If you’re a new or recent owner tapping into this thriving market, then you need to know that the key to franchisee success lays within an effective inbound marketing strategy.  The foundation of this strategy is attracting an audience with targeted content, and building a community of customers who are loyal promoters of your franchise.  The following list will help guide you in establishing your central brand, and building upon that with local SEO.

Each Franchise Needs a Website

It’s important to build out a multi-site website structure which includes a centralized main page for the overall brand, with portal or subdomain access for each individual franchisee’s website.  This will be useful for sharing information relating to leads (ie: which search terms led the users to your site, and each of the franchisee sites) and optimizing customer database information.  It will also boost each subdomain sites’ SEO ranking, since it will be building off the central site.

While it’s important for each franchisee site to remain consistent to the overall brand image, it’s also important for them to have a unique identity that will differentiate their franchise from the competitor across the street. Having an individual website will allow for this opportunity, by giving them a forum to provide unique content, a blog to attract visitors, and the ability to provide a unique offer for generating leads.

Localize Content

Localizing your marketing approach is necessary to franchise marketing.  Franchisees and businesses with multiple locations need to engage with their audiences on a local level to provide customers with information and results that are personalized, targeted and relevant, so make sure each franchisee website has their own listing.

Furthermore, franchisees should also be sourcing out local business directories to join.  Authoritative directories can provide trusted inbound links to each franchises’ or location’s website, improving its overall SEO….plus, it’s usually free! Work on joining the following local directories or location-based sites like:

• Google My Business
• Yelp
• Foursquare
• Yahoo
• Bing

Be Social

Build online authority with social profiles for the central brand, as well as each individual franchise to build community.  Create guidelines to ensure that social content adheres to the overall brand’s voice and image, and be active on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Instagram, or whatever platforms make sense for your specific business.  Each franchise should be promoting contests, special offers or coupons, or local events, and really building into the community in which they are a part.

Keep Customers Engaged

One of the purest methods of marketing is also one of the simplest: keep your customers happy!  As noted above, inbound marketing is all about attracting and building a community of customers who are loyal promoters of your business.  Satisfied customers lead to positive word of mouth which leads to further lead generation…which obviously means more business.

Is this easier said than done?  Perhaps.  So why not encourage your customers to promote your business and services?  Engage their loyalty with an incentive, like a referral program or a coupon code after providing a testimonial or recommending your services to a friend.

Conclusion

Inbound marketing campaigns for franchise or multi-location businesses must be designed to stand out from the competition and appeal to local audiences.  Maintaining brand consistency along with a good mix of unique, individualized content will help with the challenges of franchise or multi-location business building, and help business owners attract, engage and build loyalty with localized clientele.