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Listen360

30 Jan 2025

Mastering Local Franchise Marketing: Proven Strategies for Success

Local franchise marketing can feel a little contradictory.

On the one hand, you’ve got pressure from the corporate team. You need to uphold a national or regional brand image.

On the other, you are serving a local audience with unique needs and preferences.

In this guide, we’ll demystify digital marketing for franchises with proven strategies for success.

We’ll look at local digital marketing tactics. We’ll dive into social media and paid advertising before exploring programmatic and GEO-local SEO.

We’ll investigate how you can align local initiatives with corporate campaigns and finish with three take-action tips.

Let’s get started!

Boost Visibility with Local Digital Marketing Tactics

Your business might be part of a franchise, but it has something unique: its location. Use this to boost your online visibility.

How? One franchise marketing strategy is local search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO is a way of improving your website’s ranking in search engine results. Local SEO is about targeting location-specific keywords. For example, instead of the keyword “best cleaners,” you might focus on “best cleaners near Chicago.”

Another strategy is localizing your content. This means publishing articles and social media posts that are relevant to the people in your service area.

If you’re in pest control, you might publish guides on the most common pests affecting homeowners in your city.

Geo-targeting is another powerful tool. It helps your content appear in front of searchers who live in your area.

Mobile marketing and local search ads can even drive foot traffic to your physical locations if you have them. That way, you don’t waste precious marketing dollars on customers who live on the other side of the country.

FROM ONE OF OUR PARTNERS: The Power of Local Listings and SEO

Drive Engagement Through Social Media and Paid Ads

More than half of the world uses social media, and businesses have taken note. By 2028, forecasts suggest mobile advertising will generate $255.8 billion.

Why is franchise social media marketing so powerful?

  • It connects you to your target audience in a way that’s meaningful and authentic. People want to do business with people—not shiny corporate logos. Social media pulls back the curtain.
  • It builds brand awareness and contributes to a cohesive and professional image. To customers, a legitimate business is one that uses social media. You want to meet these expectations.
  • It gives you access to powerful targeting tools. When you run paid Meta ads, for example, you can shape specific audiences. These people are not just in your local area but also genuinely interested in your services. This translates to a higher return on investment (ROI).

Speaking of paid advertising, Meta (that’s Facebook and Instagram) isn’t your only option. You can also use Google Ads. Franchise PPC (pay-per-click) advertising gets your franchise in front of your community.

If you’re keen to give paid ads a go, consider these tips:

  • Start with a small budget and increase it over time. You don’t want to blow your marketing spend on an ad that just doesn’t resonate.
  • Speak to your target audience. What are their pain points? How can you uniquely solve their problem?
  • Leverage every targeting filter at your disposal. Think about your audience’s demographics, interests, and so on.

Whether you’re serving ads or publishing to social media, create location-specific content. Show that you understand and care for locals. Demonstrate your expertise in issues that specifically affect them.

RELATED ARTICLE: 6 Tips to Balance Business Priorities in Your Children’s Services Franchise Network

Programmatic & GEO-Local SEO

Programmatic advertising is like setting your marketing on autopilot. It’s a way to streamline local targeting by using automated ads that adjust in real time.

GEO-local SEO makes sure your franchise locations appear in local searches and maps. When someone searches for a “plumber near me,” this strategy increases the likelihood that your business pops up first.

It’s about being seen when and where customers need you most.

Both approaches work to:

  • Increase your visibility among local audiences actively seeking your solution
  • Drive more foot traffic and inquiries by making your business easy to find

To optimize local listings (like Google Business profiles) for franchise locations, follow these best practices:

Make sure your information is accurate and consistent across all listings. This includes your business name, address, and phone number (NAP).

Update your listings with posts and fresh photos to engage your audience.

Encourage and respond to customer reviews—this boosts credibility and improves search rankings.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Art of NPS®: How to Improve Your Fitness Franchise Network’s Score

Align Corporate and Local Efforts for a Unified Strategy

Corporate marketing strategies are pulling you in one direction. Local needs are pushing you in another. This can result in a disjointed brand image and even customer confusion.

Instead, you want to balance corporate branding with local customization.

You know the well-worn adage, “It’s not what you say but how you say it.” Think of the corporate messaging as what you need to say. Then, think of how to best deliver that message to capture the attention and trust of locals.

Get it right, and you maintain the level of consistency needed to strengthen your national brand. You also connect with your community in a way that feels authentic.

Keep in mind that both approaches have the same goal. Corporate and local branches want to succeed.

So, coordinate marketing strategies by sharing resources, like templates or design tools. This keeps branding consistent. For example, corporate can provide pre-approved content. Local teams can adapt it to suit their audience.

Here are some quick-fire tips on leveraging national franchise advertising campaigns alongside local promotions. Follow these to maximize your reach and engagement:

  • Align timelines so national campaigns support and amplify local promotions.
  • Empower local teams to create content that reflects community values while staying on-brand.
  • Share performance data across corporate and local teams to optimize strategies together.

FROM ONE OF OUR PARTNERS: A 6-Step Blueprint for a Successful Local Online Marketing Campaign

Get Started Now With These Tips

Become a master of local franchise marketing and find business success with these three tips:

  • Audit your local SEO. Consider things like keyword usage and whether your Google Business page is optimized.
  • Plan a paid advertising campaign. Set a goal, write compelling ads, and curate a specific audience. Make sure to stick to your budget and keep an eye on your results.
  • Know what franchise advertising campaigns the corporate team is planning. Consider how you can leverage them to increase your local reach.

Increase Repeat Customers & Reduce Customer Churn

Leading the market means delivering an exceptional customer experience. With Listen360, you can achieve this effortlessly. We’ll show your team how to earn loyal customers, stand out in your industry, and drive growth.