Franchising is growing in popularity in Australia, and if you’re one of the many business owners who are starting a franchise, you’ll probably know how important marketing is.
Even the best franchise in the world isn’t going to be a hit if nobody knows about it. The right marketing can increase awareness of your franchise among your target customers and potential franchisees, build relationships and engagement, and grow your business.
Social media is a fantastic way to market your business, but if you’ve only ever used social media for personal reasons, there is a definite learning curve involved. When it comes to using social media, whether for personal or business, whatever you do is on public display and can have a big impact on your reputation.
Here are a few tips to help you market your franchise successfully using social media.
Work out a budget ahead of time. While social media is known for being low cost, or even free in some cases, it does take time and consistent hard work to prepare content and interact with followers. This can eat into time you could be spending doing other things. If you are serious about growing your business over social media you might want to consider hiring someone to take care of some of the work on your behalf, or at least set aside some time each week to dedicate to the task on a regular basis.
Create a strategy and document it. Just as you plan other aspects of your business, your approach to social media should be just as diligent. Your strategy should define your objectives, what you will do to achieve them, and how you will measure your success.
Work on building a community. Great social media marketing takes more than just regular posting. While great content forms one of the pillars of your strategy, to get long-term results, you will need to work on interacting with your followers and building a sense of community on your social media pages. This is what will build relationships and turn your followers into regular customers – it’s all about creating a high level of engagement, not simply posting to a schedule.
Listen to what people say. These days, many of your customers, especially those in the younger generations, use social media to offer feedback, ask questions or make complaints. It’s important for your business reputation that you take the time to read through the comments and respond to them on a regular basis. By listening, you can get valuable feedback about your products and service, and demonstrate your excellent customer service skills.
Localise content to franchise area. It’s important to build connections in the local communities where your franchise outlets operate. Post, or allow your franchisees to post, content that is of interest to their local customers. This can give your franchise outlets a personal touch and boost your overall business.
Before you jump into your social media marketing strategy, it’s also essential that you look at whether there are any advertising regulations for your industry.
Some industries are regulated as to how and who they advertise to, and if this is the case for your industry, you will need to make sure you don’t break the regulations.
If you are thinking about franchising your business in the future, you can get advice on marketing and a range of other topics to help you set up a franchise from us. Call us to find out how we can help you.
