Franchise Marketing Support: What to Give Franchisees and How

Key Takeaways

Most franchisees don’t have the bandwidth to execute fully fleshed out marketing campaigns. Which is why franchisors must build adequate franchise marketing support systems wherever possible. In this article, we list the types of resources franchisees expect and explain how you can build standardized, accountable, and measurable support portals that streamline HQ-approved marketing materials.

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Marketing is crucial for driving sales, customer engagement, and profitability, yet many franchisees can scarcely find the time or resources to spend on it.

52% say limited budgets prevent them reaching their marketing goals, 34% lack the time, and 31% claim they don’t have enough expertise or training to execute campaigns effectively.

It’s no wonder, then, that a growing number of franchisees are eager for franchisor-provided marketing support.

But what should this support look like? And how can franchisors ensure that their support systems are scalable, profitable, and accountable?

Let’s dig into it.

What franchise marketing materials should franchisors provide?

There’s no definitive answer to this question. The marketing resources you provide will depend on a number of variables (your industry, resources, and budget, to name a few).

It will also depend on what your franchisees actually need. After all, there’s no point producing and sharing materials that generate little ROI.

According to a recent State of Franchise Marketing report, the most important marketing tactics for franchisees, in order of effectiveness, are:

• Social media ads
• Email marketing
• In-store promotions
• Influencer marketing
• Text/SMS campaigns
• Local SEO.

To support these efforts, produce templates for each platform, whether it’s a configurable “reel” video for Instagram or an email template with the relevant fonts, logos, and brand colors. And, where possible, provide access to marketing “how to” guides, e-learning courses, and software to simplify the customization process.

Why most marketing support breaks down

The truth is, most franchisors already provide some level of marketing support. But success varies.

Before you can work towards improving your efforts, you must first understand the common reasons why many marketing strategies fail:

1. Marketing requests get lost in the noise

Unless you have a standardized method for requesting marketing support, your franchisees will use whatever comms channel works for them.

Your marketing teams must then flit between email inboxes, WhatsApp messages, and your franchise software to find, action, and follow-up on requests — many of which may get lost in the process.

But that isn’t all.

Because of the ad-hoc nature of these requests, you may end up recreating templates that could be used across multiple units. Thus adding more work for your corporate marketing teams.

2. Templates are outdated or forgotten

Over 90% of franchisees say they would like more frequent updates to franchisor-provided marketing templates.

This suggests a clear content governance problem. Headquarters create and distribute templates without factoring in regular reviews. After a brand refresh or social platform update (such as changes to image resolutions or formats), these templates quickly expire. Franchisees must then choose between using inconsistent materials that compromise brand integrity or creating their own.

3. Support isn’t localized

You may be able to use some “universal” marketing assets across your franchise locations. But there comes a point when brand-wide materials aren’t enough.

For instance, units based in the United States may require specific social media templates for their 4th of July promotions. These, of course, will have no relevance for units elsewhere in the world.

Equally, cultural differences may dictate a need for marketing variations. How you market your products to a Japanese audience will be worlds away from how you market to a British audience, for example.

4. There’s no corresponding training

Many franchisees openly admit that they lack adequate marketing training and knowledge.

While franchisor-provided marketing assets can certainly fill this gap, they’re only a temporary fix. To enable franchisees and reduce the burden on your HQ teams, ongoing training programs and workshop events are crucial.

5 tips for strengthening franchise marketing support

Now that we’ve enumerated the challenges of corporate-provided marketing support, let’s explore how you can fix them.

1. Build a request workflow with accountability

A dedicated marketing request portal eradicates the stress of juggling multi-channel requests.

Franchisees can submit their requirements via a self-service e-form that captures every important detail (including budget expectations and deadline requirements). An automated workflow then turns these requests into tracked tickets with dedicated owners, timed service-level agreements (SLAs), and defined statuses.

It’s a win-win for franchisors and franchisees. Headquarters receive all the details they need in a single channel, eliminating the need for endless email chains and information gathering, while franchisees can rest assured that their marketing requests will be seen and actioned. This turns “we offer marketing support” from a promise into a measurable service with accountability built-in.

Case study: Leak Detective

UK-based leak detection franchise, Leak Detective, built a similar franchisee support system on their Claromentis FMS portal.

The no-code ticketing system captures franchisee issues and automatically routes them to the right corporate team for remediation. Statuses and SLAs add accountability and ensure every query is answered as quickly as possible. The result? Fewer repeated requests for HQ teams and greater levels of compliance across the network.

2. Centralize and share your assets

Once you build and approve a marketing resource, upload it into a centralized asset management application. This prevents resources from getting lost in email inboxes and shared document drives.

If the materials can be used universally or across multiple locations, make them accessible to the relevant franchise units via your platform’s user permissions settings. It’s important to announce these new materials as and when you upload them to limit any repeated marketing requests.

3. Enforce content governance

A two-year-old social media template that showcases your old brand colors and logo is a huge threat to brand consistency. These outdated materials should never be accessible to your franchisees.

To ensure your library is up-to-date, assign owners to each document, set content expiration dates, and automate notifications whenever a resource needs updating.

4. Balance brand control with local relevance

The line between creative freedom and governance is a tough one to balance.

As it stands, almost half of franchisors find managing brand reputation across multiple markets challenging. A further 37% have difficulty balancing corporate control with local needs.

Good marketing support should empower franchisees to localize materials without harming the brand.

In practice, this requires providing templates with “locked” and “editable” areas. For instance, logos and color palettes may need to stay the same across every location, but copy, contact details, and promotional offers can be customized on a unit-by-unit basis.

Depending on the level of control you allow franchisees, you may wish to implement content approval workflows before any marketing materials are published. This adds an additional layer of compliance, and may be pertinent for large-scale marketing campaigns.

5. Build a repository of marketing training and advice

There may come a time when your marketing team is inundated with requests and lacks the capacity to take on more. This shouldn’t mean that your franchisees should sit idle.

In times like these, encourage business owners to take matters into their own hands. Provide “how to” guides and FAQs that explain key marketing tactics — such as local SEO tips, how to edit design templates in Canva, and best practices for each social media channel — and create a self-service curriculum of e-learning courses to encourage self development.

This enables established franchisees to develop their skills and competencies, and gives your marketing and support teams more time to dedicate to newer units.

Elevate your franchise marketing strategy with Claromentis

Around a third of franchisors say they’re eager to improve their marketing support and personalization efforts in the coming year.

But good intentions can only get you so far. If you still rely on email systems for receiving and progressing requests, your support efforts will never scale in the way you want them to. Marketing queries may fall between the cracks; templates may go past their “use by” date without anyone realizing; and franchisees may struggle to access resources when they need them.

Fortunately, there’s a better way to handle your marketing efforts.

With a franchise management software like Claromentis, you can:

• Provide a trackable, self-service marketing ticket system. Available in the Franchise Expansion Manager application, this system brings structure to your marketing support workflows. Franchisees can autonomously submit a request, which then gets added to an accountable workflow.
• Monitor pending and completed requests. Your HQ teams can see every open request in a single dashboard, ensuring nothing gets buried or breaches its SLA.
• Centralize your marketing resources. Store brand-wide and localized marketing assets in a permissions-controlled hub. And use the built-in content governance mechanisms to keep this content up-to-date and consistent with your current branding.
• Support franchisees with learning materials. Publish marketing guides, FAQs, and step-by-step tutorials in the searchable knowledge base, and curate self-guided e-learning courses within the integrated franchise LMS.

Have we piqued your interest? 

To find out whether our FMS would be a good fit for your franchise network and its marketing efforts, book a tailored discussion call here.

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