Leveraging Content Marketing for Your Franchise Website

Content marketing is a valuable tool in franchising. This strategic marketing approach is focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and engage a target audience — including potential franchisees. 

Instead of directly promoting a brand, product or service, content marketing aims to provide valuable information, entertain or educate the audience. Common types of content marketing include blog posts, emails, infographics, videos, newsletters, podcasts and webinars. 

However, it's not only important to implement content marketing but to do so effectively. Here’s an overview of why content marketing matters and strategies for engaging an audience. 

Why Is Content Marketing Important? 

Content marketing is crucial for franchise development due to the significant commitment involved. Linton Dowling, vice president of marketing at franchise sales organization Raintree*,  likened the decision-making process for signing a franchise agreement to major life events such as getting married or buying a house. 

“You're asking someone to sign a 10-year agreement, where they have to go find real estate, sign leases, be in control of staff, put [up] their hard-earned money — you’re asking them to do a lot,” he said. “So what content marketing does is handle any objections people may have by telling the stories of people that have successfully made the jump.”

These success stories from successful franchise owners, one form of content marketing, serves as a tool for education and plays a vital role in addressing concerns prospective owners may have. 

Effectively Creating Engaging Content 

Today, attention is one of the most important currencies in marketing. With short-form content reigning supreme, it can be hard for franchise brands to get the message across. That’s why it is important to “rise above the noise,” said Dowling. 

“You really have to grab people’s attention, and I think the visuals we choose do a really good job of that,” he said. “We really work hard to make sure the images we use are captivating.” 

Dowling also emphasized  the significance of not only capturing attention through visuals but also through headlines. By pairing engaging images with meaningful narratives, franchise brands can drive higher click-through rates on various content platforms, whether that's on videos or text. 

“We work really, really hard on our headlines to make sure that when we get that attention span, which can be shorter than a goldfish, that we get them to click-through on that blog post,” he said. “We get them to click-through on our YouTube videos about brand education, or our 1851 Franchise articles.”  

How Content Marketing Plays Into Overall SEO

Content marketing plays a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of a brand’s overall search engine optimization (SEO) too. Search engines, such as Google, prioritize content that provides value to users. Effective content marketing involves creating engaging, informative and shareable content that not only resonates with the target audience but also aligns with the algorithms of search engines. 

“Content marketing is one of the main pillars of SEO," said Dowling. “If you don't have an ongoing SEO strategy, you're going to fall out of organic rankings, no matter how much back-end optimization you're doing. Unless you're coming out with compelling content that meets certain criteria for SEO — including the right headlines, copy length and backlinking —- Google's not going to show you.” 

When a website consistently produces valuable content, it enhances its authority and relevance in the eyes of search engines, contributing to improved rankings. Content acts as the foundation for SEO strategies, incorporating keywords naturally, optimizing for user experience and attracting backlinks — all crucial elements that search engines consider when determining the ranking of web pages.