Telling your brand story is more important than ever in marketing a franchise business. Consumers are increasingly looking for brands with purpose and meaning, and using storytelling to communicate that purpose can be an effective way to reach them.
Storytelling helps customers connect emotionally with the brand, positions the company as one they can trust and adds credibility by communicating why it’s different from its competitors.
By leveraging the StoryBrand Framework, you can create an engaging narrative expressing your unique values and mission while building loyalty among your audience.
In this blog, we explore:
• The Importance of Brand Consistency in Your Franchise Marketing Plan
• First Things First: What’s Your Why?
• Using the StoryBrand Framework for Franchise Digital Marketing
• Aligning Your Marketing Efforts Across Your Franchise
The Importance of Brand Consistency in Your Franchise Marketing Plan
The importance of brand consistency is undeniable for most businesses, but more so for franchises trying to market their enterprise across multiple locations.
By creating a consistent narrative, customers can easily identify the brand and have an idea of what they can expect when they enter any one of its locations. This also helps build trust with your customers and ensures that you’re delivering on the same promise across all channels.
Marq’s 2021 Brand Consistency Report reveals that 33% of businesses with brand consistency enjoy more revenue than those without.
Furthermore, brand consistency helps reduce confusion among franchise owners, who all work towards the same goal.
“Having a fundamental understanding of exactly what the business does, how those leads think in terms of search, and then making it as easy as possible for those leads to convert into dollars is our ultimate goal,” said Hannah Garon, Thrive’s Director of search engine optimization (SEO) services
By providing a single point of reference to guide them, your brand messaging becomes coherent and consistent throughout all franchise locations. This franchise focused marketing helps owners save on costs, as they can use pre-approved marketing materials that align with their franchise brand identity.
First Things First: What’s Your Why?
Your brand story goes hand in hand with recognizing the importance of brand consistency, and it all starts with your purpose.
Why are you in business? What are your core values and mission? Customer buy-in dramatically hinges on how well you communicate your ‘why.’
For example, Nike’s purpose is to “inspire and innovate for every athlete in the world.” Their customer base knows that when they buy Nike, their purchase supports something bigger than just a product – it stands for excellence and pushing boundaries.
Another excellent example is Patagonia’s “Don’t buy this jacket” campaign. While unconventional, it spoke to their commitment to sustainability and helped set them apart from the competition.
Your long-term goal is to get people to share your aspirations and values and to feel a personal connection with the brand, and your why is the bridge that will get you there.
Working with a content marketing strategist or a franchise marketing agency can help you develop your purpose statement and create compelling content that speaks to your core values.
Using the StoryBrand Framework for Franchise Digital Marketing
Creating a brand story doesn’t stop at your why. You also need a strategy for how to tell it.
That’s where the Storybrand Framework comes in.
The StoryBrand framework, developed by Donald Miller, is a 7-step process for creating stories that compel people to act.
It starts with creating a protagonist who could benefit from your brand. This sets up your story and connects customers emotionally to your business. The Framework continues by introducing an external problem standing in the way of them achieving their goals, followed by how they can use your product/service as the solution. As the story progresses, customers see themselves as part of it and build trust with you because they know you understand their struggles.
Here are the seven core elements of the StoryBrand Framework:
1. Hero: The person you’re speaking to in your content. It could be a potential customer, an employee, or someone interested in learning more about your business.
2. Problem: The problem that needs to be solved. It could be a gap in the market, an issue with customer service, or something else entirely.
3. Guide: The person or thing that guides your hero through the story. It could be a mentor, a product, a service, or even something as simple as a website.
4. Plan: The plan or idea that your hero needs to succeed. It could be a tactic, a strategy, or another type of action.
5. Call-to-action: The action you’re asking your hero to take. It could be signing up for a service, downloading an app, or making a purchase.
6. The happy ending: The successful outcome your hero experiences after taking the call to action.
7. The moral of the story: The takeaway from the story that teaches them about what happens if they won’t take action.
Traditionally, your franchise brand is defined by the four Ps of marketing as identified by marketing guru Philip Kotler – Product, Price, Place and Promotion. With the StoryBrand Framework, brands are defined by an additional three Ps – Purpose, People and Promise.
Let’s look at each one in detail:
• Purpose: This is your brand’s mission statement or ‘why,’ which we discussed earlier. It should be customer-centric and address their needs.
• People: Who are your customers? How old are they? What do they want and need?
• Promise: Why should they believe you over other competitors? How will you solve their problem better than anyone else?
Answering these Ps will help you create powerful brand messaging that doesn’t sound like a sales pitch. Instead, it should inspire people to take action, build trust and show them why they should choose you over other businesses. Franchise digital marketing, in particular, stands to benefit the most from this approach – customers will feel a stronger connection to your business if you can build a compelling story around it.
Franchise Marketing Strategies for SEO
Most franchises only use the StoryBrand Framework and brand stories in general for marketing copy and fast-paced advertising. However, you can also use it for franchise SEO content to help your website (and business) rank higher on search engine results pages.
“One of the things that differentiates competent SEO work from excellent SEO work is assessing exactly what is a driving success metric for that franchise. It’s more than just increasing organic traffic, or form fills,” Garon said.
Here are some franchise marketing strategies you can use to elevate your franchise SEO.
1. Create Hero-Focused Copy With Keywords in Mind
The first thing you need to do is create content that focuses on the hero of your story (your customer). You should always use keywords when crafting this copy to help you rank better on search engine results pages.
For example, let’s say you’re a franchise specializing in home security systems. Your keyword phrase might be ‘home security system installation.’ In this case, you would create content focusing on how your product can help people secure their homes and give them peace of mind. Integrate these keywords into your copy naturally to ensure it reads well for both humans and search engine bots.
Always think about their search intent and pain points and how you can use your product to make their lives easier or solve their problem. This will help customers recognize themselves in the story and make them more inclined to act on it.
You can work with a full-service digital marketing agency if you want the combined power of franchise focused marketing and effective copywriting.
2. Research and Identify Relevant Keywords for Each Step of the StoryBrand Framework
It’s not just your hero content that needs some franchise SEO love. You should also research and identify relevant keywords for each step of the StoryBrand Framework, which content marketing services easily provide.
On a larger scale, think about your StoryBrand Framework as a customer’s journey to the solution. Ask yourself: what keywords would they use at each step?
For example, if they’re looking for a home security system installation, they might search ‘What are the best home security systems,’ ‘How much does it cost to install home security systems, ‘ or ‘Are DIY home security systems effective.’ Use these keywords in your blog posts and other content related to each step of the StoryBrand Framework.
3. Ensure Consistency of Message Across Platforms
Here’s a thing about franchise focused marketing: you can’t just make stories all over the place!
And this is because every campaign has an end goal and “the more we operate in silos, the harder it is to reach that destination,” Garon said.
“You want to row in the same direction to meet the end goal with as minimal friction as possible.”
This way, your customers can tell the same stories, no matter which platform they find them on.
Your content marketing strategist and franchise marketing agency help transform your SEO blogs into social posts, Google Ads campaigns and all types of content spread throughout the web.
4. Optimize Your Website and Landing Pages With the StoryBrand Structure in Mind
The StoryBrand Framework is often used in marketing copy, and we won’t stop you from using it like that. Your websites and landing pages play a crucial role in this process, though.
Ensure you optimize your website and landing pages with the StoryBrand structure in mind. This means focusing on how you can make it easier for customers to take action and move through the steps of the Framework.
This could include call-to-action buttons throughout your site or even an interactive element such as a quiz that helps customers better identify their needs.
Whatever you do, make sure it’s designed to help people find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.
5. Leverage Internal Linking Strategies for Increased Visibility
The different steps of the StoryBrand Framework also provide an excellent opportunity to leverage internal linking and franchise marketing strategies. Internal links are when you link from one page on your website to another and use them strategically to help search engines crawl and index your pages more efficiently.
By linking each step of the Framework, you can show search engine bots what your core story is about and how each element is connected. This will help them better understand your website, which can lead to higher rankings in search engine results pages.
Aligning Your Marketing Efforts Across Your Franchise
There are so many ways to leverage the StoryBrand Framework in your franchise marketing plan, but you can’t maximize its potential if your efforts aren’t aligned across your entire franchise.
Marketing alignment happens when you have “a single point of contact, a captain or in our case an Account Manager who identifies the areas of need and areas of improvement, cascades that information out to the team and the team then aligns on those mutual goals,” Garon said.
Your account manager or content marketing strategist involves all stakeholders – from employees to partners – to ensure everyone is on the same page and that the message is written consistently throughout.
Leave no stone unturned in your efforts to get the word out. Unlike traditional marketing, brand storytelling is about creating an emotional connection with your customers. To do this, consider all platforms where you can reach them – from social media to email campaigns and beyond.
SEO-Driven Franchise Marketing Strategies With Thrive
Crafting compelling franchise brand stories requires a deep understanding of the purpose behind your brand, and that takes time. But it can be done with the right partners on board to help you champion your message.
Thrive’s franchise marketing strategies and content marketing services are committed to helping you create meaningful connections with your customers through strategic franchise digital marketing that brings out your unique story elements.
We know that the franchise market is a crowded place, and our full-service digital marketing agency can help your business stand out.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can work together and bring the power of story-driven franchise marketing to life.
