4 Costly Franchisor Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid

Franchising presents unique challenges when it comes to implementing an effective marketing plan. Problems like keeping brand messaging consistent, controlling online assets, and working towards a unified vision are among the top issues that we see arise amongst our franchise clients. Learn from others’ mistakes by avoiding these costly franchisor marketing mistakes that have led to the demise of brands like yours over the years.

Avoid These 4 Franchisor Marketing Nightmares at All Costs

Set your units up for success by avoiding these costly franchise marketing mistakes.

1. Allowing franchisees to be the sole owner of online accounts

While it’s true that franchisees should have access to their online accounts to answer reviews and interact with users, the franchisor should maintain ownership or administrator access if the franchise agreement allows it. We recommend this to our franchise clients for brand control, but more importantly, closures and terminations.

On most marketing platforms like Facebook, Google My Business, and Yelp, you only need a manager role to edit or delete content. However, to delete the entire profile and remove managers, you typically need to be an owner or administrator. For this reason, the franchisor must maintain ownership permissions on franchise location accounts.

2. Oversaturating a market

Franchisors want to sell as many franchise licenses as possible, but sometimes it comes at franchisees’ expense. Most markets can only support so many franchise locations. As more and more territories within a market are sold, each franchisee gets a smaller and smaller piece of the pie– both in revenue and website traffic.

3. Inconsistent branding

One of the most challenging aspects of franchise marketing is maintaining a consistent brand both on and offline. Inconsistent branding becomes prevalent when franchisees are left to produce marketing materials independently, and there’s no centralized marketing source. To maintain consistent branding online, be sure to develop a digital asset library, a content proofing process, and marketing training for new franchisees.

4. Not providing franchisees with marketing training

Regardless of how many digital marketing resources you provide to your franchisees, there are inevitably marketing efforts or responsibilities that must be managed locally. To set franchisees up for success, be sure to provide marketing training to new franchisees and effectively communicate your franchise’s marketing strategy. While things like SEO and website management are likely handled by the parent company, things that franchisees should learn to manage locally include:

• How to share localized content on social media in a brand-compliant way
• How to respond to online reviews
• How to work with local media to promote the brand
• How to order new marketing materials through the brand

  

When franchisees are well trained, you can depend on them to professionally reflect your brand and help build a successful franchise.

To learn more about franchisors’ common marketing mistakes and how to avoid them, contact Front Porch Solutions. We’ve worked with dozens of franchises and can put our experience to work for your brand.