Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.
In the case of advertising and marketing your franchise in 2023, the identical previous, usual, will not minimize it. Occasions have modified, and competitors for shopper consideration and patronage is at an all-time excessive because the market dimension elevated by practically 16% prior to now yr. It is time for franchises to discover new methods to achieve and interact their prospects and finally drive extra income. Technological improvements now enable advertising and marketing campaigns to be extremely focused and embrace high-value messaging to prospects.
And with the automated assortment of knowledge offering insights into buyer behaviors, a franchise can communicate on to the shopper with the objective of fixing that habits to drive higher income. It is time to think about technological advances and make the most of them to remodel bland advertising and marketing methods into profitable advertising and marketing campaigns that generate gross sales. So, listed here are a number of suggestions:
Associated: The 4 Advertising Strikes Each Franchise Ought to Make
Speak to the best buyer with hyper-segmentation
A one-size-fits-all strategy to advertising and marketing is not an efficient technique for 2023. When selling a particular, an occasion and even when specializing in a selected objective, it will not achieve success except it is communicated to prospects who will truly be curious about it. And the one solution to know who will likely be is thru segmentation. Let’s use a Rib Evening for example.
Your franchise has acquired buyer knowledge via its free WiFi hotspot and is trying to achieve extra prospects for the Rib Evening, so the shopper knowledge is segmented and prospects could be focused and obtain extra personalised messages that align with their habits. The next demonstrates how messaging is personalised based mostly on insights gleaned via shopper knowledge:
-
Prospects who’ve visited for dinner Monday via Thursday obtain a message alerting them that you just’re bringing again Rib Evening on Tuesdays through the month of January.
-
Anybody who has beforehand been to Rib Evening receives an early announcement inviting them to it and asking how they favored the final one with a hyperlink to a survey.
-
Prospects who’re weekend regulars obtain a message alerting them to not miss Rib Evening on Tuesdays and to point out the textual content for a BOGO dinner with their favourite rib buddy.
Add comfort with SMS advertising and marketing
When contemplating advertising and marketing ways for 2023, if SMS is not on the high of your listing, it ought to be, because the numbers do not lie. Prospects want receiving affords through SMS. Plus, if you have not integrated SMS campaigns because you’re already doing electronic mail, think about this: SMS has a 98% open fee. Since a majority of coupon redemption occurs through smartphone (80%), and SMS is simpler to see, open and entry, it is smart that it has the next open fee.
SMS could be utilized in a myriad of the way. You’ll be able to ship a textual content message with a hyperlink to your menu, an invitation to an occasion, inclusion in your loyalty program or to supply incentives for “misplaced” prospects to return. For instance, you can even say, “Do you know that our textual content messages are linked on to our cellphone? Click on this quantity to name in your order!” And people calls could be routed to your current landline.
Associated: Here is Why SMS Advertising Is Actually the Finest Concept Ever
Ditch the outdated loyalty program
Almost 70% of companies have elevated their funding in loyalty applications over the previous yr. It is clear that the advantages of getting repeat, loyal prospects are substantial, and the ROI on loyalty applications is critical … when completed proper. In case your loyalty program makes use of paper punch playing cards or a plastic scan card, your loyalty program is outdated. As an alternative, your franchise can modernize its strategy whereas offering personalization and improved buyer engagement. In spite of everything, 75% of shoppers say they’re extra loyal to manufacturers that message them on a private stage.
However to execute a loyalty program with efficient personalization, there’s one crucial ingredient: knowledge. With out buyer knowledge, it is unattainable to section and goal prospects in response to behaviors and preferences. It is buyer knowledge that tells you whether or not the particular person solely ever visits on trivia nights, if the particular person prefers to solely come for drinks and appetizers and whether or not the particular person has an affinity for wings.
In the case of capturing knowledge, harnessing know-how is the important thing. Here is an instance: Your restaurant franchise’s objective is to have everybody are available in and dine throughout their birthday month for a free entrée because it’s unlikely somebody would dine alone on his or her birthday (thus growing income and introducing new prospects). Your franchise can present the next supply: “Textual content us your birthday to XXXX, and through your birthday month, you will get a free entrée AND be entered to win dinner for 2 the next month.”
Redefine your contests
Contests increase viewers engagement, make your model extra memorable and drive outcomes resembling social media engagement, growing followers and motivating prospects to go to. The truth is, social accounts can develop to a whopping 70% when using contests. They’ll additionally improve acquisition of owned knowledge. Contests current distinctive worth in a advertising and marketing program. The straightforward keys are:
-
Make the competition simple to manage — there is no motive to create extra work than crucial
-
The competition ought to be simple to take part in — the shopper must be rewarded and never burdened
-
The competition should not be the top objective. In any other case, simply internet hosting a sport present would make extra sense. The aim of the competition ought to be clear, internally, of what you are trying to obtain.
-
There must be an endpoint, and it must be communicated in order that prospects know the result.
Here is an instance usually used when a brand new franchise opens to develop the variety of contributors in a loyalty program: Whereas on the restaurant, new guests who entry the free Wi-Fi obtain an SMS providing the prospect to be entered into the month-to-month drawing for a seaside cruiser when becoming a member of the loyalty program.
Associated: How a Contest or Giveaway Can Appeal to Enterprise Prospects
Unify your messaging for readability and outcomes
Whereas implementing any of the above ways is helpful, optimum outcomes are not often achieved with out unified, constant messaging throughout advertising and marketing channels and franchise places. Companies that combine all advertising and marketing channels are greater than twice as doubtless to report greater advertising and marketing effectiveness vs. these utilizing much less integration — or none in any respect. No single channel of communication goes to attach with all company. Utilizing a number of channels, resembling SMS, Wi-Fi messaging, social media and digital shows ensures that the message is offered within the type the shopper needs, and most significantly, that it’s constant.
Here is an instance of how a restaurant franchise can successfully combine its messaging. For instance that the franchise is targeted on growing its dessert income and plans to have the primary 5 days of every month be “5 Fats Days” the place desserts are featured and promoted. The franchise creates messaging with the objective of elevated dessert income in thoughts and integrates it in these methods:
-
Digital show signage: Reveals 5 photos of their high desserts with a QR code that sends a textual content message with “DESSERT,” and the textual content system responds with a hyperlink to the prolonged on-line dessert menu.
-
Social media: On Fb, clarify the 5 Fats Days, and introduce a contest the place prospects can textual content YUMMY to the restaurant’s textual content system for the prospect to win a free dessert each month.
-
Wi-Fi advertising and marketing: The greeting textual content that company obtain after they connect with the Wi-Fi over the last week of the month is, “Do not forget the first via the fifth is BOGO desserts with the acquisition of an entrée.” Or at lunch through the first 5 days of the month, “Hey, it is 5 Fats Days the first via the fifth, with free dessert tonight” (and hyperlinks to the social publish about 5 Fats Days).
For those who’re nonetheless using an old-school strategy to advertising and marketing and have not embraced know-how in your ways, it is time to make a change in 2023. With the wealth of obtainable knowledge that permits for hyper-segmentation that informs buyer habits, there are ample alternatives to leverage this to drive behavioral change that produces extra income to your franchise.