Your child franchise business has given you the opportunity to help the children and families in your local area. Once you’ve gotten your business established, you need to focus on getting feet through the door (or calls on the phone)! There are several ways that you can do local marketing, both offline and online, in order to make your child franchise a success. Look over the following checklist and make sure that you are applying these marketing techniques to your business
1. Hold a grand opening event.
One of the best ways to get attention as you start your business is to hold a grand opening event. If your franchise is a brick and mortar store you can hold it right in your facility, or if you’re a service based business you can find a local facility to hold it at. Make sure to have refreshments and offer some type of special deal. You can hold a raffle, give a performance, have some type of game…it all depends on the nature of the business. Remember that the goal of the event is for people to come and have fun, and to introduce your business. Don’t focus on getting new customers in that moment. Just get your name out there.
2. Look for opportunities to connect with other local businesses.
When it comes to shopping for their children, parents tend to travel in packs. They’ll tend to go to an exercise class they’ve heard about at an art class, and vice versa. Hooking in with the existing child centered businesses in your area is a good way to get some new customers. Look for businesses in your area that are in the same vein as yours but aren’t competing. For example, if you own a tutoring child franchise you can find other businesses that cater to school age children. Approach the business owner for some type of cross promotion. At the very least, you can post flyers in their facility. It may turn into a good networking opportunity for both of you.
3. Get your local Internet marketing plan in order.
Having a website online for your business is an absolute necessity. Recent changes to search engines have made it possible for you to leverage your location so your website rankings will increase. What this means is that when someone types in “second hand kid’s clothes” and they live in your area, they’ll be able to see your consignment shop website in the first page of results instead of just general information about second hand clothes. Google, Yahoo and Bing are consistently making local business listings a priority for certain types of searches. What this means on your end is that you need to be sure to include the words “your city” in your business website. For example, “Carson City second hand kid’s clothes” should be in the content of your website. You can also create a blog that includes other location specific terms about your business that will place you higher for your location based terms.