10 Franchise Marketing Strategies to Grow your Brand

Running a franchise isn’t easy. You have multiple locations to manage, different teams to coordinate, and a brand to protect. Each location has its own challenges—one might be struggling with sales, while another needs help with local marketing. 

Sometimes it feels like you’re juggling too many things at once, trying to keep every part of the business running smoothly. Making sure each franchise thrives can be a real challenge, especially when you want every location to succeed without losing the brand's identity.

What Is Franchise Marketing?

Franchise marketing promotes each franchise location to support overall success. Using a consistent approach, franchisors boost brand awareness and customer engagement across locations while also meeting local needs. 

Franchise organizations provide guidelines and support for franchisees to ensure consistent branding and quality. This teamwork helps franchisees use the brand’s reputation, shared resources, and expertise, improving visibility, customer loyalty, and business growth.

10 Franchise Marketing Strategies to Grow your Brand

Growing a franchise is challenging, with multiple locations and unique markets to manage. To succeed, you need effective strategies that boost visibility and connect with customers. 

1. Keep Branding Consistent  

One of the biggest challenges for franchise marketing is keeping branding consistent across all locations. Franchisees sometimes do their own thing, and you can't be everywhere to guide them. Staying on brand is important, as customers trust and choose familiar brands. 

In fact, 71% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a brand they know and trust. 

To maintain consistency, create a detailed brand style guide. This guide will help franchisees stick to your brand, ensuring that everything from logos to social media follows the same look and feel.

2. Know Your Local Customers  

Customers in each location are different—what works in Boston may not work in Houston. To make your marketing effective, understand the needs and interests of local audiences. 

Research shows that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand offering personalized experiences.

Personalizing marketing efforts makes customers feel seen, and research shows that people are more likely to buy from a brand that offers a personalized experience. Use tools like Google Trends to learn about local preferences, and create diverse marketing materials that can appeal to different groups.

3. Choose the Right Marketing Channels 

Franchises have a lot of value to offer, but it's important to use the right marketing channels to share that value effectively. Key channels include SEO, which is free and great for boosting online visibility, search ads for targeting local customers, and video marketing to engage viewers and drive conversions. 

Studies show that 90% of people search online before making a purchase, making SEO an important channel for reaching potential customers.

SEO helps businesses rank higher in search results, which means more visibility and more chances of attracting customers. Using relevant keywords and optimizing website content, franchises can ensure they appear when people are actively searching, increasing the likelihood of turning searches into sales.

4. Get Franchisees on Board with Marketing 

Managing marketing budgets for multiple franchises can be tough, as each location has its own needs. Start by presenting low-cost and free marketing options, like social media or local SEO, to make it easier for franchisees to participate. 

Research shows that businesses that engage in regular social media activity experience up to 31% higher revenue growth compared to those that do not. 

To get franchisees to invest in paid advertising, show them data on potential returns, and provide financial help if you can. Remember, it doesn’t take a big budget to make a big impact.

5. Decide on a Marketing Approach  

Franchises can either centralize marketing or let each location handle it individually. Both approaches have pros and cons—centralized marketing ensures consistency, while local marketing offers flexibility. 

For example, having all locations follow a single social media plan helps keep messaging on brand, but letting them create local content helps connect with nearby customers. To choose the best approach, consider your available time, marketing expertise, and the need for brand consistency. If unsure, work with a marketing partner to share the load and provide expertise.

6. Focus on Local SEO  

Local SEO is key to ensuring your locations show up when people search for nearby services. While national SEO is often strong, local SEO is equally important to connect with local audiences. 

In fact, 64% of consumers use Google Business Profiles to find contact information for local businesses. Creating local content, linking to other local businesses, and participating in community events can further improve your brand's visibility in specific areas.

7. Stand Out from Competitors and Other Franchisees 

Franchises face competition not only from other brands but also from their own locations. Using geo-targeting for ads helps prevent different locations from competing for the same customers. 

For example, a local ad for a Houston franchise should only show to people in that area, not in nearby locations. Geo-targeting also helps focus on competitor areas for better targeting. Bidding on competitors' keywords can also help you attract their audience and drive them to your locations.

8. Use Effective Reporting for All Locations  

Franchises have many locations, products, and channels to manage, making tracking marketing efforts challenging. To streamline this, use digital tools that can combine reports across locations and channels. 

For example, a tool like Google Analytics can track website visits from each franchise location, allowing easy access for franchisees and ensuring everyone can measure their performance effectively.

9. Educate Franchisees on Marketing  

Training franchisees on your marketing approach is essential. Since in-person training can be time-consuming, consider using online methods like video tutorials, written guides, or short webinars to educate them. 

Research suggests that 75% of employees are more likely to watch a video than read documents, which makes video training particularly effective. 

Make the training materials varied to suit different learning preferences. If your time is limited, bringing in a marketing partner to assist with training is another good option.

10. Communicate with Marketing Partners

If you have different agencies or teams working on marketing, staying aligned is key. Regular meetings with in-house teams, franchisees, and outside partners can help maintain consistency. 

Make sure all partners have access to your brand style guide so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to your brand's voice and message. If managing multiple partners is challenging, especially when implementing a franchise strategy, consider finding a single marketing partner who can handle all channels under one roof.

Connect Customers to Your Growing Franchise

Franchise marketing can be tough, but these 10 strategies can make a real difference in growing your brand and connecting with customers. From keeping branding consistent to focusing on local SEO, each step helps build a stronger presence across locations. 

But the real question is—are you doing everything you can to make your franchise stand out and succeed? It’s time to think about how these strategies can take your franchise to the next level. Are you ready to put them into action and see the results?

FAQs

Why is branding consistency important for franchise marketing?

Consistent branding helps customers recognize and trust your marketing franchise, no matter which location they visit. It builds loyalty and makes your brand more reliable.

How can local SEO help my franchise?

Local SEO helps your franchise show up in local searches, making it easier for nearby customers to find your business when they need it.

What marketing channels work best for franchises?

Effective channels include SEO for online visibility, social media for customer engagement, search ads for targeting local customers, and video marketing for capturing attention. For a media franchise, these methods help build a consistent brand experience across all platforms, keeping customers engaged and informed.

The franchise organization is associated with which type of marketing​ system?

The franchise organization is part of a "vertical marketing system." This means that the franchise owner (franchisor) and the local franchise stores (franchisees) work together as one coordinated group to sell products or services.