Marketing approaches will vary in style from small business to large conglomerates, but there are some common trends that any franchisor can apply to their operations. As a multi-site business, costs for national marketing campaigns can add up quickly, but staying on top of your budget can be a little easier if the right strategy is employed. Here, Paola offers tips from her 12 year career working with leading Australian businesses.
Plan ahead
Forward planning often leads to lower costs down the road. Longer lead times allow suppliers to quote lower prices on artwork, print and freight by avoiding rush fees. Shop around and give yourself enough time to have items delivered by road instead of air.
Having all your materials prepared in advance means that they can all be shipped together. You can combine your operations items and POS materials in a single kit to be dispatched at once.
Ask the right questions
Savings can often be found by reviewing your campaign in detail. Info sheets can be printed in black and white instead of full colour, or perhaps changing the size slightly will lead to better cost efficiencies.
Extending lead times could increase your savings and printing all orders at once could lower your unit price. Review your campaign in detail before it rolls out, and be sure to follow up with your locations afterwards to see the materials worked out for them to make sure you’re getting the best ROI.
Say it right
Sounds simple, but coming up with the right content can be tricky. It involves the right product, the right offer, and the right call to action to drive customers your way. Spend time making sure your campaign has a clear message, a compelling offer and a strong call to action.
Proof, and proof carefully
Reprints are not your friend; they are costly and time consuming. A simple practice is to have a checklist before you send artwork to print. Double check trademarks, image quality, T&C’s and your logo.
Have a similar checklist for digital artwork. While digital errors are often easier to fix, they’re rarely free.
Partner up
Sponsorship and shared freight costs are a great way to save on national campaigns. Suppliers can often be coaxed into sharing costs including design, print, and shipping. Talk to your ops team about opportunities and get your suppliers working with you.
Motivate your franchisees
Getting your franchisees involved in the marketing process is a great way to keep them motivated. Allowing stores to opt into special promotions, group buy with other franchisees or to top-up standard national campaign orders is a great way to increase your exposure and volumes without increasing your budget – it should actually lower per unit costs for everybody.
Keep suppliers in the know
Informing suppliers about store openings and closings ensures sites don’t receive materials unnecessarily and new stores have materials ready for their launch. Keep suppliers in the loop so they can plan deliveries, avoiding materials being sent to stores under construction, where materials can often get misplaced.
Automate
Finding the right platform to execute your national marketing campaigns will pave the way for saving time and money. National marketing campaigns can be complex, but you don’t want to spend all day manually creating store allocations.
An online marketing portal can make campaign allocations, ordering, shipping, and invoicing seamless – without an Excel file in sight!
Stay up to date
Multi site businesses often have stores that buck the trend and have a different fit out, or have different product offerings. Knowing who these stores are reduces any problems individual sites might have with national campaign kits. It also reduces waste by only sending materials each store will actually use.
In order to save on second delivery charges, keep logistics in mind. Ensure addresses are correct and provide alternate delivery points to your suppliers if you know a site might not be open during a time that couriers are likely to arrive.
Tighten up a few processes, reduce waste and look for ways to make administering national campaigns easier. With the basics covered, you can spend more time finding hidden savings on your national campaigns.