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Instead of talking about “exposure” and “impressions,” let’s talk about what really matters to your franchisees: marketing strategies that will boost your ROI in 2024.
One key for a franchise business to succeed is a lack of waste. Strategies that increase ROI across multiple locations will always be more valuable than a solution that’s specific to one. But it’s important not to let that lure you into the trap of “one-size-fits-all” solutions that don’t really fit all.
In this blog, we’ll boil down 5 strategies that will help improve your ROI across all your locations, to get the most out of your marketing efforts.
Contents
Use Automation To Increase Efficiency
Marketing a franchise can be a full-time job — but running a franchise is already a full-time job. So how do you do both? By leveraging the power of automation. We’re still probably years away from AI taking all the labor off your hands, but there’s still a lot of labor-saving automation to make your campaigns easier to wrangle.
Utilizing a platform like Balihoo’s allows you to take redundant actions out of the equation, launching large-scale campaigns with ease. Utilizing the platform allows you to pick brand-safe and consistent artwork and messaging, updating the specifics for the individual franchise locations and their respective coverage areas. Balihoo’s dashboard comes back with real-time numbers on how your creatives are doing out in the wild. You can also leverage the power of AI to help manage your reputation online (more on that further down). Thanks to automation, scaling your campaigns won’t bog you down with a lot of extra work.
Update Your Google Business Profiles
More and more, people are launching their Google searches with two simple words: “Near Me.” When looking for places to eat, shop, get an eye exam, or groom their dog, people want nearby options that they can visit again and again. If you’re running local businesses, you want to make sure yours comes up when those searches get executed.
One key move is optimizing your Google Business Profiles for each location. When users whip out their phone to search for a business near them, Google Business Profiles often get priority on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Ensuring your information is accurate and updated regularly helps make sure that your business is getting the word out. All it takes is one instance of a customer tugging at your front door to find it locked when the Web said you were open for them to get soured on your business. Keeping your vital information updated — and giving your franchisees the tools they need to do it — can be make-or-break for customers.
Reputation Management
We’ve talked about how using automation can save you a lot of time when marketing your business, time that you can then re-invest into your core functions. One particularly time-consuming aspect of marketing your business online is reputation management.
The internet is a conversation, and that conversation is happening across multiple websites at every time a day. And when the conversation is about your business, you want to be a part of it: debunking fake or mistaken negative reviews, turning complaints into satisfied customers, and boosting positive feedback.
Obviously, tracking down and responding to all those comments in all those places can be incredibly time-consuming. That’s why solid reputation management tools, augmented by artificial intelligence, help you get the job done in a fraction of the time. These web-crawling tools never sleep, scouring the web for any discussions of your business that you’ll need to know about, ensuring that you’re staying at the forefront of the conversation.
Google Local Service Ads
Everybody knows about standard pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, but if you’re a multi-location business looking to generate business, you should really be augmenting your hyperlocal marketing efforts with Google’s Local Service Ads (LSAs). Built specifically for local businesses that still do a lot of business through phone calls and message requests, well-implemented LSAs can take precedence on search engine results pages.
With LSAs, there’s no keyword bidding – you either manually set your own maximum bid per lead, or allow Google to set it for you. Once you set that up, Google automatically generates your ads and sets your rankings based on an algorithm that factors in your review rating, responses, and how close you are to the searcher’s device.
Most importantly of all, you only pay if a customer calls, messages, or books an appointment directly through the LSA. This isn’t a replacement for the PPC/paid search model, but an extra plank in a strong platform.
It’s Time For CTV
So-called “Connected Televisions” are the future of entertainment: viewers are turning to “cord-cutting,” leaving behind the traditional channels of linear broadcasts. This has opened up a massive opportunity for franchise businesses in particular, because CTV advertising allows for surgical targeting that wasn’t possible in the days of rabbit-ear antennas.
Advertising on TV was often cost-prohibitive for franchisees, but with the granular targeting of modern technology, you can pick your audience for a fraction of the cost of linear broadcasting, choosing audiences by things like demographics, location, and time of day, upping the number of qualified leads.
That’s why we’ve launched BalihooTV, to help bring together CTV advertising and franchise business: because they go together like peanut butter and jelly. And with CTV viewership and ad spending both growing year-over-year for a long time now, 2024 is the time to strike.
Final Thoughts
You probably noticed, while reading through this article, that a lot of the strategies that’ll boost ROI across all your franchise locations happen to be services that Balihoo offers. That’s no coincidence: Balihoo is the leader in multi-location marketing because we specialize in the tools that will drive results, both on paper and on the ground.
If you’re interested in any of those services to take your multi-location marketing to the next level, reach out to Balihoo today for a free consultation about your business needs.
