Own a franchise? 6 tips to create your next email campaign

When it comes to email marketing for a franchise, you can face some unique challenges that other businesses don’t have, such as brand consistency and maintaining control of communications throughout multiple locations. But these challenges don’t disqualify you from the same email marketing success, either—as long as you know how to navigate them.

Marketing struggles franchise-owners face

There are many obstacles franchise-owners endure that don’t necessarily occur to those with one business (with one location) to run. As you already know as a franchise owner, it requires you to keep tabs on a number of franchises and the franchisees that are responsible for the daily operations.

So, when it comes to creating email campaigns, it’s tough to draw the line between a franchise-wide strategy compared to one that offers individual campaigns for each location.

While you may find it easier to create one campaign for all of your locations, it’s clear that not every franchise will benefit from the same strategy. But if you try to create email campaigns that cater to each franchise’s specific needs, you’re setting yourself up for an impossible workload.

When it comes to your franchise and the way you create an email campaign, your top priority should be brand consistency. While some franchises may require this, and others require that—it’s crucial to maintain your branding across the board.

Why your franchise needs brand consistency

Whether you’re a franchisor or not, brand consistency is key. Brand consistency is your ability to maintain your branding in every message you deliver. That includes your color scheme, fonts, and even the images you choose.

Now those types of things may seem minuscule, but when it comes to customer recognition—their impact is more significant than you would expect.

When you think of well-known companies, you know you’ll catch the same logo and color scheme everywhere you spot their product. Whether it’s on a billboard, or on a commercial, you’re able to recognize a brand due to the efforts dedicated to brand consistency.

As a franchisor, it’s difficult to maintain brand consistency with the number of franchisees involved. Franchisees are vital to your business’ success but are known for taking matters into their own hands. At the end of the day, it’s hard to achieve brand consistency when you have so many hands in the pot.

So how do you go about creating an email campaign when you have a number of people and locations to consider. While it may seem extremely challenging, there are resources available to you and your franchise to take your next email campaign to the next level.

Tips to create email campaigns that work for everyone

There are so many ways to construct your email campaigns so that all of your franchise locations benefit from your marketing efforts. Using these following tips allows you to maintain the overall branding across all of your email campaigns while setting each one apart to cater to your multiple locations.

1. Create templates that work.

To maintain brand consistency, we recommend creating email campaign templates for all of your franchise email campaigns. While you may have ten franchise locations with ten different marketing strategies, each email will begin with a template you created as a foundation.

Even if you have one location focusing on customer reviews and another on a special offer—your email campaigns will correlate with your branding with the layout you designed.

2. Set up an approval process.

Giving each franchise the freedom to create their own email content allows you to focus your attention elsewhere within your franchise. But I understand that could be risky—especially if you want to see everything before it’s sent out.

Setting up an approval process allows your franchisees to create the email campaign, and then send it to the approval dashboard for your review. Taking advantage of this kind of service gives you the chance to submit your thoughts regarding the email, and make the changes you deem necessary.

Relying on an approval process will ensure that each email your franchise sends out goes through you before reaching any inboxes. It’s time to rely on your franchisee to create the content that is right for their specific location—and leave the overall send-off to you.

3. Build a strong email list.

While you are taking all the time to create an email campaign that is bound to succeed, it will all go to waste if you don’t have a strong email list to send it to. When it comes to your franchise, you have the tools necessary to obtain the email addresses you’re looking for.

Set up a franchise competition, and ask them to obtain as many valid email addresses when checking out. Your franchisees and sales associates will be sure to get as many customer emails if there is an incentive.

Your website is another great resource to use when looking to gain more email addresses for your email list. Set up a pop-up sign up form to make it easy for your website users to submit their email address. Depending on your industry, creating a special discount or special offer will also encourage your visitors to sign up.

No matter the technique you use to acquire your email addresses, it’s important to send a welcome email to give your new users the tour.

Image Source: Really Good Emails

4. Use drip email marketing campaigns.

When you are creating your next email campaign, it is best to have a drip email campaign. When your users sign up for your newsletter or email list, sending a welcome email puts you on track to send your prospects down the sales funnel.

With a drip campaign, you will have the chance to set up your emails and their delivery based on completed actions or scheduled times. Having a drip campaign set in place keeps you engaged with your email audience and maintains customer trust.

5. Personalize your email content.

It’s beneficial to your email campaign that you personalize your emails with subscriber names and specific locations. When you own a franchise, the subscribers you send emails to may have been to one, two or maybe three locations. But, making your email specific to where your customers were will show that you are paying attention to them.

Use reward cards so that you are informed when a customer returns and buys again. Having this kind of information available allows you to create email content that states your recognition of their visit to a particular franchise—and you could even include a chance to review that particular experience.

Addressing your users by name and by the location they visit will personalize your email content to show that you care about their interaction with your franchise business. And a business who cares is a business people want to buy from nowadays—so don’t neglect this tip.