New Franchise Owner Finds Customer Acquisition Success in Mobile

Quad State Business Marketing Insider: New Franchise Owner Finds Customer Acquisition Success In Mobile

Actual Case Studies from Real Businesses

--From the QSBJ What's Working Now for Local Strategies

A new franchise owner connected with a consultant to see what could be done to grow their business beyond what the franchisor gave.

It was a new concept, especially in the Quad State region, and the new owner was following things 'by the book' as recommended by the franchisor when they wanted to think outside the proverbial box without breaking their agreement.

The Old Standby of Coupons Was Raised for the Food Franchisee

The new franchisee would be the first one to confess that they new virtually nothing about creating, growing and maintaining a constant contact with their customer base as they were a first-time business owner.

The consultant was amazed that a fairly new and up and coming food franchisor would think that new buyers of the franchise, especially if they have never owned a business could, by seeming osmosis, develop that information without guidelines.

The new owner was on a fairly tight budget and told the consultant so.

The consultant came with a background in direct marketing as well as advertising and website marketing as well. It was only after a period of analyzing the new franchisee's market that coupons came up as a very real gambit. The franchisor also mentioned coupons, but it was via expensive to hook up with the national coupon brand that the franchisor recommended.

Coupons, Yes, But With a Few Partners to Cost-Share

The consultant recommended that they develop a strategic alliance with other non-competitive food marketers in their end of town. The initial offering had three coupons on an oversize postcard rather than an envelope.

The new strategic 'partners' in the mailing, all approved by the new owner, were excited to combine their advertising dollars. It did remind some to check with their own suppliers to see if they had some co-op ad dollars they could spend.

The project was delayed somewhat due to one of the new postcard partners not wanting to give as deep of a discount as the other two participants. The consultant for the new franchisee insisted on the coupon discount from the other participants being fairly deep so as to attract the greatest amount of response from people.

While the consultant showed the reluctant participant how to capture their customers so that upsells to higher margin food treats could be made, the third participant was finally ready to go. They used a recommended method by a Quad State participating consultant in the Business Solution Network (www.TheBusinessSolutionNetwork.com).

Added to the 'Anchor' Advertiser: Mobile Text Marketing

The franchisee took a great trend in retail couponing to add text marketing to the mix. This texting idea was very exciting for the new business owner and he wanted to do it every week 'in order to keep the new customers excited about his offers.'

The actual campaign was more manageable with an every other week push text as to the franchisee's back-office responsibilities in getting offers and employees ready for each new message.

Table tents inside the business and a 'club' concept evolved with employees getting extra 'points' (dollars, prizes) each time they signed up a new customer for the push texts. The every other week text push was much better on the customers' attitudes also.

Quad State businesses will want to be careful to not be too swayed by other businesses using push text messaging as some business owners report that push text is losing its 'newness' and novelty among customers in some markets.

The Bottom Line Was Benefited By a Joint Effort

In any integrated campaign, owners must first look at both their product, market and staff as coupon campaigns that include other media works best by shared involvment.

The result was that not only that the employees gave out printed flyers to those picking up to-go orders as well as eat-in customers. Employees were also incentivized to take extra flyers home with them to spread out in their own neighborhoods.

With as much work that went into the campaigns it may have benefited the new owners to spend the time to build an app for their business. Yet many business owners and even many marketing consultants are not aware what an app can accomplish for both businesses and clients.

Much of the Graphics for the Promotion Gained Free or at Greatly Reduced Costs

The owner had use of a resource very similar to the Quad State's new Business Solution Network. More money could have been saved if the owner and the consultant could have utilized the resources in the Business Solution Network (URL at end of article).

Many times the graphics a national franchisor sends a new franchisee will have to be either greatly edited or ordered anew to fit local situations. That is why a resource such as the Business Solution Network will eventually be worth its weight in gold as local businesses get to know local business suppliers.

Gross Receipts Were Increased 'At Least' 4 Percent Over the Last Promotion

Whether or not a business uses the USPS' EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) program or develops their own mailing list, attention to the aggressiveness of each subsequent offer must be given. Careful records must be kept in addition.

In the first promotion, results were reported as 'too high to be reasonable' by the owner. Yet each promotion produced an ROI way over individual costs. In this case the average gross receipts were measured. As each subsequent promotion dropped in its 'newness' to the customer base, no promotion measured less than 4 percent.

Whether or not one works with a consultant, the bottom line to marketing in virtually all cases is: What gets measured gets improved.

There is a verse in Proverbs that states “There is safety in many counselors...” That goes double for Quad State businesses. While some businesses can afford it and love to have their different advisors get together to advise them, the Quad State region offers many no-cost options such as SBDC and SCORE offices as well as non-competitive friends in business.

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Courtesy: Quad State Business Journal: www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com

Resource mentioned, The Business Solution Network: www.TheBusinessSolutionNetwork.com