{"id":9009,"date":"2022-01-31T09:34:56","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T16:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/?p=9009"},"modified":"2024-01-18T16:25:06","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T23:25:06","slug":"how-to-execute-a-localized-digital-strategy-for-a-national-franchise-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/how-to-execute-a-localized-digital-strategy-for-a-national-franchise-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Execute a Localized Digital Strategy for a National Franchise Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"
Digital is the name of the game in the world of marketing and has been for quite some time. Thanks to digital marketing techniques, even the smallest brands have been able to attract new customers, build lasting relationships, and expand their reach. This is easy enough for companies that operate on either a national or local level, but what happens when they do both?<\/p>\n
In other words, how does a franchise marketing team adjust its digital marketing strategy to target local leads in their individual locations? In this guide, we will discuss some of the various tactics, best practices, and methodologies used in franchise marketing<\/a> to achieve better local visibility<\/a> and better targeting of local customers. This guide is not just for marketers. If you are a franchisee, or franchisor, or handle local listing management for a franchise location, this guide is also for you. Now, let\u2019s get started.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re new to marketing for franchises, then it\u2019s a good idea to quickly cover the essentials of what it is. Franchise marketing is a multi-tiered marketing plan whereby a company must craft marketing campaigns for franchises in specific locations, while also adhering to a broader strategy at the corporate level.<\/p>\n If it sounds complicated, that\u2019s because it very well can be. When you own a franchise location, corporate will want to keep a hand in marketing to ensure consistency and quality control across the board. Local franchise owners will, however, be allowed some creativity to tailor ads to meet not just the cultural and socio-economic needs of an area, but also legal requirements.<\/p>\n From renting billboard signs to creating ads that run on game day and paying A-list celebrities to be brand ambassadors, traditional marketing is expensive. While these are still effective methods of generating leads and attracting customers, due to the high cost, they are better left to corporate. Local franchises who want to maximize their profits should focus most of their energies on digital marketing.<\/p>\n This helps to boost profitability by improving sales and cutting down advertising costs.<\/p>\n Even so, traditional marketing still serves a place as a complement to digital marketing strategies: a connection that we will discuss in greater detail later on in this guide. Here are some of the many marketing tools that are effective at the corporate and local levels.<\/p>\n Keep in mind that not everything on this list directly boosts SEO. Some items merely boost visibility or awareness, which increases the effectiveness of SEO tactics. It is one thing to be discoverable, but even better to be recognizable when you are. Also worth noting is the fact that not all of these tools will be beneficial to your specific brand.<\/p>\n To decide which methods will best suit your marketing goals and business type, you must consider how the demographic you serve prefers to engage with brands of their choice and what forms of communications resonate best with them. Once you have these figured out, you can implement the specifics detailed in the rest of this guide.<\/p>\n When it comes to digital marketing, one of the first tools that is often called upon is social media. That\u2019s because social media is one of the best tools<\/a> for increasing awareness of your business at both the corporate and franchise level if properly managed. If not properly managed, then you can create a mess of inconsistent messages intermingled with confusion over who has access to what account. Here\u2019s the best way to organize this.<\/p>\n There should be one social media account per platform at the corporate level, which is handled only by the professionals at corporate. Depending on your business and the demographic it serves, this could include LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. These main accounts should either forego using an exact physical location or use the address of corporate. In the case of Facebook, it is best not to use an address at all, so you can use the locations feature to pinpoint franchises in different locations.<\/p>\n As the fount from which the rest of social media marketing strategies will spring, it\u2019s a good idea to create a Best Practices Social Media plan<\/a> for franchisees to use. A good plan book will detail the following.<\/p>\n Before creating social media handles for a local franchise, it\u2019s important to check with corporate to ensure this is allowed. Note that another franchise location receiving permission does not guarantee that you will. To increase your chances, have a hired social media agency at the ready to prove to corporate that you have professional assistance to steer you and your marketing campaign in the right direction. It may also be worth it to speak with other local franchises and propose shared social media accounts for the location, such as @VDigitalPHX or @VDigitalLA to complement a corporate handle of @VDigital.<\/p>\n Most social media platforms offer some type of PPC advertising<\/a>. The ones that are best for you will depend on the platforms you have identified as being best for your business.<\/p>\n Digital advertising on social media is a great way to get your ads in front of more eyes, while only paying for the level of engagement it attracts. Here are some of the PPC offers corporate should not miss out on.<\/p>\n When it comes to PPC advertising, local franchises are better off using Google, Facebook, and Instagram as PPC platforms. The effectiveness of these three outlets make Twitter ads an unnecessary luxury item. However, if Twitter is where most of your customers and clients hang out, and corporate okays the local use of Twitter, Twitter ads may be worth looking into.<\/p>\n Website SEO<\/a> is an integral part of marketing for businesses of all sizes. This is because SEO expands a company\u2019s organic reach and continues to bring in website traffic as long as the keywords are chosen remain relevant. When the effectiveness of a specific keyword changes, it\u2019s a simple task to update content to reflect that. This helps to ensure that when someone googles relevant topics related to your business, your website will rank high in searches.<\/p>\n Your goal should be to land in the first three spots because most people don\u2019t look beyond the first three results. Here are a few things you need to make sure you rank in the first three spots as often as possible.<\/p>\n As in all other areas of franchise SEO, corporate is expected to lead the way. If the corporate website is doing well and generating large amounts of traffic<\/a>, then all others will benefit. This is true even when all local franchises are expected to build and manage their own websites because a successful corporate website helps to spread awareness and boost credibility for the brand itself. If corporate has a formula that has been working well, it should pass on this information to the local franchises, so they can benefit from HQ\u2019s wisdom and experience.<\/p>\n Not all franchise companies will allow you to build your own website. However, it doesn\u2019t hurt to ask. And, while you\u2019re at it, see if you can get a hold of the keywords corporate has been using. By using those same keywords on your own local website and social media pages, you will be able to piggyback off corporate\u2019s success. However, to boost your local ranking, you should add location tags, such as, \u201cSEO services in Phoenix\u201d instead of just \u201cSEO services\u201d. This indicates to Google that the services you provide are relevant to a specific location.<\/p>\n Another way to improve your local SEO ranking, particularly with Google, is to ensure your franchise is listed on Google with the following information.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Depending on your type of business, you may be able to add additional information. For example, if you own a restaurant, there is usually an available slot for a menu.<\/p>\n Quick Tip:<\/b> Be sure to clean up local listings to prevent the SEO nightmare of duplicate entries. Duplicate entries will only cost you customers and needless embarrassment down the line. It may also not sit well with corporate, who may then seek to tighten the marketing reins.<\/p>\n Did you know that YouTube is the world\u2019s second largest search engine<\/a>? This shouldn\u2019t be too surprising when you consider that Google owns YouTube. Naturally, because of this, the two combine forces in the SEO world to produce amazing results. In short, Google gives special favor to its own videos on YouTube and ranks these higher up in its search results.<\/p>\n However, publishing on YouTube isn\u2019t the only way you can use video marketing<\/a> to your advantage as a franchise. Here are some of the many ways video marketing is useful at both the corporate and local levels of franchise SEO.<\/p>\n Before saying anything else regarding email marketing, let us first emphasize that we are referring to opt-in email marketing. When people choose to receive your newsletters, it\u2019s a good sign that they\u2019ll actually open your newsletters when you send them. This helps to generate more leads and potential sales.<\/p>\n While all other areas of marketing so far have primarily been aimed at reaching customers, corporate should consider using email marketing to grow the franchise business by focusing on more B2B communications. The primary groups you should try to reach are as follows.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Quick Tip: <\/b>Be sure to utilize different mailing lists for each of these categories. This helps to ensure people don\u2019t receive content that is not relevant to their interests.<\/p>\n The great thing about email marketing is that it\u2019s the one form of marketing so far that corporate may not try to control or curtail. This is because email marketing goes directly to individuals and is not published publicly.<\/p>\n Unlike corporate, local franchises should use email marketing to reach out to customers. Here are a few share-worthy ideas to send to customers and clients.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Quick Tip: <\/b>If corporate won\u2019t allow you to run your own branded website, use social media and a lead form to build your mailing list. If social media isn\u2019t allowed either, then the next tip is for you.<\/p>\n Text message marketing is another form of opt-in direct marketing that can yield great results when done right. Because text messaging is more personal and informal, this strategy will be best used by local franchises, but there are some uses for corporate.<\/p>\n When there are offers and promotions that are applicable across the board, sending text messages from corporate to customers is a good idea. Corporate can also utilize texts to send messages that encourage social responsibility in various forms, such as requesting donations on behalf of established charities after a natural disaster of national importance.<\/p>\n As previously stated, text message marketing better serves franchises at the local levels. Local franchises can use text message marketing to grow their customer base in a number of ways. Here are just a few.<\/p>\n Truly, there is no point in investing in marketing or PR strategies if you don\u2019t also invest in tools to track the effectiveness of the strategies you implement, and how well they complement your business goals. Here are a few questions you need to be answered regarding all the hard work and money you spend on your marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If social media is a big part of your marketing plan, then you may be able to take advantage of free insights and analytical tools from companies like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. However, for in-depth analysis, you will need the help of professionals.<\/p>\n These days, the DIY culture is going strong. From businesses to individuals, everyone is looking to do more with less by getting some of the work done on their own. This is commendable, but some tasks are best left to the professionals. Due to the complicated and multi-layered level of marketing for franchise businesses, this task definitely makes the list of things better left to the experts.<\/p>\n The good news is, you won\u2019t need to look very far to find a marketing agency<\/a> that is accustomed to working on franchise marketing campaigns at both the corporate and local levels. Like you, we are a large business with offices spread out in multiple locations, from Seattle<\/a> to Miami<\/a>.<\/p>\n We combine this personal experience with our professional qualifications to bring you marketing campaigns best suited to the complex needs of your franchise business. For more information on how we can help to streamline your marketing campaign and grow your business through improved SEO, email us via our contact page<\/a>, today. We look forward to hearing from you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Digital is the name of the game in the world of marketing and has been for quite some time. Thanks to digital marketing techniques, even the smallest brands have been able to attract new customers, build lasting relationships, and expand their reach. This is easy enough for companies that operate on either a national or […] KEEP READING<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is Franchise Marketing?<\/h2>\n
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Traditional vs Digital Marketing<\/h2>\n
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Social Media Marketing Strategies for Franchises<\/h2>\n
Corporate Level Social Media Marketing<\/h3>\n
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Local Level Social Media Marketing<\/h3>\n
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Pay-Per-Click Advertising Strategies for Franchises<\/h2>\n
Corporate Level Pay-Per-Click Advertising<\/h3>\n
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Local Level Pay-Per-Click Advertising<\/h3>\n
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Website SEO Strategies for Franchises<\/h2>\n
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Corporate Level Website Search Engine Optimization<\/h3>\n
Local Level Website Search Engine Optimization<\/h3>\n
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Video Marketing Strategies for Franchises<\/h2>\n
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Email Marketing Strategies for Franchises<\/h2>\n
Corporate Level Email Marketing<\/h3>\n
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Local Level Email Marketing<\/h3>\n
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Text Message Marketing Strategies for Franchises<\/h2>\n
Corporate Level Text Message Marketing<\/h3>\n
Local Level Text Message Marketing<\/h3>\n
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Data Analytics for Franchises<\/h2>\n
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Get Professional Assistance From Franchise Marketing Experts<\/b><\/h2>\n