Alan Magee

Personality of a brand, product or person is dynamic which is why videos such a strong tool to bring it to life. A static image or copy post leaves a lot to interpretation while video tells a story with tone and a point of view that engages the viewer. Note that based on your platform you may need different video approaches with different goals.

In a franchise organization as a local marketer, you should start with what is the franchisor marketing plan that will be in place to compliment your local strategies. In some cases, you will want to double down on their efforts and in others, you will want to fill other parts of the marketing funnel. For instance, if the franchisor (typically) is focused on the top of the funnel (awareness & consideration), then you should focus your campaigns on middle and bottom of the funnel. For larger DMA's, you may need to do more complimenting of the franchisors approach, where in smaller DMA's the alternate channel approach typically performs stronger. In all approaches, continue to test and optimize and you will find the right mix for success.

Setting your goals starts at the top of what your objectives are with your leadership team. Understanding what part of the business you are trying to achieve and how, along with who your target is. If you matrix all of this together then it will help create measurable outcomes. The key to truly finding the right spend and impact is by consistently A/B testing and rigorous data analytics. As a marketer you should be optimizing very frequently, testing in every campaign and tracking all your metrics to understand the "why" and "what" behind each action. Over time this will progressively build out to a playbook that helps you more easily create the right budget, plan and specific goals to drive your business.

To understand your local target market you can start with the overarching target information from the franchisor. In most cases, this is going to be broader than what is actionable at a local level. I'd suggest that you streamline the target based on your local consumers and focus your marketing efforts towards them. Even in one local market you will see a wide array of demographic, age and consumer behavior for the same brand locations that are close to each other. I recommend spending time in your local markets to hone this in which will create efficiency in your campaigns.

You first have to start with deeply understanding your brand at a local level (the perception from consumers), your competition and what is the space you are trying fill. Then you need to overlay it with the brand identity and strategy from the franchisor. In some cases, there will be direct correlation, in others there will be disparity...this is common in local franchise marketing. If you take the approach of the brand as a house. All of your marketing should look like it belongs in the house (by channel) but doesn't have to be identical. It's ok to have rooms that are different as long as they fit the overall house aesthetic, purpose and feeling. That is how to best pair franchisor and franchisee creative efforts.

Social media is important as part of you overall marketing communications strategy. Every brand needs to identify the role of their brand and social media in their customers lives. For some brands it may be purely promotional, in others it may be positioning and emotional connection and in others it could be purely education. A brand needs to a choose a path and it can't rely on social media to accomplish all of their marketing channel objectives. Identifying the role inside of the mix will allow it ultimately support overall marketing success to you customer.