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Guide to franchise marketing
A common misconception about running a franchise of a well-known corporate brand is that once you sign on, all your marketing needs will be automatically handled for you.
The truth is, there’s a delicate division of roles and responsibilities between the corporate brand and its individual franchises. It can be challenging for franchisees to understand the balance and create a winning marketing strategy.
This guide will clear up the confusion and tell you everything you need to know about franchise marketing and franchise advertising, including:
- What is franchise marketing?
- The balance between corporate-led and franchise-led marketing
- How to know if your business is ready for franchise marketing
- 6 franchise marketing strategies to try
- Market your franchise on Uber Eats
To understand these themes in depth and to provide the best marketing advice to franchisees, we interviewed the following 4 franchise marketing experts at Uber Eats:
- Aron Hollander, Senior Partner Managers
- Haley Kirby, Growth Client Partner and Ad Sales
- Hiro Fujita, Head of US National Partnerships for the West
- Lauren Muldberg, Account Executive and Ad Sales
Let’s dive in and learn what these experts have to teach.
What is franchise marketing?
Franchise marketing refers to the strategies corporations use to attract new franchise owners and the tactics franchisees use to capture more local customers.
Because franchise marketing involves multiple parties—corporations, franchises, and customers—it’s essential to understand standard nomenclature. Here’s a quick review:
- Franchiser: The original or parent company that owns the overall rights to corporations with a franchise growth model. Inspire Brands, for example, owns Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, and more.
- Corporate: The overall brand and business model offered for replication. For example, Arby’s would be one corporate brand offered for franchising (or store replication), and McDonald’s would be another. These corporate brands have standard brand guidelines and marketing rules for their franchises.
- Franchise: A franchise is one of many store locations that replicate a corporate brand’s brand and business model. Regardless of geographic location, each franchise maintains a consistent look, feel, and customer experience that mirrors the corporate identity. That’s why an Arby’s franchise in Kansas City looks and feels the same as one in Toronto.
- Franchisee: The individual or entity that acquires the rights to open and operate a franchise. Franchisees are responsible for the day-to-day operations of their outlet, for local marketing efforts, and for compliance with corporate guidelines.
- Franchise group: An individual or entity that operates a group of franchises. Some Inspire Brands franchisees, for instance, may simultaneously operate multiple Arby’s and Buffalo Wild Wings stores. These franchisees are responsible for adhering to the respective brand marketing guidelines for each franchise they own.
Franchise marketing includes the parent corporation’s marketing efforts and guidelines for its franchises, and the outreach efforts franchisees undertake to draw more customers to their local stores.
“A franchise is an extension of a major corporate brand. It’s likely that your favorite QSR [quick-service restaurant] is a mom-and-pop shop managing its own franchise,” says Aron Hollander. “The main differentiator is that people can operate their own businesses and be their own bosses but have the confidence and backing of a major brand behind them. In exchange for that, they pay a franchising fee and upfront costs.”
Hollander also explains that while these franchise owners have corporate brand recognition and marketing support, they’re small business owners responsible for their local and omnichannel marketing, sales numbers, and customer acquisition.
The challenges of franchise marketing
Franchise marketing, including franchise advertising, is an exciting opportunity and an incredible growth lever—but marketing a franchise is not without its challenges.
Hiro Fujita says the first challenge of franchise marketing is corporate and franchise alignment: “There needs to be a strong and trusting relationship between the franchise and corporate. They need to be aligned on goals, strategy, and vision. In some cases, they're super aligned. In other situations, they have very conflicting views. That's where it can get tricky.”
The second challenge of franchise marketing is navigating marketing processes across multiple corporate levels. “We’ve seen that franchise marketing initiatives might need to go through multiple corporate approvals before going live,” says Fujita. “In some cases, this leads to limited opportunities throughout the year.”
The balance between corporate-led and franchise-led marketing
One key to meeting these franchise marketing challenges head-on and creating a successful marketing strategy is to understand the difference between corporate and franchise marketing responsibilities.
The parent brand defines and controls many marketing elements for the franchise, but some are more flexible and allow for individuality at the franchise level. Here's a breakdown:
Corporate-led marketing elements
Brand identity: This includes logos, color schemes, and overall brand aesthetics. Corporate ensures consistency across all franchises.
Brand style and messaging guidelines: Corporations provide instructions to guarantee consistent messaging, tone, and style in communication.
Core products: Corporate standardizes the staple menu to maintain quality and consistency.
National ad campaigns: Widespread campaigns, including TV commercials and major digital campaigns, are often handled at the corporate level.
Major collaborations: Corporate manages larger partnerships, sponsorships, or collaborations that affect the entire brand.
Digital presence: This includes the primary website, major social media accounts, and overall online branding.
Franchise-led marketing elements
Local franchise advertising and marketing: Corporate sometimes grants franchises the liberty to engage in local ad campaigns.
Franchise social media presence: While adhering to brand guidelines, individual franchises often manage their own local social media accounts.
Local partnerships: This includes collaborations with local businesses, sports teams, and even third-party delivery apps for extended reach.
In-store promotions: Franchises may offer special deals tailored to local market preferences or seasonal opportunities.
Haley Kirby explains that beyond these basics, marketing roles and responsibilities are rarely cut and dry: “Responsibilities are very case by case based on the brand. For example, one pizza brand I work with gives their franchisees full marketing control. The national corporate strategy will allow these franchisees to run their own marketing initiatives with very little, if any, oversight.”
She adds: “On the other hand, there’s a big brand I work with that wants to be involved in all marketing conversations with franchisees. These larger brands will ask [Uber Eats] to articulate the strategies that we’re developing and facilitate communications with their franchisees. So it really is by brand whether these corporate and national groups have a say on how they want to run the franchisee marketing strategy.”
With so much variation between levels of corporate oversight and involvement in franchise marketing, developing a successful marketing strategy hinges on developing solid foundations. “There has to be a strong trusting relationship, alignment on goals, and open communication between the brand and the franchisees,” Fujita says.
Who pays for franchise marketing?
With many players, various roles, and different moving parts in franchise marketing, midsize businesses starting to franchise might wonder who pays for marketing.
It depends. Kirby says there are 3 budgeting buckets: corporate, franchisee, and media agency. She explains how they work:
- Corporate: Corporate budgets come from the brand, and they’re spread equally among the franchisees. Typically, franchisees pay their parent brand a fee or a percentage just to be a franchisee, and they also pay into a marketing budget. Corporate teams will then divide that marketing budget across different digital channels for larger national campaigns, whether it’s a third-party marketplace like Uber Eats or another channel.
- Franchisee: Franchisees reserve a separate budget for their own marketing efforts. They usually develop their own marketing strategy and allocate an amount based on their store’s revenue.
- Media agency: Typically, the corporate brand sends funds to a media agency, which recommends channel strategies and tactics (such as Uber Eats marketplace, TV commercials, or cartop ads) for that budget. Sometimes franchisees work with local media agencies as well.
How to know if your business is ready for franchise marketing
Scaling your franchise requires dedication, an entrepreneurial spirit, and—above all—a solid and adaptable foundational infrastructure. If you’re thinking about investing in marketing, how do you know if you're ready?
Fujita provides the first part of the answer: he advises any Uber Eats franchise partners he works with to start organizing their store operations before initiating any additional marketing efforts.
The reason? “When you run marketing, you’ll see additional order volume. You want to make sure that operations can keep up with the pace of additional orders,” says Fujita. “The last thing you want is for there to be an influx of orders that employees aren’t able to support. This can result in order accuracy errors and other missteps that can have a negative effect on the business and customer experience.”
Fujita also offers advice on how franchise owners can sort out operations to prepare for an influx of new orders: “Make sure your stores are adequately staffed and prepared to handle additional orders from your marketing efforts. Also, be cognizant of food prep times and order accuracy, while also making sure that handoff to couriers is as smooth as possible.”
If you operate more than one franchise—especially of the same brand—Fujita also recommends standardizing training, systems, and processes across all your stores. This way, you provide a consistent customer experience and operational efficiency, no matter which location your customers visit.
Lastly, if your marketing efforts extend to third-party apps like Uber Eats, you may need to update store equipment to prepare for an influx of pickup and delivery orders. “The delivery landscape is evolving,” says Fujita, “and brands need to make adjustments. Some stores were created 20 to 30 years ago based on what was needed at that point. Now upgrading and installing dedicated pickup shelves, windows, or lockers can be hugely helpful.”
Essential strategy preparation work before launching a campaign
Preparing for additional franchise marketing isn’t only about improving operations, investing in cross-store training, and setting up your stores for easier delivery. It’s also essential to do the proper marketing strategy prep work to make sure you’re creating the right campaigns on the right channels for the right audience.
Lauren Muldberg explains how her team engages in in-depth audience, market, and franchise research to identify the right marketing offers and promotions for Uber Eats’ different franchise partners.
“Marketing strategies vary based on the market,” she explains. “For example, a suburban area might see larger order sizes to accommodate bigger groups and families. Whereas a franchise in an urban environment may see smaller order sizes for one or 2 people. In those cases, it might not make sense to launch a BOGO deal because 2 items might be too much for one person.”
Whether you’re advertising on Uber Eats or across other channels, Muldberg explains, you have to approach your marketing goals from the lens of the consumer and ensure that each market has a tailored approach: “Think about your goals, then think about the people you’re trying to influence, and build your tactics with that person in mind.”
To dig deeper into understanding customers and markets in order to create the right offers, Muldberg relies on data. Specifically, her team uses the Uber Eats internal database with current, in-depth customer and market analytics.
“We tap into our database and dissect Uber Eats’ marketing performance based on the market,” she says. “We look at average order value or new customers acquired in certain timeframes to discern if marketing was able to move the needle.”
No matter where you plan to run additional marketing campaigns for your franchises, look at your aggregated data to understand who your customers are, what they need, and what will influence them to buy from your store.
6 franchise marketing strategies to try
Once you’ve aligned your operations, upgraded your store, conducted audience research, set goals, and reviewed your customer analytics, it’s time to start preparing and launching your campaigns.
As you begin, remember the delicate balance between corporate-led and franchise-led marketing. Ask yourself:
- Am I aligned with corporate branding and marketing goals?
- Do I know what marketing materials are already available to me?
- Am I adhering to all corporate branding, marketing, and advertising policies?
- Have I established clear communication processes with corporate?
- Do I understand the corporate approval process for marketing materials for my franchise?
Below are 6 excellent franchise marketing strategies to try.
Social media marketing
The 2023 Sprout Social Index shows that 68% of consumers follow a brand on social media to learn about new products or services. Your social media followers likely already know about your brand and want to hear from you.
The following tips offer dynamic ways for you to connect directly with your local followers and build brand loyalty while adhering to corporate policies.
Social media marketing tips for franchisees
- Personalize your franchise profile. Establish location-specific profiles and content for personalization while keeping the brand’s messaging and visuals consistent. This could include adding your franchise’s contact information, the manager’s name, and a picture of your local store.
- Align your workflows. Follow workflows aligned with franchisor guidelines to manage your online presence and reputation.
- Use templates. It’s challenging to create marketing materials from scratch. Good news! Chances are, your corporate brand has already developed marketing materials for you. Use these templates to remain on brand—just customize them to your location.
- Amplify user-generated content. There has been an uptick in user-generated content over the past few years. If an influencer shares positive information about your franchise location, repost it.
Digital advertising
Digital ads are big consumer attention-grabbers. Why? Because paid ads—whether they’re on a Google search listing, in-app like on Uber Eats, or on a website—sit front and center of the platform.
The level of consumer attention these ads get is one reason why advertisers are projected to spend $190.5 billion on them in 2024.
Digital advertising tips for franchises
- Invest in in-app advertising. Place ads within popular third-party delivery apps like Uber Eats to target your audience and reach new customers through increased visibility.
- Run geo-targeted campaigns. Use geo-targeting in your digital ads to engage customers who live near your store.
- Partner with local influencers. One of the best things about local influencers is that they have a targeted audience with the same geo-location as your store. Consider sponsored posts on local influencers’ social media accounts for expanded reach.
- Analyze ad performance. Regularly review the performance of your digital ads using Uber’s reporting tools to refine and optimize your advertising strategies for better results.
Email marketing
Email marketing is a unique and powerful channel for one critical reason: your target audience voluntarily opts in to receive your messages. They want to hear when you have new happenings and deals at your franchise.
According to Litmus research, this is one reason why email marketing has an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent.
Email marketing tips for franchises
- Use emails from corporate. Corporate has the hefty job of streamlining brand identity and messaging across all its restaurants. As such, most corporate franchisers create assets for franchisees to use. Take advantage of them.
- Grow your subscriber list. While corporate may provide amazing assets for you, it’s up to you to grow your subscriber list. Add an opt-in form to your local website, and encourage people who visit your store to subscribe to your email list for notifications about exclusive promotions.
- Stick to a proven cadence. According to AdRoll, the sweet spot for franchises is 1-2 emails per week. If you send more, you risk annoying your subscribers. If you send fewer, they may not engage with you as often.
- Send notifications of promotions. As shared by Marigold in 2023, 52% of consumers purchased something directly from an email. Make it easy on your subscribers by providing a direct link to buy in your promotional emails.
Print marketing
Today we live in a mostly digital world, but print marketing is making a huge comeback—especially direct mail.
Lob’s 2024 State of Direct Mail Marketing reports that 82% of respondents are increasing direct mail spending in 2024, up from 58% the previous year. It also shows that 84% of marketers say direct mail provides the highest ROI of any other channel.
Print marketing tips for franchises
- Send direct mailers to promote local events. If there’s a local event or holiday coming up, tailor your direct mail to align with it. For example, a pizza franchise could send out special offers or themed menus during local sports events.
- Offer exclusive discounts. Include coupon codes or offers in your direct mail to encourage recipients to visit your store or website. Make sure these offers are compelling and time-sensitive to create urgency.
- Create a cross-channel marketing campaign. Include a QR code that takes recipients directly to a delivery promotion. With a quick scan and a couple of clicks, they can enjoy delivery from your franchise.
- Track and measure results. Unique QR codes also track the response rate and effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns. This data helps you refine your strategies for future mailings.
Website optimization for search engine visibility
Rules and regulations for franchisee website creation and optimization vary from brand to brand. It’s common, however, for the corporate brand to set up a central platform or an overarching web presence.
Then franchisees are responsible for maintaining their individual franchise’s web presence and tailoring it to their local market.
Website creation and optimization tips for franchises
- Choose a local domain name. If your parent brand doesn’t assign you a domain name, select one that reflects your specific franchise location. This helps with local search engine rankings.
- Optimize for local search visibility. Incorporate keywords relevant to your franchise and area into your website’s content. Mention your city, neighborhood, and nearby landmarks to boost local search engine optimization.
- Integrate social media. Link your website to your franchise’s social media profiles and include it on your own social profiles. This drives more consumers to your site and helps you connect with your local community.
- Incorporate local delivery options. Create a section on your website for local delivery opti
Content marketing
Results from a Moz survey show that 96% of people search the internet to read reviews and learn more about local businesses. This means that your local content marketing strategy has to be on point.
Consider the following tactics to connect with people searching to find your business.
Content marketing tips for franchises
- Invest in local SEO. When hungry consumers are looking for a restaurant on Google, they’ll likely type in something like “pizza near me.” Creating blog posts tailored to relevant localized keywords like those drives traffic to your site.
- Build your reviews. Reviews also affect whether people choose to visit your franchise or another restaurant. Make it easy for loyal customers to leave reviews by asking for reviews when they visit your store, adding review links to your website, and using QR codes that lead to your review page.
- Update your content. There’s little more frustrating to a consumer than looking for local information, only to find that it’s missing, irrelevant, or outdated. Update your Google Business Profile page, website, and blog regularly.
- Draw attention to local promos. If you’re running a unique promotion across your third-party delivery apps or in your stores, talk about it online.
Market your franchise on Uber Eats
Most of the franchise marketing methods mentioned above involve a heavy lift from corporate brands and individual franchises. But you can leverage platforms—like third-party delivery apps—to broaden your reach and capture new customers who may not find you organically.
Uber Eats is a rapidly growing third-party delivery platform that hungry consumers use every day. Kirby explains that only 2 years ago, Uber Eats didn’t have an advertising arm. Now it has the advertising expertise to drive new customers to franchisees.
“Recently, I met with an ad agency because Uber now has full-funnel marketing capabilities for brands to tap into—from driving awareness to influencing specific customer ordering behaviors in the Uber Eats app,” says Kirby. “We’re a platform that can help businesses acquire and retain customers.”
Hollander agrees with this sentiment: “People may view platforms like Uber Eats as a means to an end—a way to do delivery. In reality, it’s also a powerful customer acquisition platform because you’re meeting customers where they are, when they have a high intent to place an order.”
But how do franchises go beyond using Uber Eats as a third-party delivery tool and use it as a successful customer acquisition channel?
Muldberg explains that Uber Eats offers many advertising options, unique promotions to present to customers, and creative ways to personalize campaigns for increased visibility.
“Once a new potential customer goes to Uber Eats, that brand needs to be top of mind—it won’t just appear magically,” she says. “So we might recommend a Sponsored Listing to move that brand into one of the top 10 slots on the app’s home feed.
“From there, that brand needs to convince a customer to place an order, so we would recommend they layer on an offer, like a BOGO. We can also get creative and strategize around the best storefront hero images, or images to make menu items look as enticing as possible.”
With the campaign tools in Uber Eats, it’s easy for franchises to get granular with targeting to reach the right consumers and drive sales. Kirby says, for instance, that she works with a franchise group that consistently runs BOGO deals on pepperoni pizzas, and they’ve seen a 40% increase in sales week over week.
If you’re looking for a way to increase the visibility of your franchise, drive more sales, and experience growth similar to other franchises on Uber Eats, get in touch with us today.
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