Franchise Content Marketing 101: A Beginner’s Guide

Are you looking for a successful way to dive into franchise content marketing?

Or maybe you’re leading up the marketing strategy for larger corporations, and you’re trying to figure out what in the world franchise content marketing even is.

If that’s the case, you’re in the right place.

Because in this article, we’re going to teach you what franchise content marketing is, what usually goes wrong with it, and how to create a successful franchise marketing strategy.

Let’s get started.

What Is Franchise Content Marketing?

Franchise content marketing is an online and offline strategy that helps businesses grow by increasing brand awareness, enhancing customer relations, and encouraging conversion rates.

In other words, it’s the process of creating creative web-ready media for your customers to view or consume.

But the difference here is that content marketing for franchises poses an interesting problem:

How does a franchisee make their store stand out through marketing channels while representing the overall brand (at the corporate level) as set by the franchisor?

A successful company will have a team of writers and editors creating engaging content that relates to its brand.

But what happens when you open a franchise that’s owned by a larger company (think of someone opening a Subway or a Pete’s Coffee).

How can these franchisees use content with a cohesive strategy that builds up the overall brand?

What Goes Wrong With Franchise Content Marketing?

Unfortunately, many companies are doing franchise content marketing all wrong by either not having any on-brand content or publishing it inconsistently so that customers don’t know when they should be expecting new posts.

As a result, these businesses end up with either no return on investment or don’t even have the chance to start.

This is because franchise content marketing does not just happen by sitting back and waiting for customers to come in; it’s a proactive process that requires an intentional strategy from your team of writers, editors, marketers, designers, etc., as well as active customer engagement.

Luckily, it’s not impossible to create a successful franchise content marketing strategy with the right process in place!

Let’s look at how you can build a successful content marketing strategy.

How To Create a Franchise Content Marketing Strategy

A successful franchise content marketing strategy includes the following:

• A brand voice that’s clear and identifiable.
• An online presence with a website, blog, social media accounts (Facebook fan page, Twitter account), etc.
• Updating your site regularly with new posts on a regular basis in order to build up a following.
• A digital marketing strategy to reach out and create a dialogue with your potential customers (blogging, social media posts).
• Content that’s both informative and entertaining for your audience.
• Including content on various platforms like Facebook Live or YouTube videos in order to expand the brand’s reach beyond just one outlet.
• A content calendar to keep your team on track and make sure they’re not working too hard.

If you can do these things, then the next step is getting our customers engaged with your content!

As the franchisor, it’s YOUR job to make sure you’re crystal clear on the points listed above.

In other words, you need a clear vision of your audience, your brand’s voice, and which marketing channels you want to use to help your franchisees grow.

Franchise Content Marketing: Tips for Franchisors

Franchisors need to make sure they are in touch with their franchisees and know what’s going on.

This means you must communicate often and be knowledgeable about the content being published by your teams (both at headquarters and across franchises).

But you must also be present as a voice of leadership when it comes to creating cohesive marketing strategies for your businesses.

This is especially true when it comes to content marketing strategy and what should be posted on each outlet.

The point is that if you don’t have a firm grasp on all aspects of your business (both at headquarters and across franchises), then it’s going to be much more difficult for your franchisees with content marketing.

Franchise Content Marketing: For Franchisees

Franchisees need to make sure they know what the franchisor’s expectations are.

This includes everything from how often content should be published, where it will appear on your website and in social media outlets (Facebook fan page, Twitter account), and so on.

But don’t forget that this is YOUR business!

That means you need to create your own content marketing strategy as well.

You need an online presence, a website with blog posts on various topics related to the business (such as restaurant reviews or tips for franchisees), and a way to get local customers to come into YOUR shop.

Again, you bought a franchise which means it’s YOUR business… I can’t emphasize this enough: too many franchisees feel helpless when it comes to content creation.

You shouldn’t.

Instead, create an open dialogue with the franchisor to figure out the right content marketing strategy for your location.

So the first step is to get totally clear on what your franchisor’s expectations are, any restrictions they have on content marketing, and ensuring that everything you create matches the overall brand’s voice and style.

Now that we’ve seen what franchise content marketing is and a few general tips for both franchisees and franchisors, let’s look at a few things to avoid.

What Franchise Content Marketing Isn’t: The Don’ts

When it comes to franchise marketing, here are a few things you should consider:

• Don’t just focus on your own business and forget to share content from other franchises. Make sure you are sharing the best of both worlds: franchisees with headquarters staff, etc., all at once. This will build up brand awareness for everyone!
• Don’t put out a bunch of posts that sound like they’re coming from an automated machine or a “press release” about your latest product. If you want a post to sound like it was written by an actual human, then make sure your team is working collaboratively and editing the content before publishing.
• Don’t just repeat posts that are already on your website or blog because this will send mixed signals to customers who visit both.
• Don’t forget to share your content on other platforms like Facebook Live or YouTube.
• Don’t just create a social media account and leave it up simply because you feel like you “should”: stay consistent with posting, answering questions in the comments section, and so on. That way, people will know you’re not just another automated part of a larger business.

The goal here is to create a type of “sub-brand.” That means attracting a local audience to YOUR business, even if you don’t own the actual brand itself.

And that’s all for today! This has been a quick and easy guide to franchise content marketing.

In short, the main points to remember are that franchise marketing requires

• TONS of organization with a strategic content calendar
• Clear expectations set forth by the franchisor
• Open communication between the franchisor and the franchisee

If you can get organized and keep the channels of communication open, you’ll find better results from your franchise content marketing partnership!