The success of the business can be measured in a number of ways, including the ability to expand and turn into a valuable franchise. Big companies today started out small, eventually growing with the help of an effective marketing strategy and product development. Through the years, the branding is enhanced, boosting sales and customer loyalty.
Franchises are a different kind of business venture, as the goal is to spread out business across multiple locations. This business model is unique from others because the owner is giving franchise rights to other entrepreneurs to operate on a ready-made, viable business opportunity.
For years, several franchise opportunities are tapping people from different states and countries, but digital media is changing how owners can reach a higher number of potential partners. This is where social media comes in, providing more avenues to promote the business, encourage more people to invest, and put up the franchise in other locations.
With the right marketing in place, any brand can stand out from the competition and even make a bigger name in a certain industry—food, retail, services, and hospitality.
Growth Engine
One of the important aspects of a successful franchise is formulating a growth engine to introduce the brand to the audience in different locations. Achieving this isn’t easy, as business owners need to understand the needs of consumers and create a set of strategies that work. Social media became a huge part of the growth engine because it presents a wider reach.
Popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok present more opportunities to increase conversions and leads. Utilizing its tools for business page, and formulating strategies for posting are integral for enhancing the brand awareness and drive a solid growth.
Because people are always on social media, it’s easy to get exposure. All social media platforms already offer ads to help entrepreneurs reach more potential customers. Sponsored posts are common, and these pop up on a user’s timeline or feed. Some platforms utilize targeted ads to reach new, targeted audience fast.
Targeted ads encourage people to buy products and get services that pop up into their feed or timeline. For instance, if a person is looking for a franchise in California, and use Google of Facebook to look for it, the platform then presents sponsored ads based on recent searches. This is already happening and people may wonder if their mobile devices are doing tricks and reading their minds. But the truth is, it’s only a marketing strategy by most social media platforms.
Of course, entrepreneurs need to pay for placing ads online, especially in social media. This is similar to the traditional advertisement but cheaper. Moreover, a business owner can easily monitor the movements through analytics. Assessing the performance of ads is crucial to know whether it’s effective or not. If the figure is showing good numbers, then entrepreneurs can take notes and do the same for the next ads.
Demographic Targeting
To effectively target the right set of audience, demographic segmentation is used. This is a type of segmentation that helps entrepreneurs to target more accurate customers. Some of the types include family size, religion, gender, age, ethnicity, education, income, and others. This is a crucial part of marketing because you want to create content that will be useful for a specific set of people.
The groundwork for marketing a franchise is establishing a brand image, which is part of a marketing plan. Whenever posting on social media, the brand you are trying to create must be consistent—design, message, and impact.
By understanding the type of audience, their needs, and capabilities, you can easily craft a message that would appeal to them. For food and beverage, the family is usually targeted demographic. For coffee shop franchises, the target audience can be students and the working class, those who find a location for relaxation, productivity, and good coffee.
Meanwhile, when franchising a convenience store, the common demographic can be people who lack time to prepare food and simply opt for convenience food. Be it students, overworked professionals, and even families, analyzing their needs is crucial for crafting the branding and overall message.
Content is King
Joining social media isn’t the finish line, in fact, it’s an opportunity to explore the market, target audience, and the type of content that boosts brand awareness. Content, for the most part, is the most important aspect of social media because it’s what your followers can see.
From photographs, videos, animations, graphics, and blog entries, content is what franchisors need to encourage people to make an investment. For blog entries, it could be successful stories of growing the business and getting the return on investment (ROI).
Visuals enhance the presentation of the content, which is more effective than texts. Some brands even make an effort to hire graphic artists to create eye-catching visuals to disseminate information. For instance, graphics about how easy it is to get a franchise is presented using animations and explainer videos.
More than the visuals, what matters most is the message of the social media post. If the intent is to encourage people to start a new investment, then the message should be clear: starting a new business venture through a franchise is key. There’s what marketers call Soft Selling, wherein the approach is subtle but people would still want to buy or invest.
Hard selling is sometimes annoying, and most people shy away from these types of content. In social media, being creative is the way to get noticed, and jumping on the trends is always a good idea. The idea of making content based on the most talked-about issue or event makes a post relatable. Franchise companies can use this marketing technique to become viral and make content shareable.
From memes and TikTok entries, entertaining qualities combined with emotional responses are what make people follow a social media account. Instead of only doing traditional marketing, it’s also integral to use humor to engage users and attract more followers.
Positive Social Media Experience
According to Sprout Social, 71 percent of people are more likely to purchase from a brand after a positive social media response. This figure simply shows how social interactions affect the purchase decision of people. If the interested party is satisfied with the customer service, then they’re likely to develop trust in the brand. This trust is converted to sales and eventually, the word of mouth follows.
Before, customers only have the telephone to make complaints and inquiries about a franchise, product, or service. Today, there are more means to reach a brand or business. Aside from the contact numbers, there are also other channels including social media chatbots, email, and other interactions like comments.
It becomes easier to reach a brand with the advent of technology. If there’s a website, a potential customer can send an inquiry via live messaging feature. The key to attracting more people to invest in a franchise venture is to attend to all their needs and queries as soon as possible. Doing so affects a customer’s perception of how responsive a business is when dealing with concerns.
It all boils down to the positive experience of customers on social media. People are always here and if anyone’s interested, they can simply shoot a message, email, or contact the customer support hotline.
The Rise of Social Commerce
Aside from the customer support features, other e-commerce functions also encourage people to buy, subscribe and invest. According to Avionos, 55 percent of online shoppers make a purchase decision through a social media channel such as Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. It is noted that traditional shopping experiences aren’t useful enough and people look beyond the normal interaction with businesses.
A quick, personalized, and informative post affects people’s retail decisions, which is why companies need to revamp their strategies and focus on experience-driven commerce. With engaging content and personalized experiences, consumers can gain ‘shoppable’ moments across all channels.
In the same way, people interested to invest in a franchise venture need a push from the digital channels. The engaging content and artificial intelligence-enabled experiences make people to have better experiences. For instance, easy check out functions are beneficial, in the franchise business, it’s crucial to make people to call the representatives to discuss the business concept.
By personalizing the experience, consumers can easily feel connected to a brand or business, pushing them to make a purchase decision. From grabbing attention, retaining interest, building brand trust, leading to the purchasing decision, all it takes is having a good social media content and platform.
Takeaway
Social media marketing is one way of building a successful franchise business. Now that most people are on social media, franchisors can acquire new potential clients and partners to expand the business. Plan the campaigns carefully and work with a social media expert to execute the marketing plans properly and get sound results.