Franchising Is A-Changin’ The Latest Digital Marketing Tactics

Franchising Is A-Changin’ The Latest Digital Marketing Tactics Get Results

Courtesy of Franchise Update Magazine

The way to market a franchise has changed once again. Marketing strategies and tactics are drastically different from what they were four years ago. Some successful tactics are even different than just one year ago.

Start with Who

Imagine your next five new franchisees.

None of them will be attending any franchise expos. None of them will be going to any online portals. None of them will be Googling your brand. They may not use Google at all.

How are you going to get their attention for your franchise opportunity?

Let’s think about what they will be doing. We know they will be scrolling on their phones all day and all night (just like the rest of us). This is good news! Create content to put in front of them on whichever platform they spend their time. Note: They may be thinking about the term “franchising,” but they are thinking about owning their own business. Keep that in mind as you create content that platforms want them to see.

Targeting and Copy

Who are you targeting and why?

Back in the “old days”—a year or so ago!—we spent a great deal of time managing and tweaking the audience targeting. Activity, geography, financials, and demographics made for a complex, multi-layered approach to ad management.

The most recent change on Meta’s platforms is the reduction in the need for this kind of complicated targeting. Meta’s AI tools and algorithm updates have allowed the platforms to serve up ads to people most likely to engage with those ads regardless of how the advertiser has set up targeting.

Now more than ever, good copy and good content are king. Let the content do the work. Stop overthinking the targeting and let Meta do its thing. Our team was initially skeptical about this, but we’ve seen great results already this year.

Quality/Quantity of Leads

Newer tactics, including content-based targeting, will lead to fewer but better leads. Everyone says they want quality over quantity until they see fewer leads. As you move to higher quality, be sure to manage the expectations of your sales team and the executive team. Remember, you would rather have 50 solid, qualified leads than 500 junk leads.

This also means your CPL will increase, and these expectations should be managed as well. The leader of our lead-generation team, Jason Weaver, often says, “Your cost per lead is going up. And that’s a good thing!”

There are a few brands that are looking for more leads to keep their salespeople busy. These brands won’t be growing this year or next. If you just want more leads, run some generic Facebook ads with a form fill, and you have enough lousy leads to make plenty of busy work for your sales crew.

LinkedIn Best Practices

The most important channel for your content is currently LinkedIn. Here are some updated tips to maximize your engagement with your next candidates:

•  Post daily. No exceptions!
•  Don’t use AI to write your post. Can you tell when a friend or colleague is using AI for a long LinkedIn post? I’ll bet you can. And I’ll bet your candidates can too. Be genuine.
•  Don’t use external links. This has been a best practice for a while, but links appear to be performing worse than ever.
•  Upload native videos. LinkedIn is becoming more like TikTok every day.

Short-form videos

Many franchise marketers are using short-form videos to get their executives in front of many potential candidates every day without a dollar in ad spend. To get started, record an executive from your brand and add captioning, animations, B-roll, and anything to which you have access.

Post those clips daily on all social channels. We recommend LinkedIn, TikTok, Reels for both Facebook and Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube shorts. This works on two levels:

•  On the strategic level, it’s coming from a person, not just a brand. Candidates want to engage with a person, not a company.
•  On the tactical level, we’re giving the social media channels’ algorithms exactly what they want. They want short-form videos, and they want to show them to people who have watched similar videos.

The content here is advice from your executive, who is a thought leader. And that’s the key: TikTok especially is used for advice. YouTube is useful for people searching “how-to,” but TikTok is all about sharing advice that the audience doesn’t yet know it needs.

Regarding the frequency: You must post daily with no exceptions. The only way to rise above the increasing noise is to get louder. Some brands push pack on this but consider the world’s top content creators. Does Gary Vaynerchuk worry about being overexposed? No. Does Taylor Swift worry about people getting tired of hearing so many songs? No. Put out good content and put it out often.

Multi-unit, Multi-brand

Marketing to multi-unit, multi-brand owners (MUMBOs) is not a new phenomenon, but the numbers are skyrocketing. With the current economy and inflation, the efficiencies of combining expenses and managing costs across multiple units and brands will not be decreasing in the next year, if ever.

The digital marketing tactics discussed above, especially those for LinkedIn, will work even better in finding the right candidates for multi-unit opportunities. And unlike individual operators, these MUMBOs are repeatedly engaging with many brands’ content. Make sure yours is in front of them.

Start a Conversation

Ready to start a conversation with the Brand J team about digital marketing for your franchise brand? Fill out our form here, and we’ll be in touch!