What's Going on in Franchise Marketing? | Social Joey
If you’re marketing for a franchise, whether at the corporate level or at an individual location, you’ve probably seen your fair share of challenges in the last year. To say the least, right?
But if you’re like most people, you probably wonder whether others are facing similar problems—and whether they have any tips or tricks to making it through.
That’s why we’re taking a few minutes to talk with Jack Monson, Chief Revenue Officer for Social Joey and host of Social Geek Radio. Monson interacts daily with those within the franchising space, so he’s got an eye on what’s happening.
Read on for some insights.
The Biggest Challenge Franchise Marketers Are Facing
While we don’t think of hiring and retention as elements of marketing, right now they are. It’s really all hands on deck for most businesses, as they look to backfill positions they cut back on during the worst months of the pandemic.
For a number of reasons, including changing needs among the workforce, health issues for some employees, and a lack of childcare options in some cases, it’s become more difficult to fill open positions. Add to that the fact that it’s not just one company with open positions, it’s millions of them, all competing for employees.
“For many brands, including those in the franchise space, the need to hire qualified staff is at a crisis level,” Monson says. “Many brands are spending nearly 100% of their marketing budgets to advertise about open positions.”
Even if you aren’t finding your business in quite-so-dire straits, you are likely reallocating resources within your franchise to get the word out about job openings, at the least.
“While this may be a necessary move to solve a current crisis, it will create long-term damage to the brand or local unit,” Monson adds. “Imagine going a year or more without building the brand in the customer’s mind. Imagine a year or more without sharing anything of value that also positions products, services, and regular offers.”
The Wrong Way to Handle the Crisis
Whether your franchise has been back up and running for a year now or you’ve more recently reopened your doors, odds are you’ve had to change how you do things.
While budgetary changes are to be expected, it’s important to keep investing in the resources and tools, like marketing, that will keep your business up and running for the long term. In other words, don’t lose the forest for the trees.
There’s a well-known quote that says, “Cutting your marketing is a short-term solution that creates long-term problems.”
That’s accurate.
“Cutting marketing and advertising spend sounds like a fast fix when revenue is down, but it’s actually the worst thing anyone can do if growing the business is the goal,” Monson says.
Reallocate as needed, but continue marketing and advertising. In order to build trust and relationships with customers and potential customers, you need to be a consistent presence in their lives. If your brand stops marketing, you lose that presence.
How to Spread the Word About Your Franchise
If your franchise is in the situation of needing to cut marketing spend—or to use your marketing dollars to publicize hiring needs—it’s still important to be creating content for your audience.
Pause and thoughtfully consider ways you can continue content marketing with less of an imprint on your budget. Our biggest suggestion? Leaning into digital marketing, if you haven’t already.
Traditional marketing relied on print materials, which can often be costly and have an indeterminate return on investment. Digital marketing, on the other hand, can be executed on a much more cost-effective basis and offers a lot of bang for the buck, ROI-wise. Use digital marketing to spread your message near and far.
“If ad spend is not increasing, creating more useful content for free for potential customers is the only option,” Monson says. “Whether your content is in the form of blogs, white papers, videos, or podcasts, the best thing you can do to attract new customers is give away all your secrets every day! Share your best practices in your preferred format, not just to promote, but provide real value to the audience.”
To make it worth your while, make sure that no matter what type of content you’re creating, you’re promoting it well. While promoted posts and ads can help you highlight your creations, you can also use free, basic posts on social media to get the word out.
Consistent posting on social media is another way to spread your messaging—keep your brand in front of customers’ eyes.
When You Need An Extra Set of Hands
In a recent IFA virtual workshop emceed by Monson and Kristen Pechacek of MassageLuxe, a show of hands revealed what we already knew—franchise marketers are stressed out.
“Franchise marketers as a whole are overwhelmed,” Monson says. “Every marketer I know in franchising is doing at least two jobs right now, and I don’t see that changing soon for many marketers.”
If this is you, we hope you’re pausing every so often to check in on yourself! Self-care might seem selfish or out-of-touch, but it’s so essential. Taking good care of yourself will help you be at your best, personally and professionally.
If you’re feeling overly stressed professionally as a marketer—or an executive with marketing under your purview—now might be a good time to consider whether any of your efforts can be outsourced.
We know…we know…money is tight and budgets are being reallocated to cover urgent needs. But marketing is ultimately essential if you’re in the business for the long run.
If you could use a bit of a new strategy for getting your franchise in front of new (and old) eyeballs, our team of experts at Social Joey is here to help. We rely on known best practices in social media marketing, social media advertising and blogging to promote our clients’ brands in a cost-effective, meaningful way.
That means taking the responsibility of some day-to-day marketing tasks off your plate—and freeing up your hands for more urgent needs.
The best part? Our services are available for franchises large and small and budgets big and small. Whatever your needs, we can help you find a plan that matches.
That way you keep on keeping on when it comes to getting your message out, while not breaking your budget or losing your mind!
If you need an extra set of hands, that’s what we’re here for! Get in touch with our Social Joey team today to learn how we can help.