The franchise marketing challenge is unique. How to give franchisees enough autonomy to do their own local area marketing - digital or offline - whilst protecting the integrity of the brand. This tension leads to every franchise asking themselves a series of inevitable questions.

The big franchise marketing questions

How much rope should franchisees get? Can they be trusted? Are we setting ourselves up for trouble by letting them do their own marketing? If we don’t let them, will they do it anyway? Then, critically - how much revenue are we leaving on the table by not letting them do their own marketing? Head office knows their franchisees have the knowledge and insight to run their own local area marketing. They’re part of the community. They hold the customer relationships. They ‘get’ local seasonality. They understand the nuances of local competition, and where they’re winning. No one is better placed to produce engaging local marketing than franchisees. It’s just they don’t have the marketing expertise to execute. Not to an acceptable level that strengthens the brand rather than destroying it.

The answer

And here lies the key to successful franchise marketing. You need a way to channel the passion, insight, personality, will, and financial motivation of franchisees into strictly controlled, brand-approved marketing communications. That’s how we came to build Digital Stack. A digital marketing platform that evolved over the years in response to the needs to some of the world’s most successful franchises, including Snap Fitness and Subway. These guys understand that truly successful franchises empower their franchisees to deliver engaging local area marketing. But keep control of their brand. With Digital Stack we’ve seen new Snap Fitness franchisees turn a ‘new franchise gym’ into a local institution inside 12 months. That’s the difference effective franchisee local area marketing makes. They’ve done it through engaging local success stories featuring body transformations that inspire the local community and spread like wildfire on social media.  Timely email campaigns featuring 7 day sales to account for local seasonality and quiet times. Promotional posters in high traffic areas to pull in new club members. All delivered through professional, on-brand communications.

18 countries, the same franchise marketing challenge

Ty Menzies, CEO of Lift Brands which includes Snap Fitness, has faced down the same challenge in all 18 countries they operate in. “The strength of the brand is about being able to control the brand with franchisees….but franchisees are always asking for more flexibility. They need something specific for their location, for their marketplace." "Digital Stack allows us to control our brand...Franchisees can use all our approved templates but amend them to suit their individual location.” It’s success stories like Snap Fitness that keep us motivated to keep evolving and improving Digital Stack. To empower franchisees with more useful and ever-more powerful marketing capabilities. Whilst always protecting the brand.