Content Marketing 101: How to Reach Out to Your Audience

Marketing your franchise isn’t always easy. But in a world where you’re selling opportunities, one of the best ways to gain traction with an audience is to show just what the opportunity can lead to. What have prior franchisees achieved? How has your brand supported its franchisees in achieving their goals and dreams? In addition to straightforward sharing to cover how much the opportunity costs, recent system growth and other developments, franchisors need to spotlight their people. This is where content marketing enters the equation.

Content marketing is in its own category, accounting for white papers, testimonials, blog posts and other pieces of content. Ideally, these pieces will draw in and engage the intended audience. 

“Content marketing allows us to start this process where a prospect doesn’t necessarily have to make a commitment to get on an interview or fill out an application,” explained Amy Przywara, chief marketing officer at Sylvan Learning*. “It’s a way to get people going in a low-commitment environment. I think having these kinds of stories is a way to build that relationship. When it gets down to the sales process, the prospect will know, ‘I actually care about you, and I want this to be a good decision for you,’ as opposed to ‘I just need another unit sold this month.’”

How Do You Reach Out to Prospects?

Start with a plan for your content marketing. Dig into who you want to speak to and why they’re important. What do they care about? How can you honestly show them what they want to see? The beauty of content marketing is that it doesn’t rely on hard selling tactics. You are telling a story; providing information and education; and putting more information about a brand and optimally, its people, on an open platform.

Once you’ve determined what needs to be communicated, get to work. This process often includes taped interviews, blog posts written by a trusted authority figure within the brand or an article written by a third party that leverages an interview with a brand source. Once these assets are produced, they can be disseminated in a way that allows the target audience (a prospect) to look them over and learn more about the brand in a low-stakes environment.

“To me, content marketing is about giving the user, whether that’s a prospective franchisee or a consumer, more useful information that’s not always completely brand-centric,” said Przywara. “A consumer or franchisee will see value in the fact that you want to educate them, you want to help them, and you want to build a relationship with them — not just sell them.”

Pump Up the Visibility

Once high-quality content has been created and posted or disseminated to its primary home or audience, the content should not just die. This is where many franchisors miss the mark or let their work fall flat.

With strategic planning, a single piece of content can be tweaked or repackaged to take on multiple roles. Maybe a blog post is restructured to provide a strong foundation for a press release. Portions of that same blog post might be repurposed in an email drip campaign. What about talking points for a podcast or webinar? Promoting the blog post with paid ads can increase traffic, ensuring an even further reach.

Don’t Venture Too Far From Foundational Marketing Principles

Content marketing is in its own niche, but there are a few pillars that must hold strong for any marketing plan to succeed.

You still need to capture and maintain the audience’s attention.

“In a lot of marketing outside of the content marketing space, you have someone’s attention for three seconds,” said Przywara. “I think, in content marketing, you still only have those three seconds to potentially get someone to click through or want to engage more. They’ll eventually need to spend more time with a piece, and you still have to hook them in.”

Przywara clarified that, while engagement is still necessary, there can be “a softer call to action” in content marketing cases. In maintaining the lower-stakes feel of content marketing efforts, a soft call to action can guide the audience to view the content. A more obvious call to action can be included in the conclusion, providing an opportunity for readers to once again move forward in the pipeline if they are interested.

The other foundational aspect of content marketing is to be authentic. When topics and sources are chosen carefully, it should be easy to present a positive, intriguing message in an authentic way. It is crucial that authenticity is maintained, even if it means spending more time planning or crafting content. The audience will be able to tell when a piece of content is lacking authenticity or transparency, and this will damage the relationship the content strategy is working to build.

The Role of Content Marketing in Your Larger Strategy

Content marketing is a healthy way to supplement other marketing efforts, presenting valuable information to those who are interested and working to build a relationship between the audience and the brand before the prospective franchisee or consumer even interacts with a company representative.

Plan to create content marketing pieces carefully. Developing powerful, interesting content that can be used in multiple scenarios will empower brand growth and drive the system forward.