Franchise Marketing: Winning Over the Silent Partner

Identifying and understanding your target audience is a critical step in your franchise development marketing strategy. Knowing who your audience is helps you tailor your messaging and strategies to effectively reach and engage potential franchisees.

When it comes to marketing your franchise, do you really know your target audience? Is it a single person? What about a team or a family? Will they be a silent partner, or do they plan to play an active role in the day-to-day operations to grow the business?

Setting up your marketing campaign correctly can help you target your intended demographic, assuming you’re confident in your process.

Curious Jane partnered with a research firm to conduct a scientific study on the attitudes, goals and challenges that shape franchise candidates’ decisions to invest in a franchise business (and which one). We surveyed more than 500 franchisees to better clarify the beliefs, perspectives, preferences, pain points and aspirations of franchise owners. The survey results have a 95% confidence level, a high level of confidence.

Our survey’s respondents were candid about what influenced them through the franchise purchase process. When it comes to buyers of franchising brands, our study showed you’re often not marketing to one person alone.

By the Numbers

The research shows that franchise business owners had help through the purchasing process and often sought the input of others, including their parents, spouses, mentors, former employers, friends and tax/legal professionals.

Some key findings:

  • 82% of respondents said their spouse or partner was involved in the decision to purchase a franchise.
  • The second and third groups involved in the decision-making process mentioned among respondents were parents (32%) and friends (17%). 
  • 45% of owners said their spouse or partner financed the business.
  • 39% said they are partners in the franchise business and another 36% said they work for the business.
  • Respondents under 35 years old said they were more likely than other age groups to have involved their parents, a mentor or boss in the decision-making process for investing in a franchise brand. 80% of those younger than 35 involved their parents.

Measured Targeting

So, who is in the ear of your potential franchisee and what are you doing to educate them?

Depending on your targeted demographic, you could be talking to various audiences among multiple age groups. As you gather information about the potential franchisees in your industry, this will be key to understanding the various demographics, preferences, behaviors and needs to close the sale.

Creating detailed buyer personas that represent your ideal franchisee candidates is part of the process you can use to target these various audiences. These personas are based on fictional characters that embody the traits and characteristics of your target franchisee.

They help you understand your audience’s motivations, pain points, goals and challenges.

If you want to target a younger franchisee demographic, you’ll be talking to their parents, too. Each of these personas has different habits when consuming information and researching companies like yours. In this case, not only are they involved in making the decision to buy, but 46% of those under 40 years old relied on their parents financing the purchase.

Those in older demographics, 40 to 59 years old, often relied on their spouse or partner for financing. Those 60 and older were more likely to have financial assistance from either their spouse or a business partner.

Keeping this in mind the next time you’re vetting a franchise candidate can give you an upper hand in the deal. Knowing the habits of your intended franchisee and the type of partner influencing them can give you better leverage in educating your audience with relevant information needed to close the deal.

Peanut butter and jelly. Cupid and Valentine’s Day. Peas and carrots. Captain and Tennille. One doesn’t really work as well without the other. PR and SEO work together for franchise brands in a similar way.

Sure, you can have one without the other. But when you combine PR and SEO, digital magic can happen. With the two working in lockstep, these functions help enhance a brand’s visibility, credibility and its ability to reach customers or potential franchisees who are looking to buy into a system.

What Can SEO and PR do for Franchise Marketing?

At its core, SEO – short for search engine optimization – is a marketing channel to get your website or other content to rank higher in internet searches. The higher you rank, the more visibility you receive when someone is searching for particular information. Whether a franchise is seeking new customers or franchisee prospects, SEO is an essential strategy for getting seen. But it doesn’t always work in a vacuum.

That’s where PR enters the scene. PR professionals are constantly managing the image and visibility of brands through content creation – writing stories and blogs about companies, their franchisees or employees, sending out press releases, creating social media posts and other items. The information helps to tell the story of a franchise and what it offers. The content held within a website helps it rank higher in searches, and earned media placements and mentions in other publications help raise the brand’s authority on a given topic.

By aligning SEO and PR efforts, a brand can create a strategy that attracts leads, enhances brand reputation and improves overall online visibility.

Using Keywords in Franchise PR

Before PR writers begin creating their copy, SEO professionals can lay the groundwork on how a given piece can be seen on an internet search engine by researching keywords. This helps align the content with current terms and searches by real people who are interested in a brand, industry or product.

For example, an SEO professional can identify words and phrases a potential franchisee would use when searching for brands, locations and certain types of investment opportunities. SEO can also benefit franchisees at the local level when it incorporates location-specific keywords in website content, meta tags and local business listings.

After that initial research, the PR professional can then get to the work of writing the content. As they move along in the piece, whether a blog, press release or article for publication elsewhere, they can sprinkle those keywords throughout their copy to attract the targeted audience.

Crossing PR with SEO Aligns Brand Messaging

No matter how many people you have working on any given project, it’s essential to stay consistent in your brand’s messaging. SEO and PR can both help with that.

PR professionals are adept at various writing styles, voices and platforms. This can include PR materials, website content and social media. Consistency reinforces a brand’s image and message to potential investors. With help from SEO specialists, the content created by PR can be optimized to align with key brand messages, making it more likely to resonate with the target audience.

The Effects of Link Building for Franchise PR

Link building is an effective strategy used by SEO and PR professionals that contributes to search engine optimization and increases the credibility and authority of a brand through the use of other websites.

PR plays a pivotal role in this system. As PR professionals focus their pitching efforts on stories, events or press releases to gain news coverage, shared links are included in the copy published by news outlets. While the news placements generate more visibility for a brand, the inclusion and placement of the links on those sites raises a brand’s credibility and reputation digitally. When search engines recognize that the links are included on other reputable websites, like a TV station or newspaper, it bumps up how it displays links in search results.

SEO team members are able to optimize the success of those stories through the use of relevant keywords to make sure the anchor text in the backlinks reinforces the franchise’s SEO goals.

If you aren’t aligning your PR and SEO messaging, rethink your 2024 strategy and get on board. The use of these two franchise marketing elements combine to form a powerful force that raises awareness of your brand with your target audience.

First, let’s be clear: Brands do not and should not launch corporate philanthropy programs to raise brand awareness or win an award.  

They do it because giving back is the right thing to do, and because companies are global citizens that have a responsibility to try to make the world a better place. But if, in the process of improving life for those in their little corner of the world, they raise their corporate profile, it’s a nice bonus – a win-win, as business owners cutting a deal would say.  

Have you heard the story about Kiddie Academy, which won Franchise Update Media’s 2022 Cause Marketing Champion award for its work with the nonprofit Family Promise? 

Case Study: Kiddie Academy 

Kiddie Academy, a childcare franchise based in Maryland with more than 300 locations, wanted to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2021 in a creative and meaningful way. So, Kiddie Academy decided to make a $40,000 donation to Family Promise, a national nonprofit that supports families who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. The donation established a scholarship fund for underprivileged women who wish to work in early childhood education, no matter which childcare they may work for.  

Additionally, Kiddie Academy updated its corporate policies to be more working parent-friendly and published blogs, social posts and other relevant content about how franchisees can support working mothers with flexible schedules and benefits. With the help of a PR agency, Kiddie Academy sent out news releases and shared posts organically. The franchise’s changes to its policies in support of working parents led to being named one of Baltimore Business Journal’s “10 Best Places to Work in Baltimore.”  

And that’s not all. The combination of a sizable donation, internal change and a nice placement on a prominent list of best places to work equaled PR magic: a mention on the TODAY Show website and other PR wins worth an estimated $1.6 million in ad value equivalency.  

Why Corporate Philanthropy? 

If your franchise brand wants to be a better corporate citizen, aligning with a nonprofit related to your industry or that serves the same audience or geographic area is a great first step. 

Partnering with a nonprofit helps you to:  

  • Reach new audiences. A nonprofit’s patrons may not have heard of you before, but they clearly have a soft spot for the organization’s mission. They will appreciate your support of the charity, also.  
  • Increase brand loyalty. Consumers appreciate a brand that takes a stand. A 2018 Accenture consumer survey showed that consumers prefer to support brands that embrace social change initiatives.  

How To Be a Good Partner  

At the most basic level, charities need cash to carry out their missions. However, there are a number of avenues through which you can funnel cash or other donations to help your nonprofit partner and make the most of your good deeds in the process.  

Drive for Donations.

Whether it’s a food pantry or a nonprofit that supports single moms, there are charities that spend countless hours just to meet people’s basic needs. One of Curious Jane’s clients, One More Child, is a faith-based charity that works to meet the needs of children and families. Over the years, the agency’s employees have brought in cases of diapers for Mother’s Day, and one Thanksgiving, they competed to see which team could donate the most canned goods (the sneaky Digital Team arranged for a late delivery from Instacart to secure the win). There are charities doing this kind of critical work in every community, and they certainly would appreciate anything your franchise or team does to pitch in. There’s no shame in sending a photo to your local media for a little free publicity for your business and the charity.  

Be a Sponsor.

Sponsorships of fundraising events and programs are among the easiest ways to help your charity. If your brand can’t swing a major sponsorship right now, consider donating services or goods for a silent auction, sponsoring dessert or the band at a dinner or buying tickets to their gala. You’ll get your business’s name listed on the program, signage, etc., to let attendees know you’re a good corporate partner.  

Celebrate Together.

Taking a page from Kiddie Academy’s playbook, brands marking a major milestone could invite a charity to share in the spotlight. You could charge for admission and donate the proceeds or ask attendees to bring in canned goods, toys or other items the charity needs. You are likely to attract a bigger crowd and secure news coverage if your celebration benefits a nonprofit. As a bonus, such an event could open doors for you to introduce more of your business partners and vendors to the charity, which could help them secure even more donations down the road.  

Your franchise brand can earn positive coverage, raise brand awareness and attract new and loyal customers just by supporting a nonprofit that you most likely would support anyway. And the nonprofit and its clients benefit from your support and also from the media coverage you receive. It’s the ultimate win-win.  

Below are seven steps to a franchise sales process to get your company ready to pursue the incoming leads:

  1. Know Your Franchise Sales Process
  2. Know Your Data Points
  3. Know the Target Audience
  4. Determine What Makes a Great Franchisee
  5. Nurture Potential Buyers and Create a Plan
  6. Participate in Expos and Trade Shows
  7. Have a Quality and Diverse PR Strategy

If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that the world we know has changed and you better be ready to do business differently. The same holds true in the franchise world. More than ever, workers are ditching their former digs and severing ties to the corporate world in search of the freedom to determine their own future and be their own boss. There are more than 3,500 franchises out there to choose from, and to stand out, you need to have your ducks in a row. These buyers are savvy, educated, and different from buyers of years past.

What does that mean from the franchisor’s perspective? A lot. It means a change of perspective, more education and increased patience. But with some tweaks to your business strategy, you can capitalize on the robust franchisee market.

Know Your Franchise Sales Process

If you want to sell more franchises, you must know your process. How have sales been handled in the past? Do you know what attracted your current franchise owners when they began? What benefits do you offer? Look at the support systems you offer – marketing, public relations, human resources, training programs and supply chain – and determine what sets you apart. Capitalize on your benefits to potential franchisees to make an investment in your company more attractive.

Know Your Data Points

Data is key in today’s market. But to use it effectively, you need to know what you’re reading and how to interpret it effectively.

Before delving into the data, ask yourself several questions: What did it cost before to sell a franchise? Do you know your ROI lead data?

Some of these might seem like absurdly basic questions, but a lot of companies do not know the answers. For others, if they do have the data, they don’t know how to read it or what to compare it to for meaningful analysis. Discuss this information with your advertising and marketing agency. When completed, understood, and applied correctly, it can provide valuable insight to the company.

Know the Target Audience

Do you already have a detailed view of your potential audience? Have you developed the persona you need to effectively target new business owners?

Some executives might say they know to target investors making more than $250,000 and have media interests aligned with publications like Bloomberg. But there may be more detail than that.

What are the behaviors, media preferences and specific demographics of the investor you want to attract? Dig into the data and bring out a detailed version of your target audience.

Determine What Makes a Great Franchisee

You’re already in the business of selling franchises, but do you know what makes your best performing locations successful? This is where franchisors need to talk to the owners. Know the community they serve. What resonates in one place may not in another. But there could be something that could be replicated in other ways that’s universal to your brand and that can provide something to capitalize upon.

Nurture Potential Franchise Buyers and Create a Plan

In today’s market, buying a franchise is not a rushed process. Settle in and prepare to be patient. Today’s buyers are savvy and are taking the time to research before making an investment.

Take the time to engage with them. Give them pieces of information relative to what they are engaged with on your website.

If they are interested in your numbers and you give them, say, anecdotal pretty stats versus something that is more meaningful – like performance – you aren’t engaging with them on what they really want.

This is where more patience is needed. Don’t try to get them on the phone right away. Most don’t want to talk to you at this point and they prefer to do their own research. Make sure you’re providing the relevant information through different channels like lead nurturing, webinars, downloads, lead magnets, videos and franchisee testimonials.

Participate in Expos and Trade Shows

Face-to-face meetings with potential buyers are good. But you don’t want to scare anyone off. Finding relevant places, like expos and trade shows, can be helpful to have a presence, but you must balance being too pushy.

Your potential investors aren’t coming to these events to be sold. Instead, use this time to let them approach you, provide them with education materials and begin building a relationship that has the potential for future business.

Have a Quality and Diverse PR Strategy in Your Franchise Sales Process

Perception is everything, and in today’s visual world, a robust PR strategy is a must for any organization that aims to break through the noise of the digital world. This means articles, news releases, content, pitching story ideas, thought leadership and key media placements are vital.

A strong PR strategy, which is significantly different than marketing or advertising, gives your brand increased credibility, educational value, online traffic, and a more positive public image. It can also lead to a higher quality of lead generation.

Keep in mind, this process also takes time. But when done right and understood correctly, it is an invaluable tool in growing your company and its reputation.

Have you been following all the news about franchise rankings and wondering why they are such a big deal? Two words: social proof.

In marketing, social proof is the use of reviews and recommendations to decide whether to buy something – or in the case of franchise development, to sign on the dotted line. Franchise rankings serve as endorsements for franchises. They provide third-party validation that your franchise is as awesome as you say it is.

Industry Accolades

Getting listed in Entrepreneur, Franchise Business Review, or Franchise Times, are all achievements to be proud of. It’s also an excellent opportunity to leverage social proof.

Industry accolades like rankings are considered valuable franchise development tools. Why? Because serious prospects scour them when they are weighing which franchise systems they might want to join.

How Can You Leverage Rankings?

Candidates are doing more research than ever into the franchises they are most interested in. This makes an opportunities for third-party validation like rankings even more important. One of the best ways to keep your brand top-of-mind as candidates consider the franchise opportunities available to them is to ensure that trusted media outlets are talking about you.

Using Strategic Public Relations

A strategic public relations campaign can help. Whether you want to increase awareness of your brand or your franchise opportunity, there are a number of ways to get the kind of coverage you want through PR.

Regular media outreach can help to create a steady stream of coverage, generate buzz and raise brand awareness. The rankings present great opportunities to share good news through news releases, social media posts, blogs and more. Don’t be shy; it’s OK to toot your own horn sometimes. The rankings are prestigious and competitive. Leverage rankings by including badges, if they’re available, on your website, in email signatures and on ads. Your prospects will notice.

How Do Rankings Help Attract Your Ideal Franchisee?

A more targeted approach can boost recruitment efforts in a desired demographic. To reach your ideal franchise candidates, seek to be included on a specific ranking or in a niche publication. The key is to have your information in outlets that your ideal candidates are already reading, looking at or listening to.

An Example of How to Leverage Your Rankings

For example, if your corporate goal is to recruit more veterans to be franchise owners, you might work toward being ranked among Entrepreneur’s Top Franchises for Veterans or on a list published by a publication written for veterans.

Leverage those rankings by mentioning them when your PR agency writes stories about successful franchisees who are also military veterans, or when you share testimonials from veteran franchisees on your website or with franchise trade publications. Pitch articles on veteran franchisees to their local media outlets and include the rankings in the pitch. Recommend your veteran franchisees as guests on podcasts for veterans, and include the rankings in your talking points. Put your money where your mouth is by supporting veterans’ organizations, then share information about the organizations – and your ranking – on your blog and social media.

Being ranked by an industry or trade publication is a big deal. You worked hard for the rankings, so work just as hard to share your good news with the franchise candidates you want to attract.

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.

“We need to sell franchises in California, Texas and Georgia!”

Emerging franchises opening in particular markets and established franchises targeting locations left on the map both need regional franchise development plans that capture the unique preferences and the competitive nature of specific geographical areas.

Think about it. A headline that is meant to be bold and clever in New York may come across as snarky in Georgia. Different regions require different approaches when it comes to franchise development. Consider these factors when creating regional plans to find your next franchise owners:

Define Your Target Audience

Many franchises want to target sizable demographics with the hopes of reaching the largest audience possible. It’s important to note that targeting a large audience isn’t always the best strategy. When a campaign comprises males and females ages 18 to 65, the campaign may deliver leads, but not qualified leads. Narrow the audience. Who are your best current franchisees? Do they share common interests or values? Do they need a particular background, or can they be trained? The more information you have about your ideal candidate, the more data can be utilized to get your message in front of the right audience. This targeted approach will save you money by focusing on specific regional candidates.

Tell Your Story

While you are looking for the right candidate, you need to be sure you are revealing what a potential buyer in a particular market wants to know about your company. For franchise development, your unique value proposition (UVP) is one of the most important components of your campaign. Your UVP should clearly describe your business, differentiate your franchise from the competition in the market and inform the buyer of the benefit of your offer. A strong UVP will intrigue your candidate to learn more. Reason to buy should be evident in your campaign. Common reasons are financial opportunities and company culture.

Optimize Your Campaign through Testing

Test and refine. Test and refine. Different markets yield different results. Track the progress of your campaigns in different markets to learn what resonates with your ideal prospects. Make controlled tweaks to strengthen your message. Which platforms are working best? Is different copy or creative capturing better attention? Is one email subject line getting a higher open rate? Be patient; testing takes time. Four- to six-month campaigns are optimal for testing.

Maximize Your Budget

Marketing analyses will reveal exactly where your marketing dollars belong. If your ad budget is $8,000 per month, in four months you’ve spent $32,000 to get several leads in the pipeline but you may be frustrated by the fact that you haven’t yet closed a sale. Make sure you give the campaign time to work. You are still likely to be ahead of the 50 percent to 60 percent of the franchise fee you would be paying a broker. If your franchise fee is $50,000 and the broker takes 60 percent, that’s $30,000.

A smart approach would be to use qualified brokers and also have your own strong digital lead generation franchise program. No one will market your brand like you will.