Advertising your new franchise

The newspaper is one of the first ways that a lot of people try when they want to have a successful franchise business – lots of people read the newspaper, although the numbers have changed over the years. More than that, the demographics of who reads the newspaper has changed drastically – while in the past you could expect people from their twenties and up to read the paper consistently and respond to print ads within, today the readership of newspapers has skewed to the older crowd as a result of the rise in the number of young people who go to the internet for their information. People also tend to skip over advertisements that they see in the newspaper unless they are full page ads which are generally well illustrated, flashy and cost a lot of money to run as a result.
Before you make arrangements for a newspaper advertisement you should get some figures from the paper on its readership and what kind of demographics and numbers they can provide you for your advertising pound. Compare that against the kind of customers who are interested in coming to your store, and if you find that there is significant overlap then a newspaper ad might be a good way for you to get more people to come in. Usually to get a strong response from the newspaper advertisement, however, you are going to want to run some kind of promotion or put some kind of coupon in – people generally expect to be able to get some kind of discount from the paper and by giving them this you add to the incentive for them to come to your store (and hopefully, come back).
Similar to newspaper ads but easier to direct towards specific demographics and towards a younger crowds, magazines also tend to be more expensive for running ads. The good news is that not only do a lot more young people read magazines, but with magazines you can get a lot better response to your ad by putting it in a magazine which goes out to the kind of people who are interested in topics related to whatever you are selling through your franchise business. If you are running a restaurant then you will want to stick to local magazines but if you have a business which runs over mail order or through the internet then you may find it a profitable move to run an ad in a magazine with a wider distribution for a specific demo.
Circulars, which are handed out to people walking down the street or even to people passing on the road in their cars, are one of the oldest forms of advertising and a good way to start getting the word out about a local restaurant or store. If you are in a location which is easy to access but not that easy to see you may find that circulars are a good way to make people aware of your business. Without the benefit of a large number of walk-in customers, this relatively inexpensive form of advertising is a way that you can get the attention of people in town and you can direct them to you by getting their attention in the kind of place where you would want to position your store if you had the choice. Being one of the least expensive forms of advertising that you can possibly choose from, circulars and flyers are also one of the most popular and the most widely used. While a large number of people may just glance at the flyer that is all that you need to make an impression.
With a radio spot you are making a move which says that you have a successful established business with the money that it takes to pay for a somewhat more expensive form of advertising. Franchise businesses which want to make a strong impression on the community can go with a radio spot to improve the sense that people have of their local standing. The downsides of a radio spot are the cost and the amount of time and effort that you will be putting into creating the spot – technical recording requirements will probably necessitate going to a studio / paying for studio time and the use of their recording engineers, and possibly hiring professional voice actors to get an ad which sounds great and which won’t grate on people’s nerves as they drive to work and back or sit next to the radio.
The television ad is seen as the kind of ads – it is both the most expensive advertisement for you to run and the one which is the most demanding in terms of the time and money that it takes to create. You will have to script your ad, record it with the help of a recording crew (or on your own, if you want to go the truly independent and low-cost route), and then take the recorded materials to a video editing facility where you and the video engineers there will use their machines to edit your advertisement together into something which looks as professional as possible. Paying for a marketing agency to come up with a video ad for you is probably beyond your financial reach, although if your business is very successful already you may be able to do it – your franchise company may also be able to help you in the respect by combining a commercial that they have contracted with a quick information add-on about your local franchise installment.
You also should not forget the role of the internet in advertising franchise businesses today. If your franchise business can sell over the net and through mail order then the internet should be one of the primary parts of your marketing scheme. If you are running a local business it is still a great idea to make sure that your business is well listed in the sites which feature information on local attractions and companies. Make sure that the contact information, address information and everything else about your company’s description is right on the www sites it is listed on by doing Google searches for your company. In some cases you may want to pay for such things as banner ads in the sites of the local papers (which may get a younger readership than the print versions) and even Google Adwords impressions if you have a web site.
Finally, remember that the franchise company is involved with building the brand and they want you to succeed – as a result, they are likely to have some of the best ideas on how to market your franchise location. Knowing which kinds of advertising have worked for their franchise in the past they will be able to direct you towards the deals which make the most sense. In general whenever you have a choice you should try and defer to the wisdom of the franchise company, which wants you to succeed / has your best interests in mind and has the sheer weight of experience to get the job done. In some cases they may cooperate directly with you in negotiating advertising deals or arranging expensive regional advertising which includes the information on how to contact and reach your business. The prices that you pay for advertising will be less as a result and you will get the benefits of exposure for only a fraction of the cost.
Think about all of these advertising possibilities and you will be able to come up with an advertising plan for your new franchise business which makes sense given your unique combination of location, business type and clientele. A good amount of research as well as common sense will guide you in the right direction and you will be able to find the help that you need to succeed as a franchise business. Good luck making it big with your new franchise and finding the advertising sources that you need to bring more and more people in and create a runaway financial success!