In this day and age, no matter who your target audience is, people go to social media to seek answers and build trust around businesses of all types. Trust me, I mean ALL types. At SocialMadeSimple, we’ve seen it all – flooring franchises, children’s learning centers, artificial grass franchises, and even a multi-location senior care facility! 

With over half of the world’s population actively using social media, it’s clear that franchise brands need to be where consumers are – Social media. To successfully prove the extent of benefits that social marketing brings to the table for franchises, we’ve broken down a list of the five top reasons why franchises need social media marketing.

1. Cost-effective solutions to maximize ROI

You’re in luck – Social media marketing is one of the most cost-effective digital marketing solutions, and there’s an opportunity fit for essentially any marketing goal. There’s no simple price tag here, but the easiest way to break it down is in two segments: organic content and paid advertising.

When discussing social marketing for businesses, the primary cost comes from paid social media advertising (emphasis on “paid”). Paid ads are sponsored posts with a budget behind them and, as with most advertisements, the bigger the budget, the more results you’ll see. Typical Facebook advertising budgets for any business, for example, range from 5% to 12% of revenue.

On the other hand, the organic content side of social marketing includes certain steps such as:

• Setting up social media pages or profiles.
• Creating on-brand engaging content.
• Engaging with your audience.
• Publishing consistently and frequently.

Organic content and using social media platforms are all free of cost but it does cost businesses time and expertise. Many franchise/franchisee owners rely on affordable digital marketing agencies to take care of their social media marketing. It takes a team of experts and technology to cost-efficiently drive the best results for your business (and the highest return on your investment).

SocialMadeSimple is one of the most affordable social marketing solutions out there. I know, I know – Every business says that. That’s why we’ve compared our services side-by-side against top competitors in the market!

2. Hyper-targeting capabilities to reach the right people

Don’t worry, running ad campaigns on social media offers advertisers more control than simply feeling as though you’re casting a wide net and not catching a thing. You can place your ads in front of the right people who are likely to have an interest in your franchise and find your ad relevant. If you want to target potential customers in a certain radius of your franchise location, for example, you can!

With Facebook advertising, there are three audience selection tools:

• Custom Audiences: Target users who have already expressed an interest in your brand either through visiting your website, engaging with your Facebook posts, making offline purchases, etc.

• Lookalike Audiences: Reach an audience that mirrors your most valuable customers by creating a custom audience that Facebook uses to target users with similar interests and qualities. 

• Core Audiences: Create your own target audience that best fits your ideal customer based on parameters such as demographics, interests, location, behavior, etc.

3. Connect with the local audience to build credibility 

The goal for any local franchisee is to be the talk of the town. What’s the best way to spread the word fast? You guessed it! Social media is the place to showcase your brand and position yourself as an expert in the industry. 

When opening a franchise location in a new market or simply trying to stand out from competitors, create a strong social media presence that allows local consumers to see for themselves that your business can be trusted, is credible, and is the best solution to meet their needs. 

One way to connect with your local audience is by making sure to address each question, comment, or concern that comes up (especially any customer reviews). Responding to both negative and positive reviews professionally and resourcefully can help show potential customers just how high the brand’s level of dedication to customer services and support is. 

Leverage social media to maintain a strong brand reputation, engage with current and potential consumers, get your brand name known in the local community and give them a reason to choose your business over the local competition. 

4. Generate leads, boost sales, recruit new hires, whatever you need!

Still skeptical of social media generating qualified leads? Well, listen up! By creating, monitoring, and optimizing Facebook lead generation ad campaigns, it’s possible to receive lead information in real-time without the user ever leaving Facebook. Requesting a quote, registering for a membership, booking an appointment, applying for a job, you name it! Collect data on interested social media users cost-efficiently, convert to a sale, and increase ROI.

In just 90 days, Floor Coverings International generated $35,000 in sales through SocialMadeSimple’s (free) Franchise Social Marketing Pilot Program. By publishing strategy-driven content and creating hyper-targeted social media ad campaigns, this flooring installation franchise saw real results in the form of over 80,000 Facebook Page views, 80+ leads, and the list goes on.

Today, SocialMadeSimple is the preferred social media vendor for the Floor Coverings International franchise. Check out the full Franchise Social Marketing case study for a deeper dive into their results!

Does Social Media Marketing Really Work? Video Transcript

Veronica: It’s a business within itself – it’s a money-generating machine. When people start to see that side of it, I love seeing their excitement and the transition in their attitude towards social media and advertising in general.

Veronica: So it always starts with just a conversation with the client. Talking about where they are, where they want to be, what their goals as a company are, even past advertising and marketing. So when you have that open conversation it’s easy for us to play that into our advertising and marketing on their behalf. And then from there, we take it to an internal team discussion: we get their ideas, get their business goals, and ask, “how can we make the magic happen?”. That’s where the ad strategy comes into play. 

For some people, they just want to get their name out there, so we want to have an awareness campaign. Some people are looking to generate business immediately so we’re doing more of that lead generation campaign for them. One of my favorite things about working with smaller and medium businesses is them getting to see what social media marketing can do for them. So many people come and they think, “Oh it’s just about posting a picture, here’s a funny meme of the day”, and, yes, that’s some of it – that’s part of the enjoyment of social media in general. But watching how shocked they are and them saying, “Wow, people are actually recognizing my brand, walking into my store, and knowing who I am solely because of what they saw on social media”. 

It’s a business within itself – it’s a money-generating machine. When people start to see that side of it, I love seeing their excitement and the transition in their attitude towards social media and advertising in general. It’s its own business entity for them!

Ryan: Yeah, absolutely! I think for a lot of small to medium businesses, they see it as just this platform for the enjoyment and they don’t see the return on investment that it can actually bring. Although again, where 2020 was the year that this was their first real crack at social media, being able to talk about the positive return on investment that we’ve been able to produce is always an exciting conversation to have!