I Bought a New Franchise, Now How Do I Market It?

When it comes to marketing a new franchise, one thing you will have is an advantage over those that buy a new business. Why is this? The reason is you will have name recognition and advertising from both the regional and national levels, which will give you a very strong start.

On average it takes a person anywhere from 7 to 12 connections with a brand before they will take action on what you are offering. Before you even open your doors, the fact that you will have some of those connections made will make a real difference in marketing your business.

In addition to having a franchise with name recognition, your franchisor will usually provide you with a marketing manual to get you going in the right direction.

What Can You Expect from the Marketing Manual?

• Rules:You will receive rules for the marketing efforts you will be doing, which will probably include usage guides for logos and similar regulations.
• Comprehensive Plan:The marketing plan will include information such as how to market the grand opening as well as marketing in the first few months of your business.
• Graphics:In the marketing manual, you can expect to find ad slicks as well as graphics for your print ads, brochures, banners, postcards and other marketing materials.
• Examples:Successful marketing efforts by other franchisees will be included to show you information and examples of what has worked for them.
• Experience:Keep in mind that in addition to all of the information provided, your franchisor will have experience that is invaluable.
• Additional Information:Other kinds of information you can expect to see in the marketing manual and materials are things like what campaigns have worked best for other franchisees and the frequency they recommend for leads. This will save you the expense and effort of trial and error.

As Eleanor Roosevelt once pointed out, we need to learn from others mistakes, since we don’t have enough time to make them all ourselves.

Major Takeaway in Franchise Marketing

1. Follow the rules of your franchisor and piggyback on their success. They have gone through the difficult stages of developing a strategy and they have most likely already paid for the expensive graphics to go along with it.
2. Your franchisor does national advertising and your local marketing should work along with it. Make sure that you take advantage of all of the opportunities your franchisor offers. There are many times a franchisees web page will be empty when it could have information about the local team as well as photos, hours and information.
3. One thing you will definitely want to take advantage of is the low cost local marketing opportunities, especially those that build on national efforts. For example, if the national franchise has an ad in Glamour magazine, your franchise can put the magazine page in a frame and say, “As Seen in Glamour Magazine.”
4. Social media is also something that you will want to get cozy with the national efforts on. When you are on Facebook or Twitter chatting with your franchisor, you will get greater visibility and encourage more people to join in.

As you get started marketing your new franchise, follow your franchisors guidance. As your business grows and develops, you will learn what networking and advertising efforts will best support your business.