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 internet users having effectué a local search visit the premises of the ’company trouvée in the journée. (Google)

Digital marketing therefore allows to give online visibilité to franchisés, à a crucial moment of the client journey: the search and the choice of their options d’purchase.

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

All actions are measurable and quantifiable. That means that based on d’actions (visits, clicks,...) one can estimate the number of visits at point of sale, and ROI généré by digital marketing actions.

Décover more about why the réseaux de franchises should êre involved in their digital marketing in our article 7 reasons d’invest in digital marketing for franchises.

Local Digital Marketing: the challenges faced by franchises

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

1. The consistency of the 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 in physical and digital.
   
2. The coherence of the brand image between the national page and local franchise pages (website, social networks, ...)
   Names, opening hours, photos, response to reviews, publications,... When franchisees create their local pages, they are not always equipped to follow the brand guidelines.
   
3. The duplication of content between national and local pages
   What strategy of content to implement between national and local ? Between keywords, articles, posts,... how to ensure creating relevant content that respects the brand image and performs ?
   
4. The rôles in digital marketing management, between franchisor and franchisés
   The tête of réseau of franchise possède a département marketing expert in SEO, SEA, Social, Analytics, etc… and franchisors know their customers as well as local actualités. How to combine the expertise and knowledge of each, while guaranteeing l’intégrité of l’image de marque ?

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 d’a réseau franchise is d’to provide a expérience client similar à across all franchisé points of sale, whether in physical or digital.

Ensure a brand image always at its best, by using the same branding across the national website and franchised pages.

The ideal as a brand is d’to integrate into the national website a “store locator” (store locator) and to offer local pages associated with each franchisé.

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

Want to learn more about Store Locator? Check out our article “Store Locator: What benefits can you gain from a location tool for your brand’s points of sale?”

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 for local searches: add the name of the neighborhood, of the locality, of the region, depending on the franchise's trade area. This will help appear for these search terms, if they are well structured in the schéma of structured tags of the web page. 
• Insérez an interactive map (Google Maps or other) in each local page. This allows users to easily locate the point of sale.
• Describe the accessibility options (public transport, road,...)
• Add images of the point of sale, of products and of teams
• Include customer reviews specific to each franchisee
  Certain media such as Trustpilot, Google,... can be automatically integrated into website pages via a plug-in.

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

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

Note, each media has its own specifics in order to organize and link national and local pages. Think ahead about how to structure accounts as well as access, between the network head and franchisees.

👉 Having pages on these different media allows franchisees to reach a broader 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 à up to date, especially for a érié.

The consumer does not know à which information to trust and decides and is slowed down in his purchase process.

5. Highlight products and services specific to each franchisee

Franchises, although generally offering similar items, have their spécificités local depending on regions, seasons,...

Take advantage of the local pages of 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, each media (Google, Facebook, Instagram, ...) has its specificities, of course.

For example:
On social networks like Facebook or Instagram, ... the content specific to the store's news (promotions, events, teams, …) generates on average 9x more interactions (like, comments, shares, ...) than national “branded” content.

💡 Local content, for a local audience.

7. Boost franchisee visibility with local Google and Facebook ads

LE petit plus ? Boostez vos publications sur Facebook et investissez dans les campagnes locales Google Ads.

Ces campagnes sont spécifiquement pensées pour des commerçants locaux souhaitant promouvoir leur établissement, facilement, et avec un budget qui leur convient.

Ceci peut permettre aux franchisés de facilement gagner en visibilité, dans un rayon donné autour de leur établissement.

Conclusion

Le marketing digital local est un levier d’activation puissant pour un réseau de franchise qui s’organise pour en tirer parti.

Centralisez ou décentralisez-en la gestion quotidienne entre tête de réseau et franchisés, en fonction de vos besoins.

Collaborez au sein d’outils afin de gérer en toute sérénité, une présence en ligne performante.

Assurez une communication harmonisée, mettant le local au centre, afin de générer plus de trafic, et revenus, aux franchisés 

Is your franchise network's digital marketing really effective?

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