When you’re a brand in a competitive market, franchising industry or not, image can be everything. A big part of that perception is crafted through the company’s marketing initiatives. Today’s marketing mix is more complex than ever before — a direct result of the science behind the strategies. We now have many tools and resources that allow brands to measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. But the core attributes that define a brand’s goals in the world of franchising remain constant. Franchisors need to stand out from the crowd by raising awareness of their value proposition and key differentiators. Marketing programs can do that. Franchisors rely on effective lead-generation techniques to build a pipeline of potential franchisee candidates. Marketing programs are designed to do that, too.
Franchisors need to build trust in their brands — both internally and externally. Once again, marketing efforts can accomplish this objective. But when you can tie all these factors into one comprehensive campaign, that’s a winning strategy. Some franchisors rely on in-house talent to get the job done. For many others, the objectivity of outsourcing their marketing efforts makes the most sense. In either case, it’s the magic of marketing that can move the needle.
Related: Turn Marketing Goals Into Wins for Your Business
If you’re a franchisor who could use a marketing assessment — and maybe even a tune-up, see what the top 15 marketing firms on the 2022 list had to say about themselves:
1. Hot Dish Advertising
At Hot Dish Advertising, we lead the industry, bringing strategy, digital and creative expertise to drive growth goals for more than 400 franchise brands. That’s because only Hot Dish has over two decades of industry-leading expertise, a proven track-record of cultivating growth, and an award-winning suite of custom solutions. Ultimately, we connect more people to franchising and spark more brand loyalty to ignite success. Our business niche is franchising, with branding expertise in both consumer and lead generation. Our experience in franchising helps us go beyond advertising to a more consultative role. As a full-service ad agency, you can count on account services, strategic planning, art directors, copywriters, traditional, digital and social media planning/buying. According to CEO Dawn Kane, it’s the company’s personnel that makes the difference. “Our people make us the best in the business. Not only are they smart but they truly care about the clients business and the success of the campaigns we develop.” And how does their level of service add up to success? Kane states, “Our comprehensive onboarding process allows us to develop strategic campaigns with exceptional creative execution that delivers results for our clients.”
2. SOCi
SOCi is a leading all-in-one digital marketing platform built specifically for “next-level” multi-location marketers. Our customers include top brands and influencers like Ace Hardware, Sport Clips, and Anytime Fitness that have the impossible challenge of managing their digital presence across hundreds or thousands of locations. SOCi’s platform makes the impossible possible by enabling top brands and their locations to strengthen and scale their digital presence across hundreds and thousands of local search and social pages while protecting what matters most, their reputation.
3. TopFire Media
TopFire Media is a full-service, award-winning, and nationally recognized franchise development marketing agency offering digital franchise lead generation, public relations, content marketing, web design and development, and local franchisee marketing. Our diverse brands benefit from our team’s combined decades of experience in franchise development and franchise marketing. We bring all these elements together to deliver a common goal—driving outcomes and results to achieve our clients’ franchise sales growth goals and increase their franchisees’ local marketing efforts.
4. Integrated Digital Strategies
Integrated Digital Strategies (IDS) designs, implements, and maximizes digital marketing strategies for franchise brands. Our combined comprehensive suite of marketing services, together with our dedicated managerial teams, provide a complete solution to creating and maximizing your digital marketing presence. Our in-house experts work with you to attract and retain your ideal clients and customers, thoroughly covering all aspects of your digital marketing needs and allowing you to do what you do best–focus solely on your business..
5. Consumer Fusion, Inc.
Consumer Fusion is the only AI-powered Reputation Management solution that specializes in removing illegitimate negative reviews on over 60 online review sites. With more than 70,000 negative reviews removed, Consumer Fusion allows businesses to maximize their digital footprint with reputation management, local SEO, and social media tools, including automated owner responses and integrated review generation.
Related: Best Practices for Marketing During and After COVID-19
6. Eulerity
Eulerity is the world’s most cost efficient local marketing platform. Using machine learning and automation, Eulerity’s state-of-the-art technology simplifies the complex world of developing and executing digital marketing programs — all for a flat and transparent fee — a fraction of the cost of traditional vendors.
7. Rallio
Rallio is a powerful SaaS platform combining cloud-based social media technology, artificial intelligence, and employee advocacy. As the supplier of choice for franchise organizations and small businesses, Rallio enables multi-location brands and SMB operators to optimize their social media engagement, while managing their entire social media presence, online reputation, and online directory listings in one dashboard for all locations.
8. Qiigo
Qiigo unifies digital marketing for national brands and their locations. Qiigo’s mission is to build brand unity and success by helping businesses get found locally. Through superior service and a comprehensive technology platform, Qiigo solidifies relationships with clients and provides them with successful, measurable, and manageable results. Qiigo is happy to have joined forces with Listen360, a leading customer feedback and reviews provider for multi-location brands.
9. Oneupweb
Oneupweb is full of kind, no-nonsense people who are prepared to help you grow. If you’ve been tasked with ambitious business goals but don’t have the necessary internal resources, you’ll find your support system with Oneupweb digital marketing agency. Oneupweb respects shifting business needs by making services flexible – which means not charging you extra for every bit of unplanned work or consultation. We use data to ensure each marketing strategy speaks to your audience’s changing preferences. And we clearly show you the fine, fine results.
10. Scorpion
Scorpion is a premium provider of marketing and technology solutions for the franchise industry. As a partner for business owners, Scorpion delivers a better way through honest guidance, effective strategies, and award-winning advertising technology for clients who need a clear path forward.
Related: The 5 Best Digital Marketing Strategies to Empower Your Business
11. Brand Journalists
Brand Journalists is the premier franchise lead generation firm in the US. Since 2008, we’ve worked with over 180 franchise brands, creating breakthroughs in sales results, generating cost-effective franchise campaigns and building some of the highest performing franchise recruitment websites in the industry. We’ve helped the development teams we support recruit over 10,000 new franchisees during this time! We are students of the franchise buying journey and we understand how to overcome obstacles that make growth difficult for so many brands. Our highly specialized team consists of former newspaper writers, video journalists and some of the best designers and SEO / PPC practitioners in the country. Our team works on deadline to deliver the results you need to take your franchise development campaign to the next level.
12. Netsertive
Netsertive is the leading digital advertising solution for multi-location marketers who are responsible for driving local profit. Our digital advertising solution provides the most comprehensive suite of digital advertising execution capabilities and ROI analytics tools on the market, to make it possible for multi-location marketers to grow their business more efficiently and effectively through digital marketing.
13. Curious Jane
Curious Jane is the ad agency for franchises. Our insights, expertise, and proven systems help franchises grow locally, regionally, and nationally. We work with leading national franchises and top-ranked franchises on franchise development and consumer marketing to improve strategies and create growth. We offer branding and creative, content marketing, digital and social media advertising, media planning and buying, PR, SEO, web design and development. Lora Kellogg, the president of Curious Jane, talks about what makes her company one of the best in the business. “I believe our culture makes our agency one of the best in our industry. We hire really smart, strategic people who are the right ‘fit,’ and that has created a team of people who not only are the best at what they do, but who respect one another. We’re committed to over-delivering for our clients and have a lot of fun together along the way. How does these qualities equate to providing superior service levels? “As a full-service agency, we can deliver whatever our clients need, whether it’s for franchise development, national consumer marketing or local store marketing. We know that our clients’ time is valuable, so being able to communicate with one contact at one agency about all of their marketing, branding, advertising and creative needs is efficient, saving them time and money. Bringing those services under one roof ensures that their marketing efforts are streamlined and that their marketing dollars are working together rather than paying for duplicative efforts.”
14. DAS Group
DAS Group, a digital marketing company, specializes in local digital marketing programs for franchise organizations and national and regional multi-location brands. We excel at employing first-class technology to deliver client goals, while never losing sight of the people who use it. A certified Google Premier Partner, we are experts at lead generation utilizing interactive advertising, search engine marketing and local search engine placements, custom applications, web development, and online yellow pages. We bring customized solutions to our clients’ unique lead generation and marketing efforts because we don’t believe in a “one-size-fits-all” solution. What makes the company one of the best in the business? According to CEO Christina Parsons, it’s a combination of support and hard work. “Marketing.com, formerly (DAS Group) partners with our clients to understand their business and become fully integrated into the organization – from the onboarding of new locations to getting to know their owners and their unique marketing challenges in the market. We provide exceptional support and work hard to ensure campaigns are effective in helping reach goals set corporately and individually for each location we’re working with. How do these policies add up to superior service? Parsons continues, “We’ve focused on making marketing easier through our omnichannel solutions. We provide solutions for print, digital, and even promotional products – all in one place, making corporate oversight and local execution easier to manage. We allow for insight into how campaigns are performing nationally, regionally, and locally across the network.”
15. C Squared Social
C Squared Social is a full-service digital marketing agency for businesses of all sizes. From paid advertising and content marketing to website development and graphic design, we’re your source for effective digital marketing strategies. Utilizing our 4-Point Targeting Method, eye-catching graphics, and customized campaigns, we deliver quality leads, sales, and brand exposure for our clients. Whether you’re looking for franchise buyers, employee recruiting, in-store customers, web purchases, or app downloads, we can help you reach your goals. Our team of marketing professionals are experts at navigating the complex world of digital platforms. Join the hundreds of businesses that trust C Squared Social with their marketing needs and start reimagining marketing.
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