Over the years I’ve worked with a few franchise businesses on blogging strategies. It’s been interesting because there are different strategies involved. And in some cases it leads to different blogs on the same website or different categories of posts and things like that.
Some franchisors have blogs on their websites meant to attract prospects that they send to the appropriate franchisee. Some are setup so all franchisees have their own sections on the main website. Some where they can blog. Some franchisees have their own websites with their own blogs that they are in charge of.
Then another thing franchisors often want to do is to attract franchisees. And sometimes they have a section of the site dedicated to this with an accompanying blog.
If that is your case, here are some thoughts on how to use such a blog.
1. Topic Strategy
The biggest thing for any blog is what to write about. If you’re struggling I suggest starting with common questions. So in this case it would be common questions potential franchisees are asking about getting into your industry and business. It could be questions that someone is asking about starting a business in general and maybe they haven’t thought about the benefits of owing a franchise.
I’m sure you encounter people all the time that have these questions. Start with current franchisees and think about their first interactions with you. I bet you could come up with 20 common questions. That’s 20 posts. And if these folks are asking you in person and on the phone you can bet many more are searching for the same answers online.
2. Frequency
Frequency depends on your goals. If you’re really looking to get lots of franchisees fast then you’re going to have to blog a lot. You’re going to have to use snippets to share on social media and share there every day.
If you’re an established franchise you can get traction on search engines a little quicker. But still plan about 6 months to start seeing posts ranking for certain questions.
A good goal is to aim for one post per week. That’s 50+ in a year. That’s a good number of questions that you can answer that people are searching for. If you have the time and ambition, aim for 100 posts in a year. Then assess and see how things are going.
3. CTAs
Remember that you want to write about the questions the person has about franchising or starting a business or buying a business with the blog. If they have questions about your franchise you want that content on your franchising sales page.
Someone that is reading your blog doesn’t necessarily know who you are. So with a call-to-action in a blog post you want to get them to the next step in the relationship. Maybe just sharing your name and what you do. Maybe asking them to sign up for more content via email and social. Maybe just recommending another post.
You could introduce your company. Don’t ask for a sale, but direct them to your intro page or something like that. Just get them to take the next logical step.
4. Social Media & Promotion
Every social media platform today wants to keep their users on their platforms forever. So you have to lean into that if you’re going to do social media marketing. But you can take blog content and create snippets. Write a 500-word post and take about 3 quotes or sections from it and share it on Facebook and LinkedIn.
These platforms also have great advertising platforms. If you want to attract a franchise in a certain city or region or whatever, you can promote your content just to a specific location and on LinkedIn you could even do it by location and by job title.
5. Stories
Let’s say you’re writing a post about franchise fees. Not yours but just in general. It’s something a potential franchisee is probably interested in.
Answer the question using your knowledge and experience. And if appropriate also include a story about a franchisee you’ve worked with that had the same question.
Sharing stories in blog posts is a great way to communicate your point to the reader. They can see someone else’s story and gain all kinds of insight and also relate it to their own situation.
Conclusion
You can definitely use a blog to attract franchisees. Make sure to focus on them when creating titles. And if you’re struggling with those start with question and answer. Aim for weekly. Then make sure to use the content on social media to reach even more people.