Name: Katie Schoessel
Role: Vice President of Marketing
Brand: Fresh Coat Painters
1851 Newsroom
For Katie Schoessel, vice president of marketing at Fresh Coat Painters, the journey to franchise marketing began with brand management. Starting in the consumer packaged goods space, she eventually moved into home services, where she discovered the unique dynamic of working with field operators. Since making the leap to the national painting franchise, Schoessel has consistently leveraged the hyper-local nature of the business to empower individual entrepreneurs and drive success in their communities.
Today, Schoessel is focused on helping Fresh Coat owners navigate the modern digital landscape and make the most of their online footprints to gain traction. She also reminds owners that, while they’re in business for themselves and have a unique opportunity to build a business tailored to them and their communities, they're not in business by themselves.
1851 Franchise: How did you find your way to franchising and franchise marketing?
Katie Schoessel: I started out in consumer packaged goods with brands at Kraft Foods and then made a move to Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, where I had the opportunity to lead the home services division. That was my first taste of home services marketing and the opportunity to apply a field-based mindset to building brands.
I was working with not only the end user in the way I was used to in the consumer space, but now also the field business operator in each of our locations. After that, I spent about four years on the agency side really sharpening my digital marketing acumen. The opportunity at Fresh Coat was a chance to bring all of that together: understanding consumer branding and home services, while working within today's digital landscape.
1851: What makes franchise marketing uniquely challenging (and rewarding) compared to corporate-only marketing?
Schoessel: At the end of the day, we are still trying to build a profitable business. All the levers still apply: Who is your target? What is your cost to acquire? What is your profitability? What is your ad spend? Regardless of the size of the numbers, the tools that we use to analyze a business and performance are the same.
In terms of moments of pride, it is rewarding to take an approach to performance marketing and apply data to the decisions that we're making. When we add a certain tool, such as online scheduling or a CRM program, it really drives their business and you can start to see those numbers. When that light bulb goes off for an owner that these are the building blocks to scaling their business, it's incredible. They realize that just because they are in business for themselves, they’re not in business by themselves.
1851: What is the single most powerful lever a marketing team can pull to directly impact franchisees’ profitability at the unit level?
Schoessel: For the franchisee to really understand that there is a process, and to get the foundation of that process established early on. We talk about getting your foundation and your digital footprint set first, and then being able to radiate in different ways off of that in your local market. That digital footprint is really important for our owners since we're in the service business. We don't have a retail location, so that truly is their footprint in the market.
Once that's built, they can find the right choice for other marketing efforts in their specific market, and that may look really different. We have some owners where Angi's List, for instance, is really very powerful for lead generation. In other markets, they don't get anything from that. It's a lot of trial and error. Get your foundation set, get a plan in place in terms of your goals and then make a concerted effort to try some of these things, learn from it, and adjust as it makes sense in your market.
1851: What is an untapped marketing opportunity you see for franchise brands?
Schoessel: I think this whole concept of “buying local” is untapped in franchising. These are independent business owners. These are people who are committed to their community. These are not corporate guys that are coming in and gobbling up jobs; they are coming in and setting up shop.
Just because they are buying into a structure with a website and a logo, that doesn't mean that they're not local business owners. They have a vested interest in their community; it's a place they call home, and they employ local people. I know that franchises likely aren’t what people are thinking of when they push others to “buy local,” but franchise owners really are building local businesses. It’s important to highlight and celebrate that.
1851: What is one marketing fad or buzzword that you believe will actually deliver real results in the coming year?
Schoessel: Reactivation. When we think about a customer we’ve done a project for, just because we get one project done doesn't mean we may not have another project that we could help them with two, three, or four years down the road. It is vital for an owner to realize the efficiency and importance of that relationship and to continue to market to them.
We want to stay top of mind, not to actively hound them, but to stay relevant and be a trusted resource, whether it's for a project for them or potentially for someone that they know. Reactivating your customer base is a really important tool for our owners.
1851: What’s your boldest franchise marketing take?
Schoessel: The old adage used to be that it takes four, five, or six touches to get your message out. The numbers now in digital are around 27 or 28 different touches before someone will even make the connection of who you are. To think that you can have one tactic and that it's going to drive conversion is a farce.
This throws the whole concept of attribution modeling into a bit of a tailspin. How could you possibly come up with the one thing that converted that person to a home service? It's the truck driving around, it's the business card in the fish bowl at the local pizza shop, and it's the person who just had their house painted. There may be a hundred different touches before someone actually makes that connection. Attribution modeling as we know it is going to really have to step up if we're still using that antiquated approach of asking “What was the thing that got you to convert?”
Want to learn more about how 1851 helps franchisors grow their franchises with confidence? Visit www.1851growthclub.com and see what we can do for you.
Fresh Coat
SPONSORED
Schoessel combines a background in consumer packaged goods with a field-based mindset to help owners build their digital footprints and leverage the unique local aspects of the franchise model.
Name: Katie Schoessel
Role: Vice President of Marketing
Brand: Fresh Coat Painters
1851 Newsroom
For Katie Schoessel, vice president of marketing at Fresh Coat Painters, the journey to franchise marketing began with brand management. Starting in the consumer packaged goods space, she eventually moved into home services, where she discovered the unique dynamic of working with field operators. Since making the leap to the national painting franchise, Schoessel has consistently leveraged the hyper-local nature of the business to empower individual entrepreneurs and drive success in their communities.
Today, Schoessel is focused on helping Fresh Coat owners navigate the modern digital landscape and make the most of their online footprints to gain traction. She also reminds owners that, while they’re in business for themselves and have a unique opportunity to build a business tailored to them and their communities, they're not in business by themselves.
1851 Franchise: How did you find your way to franchising and franchise marketing?
Katie Schoessel: I started out in consumer packaged goods with brands at Kraft Foods and then made a move to Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, where I had the opportunity to lead the home services division. That was my first taste of home services marketing and the opportunity to apply a field-based mindset to building brands.
I was working with not only the end user in the way I was used to in the consumer space, but now also the field business operator in each of our locations. After that, I spent about four years on the agency side really sharpening my digital marketing acumen. The opportunity at Fresh Coat was a chance to bring all of that together: understanding consumer branding and home services, while working within today's digital landscape.
1851: What makes franchise marketing uniquely challenging (and rewarding) compared to corporate-only marketing?
Schoessel: At the end of the day, we are still trying to build a profitable business. All the levers still apply: Who is your target? What is your cost to acquire? What is your profitability? What is your ad spend? Regardless of the size of the numbers, the tools that we use to analyze a business and performance are the same.
In terms of moments of pride, it is rewarding to take an approach to performance marketing and apply data to the decisions that we're making. When we add a certain tool, such as online scheduling or a CRM program, it really drives their business and you can start to see those numbers. When that light bulb goes off for an owner that these are the building blocks to scaling their business, it's incredible. They realize that just because they are in business for themselves, they’re not in business by themselves.
1851: What is the single most powerful lever a marketing team can pull to directly impact franchisees’ profitability at the unit level?
Schoessel: For the franchisee to really understand that there is a process, and to get the foundation of that process established early on. We talk about getting your foundation and your digital footprint set first, and then being able to radiate in different ways off of that in your local market. That digital footprint is really important for our owners since we're in the service business. We don't have a retail location, so that truly is their footprint in the market.
Once that's built, they can find the right choice for other marketing efforts in their specific market, and that may look really different. We have some owners where Angi's List, for instance, is really very powerful for lead generation. In other markets, they don't get anything from that. It's a lot of trial and error. Get your foundation set, get a plan in place in terms of your goals and then make a concerted effort to try some of these things, learn from it, and adjust as it makes sense in your market.
1851: What is an untapped marketing opportunity you see for franchise brands?
Schoessel: I think this whole concept of “buying local” is untapped in franchising. These are independent business owners. These are people who are committed to their community. These are not corporate guys that are coming in and gobbling up jobs; they are coming in and setting up shop.
Just because they are buying into a structure with a website and a logo, that doesn't mean that they're not local business owners. They have a vested interest in their community; it's a place they call home, and they employ local people. I know that franchises likely aren’t what people are thinking of when they push others to “buy local,” but franchise owners really are building local businesses. It’s important to highlight and celebrate that.
1851: What is one marketing fad or buzzword that you believe will actually deliver real results in the coming year?
Schoessel: Reactivation. When we think about a customer we’ve done a project for, just because we get one project done doesn't mean we may not have another project that we could help them with two, three, or four years down the road. It is vital for an owner to realize the efficiency and importance of that relationship and to continue to market to them.
We want to stay top of mind, not to actively hound them, but to stay relevant and be a trusted resource, whether it's for a project for them or potentially for someone that they know. Reactivating your customer base is a really important tool for our owners.
1851: What’s your boldest franchise marketing take?
Schoessel: The old adage used to be that it takes four, five, or six touches to get your message out. The numbers now in digital are around 27 or 28 different touches before someone will even make the connection of who you are. To think that you can have one tactic and that it's going to drive conversion is a farce.
This throws the whole concept of attribution modeling into a bit of a tailspin. How could you possibly come up with the one thing that converted that person to a home service? It's the truck driving around, it's the business card in the fish bowl at the local pizza shop, and it's the person who just had their house painted. There may be a hundred different touches before someone actually makes that connection. Attribution modeling as we know it is going to really have to step up if we're still using that antiquated approach of asking “What was the thing that got you to convert?”
Want to learn more about how 1851 helps franchisors grow their franchises with confidence? Visit www.1851growthclub.com and see what we can do for you.
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