Social Media and Franchise Sales: 6 Tips to Perfect Your Strategy

It has taken more than a few years, but franchise sales teams have finally started to adapt to an ever-evolving sales process that is currently firmly oriented around the digital space. Franchise sales processes that have long leaned on more “traditional” or “old school” models, are finally making the move to digital marketing in order to keep up with a digitally savvy franchisee prospect. And, in the world of digital marketing, social media is one of most cost-effective ways to reach and find new prospects. The goal for all franchisors? find them. To do that, you’ve got to meet them where they are. 

Your ideal franchisee is on social media, whether you are or not. They’re on the internet reading news and doing research. And every move they make online is tracked. Social media platforms and internet browsers are collecting detailed data about their internet behavior, their psychographics, their demographics and so much more. Major data aggregators then pull these data points together to allow marketers to target people who meet certain criteria — the same criteria you’re looking for in your ideal candidate. 

The world of social media is massive, and how you use it as a sales tool changes every single day. What worked a year ago, might not be working now. Staying on top of the trends is critical to ensure your time, money and campaigns are set up for success. 

Here are six things you need to know about building a social media strategy for franchise sales. 

Content is king (er, queen)

You must be producing regular content to share with your prospects. These can be articles, company highlights, awards, franchisee testimonials, news releases. The more content you have, the better. Google, Facebook, YouTube and all the other major online social platforms are built on content. Your success on those platforms depends on how people engage with that content. 

Post regularly on LinkedIn

Franchise Development Sales teams should be posting content on their personal profiles as well as sharing content from the brand’s LinkedIn page. While the brand page is important to keep active with regular and engaging content, personal profiles will be seen more than a brand’s page. Also, if you hold true to the concept that brands don’t sell brands, people do, this is proof positive that your leaders and sales teams should be posting content.

Yes, Facebook is good for franchise sales

While many franchise sales teams tend to lean towards LinkedIn to find ideal candidates, they shouldn’t discount Facebook. Re-marketing or retargeting is a highly effective tool to meet candidates where they are. Your prospect is on Facebook interacting with friends, family and colleagues. Facebook’s audience tools and ads platform allow you to find these people and serve your ads to them.

Social media is pay-to-play

Posting content on your brand pages and personal profiles on LinkedIn is a necessary step, but it’s not enough. All social media platforms offer a pay-to-play model when it comes to promotion. In order for your content to be seen, you must put dollars behind it. On Facebook and LinkedIn, organic content on a brand page is often seen by less than one percent of your followers, and it’s shown only to those people who engage with your content the most (likely you, your employees and your mom). Therefore, you need to implement a paid advertising strategy to get that content in front of the right eyeballs. Develop a strategic paid advertising plan and a decent budget, and track and analyze results. 

Build your audience 

In order for your social media marketing to be the most effective, you should build audiences from data that you collect and that the internet is collecting for you. Use the lists you’re building in your CRM for re-marketing or building lookalike lists. This is the best way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your brand’s business opportunity because they're similar to your best existing candidates. 

Additionally, use re-marketing audiences to serve ads to people who have either engaged with your content on social media or have visited your website but didn’t fill out a form. These ads can have a different message as you nurture them through your digital sales funnel. 

Video, video and more video

Start creating videos about the franchise opportunity. Video drives more views and more engagement. According to Social Media Today, on Facebook, engagement is highest on posts with video. LinkedIn users are 20 times more likely to share a video on the platform than any other type of post, and Instagram Video generates more engagement than any other content type on Instagram. Every franchisor should develop a video content strategy to be used in their social media strategy, both for organic and paid advertising. 

If you haven’t fully embraced social media for your franchise sales efforts, you are missing out on an increasingly essential opportunity. It takes a time commitment and budget to do it right. Engage with an agency that knows how to execute and implement social media strategies for franchise development efforts. Stay educated on what’s changing in social media, and have fun with it. And remember, meet them where they are.