Local Digital Marketing: 7 tips for performing as a franchise

Table of contents

1. Franchise networks: Why invest in local digital marketing
2. Local Digital Marketing: the challenges faced by franchises
3. Local Digital Marketing: 7 Tips to Perform as a Franchise

Franchise networks: Why invest in local digital marketing

Local digital marketing is the set of online marketing actions that aim to generate traffic at the point of sale. These actions include, among other things, local SEO (local SEO), e-reputation management, social networks, and local advertising campaigns (local SEA).

Let's base ourselves on these 2 key figures:

• 46% of Google searches are intended to find a local business (SEO Expert Brad, 2019)
• 76 % of users who performed a local search visit the premises of the company found during the day. (Google)

Digital marketing therefore allows to give online visibility to franchisees, at a key moment in the customer journey: the search and choice of their purchasing options.

The other significant advantage of local digital marketing for a franchise network?

All actions are measurable and quantifiable. This means that based on actions (visits, clicks,...) we can estimate the number of in-store visits, and ROI generated by digital marketing actions.

Learn more about why franchise networks should be involved in their digital marketing in our article 7 reasons to invest in franchise digital marketing.

Local Digital Marketing: the challenges faced by franchises

Most franchise networks face 4 main challenges when it comes to local digital marketing:

1. Consistency of brand image between physical points of sale and their digital presence (website, social networks,...)
   Although franchisees are independent owners, customers expect a consistent brand experience, both physically and digitally.
   
2. Consistency of brand image between national page and local franchisee pages (website, social networks, ...)
   Names, hours, photos, response to reviews, publications,... When franchisees create their local pages, they are not always equipped to follow the brand guidelines.
   
3. Content duplication between national and local pages
   What content strategy should be put in place between national and local? Between keywords, articles, posts,... how to ensure that we create relevant content that respects the brand image and performs?
   
4. The roles in digital marketing management, between franchisor and franchisees
   The franchise network headquarters has a marketing department expert in SEO, SEA, Social, Analytics, etc… and franchisors know their customers as well as local news. How to combine the expertise and knowledge of each, while ensuring the integrity of the brand image?

In this article, discover how to turn these challenges into strengths in order to perform as a franchise network.

Local Digital Marketing: 7 Tips to Perform as a Franchise

1. Website: Ensure a consistent brand image for a top-notch customer experience

One of the goals of a franchise network is to offer a similar customer experience across all franchised points of sale, whether physical or digital.

Ensure a top-notch brand image by using the same branding across the national website and franchised pages.

Ideally, as a brand, integrate a "store locator" page into the national website and offer local pages associated with each franchisee.

This ensures consistency in the brand image (theme, font, logo,...) as well as formatting names, hours,... according to the same model.

Want to know more about Store Locator? Check out our article “Store Locator: What are the benefits of a store locator tool for your brand?”

2. Website: Integrate the specificities of franchisees into their local pages

Each franchisee has its own specificities, whether it's obviously the address, but also the hours or the products and services offered. Here are 5 recommendations:

• Optimize pages in terms of local searches: add the name of the neighborhood, locality, region, depending on the franchisee's catchment area. This will make it possible to stand out for these search terms, if they are well-structured in the structured tag schema
• Insert an interactive map (Google Maps or other) on each local page. This allows users to easily locate the point of sale.
• Describe accessibility options
• Add images of the point of sale, products and teams
• Include customer reviews specific to each franchisee
  Certain media like Trustpilot, Google,... can be automatically integrated into website pages thanks to a plug-in.

3. Leverage local Google, Facebook, GPS and industry directories

Create or claim pages for your franchisees on the media that generate the most traffic: Google (Business Profile), Facebook (Places), Bing, GPS navigators, and relevant sectoral directories.

Be careful, each medium has its specificities to organize and link national and local pages. Think ahead about how to structure accounts and access between the network head and franchisees.

👉 Having pages on these different media allows franchisees to reach a wider audience and gain visibility.

4. Standardize data across different media

Once the pages are created/claimed, ensure that the information present is consistent across different media. 

Imagine that between the website, Google, and Facebook, the opening hours are not up to date, especially for a public holiday.

The consumer does not know which information to trust and is slowed down in their purchasing process.

5. Highlight products and services specific to each franchisee

Franchisees, while generally offering similar products, have their local specificities depending on the regions, seasons,...

Take advantage of the local pages on the website, as well as Google, Facebook,... to promote them.

💡 It is interesting to modify the flagship products according to seasons and occasions, events and promotions.

6. Encourage local content strategies

Local pages have two objectives: to gain visibility through natural referencing (SEO) and create positive engagement (customer reviews, comments, photos, ...) in order to convert other internet users.

Depending on the size and reputation of the network, as well as the authority in the sector, various communication strategies on local pages can be applied.

🔍 Note that each media (Google, Facebook, Instagram,...) has its own specificities, of course.

For example:
On social networks like Facebook or Instagram,... content specific to the point of sale (promotions, events, teams, ...) generates on average 9 times more interactions (likes, comments, shares,...) than national 'branded' content.

💡 Local content, for a local audience.

7. Boost franchisee visibility with local Google and Facebook ads

The little plus? Boost your publications on Facebook and invest in local Google Ads campaigns.

These campaigns are specifically designed for local merchants looking to promote their establishment, easily, and with a budget that suits them.

This can allow franchisees to easily gain visibility within a given radius around their establishment.

Conclusion

Local digital marketing is a powerful activation lever for a franchise network that organizes to take advantage of it.

Centralize or decentralize-in management daily between the network head and franchisees, depending on your needs.

Collaborate within tools to manage a high-performing online presence with complete peace of mind.

Ensure a harmonized communication, putting the local at the center, to generate more traffic and revenue for franchisees 🎯

Is your franchise network's digital marketing really effective?

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