Social Media and Franchise Sales: What Works Best?

Social media has drastically changed the way people communicate. While the primary purposes of most of these sites and applications are for social purposes, companies often utilize these tools for networking, marketing and advertising tactics. With Statista data reporting that 82% of the country’s population is on social media, it’s a great place to reach customers. And it works. 

According to The Entrepreneur, social media is a top lead generator for 55% of franchises. Not only does marketing on social platforms bring brand awareness on a consumer side, but it also is a great way to advertise to potential franchisee candidates about ownership opportunities. 

Professionals in the franchise industry shared their thoughts about the best tips for franchises to craft their presence and impact on social media. They explained that the most critical points are to create a strategy for social media, create clear messaging, be consistent in the brand’s presence, measure the progress of social efforts and adapt accordingly.

Create a Multi-Channel Social Media Strategy

Because the nature of the internet and what’s trending changes so often, the best approach is to be on as many of the different social media platforms as possible and to reach the most amount of people, explained Iric Wexler, former chief development officer for Premium Service Brands and Authority Brands. 

“It's very dynamic. It's critically important to rely on a savvy, up-to-date, hip marketing department who always brings fresh ideas and stays on top of what’s working,” Wexler said. He recommends having young talent either in an in-house marketing team or hiring a firm specializing in digital efforts.

Ensure that each platform's message matches the audience that mainly uses that form of social media. For example, Facebook and LinkedIn are good choices for more text-heavy content, while Instagram and TikTok strategies should be focused on visual storytelling. Email and text message marketing should be utilized as well. Once you know who your ideal audience with each channel is, creating targeted ads on each platform is a majorly impactful tactic, said Corey Nicholson, Founding Partner and CEO at Cadence Franchising.

Come Up With Clear and Consistent Messaging 

Another major factor in ensuring that a brand’s online presence is working is to develop company guidelines for marketing and adhere to them. It helps with uniformity and consistency in building the business’s image to establish a tone and voice for the brand’s messaging and ensure the terminology is being used at all levels company-wide.

Set up criteria for all franchisees to follow for what to post, when to post and how frequently to post. A recurring presence online is one of the most essential factors in getting users’ attention. Many consumers are faced with dozens of ads every day, so the key is to keep marketing to them until your company is the one they start to notice. Uniform, consistent content aids in catching their attention.  

“Publishing on a consistent basis is equally as important as the quality of the content the brand is posting,” explained David Busker, franchise consultant and founder at FranchiseVision. 

Measure the Progress of Social Efforts and Adapt 

Companies often struggle with deciding how much money to allocate to specific social marketing strategies, as they want the return on investment to be worth it. Plenty of tools have come about in recent years for tracking the progress of different campaigns. Brands should use these tools, like Buffer, Brandify, Canva or Hootsuite, to see if their tactics are working and bringing them qualified leads or sales. 

“You have to be willing to adapt and adjust your strategies,” said Busker. “If one platform isn’t working, but another is, refocus the concentration and reallocate the advertising dollars.”

While it takes trial and error to find out what platforms and strategies work for which company, reporting tools can display data in a way that’s easy to understand, so franchisors can then make decisions about how to evolve their marketing. It also highlights which owners are doing the best in terms of their marketing and which territories or locations need to step up their efforts. This helpful data means companies don’t have to spend prolonged periods of time and wasted money trying out tactics that are clearly not working for the brand.