After Halloween – or even before, judging by the abundance of holiday decorations and Christmas carols we noticed during some last-minute candy runs – the holidays seem to come fast and furiously. Thanksgiving falls on Nov. 25 this year, so we have less than four weeks of the traditional shopping time. That means retail franchises are going to have to bring their A game to the busiest time of the year and often need to refresh their marketing strategy for the holidays. We’re here to help.

State of the Shopping Season

How we live has changed and it has altered consumers’ shopping behaviors – probably forever. For starters, holiday shoppers are starting earlier than ever.

You know that super-organized friend you hate who is Christmas shopping when you are still looking for a fall wreath? She’s back, and she started shopping in August. The rest of us mere mortals started shopping in October this year, and most U.S. consumers said they would be checking off gifts on their lists before Thanksgiving. 

We’ve all seen the lines of ships parked of the coast waiting to unload our future gifts. Shipping vessels are reporting on-time arrival of only 40% this year, compared with 80% a year ago. That has people worried about shortages and shipping delays, so 40% are paying attention to when you say you will deliver their gifts. And retailers who deliver late probably will lose customers.

Good news: Consumers plan to spend about 7% more than last year, although they are still chasing bargains. Most have joined loyalty programs in pursuit of discounts, and three out of four expect to buy at least one secondhand item for a gift this year.

3 Steps To Implement into Your Marketing Strategy For Holidays

So, what can you do to prepare for a holiday shopping season unlike any other? Here are three urgent recommendations to get ready:

First, update your Google My Business listing.

Double-check that your address is correct and that your phone numbers, emails and more are listed and up to date. Make sure your hours reflect any special hours when you’ll be open, any days you expect to be closed and any special after-hours or VIP shopping events.

Go ahead and upload a holiday post or photo. You can’t really schedule out Google My Business posts in advance, so post something now that has some shelf life in case you are too busy to post again for a while.

Second, think “mobile first.”

Whether you sell products from your website or consumers just visit it looking for deals or ideas, you need to make sure that the site looks beautiful and operates flawlessly on a mobile device.

In 2020, e-commerce sales saw a 47% increase during the holiday shopping season, and more than half of online sales came from smartphones.

Cater to social shoppers.

If you’ve been holding on to some ad dollars for a rainy day, it’s time to spend it. About half of shoppers don’t know what they want to buy until they “discover” it, and most of those discoveries come on a social platform or app. Brand awareness ads keep you top-of-mind for your customers.

Likewise, increase organic posts and make sure you are responding to comments and questions about gift ideas and availability promptly. Most consumers say they will return to doing some in-store shopping this year, but you have to make it easy for them. Last year, they loved the option to buy online and pick up in store or curbside, and that trend is definitely here to stay.

All in all, there are plenty of reasons to expect this holiday season to be merry for retail franchises, but you need to have a plan in place. Start now by having your gift selections ready early. And make sure your customers can find your store – in person, online and on social media.

Kumon North America, the top-ranked education franchise, has partnered with Curious Jane, a national franchise ad agency, to develop and implement the brand’s consumer and franchise recruitment advertising and marketing strategy in the U.S. and Canada.

The partnership will build on Kumon’s success among education franchises to increase brand awareness, welcome new students to Kumon Centers and grow the franchise in existing and developing markets.

“We are excited to work with Curious Jane to attract new families and new Kumon Instructors,” said Leah Coyle, vice president of branding at Kumon North America. “Together, we will launch a new creative campaign that builds on Kumon’s niche as the premier after-school math and reading enrichment program. We are confident that Curious Jane will help us reach our ultimate goal: to create more successful, independent learners.”

For children from preschool to high school, Kumon is an after-school math and reading enrichment program that goes well beyond traditional tutoring. Unlike other academic programs, Kumon is individualized for each child. Kumon’s curriculum takes a step-by-step approach to learning, helping children develop strong math, reading and writing skills. Kumon Students develop confidence, increase focus and improve study habits on the way to unlocking their true potential.

Curious Jane President and CEO Lora Kellogg, CFE, said the agency was honored to be entrusted with Kumon’s marketing efforts. “We look forward to serving as Kumon’s marketing partner and building on their already-solid foundation. We are immensely impressed by the Kumon brand and their team, and we respect their history of helping children of all ages advance and perform above grade level in math and reading.”

Curious Jane works with other national franchise clients such as Neighborly Brands, Winmark, Office Pride Commercial Cleaning Services, Plato’s Closet, Once Upon A Child, Play It Again Sports, Pinch A Penny Pool Patio Spa and Goodcents Deli Fresh Subs.

About Kumon Franchise

In business for more than 60 years, Kumon is consistently ranked No. 1 in the education category of Entrepreneur magazine’s prestigious Franchise 500®, and this year, Kumon ranked No. 6 overall on the Franchise 500. Investment starts at less than $65,000 and Kumon offers up to $34,000 in incentives; veterans may qualify for a $10,000 bonus. Opening a Kumon Franchise is ideal for individuals with a passion for education and for helping kids. See if Kumon Franchise is right for you.

9:55 a.m.

My Outlook calendar reminds me that I have a meeting in the conference room at 10 a.m. I’m going to squeeze in a few emails before I head that way. I still beat everyone else here, so I have time to finish my iced coffee.

10 a.m.

My mind is racing as a dozen other marketing executives, marketing managers, copywriters, graphic designers and brand specialists walk through the doors. I’m involved in seven other projects going on, and if that video isn’t edited by 3 p.m., it won’t be delivered on time. I hope this meeting doesn’t last more than an hour. I can’t believe I forgot to pack Sam’s lunch this morning. Ugh, my neighbor just texted to remind me that I am watching her dog Saturday. I’m checking Instagram. I continue to scroll.

10:05 a.m.

The meeting is starting, but I’m still thinking about that video. What are we meeting on again? Oh, that’s right: 2022.

We begin to review last year’s franchise system sales. Now everyone is discussing peaks of seasonality, COVID-19 shutdowns, what campaigns worked and what didn’t, what the competition is doing. There are lots of comments and lots of ideas, some brilliant and some ridiculous. We are talking about opportunities and challenges. It’s overwhelming, to be honest.

10:58 a.m.

We all have to go to different meetings, but we’re nowhere near finished with this conversation. We set another meeting for next week.

Why? Because this year needs everyone’s full attention. This is a seriously important year.

If you are going to grow your franchise system, you need more than one, two, three or even four marketing and planning meetings to discuss how to move the needle. You need a rock-solid strategic plan, creative plan, media-buying plan, content plan and execution plan.

Let’s be real. These have been some very tough years, impacting our businesses more than any other time in history. So, it’s extremely important to get this year right. And even if your brand has been lucky enough to do well during this pandemic, you can’t stop being innovative or let up an inch.  

Here are a few things to think about as you dive into your annual planning sessions. (That’s sessions, plural.)

1. Develop your goals and KPIs.

• What are you aiming for, and how will you measure success?  
• Are you trying to grow brand awareness?
• Are you trying to grow sales?
• How many leads do you need? How are you going to get them?
• Do you want to grow in specific areas more than others? 

2. Develop a strong media plan.

• How are you going to reach the audience you desire?
• What personas do you want to target?
• What is the best platform for those personas?
• How will your budget be split out?
• Should the allocation change from last year?
• What will your national budget and strategy be? Local budget and strategy?

3. Develop your creative strategy.

• Are you going to do a new photo shoot, video shoot?
• What campaigns will you do? How different will they be from last year?
• What assets will corporate provide to franchisees?
• Will you have an evergreen marketing campaign going on to help grow the national brand while you have promotional campaigns to help grow your franchisees at the local level?

4. Develop your social content strategy.

• How often are you going to post?
• What are you going to post?
• What is the engagement of what you’ve been posting?
• Do you need a new strategy?
• Do you need new images?

5. Develop your public relations strategy.

• Do you have a separate PR strategy for consumer and for franchise development?
• What would be a big win for your franchise system?
• Which franchisees do you want to feature?
• What other stories do you want to tell?

There are a lot of distractions, and there’s still a lot of work to be done. Make sure you work with your team and your agency to give them the time next year deserves.

Oh, and good luck on the video editing that’s due at 3 p.m. And don’t forget to feed your neighbor’s dog Saturday. Cheers.

You probably have a good idea of what you’re looking for in a franchise candidate. When your are trying to find franchisees, our wish list probably includes a number of qualifications. You be looking for someone who’s smart and driven, who can afford the initial investment required to get the business off the ground, who will be a good cultural fit and whose personal values align with your brand’s core values and mission. You may prefer that they have experience in your industry. Now, you just have to find them. Finding your brand’s ideal franchise candidate among the thousands of people who are looking for franchise opportunities every year is a bit like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. You can improve your odds considerably, however, with persona marketing.

Why Personas Matter

Creating personas of your ideal franchise owner is important for the franchisor and for the franchise candidate. Persona marketing allows your marketing team to target more precisely potential leads who are much more likely to convert. It also allows you to speak directly to those potential leads in a way that will resonate with them. So, the franchisor finds better candidates, and the candidates find franchises that will be a better fit for them.

At Curious Jane, we have found persona marketing to be highly effective for franchise development clients. We create one to three extremely detailed profiles of ideal franchise candidates for each of our fran dev clients.

These profiles include basic demographics as well as granular details:

• How old are they?
• Are they married?
• Do they have kids?
• What is their net worth and household income?
• What kind of work experience do they have?
• What do they do in their free time?
• What media do they consume regularly?

We name our personas and then write their life stories to help us better understand not only who they are and what makes them tick, but also how they behave. We also learn details such as where to find them and how to speak to them in a way that will resonate.

Define Your Ideal Persona

For example, one of our clients wants to target veterans. The persona we created for them, Veteran Vince, loved his time in the military because he appreciated the feeling of community and the structure. He enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, the outdoors, talk radio and country music. He is not interested in a desk job.

Even this abbreviated version of Veteran Vince’s profile can tell us a lot about how to successfully reach Vince. We know what words to use in ad copy to get Vince’s attention and on what platforms we should be targeting him. We’ve identified what kinds of podcasts, blogs and videos he prefers, so we will speak to him where he lives through digital ads, radio ads and more.

We add photos to our personas, too, and look for similar images to use in ads and other marketing materials. We envision Vince as a rugged guy with close-cropped hair, depicted with his family in front of a house with an American flag out front. The right images can help prospects picture themselves as owners in your franchise system.

Use Storytelling Techniques

Once you have defined your ideal persona, you should make sure you are telling the stories of current franchisees who fit that profile in blogs, articles and social media posts.

Feature stories of successful franchise owners who fit your ideal franchisee persona. Write blogs about why they chose your franchise and also address their fears or hesitations about making that leap. Post testimonials from those franchisees. These stories will help your prospects identify with your brand and encourage them to take the next step in the process.

Persona marketing is a tool that helps you grow your franchise the right way. Developing a detailed persona helps your team create more effective ads, blogs and posts, and it helps you focus your targeting and media buying. In the end, the right persona will help you find and convert more of your ideal franchisee candidates.

There’s a lot going on in the business world. After a grueling year, most franchises have opened back up. They seem relieved that a new normal is here – or at least is on the way.

And yet, it’s unlikely that even one CEO will accept excuses in the next 18 months when it comes to sales and progress. They’ll say “Don’t blame the economy, the virus, the weather, or on a lack of employees. I want innovation and solutions.”

Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Focus on your current franchisees.

Whether you have 50 or 500 franchisees across the country, knowing what is truly going on inside your franchise and how your franchisees are feeling about the brand will be critical to growth. Even if you aren’t on the hit television show, “Undercover Boss,” get outside the four walls of your corporate office and talk to franchisees. If it’s been a while since you’ve done a survey to find out what your franchisees are saying about your organization, consider using a company like Franchise Business Review to anonymously survey franchisees to learn not only their satisfaction levels but also where you can improve and where you’re especially strong.

2. Read the comments on your corporate social media.

Social listening is a key component to making progress and improvements. It also helps you elevate what makes your brand great. How is the customer experience? What are customers saying about your brand on social media? How does your team respond to comments? Having happy franchisees and customers in your locations will help you attract new prospects. So, make it a habit to read the comments on your social media pages often. Take the time to listen to what they have to say.

3. Your franchise development website must be right.

Your franchise development website is the front door to direct leads. If someone is searching for your brand, your website must provide the key information they want before they invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in your brand. The website also gives prospects a chance to peel back who the brand really is. Make sure that you have a strong SEO program in place so that your franchise website ranks high on search engines.

4. If you want to attract prospects, be authentic.

Defining your core values is important, but it’s more important for prospects to see that your corporate office, franchisees and customer experience reflect those values. Prospects want to invest in a brand whose values align with their own.

5. Define two to three personas that you want to target, and build marketing campaigns around those personas.

This means you’ll need to produce well-written creative assets, blogs, landing pages and nurturing emails tailored to those specific personas. If you think your persona is everyone, think again. It’s critical to focus on a few very specific personas. You’ll need that focus in your marketing and media buying to reach your ideal prospects.

6. Allow your marketing teams and agencies to test campaigns with a budget significant enough to move the needle.

You may say, “Why would I pay for advertising to get leads when I’m already getting organic leads and broker leads?”. Advertising is the third leg to your sales stool. It takes all three legs on a stool to bring stability. Even when you’re getting organic leads and broker leads, you need to invest in pursuing leads through paid advertising that targets the right personas. Bringing in your own leads will save you money and help your brand for years to come.   

7. Make sure your sales team is utilizing a CRM.

A customer relationship management system will help your sales team keep track of new leads. It will also allow you to nurture the leads you already have collected. We often hear, “I tried to reach someone three or four times, and I didn’t get a response.” Keep reaching out to them! You can use the CRM to score them. This is for you to know how serious they are and to help them along your sales funnel. Often, when the sales cycle is longer, like it is right now, it will take many more touch points. This includes emails, calls, invitations to webinars and discovery days, and even direct mail to nudge prospects down the sales funnel.

With so much of franchise budgets going to the consumer side, it’s often easier to rely on broker sales and portals than to build your own internal franchise development marketing programs. You’re working with smaller teams and smaller resources. But if you want to get ahead, and you don’t want excuses, it’s critical to also take the time and resources to build a strong internal franchise development marketing program. It’s not easy, nor is it fast, but it will make a huge difference in your short-term and long-term growth.

If there’s one thing we hear often from franchise development and leadership teams, it’s: “We want franchise development leads, and we want them now.” Now let’s talk about how to get franchise leads faster.

The Obstacle of Getting Leads

When we get a call from a franchise, the conversation often begins with their explanation of the problem. “We’ve tried Facebook ads. We’ve tried LinkedIn ads. We’ve tried search, brokers and portals. We’re doing PR. And we aren’t getting the results we want.”  

While we understand that you want leads – and you want them now – you run the risk of making your franchise development program just about lead generation tactics. Often, that’s a signal that you haven’t really thought through your entire program.

Create the Full Funnel

If you really want to grow your program and get leads, you’ll need to create your own funnel and have a comprehensive program. Your franchise development funnel strategy will need to include plans for both the short term and long term.

Years ago, we worked with a brand that wanted us to handle only one piece of their franchise development: lead generation. It was a large brand that was well-known in most parts of the country. Although, they were not as well known in two states that they wanted to target. This franchise had three agencies. One agency was handling their public relations. Another agency handled Google search and pay-per-click. Their internal team built their creative assets. They wanted us to create the digital lead-generation tactics for these specific markets where they wanted to grow.

We shared with them that it was very hard to handle only one piece of their marketing program and that we believed it was going to take a comprehensive approach to make it work. Finally, however, we agreed to help them.

Guess what? Our lead-generation campaign did not produce the results they expected, and they realized we were right. They needed a much more complete program that worked cohesively. Sometimes the pieces typically don’t fit together the way they should. This especially happens when all of the pieces of the puzzle are handled by different agencies and people who aren’t working together.

Use Your Budget Wisely

You can’t just throw money at a market through lead-generation ads without having a much bigger plan in place – especially in a new market. Newer markets take time and nurturing. Many times, not only are prospects unfamiliar with your brand, but also they are unaware that the brand is a franchise opportunity. So the challenge is big: It takes time to raise brand awareness and ensure the franchise opportunity is presented, especially in new markets. You can’t simply flip on your Facebook or LinkedIn ads and watch the franchise sales roll in.

What Makes a Great Franchise Development Program

A great franchise development program is a comprehensive, strategic program that includes identifying, reaching, nurturing and converting prospects by using platforms and strategies that work together. Running ads in certain geographic areas and setting up an email drip campaign is not enough.

Fully Integrating

Likewise, focusing only on getting leads and getting them now is dangerous. You need a fully integrated program to bring in the leads you want now and in the future. And you need to ensure that all of the pieces of your franchise development program are working together – your story, your business opportunity, your ads, your creative, your PR, your digital, your website, your follow-up, your email drip campaign and your phone calls. Everything.

Time it Right

Lastly, don’t fall for the quick-fix trap of wanting leads and wanting them now. Instead, work on creating a more robust and comprehensive program. So when the CEO asks you to target two new states, you’re ready. Because you’ve done the work to get there.

Grand Opening Marketing Plan

Whether you are an emerging or legacy brand, guiding your franchisees toward successful grand openings can make a huge difference for new owners and their businesses. And it all starts with a grand opening marketing plan. Much like franchisors provide design and style guidelines for brand consistency, think about how grand opening success rates could soar with plans, procedures and strategies provided by corporate.

Most Importantly, grand openings should create awareness of your brand, generate local excitement, build strategic relationships and make a great first impression. Grand opening guidelines should include everything from setting a budget, promoting the event and continuing the momentum after the grand opening.

Planning the Grand Opening

• Set a Schedule
• Budget
• Brand Awareness
• Create Relationships

Set a Schedule

First, set a schedule. Your new franchisees are ready to begin the preparation for their grand openings. Provide a timeline. Give them every detail of what they need to do as part of a countdown to opening.

Budget

Next, set a budget. From signage to traditional and online promotion, recommend a set budget. There should be no surprises here. If you have approved/preferred vendors, be sure franchisees know who they are so they can get prepared within the budget.

Brand Awareness

If your franchise is new to an area, it is critical that your franchisees use grand openings as a way to communicate your brand and what products/services you provide. Branding should be clear and consistent so customers instantly recognize your business.

Create Relationships

Your franchisees most important relationships are with their customers, but grand openings are a great time to build relationships with the community and other local businesses. Inviting members of the Chamber of Commerce or partnering up with a local charity or business can elevate a grand opening and create extra buzz around the event.

Promoting the Grand Opening

• Public Relations
• Social Media
• Traditional Media

Public Relations

Be sure franchisees are using brand-approved language in news releases; provide talking points in case a reporter attends the grand opening; and train owners to assume that everything is “on the record” and to speak in complete sentences when answering questions, as one-word answers do not make good quotes. Work with a PR agency, if needed.

Social Media

Within your library of approved creative, include images, customizable posts, tweets and other sharable content that represent your brand well. Promote across all platforms.

Traditional Media

Include traditional media channels like local newspapers and radio stations to help residents feel connected to what is going on in their community. According to Nielsen, radio reaches 92 percent of Americans over the age of 18 every week.

Projecting for the Future

Lead Generation

Lastly, grand openings should always lead to staying in touch with consumers. Offer a plan for ways your franchisees can stay in touch with visitors from the event. Design an activity to get email addresses, cell numbers and social media followers. Offering an incentive like a coupon often makes visitors feel less pressured to share their details.

In conclusion, there are so many details to consider during the exciting grand opening phase, but with a grand opening marketing plan set with careful direction and execution, you can help your franchisees launch their businesses successfully.

If you want to help your franchisees grow their businesses while protecting your brand, consider working with your preferred marketing agency to develop packages to market your franchise locally.

Many franchises offer grand opening plans and packages to help new franchisees get off to a strong start, ensuring they get the word out about their new location and discouraging the temptation to reinvent the wheel. Why not continue to lead them in the right direction? Established franchisees also can benefit by selecting from franchisor-approved packages.

Local marketing packages are a win for both franchisors and franchisees. Packages give franchisees control over their budgets while helping to protect franchise brand standards. Attractive, budget-friendly packages encourage franchisees to use approved creative rather than building their own ads that do not meet brand standards. Whether the packages comprise social media ads, search ads or a combination of both, local packages provide scalable, economical options.

Creative Options

To begin to develop local marketing packages, franchisors must work with their agency to build a library of approved creative and ads. They might start by creating a set of brand awareness ads and some key messages for systemwide sales or promotions or times of year – maybe an annual sale, holiday or back-to-school promotion, etc. Your agency should be changing the ad creative at least once every quarter, so you will need four brand awareness ad sets, for starters.

An agency that handles your national ad fund as well as marketing for your franchisees can recommend local messaging that complements national campaigns. Effective local ads will layer onto national ads, bringing consistency to messaging while allowing franchisees to choose which messages best meet the needs of their particular location. Because local ads are designed to dovetail with national campaigns, marketing packages can be as effective as they are economical.

Budget Options to Market Your Franchise Locally

The packages should offer options at various price points. Smaller markets have different needs and budgets than larger markets.

Because ads for packages already have been created, sized and approved by the franchisor, franchisees can more quickly and affordably launch their local campaigns. There may be some room for customization, although that likely will incur an additional charge.

The Big Picture

By creating packages through one agency, franchisors also will ensure they have access to analytics of all the local marketing campaigns running across the franchise system, so they can gain visibility into how campaigns are performing in different markets. They can compare which campaigns are performing best and which strategies are yielding optimum results. That allows them to share winning strategies with other franchisees to ensure they implement best practices consistently.

Finally, packages can be a terrific selling point for new franchisees. Having a library of creative available and local marketing packages at various price points lifts a huge burden off owners who are still learning your brand, building their customer base and operating on a starter budget. They’ll need to depend heavily on your agency to steer them in the right direction as they prepare for grand opening and beyond.

Local marketing packages allow franchisors and franchisees to grow smartly together.

Social media strategies for franchises

Lead generation is key to growing brand reach and establishing communication with your target audience. Finding qualified leads on Facebook does not have to be difficult. It’s about targeting the right people in the right place.

Facebook is a great place to begin any lead generation campaign because of its large audience. In the U.S. alone, Facebook has about 214 million users. Seize the opportunity to introduce your franchise business to potential franchisees on a platform where they are comfortable and accustomed to engaging. About 90% of top decision-makers say that they will not respond to cold calls, but 76% of those who engage with a brand on social media say they are ready to “buy.”

Facebook lead ads are simple to set up and with the right creative, they can deliver you the quality leads you want. There are three key strategies you need to understand before building a Facebook lead generation campaign:

Understand your audience.

Understanding what matters to your audience is the best way to build ads that convert. Try identifying a problem that you can help solve for your audience. By understanding what is important to your audience, you can better tailor your ads to your targets’ interests. Identify what is already working and develop a strategy accordingly.

Content is everything.

Get creative with your ad design and lead magnet, the piece you use to entice your targets to give up their email addresses so you can build up your email list. You want your audience to get something valuable in exchange for giving you their information. Be strategic in choosing the offer. Informational articles and infographics, white papers and e-books and are all great downloads for any potential lead generation campaign.

Implement Facebook’s pixel.

Facebook’s pixel tracks actions that take place on your web pages and links them back to your Facebook ad accounts. To optimize your Facebook ads and monitor the results, you need to add the pixel to the thank-you page associated with your download. Retarget your audience later with this information and improve future campaigns.

Once you begin to generate qualified leads on Facebook, it becomes an indispensable resource. Know your audience and reach them with the right tools. See what works and build on it as you evolve your strategy. It is essential to track your analysis and pixel insights once the campaign is established. Whether it be creative, ad text language or the lead magnet, measure your results to improve and refine your campaign.

Finally, don’t forget to follow up in person. Social media cannot replace the personal touch, so it is important to reach out when you can. To get the most out of Facebook’s lead generation ads, you have to be willing to nurture those leads when you can.

Everyone knows that you need to advertise on digital platforms to reach key demographics in this day and age. However, the balance of digital and traditional media is still a critical component of a marketing plan. As a matter of fact, it is more important than ever to spread your message on multiple platforms. This should include at least one traditional option such as radio.

Franchisors usually lead the way with media planning, using the national ad fund for branding ads on different platforms. Franchisees should be encouraged to layer on their local ads in complementary media. Even the smallest franchisees should be able to afford advertising on two platforms. For example,  a local radio spot or digital advertising that supports the national campaign.

Why? Repetition.

Radio’s Secret

Radio pros have always known that repetition is the secret to effective advertising. With the rise in digital media, multiple platforms work in tandem to carry out the best campaigns. When people hear something on the radio and then see it in their newsfeed, it reinforces the message. It also raises the probability of the audience taking action.

Striking a balance is more likely to take action. This strategy works for both consumer and franchise development advertising.

The good news is that even traditional media isn’t so traditional anymore. In the past, everyone would consider radio to be a platform that casts a wide net but it was never ideal for targeting a specific audience. Today, radio stations can give you very information in detail on their listener demographics, and some can even target your ads by ZIP code. Others can help you reach commuting workers by airing your ads on the radio during drive time and streaming them online during the day so those same people can hear the ads repeated on their office computers.

Streaming Platform Alternatives

Additionally, streaming music sites such as Pandora and Spotify are digital platforms that serve as radio products. That means music sites serve the same purpose as traditional radio, but ads pricing is based on the number of impressions. Most digital products use this pricing structure.

Network Television’s Role

Network television will always be the most expensive medium, but franchises do not have to write off all TV ads as unaffordable. Everyone hears about the millions spent on Super Bowl ads, but the rest of the year, a spot airing in a moderately sized local market such as Tampa, Florida, would run $1,200 to $1,500 each. On cable networks, that amount could drop to an extremely affordable $50 per spot. So, if TV is important to your franchise, you can certainly utilize and pair it with an ad on a digital platform for an additional boost.

Endless Possibilities

In the digital age, if you choose the right avenue, you can reach any specific demographic. But your advertising dollars will be better spent, and your campaigns will garner better results, when digital ads work hand-in-hand with those in a traditional medium. Repetition is the secret to spurring the audience to action.

This blog was written by Curious Jane and previously published on the blog of the International Franchise Association.