketing as a journey, a part of your holistic marketing strategy, rather than a one-way trip. If your email isn’t helping you build a relationship with your customer, then it’s a waste of time.

Automation can help you build that relationship through frequent email touches and gauging whether your list is segmented correctly. Your CRM can help you see who is engaging with your emails; if users are not engaging, they may be segmented incorrectly, or it may be time to clean out your list.

When evaluating the effectiveness of your data, keep in mind that clicks are a much better indicator of engagement than open rates, and because email marketing usually drives users to a particular webpage or landing page, those numbers are more reliable.

Fact: Because of changing privacy rules, open rates are less reliable than they once were. That’s because many more people now read their email on their cellphones, and depending on how their email is set up, they may not be trackable on their phones. Apple does not allow marketers to track opens.

So, let’s dig into the phone situation.

Mobilization

First, your marketing emails should be built “mobile-first.” Do not assume that everyone checks their emails on a desktop computer, because they do not. Today, a whopping 81% of all emails are opened and read on mobile devices.

Email marketer BlueHornet did a study on what happens to emails that aren’t optimized for mobile. Do you want to guess what users did when they opened an email that didn’t display properly? They deleted it!

They aren’t spending a lot of time trying to read it first, either. In 2021, users spent an average of 10 seconds reading an email. You have to hook them quickly with short subject lines, brief copy and buttons large enough to select with your thumb.

And finally, if you’re sending a test email to co-workers, remember to check the test on a phone.

One last tidbit to consider: Hubspot says 40% of consumers have at least 50 unread emails in their inbox. Don’t be left unread.

Chances are, your next potential franchise owner is sitting inside one of your locations right now. They may be, for the first time, researching your fran dev website on their phone.

Maybe they are waiting on their food, in the middle of a pumpkin spice latte, or doing their hair. In any instance, they are not looking at a computer. They’re on their phone.

Now think: What does your website look like on your phone? Did you have your site designed with a mobile-first mentality? You need to be prepare your franchise site for mobile users. If you aren’t, your sales funnel will suffer.

Data Supporting Mobile-First Web Design

This conversation isn’t new in the marketing world. Our clients’ Google Analytics show us more than 60% of fran dev web traffic comes from mobile devices on average. Just to be clear, this number doesn’t include tablets – only phones. In addition, users use mobile devices for about 70% of all actions on the site, like surveys or filling out forms.

When Google rolled out its page experience update in 2021, a main point on the list was mobile friendliness. Ignoring this moving forward can impact where potential clients view you in search results.

“Page experience is a set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page beyond its pure information value, both on mobile and desktop devices,” according to the Google report.

How Mobile-First Web Design Changed Search Algorithms

As users search, Google now optimizes that search to the type of device they use. They provide results tailored to the device. If a majority of your potential business is coming through mobile devices, and your website lacks a mobile-friendly design, your site will rank lower than your competition’s.

So, if your website is outdated or isn’t mobile friendly, now is the time to begin planning a redesign. This process will take time. A custom-built website takes about a year to write, design and develop.

At the end of the day, you want your user to quickly find what they need on your site and provide you with their contact information in exchange for something valuable to them. They shouldn’t have to click through multiple pages or scroll through tons of content to get to the call-to-action.

In the case of consumer sites, the call-to-action is usually straightforward in the form of an online purchase or scheduling an appointment for a service quote. In the realm of fran dev, you want the user to feel comfortable giving their contact information. They should be able to do complete it without feeling like it obligates them to buy a franchise immediately.

Exchanging Value

To help with this, consider downloadable lead magnets that provide users with more information about the franchise. This works as a best practice approach. Users don’t expect to fill out a form and then get a phone call right away. At this point, a call from a sales rep asking them to buy an expensive franchise would not be ideal. Instead, you want to capture their contact information and put them into a less-intrusive lead-nurturing strategy. This strategy may include emails, webinar invites and surveys that provide more insight into your potential franchisee.