8 Reasons Why Blogging is a Great Way to Promote Your Franchise
Alice Tuffery, writer
Published at 11/01/2018, Updated on 04/05/2022 , Reading time: 5 min
Investigating blogging as a marketing tool? If so, we believe you’re on the right track. Starting a blog - and maintaining it - is a great way to promote your franchise business and gain that all-important online brand visibility.
Did you know 70 percent of people prefer to learn about a business through articles as opposed to adverts? And 60 percent enjoy reading content created by brands. As a result, companies with an active blog get around 67 percent more leads than those without (Demand Metric).
If you’re thinking about how to promote your franchise business, don’t overlook the importance of blogging. It gives customers a direct insight into your company and the way you present yourself, allowing you to share news, testimonials and promotions.
Why promote your franchise business with a blog?
Here’s why you can upgrade your franchise marketing by starting a blog.
1. It can boost your brand awareness
Every time you publish a blog post, you create an opportunity for others to share and discuss your content. If just one person distributes it through their profile, you could increase your readership by tens or even hundreds of people.
Blogging can help you turn complete strangers into website visitors and website visitors into active customers. Building brand awareness is all about getting people to recognise your business and its products and services. The more people who talk about your brand, the more credibility it has in the eyes of consumers.
2. It can drive more traffic to your website
Any business with an online presence should be dedicated to improving its ranking position on search engines like Google, and blogging can help.
We’ve created a comprehensive guide to SEO (search engine optimisation) but, put simply, the more high-quality blog posts you write, the greater your potential for increased online visibility. In turn, the more website traffic you generate, the more sales you’ll be able to make through your e-commerce pages.
3. It can help you establish a dialogue with customers
When you market your franchise business with a blog, you can communicate with your customer base in a conversational way. Thanks to the informal nature of blogging, businesses can often establish a more meaningful relationship with consumers than they would if they just released a glossy advert.
Helping customers connect with a brand can have a hugely positive impact on leads and sales. The trick is to know what your customers want; judge the current mood and consumer behaviour patterns and create relevant content. Just remember not to spam your readers; you need to provide enough updates to keep them informed, but not so many they feel overwhelmed.
>> Read more:
- What is the Marketing Fee and Why is it Necessary?
- Developing an effective franchise marketing plan
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- 10 Tips for Building Truly Effective Social Media Marketing Campaigns
- Franchising 101: 8 Essential Marketing Strategies for Promoting Your Business
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4. You can use a blog to build trust
Using blogging as a marketing tool is a great way to develop a trustworthy reputation for two main reasons. Firstly, you can gradually develop a relationship over time, reinforcing your credibility among your following. The more they read, the more likely they are to become attached to your business.
Secondly, you can use your blog as an outlet to talk about any charity or fundraising work you complete. Blowing your own trumpet on social media can become wearing for followers, but you can use your blog site as a method of authentically recording your activity. Whereas a one-line Facebook post might seem to be inviting compliments, going into detail about your business’s recent volunteering initiative, for example, encourages valuable discussions and further learning among readers.
Both of these factors can help to increase the number of people who trust your intentions, brand ethics and operating practices.
5. It provides the opportunity to position yourself as an expert in your field
Blogging gives you the chance to use your knowledge to inform your readers. Whether it’s useful or just interesting, high-quality content will give your franchise business credibility and authority, which, over time, will improve your reputation.
Publishing top-notch blog posts on a regular basis will also mean more people will associate your brand with positive attributes like professionalism, expertise and accuracy. Of course, this can also work the other way, with ill-informed or poorly written content eventually damaging your reputation. So, it’s important to make sure you’re producing first-rate posts.
6. You can use a blog to promote special offers
Focussing squarely on boosting sales and announcing product launches isn’t necessarily a recipe for success when using blogging as a marketing tool. It’s important to strike a balance between providing real value and encouraging sales, but the odd article showcasing new offers can be highly effective.
You could use blogging to tell customers about upcoming promotions, discounts or new products. Similarly, you might like to use the medium to impress your followers by shining a light on the other ways your business is growing. You could announce franchise expansion plans, new recruits or award recognition to keep readers informed.
>> Read more:
- 5 Qualities of a Successful Franchisor
- 4 Things Franchisees Never Have Time for But Are Essential for Running a Successful Business
- How to Launch a Franchise and Get Noticed
- 4 Elements of a Successful Franchise
- How to Start a New Business on a Shoe-String Budget
- The Ultimate Guide to Franchising Success
7. It’s a cost-effective form of marketing
Compared to other types of promotional activity, such as targetted or television adverts, blogging is relatively inexpensive. All you need to do is ask a freelancer or one of your in-house team members to write regular articles - or you could just create them yourself.
Then, you can simply host them on your existing website and point people towards your latest publications through free posts on social media platforms.
Considering the effect a well-considered post can have on a business’s brand awareness and reputation, blogging is a highly cost-effective marketing method.
8. It’s is a long-lasting form of content creation
These days, we expect businesses to maintain an active presence on at least one of the major social media sites. But, as time goes on, engagement on individual apps fluctuates. Facebook and Instagram have both seen varying levels of popularity over the years, and now Tik Tok is experiencing incredible success. If you put all your eggs in one basket by choosing to promote your franchise purely through one platform, you could be setting yourself up for failure.
Blogging is a great way to engage with customers because your entire catalogue of articles will always be accessible if you store them on your website. As social media apps gradually lose followers, you’ll always have the ability to connect with people through your blogs.
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Alice Tuffery, writer