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.

This email shows the effect of using a simple, yet effective, email template. A simple image and copy change, and you can use this same setup for a whole new campaign.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

Wrap up

Owning a franchise is undoubtedly difficult, but you can set yourself up for success with an email campaign. Use these tips we provided today to help you create a campaign that caters to your brand consistency and specific locations.

Tackle the obstacles franchisors face with targeted email services that provide the resources necessary to maintain control. Creating email campaigns have never been easier—create location-specific content without sacrificing the control you need to maintain your recognizable branding design.