Allen: Centralizing Your Franchise Marketing in 2019

For a franchise system to succeed, it must efficiently coordinate operations from the corporate level to the hundreds of location-level franchisees. Franchisors and franchisees understand the difficulty of that dance and the dangers of organizational clutter, which can result in a lack of cohesion and direction.

About five years ago, Location3 Sr. Director of Marketing Josh Allen notes in a post for the International Franchising Association, franchisors and their marketing teams were adding layers to the clutter in an effort to find service-specific standouts. Franchisor marketing teams began hiring agencies, partners, and vendors to execute a variety of marketing tactics – ultimately hoping that each partner would contribute their service expertise as part of a broader franchise marketing plan.

The result of this multi-pronged approach was often a disjointed strategy that only created more confusion among franchisors and franchisees alike. As 2019 approaches, Allen argues that a centralized approach to franchise marketing gives brands a clearer, more direct path to success. Here’s an excerpt from the post:

What Should Be Managed at an Enterprise Level?

Franchisor marketing teams must take control of how their brand is represented online, while still providing management and support of key channels that impact franchisees on a local level. Some key considerations:

• Own your website, and own your data. There are countless SaaS providers and subscription-based platforms that allow you to “host” your website, landing pages, local data and more on their platforms. This means that they own your data, handcuffing you to their system. Your brand should own and control all of your online accounts, your website and all of the data associated with each.

For further analysis, including how franchisees can increase local customers, read the full post here.