4 Tips for Running a Marketing Franchise

If you’ve decided to start your own marketing franchise, it’s inevitable that your mind will be turning towards how best you can do it. There are a few things every successful franchisee should do, so here are our 4 key tips for running a marketing franchise.

The digital ad industry is scaling up to the tune of many billions every single year [The Drum], it’s easy to see why so many people are trying to get into the marketing industry. For the right franchisee, there are plenty of profits to be made in the marketing industry. But, how can you be the right franchisee and what do you need to know to run a successful business?

Why become a franchisee in the marketing sector?

The marketing industry is vast and sprawling. In what is a multi-billion pound sector, there are a lot of reasons to be excited about your future. As a franchisee, you’ll have:

• Industry-leading training and support
• Comprehensive financial support packages 
• Beneficial lending rates
• Access to a national brand and trusted customer reputation
• The freedom to lead creative and unique campaigns

Marketing organisations and agencies are at the heart of almost every big business. Your role will be varied, exciting and far-reaching, meaning that no two days will ever be the same. If you’re a creative individual who likes a challenge and are keen to start your own marketing business, here’s how you can run an industry-leading marketing franchise. 

4 tips for running a marketing franchise

If you’ve decided you want to make a go of things as a marketing franchisee, you’re – unfortunately – not alone. Marketing is all about getting the right work in through the door, but you’ll be competing against lots of similarly well-equipped, often more experienced, organisations. Breaking into this sector means you need to be able to stand out from your competitors using the right methods, so here are our top 4 tips.

1. Emphasise quality

There are lots of creative agencies that are able to churn out lots of content in a short span of time, but what will really attract big businesses to you is your quality. In everything that you do, pay special attention to the quality that you are producing and make sure that you keep standards as high as possible. 

Put your efforts into producing quality content and you will get the best out of your employees and, at the very least, the thanks from your clients. This is the way to build a long-term and sustainable business.

2. Encourage your employees

Your business is only as strong as your employees and, as many of them will have had a difficult time over the last few months, try and go beyond just being a business. Reach out to your employees and build your business around them. Embrace their needs, help them to adjust, support their continuous development, and help them to work remotely as they like work flexibly where needed.

Encourage your employees to take an active stake in the business, and help the franchise to work around your employees, and you will be able to foster a supportive company culture that gets the best out of everybody. 

Letting team members know that there is flexibility in the plan to meet their needs will show employees your ability to empathize. Employees who feel cared for are the ones who produce the best results.
- Dave Claflin, Fastest Labs

3. Find a niche

Even the most ambitious franchisee would have a hard time running a general purpose marketing organisation. While you may well decide that you want to grow in a certain direction in the future, find a sector or sub-sector that you know you can get to work in. For example, according to Insider Intelligence, the top five sectors seeing big marketing investment are:

• Retail
• Consumer packaged goods
• Computing products and electronics
• Financial services
• Automotive

If you have previous experience in any of the above sectors, you could already have a major foothold over some of your competitors. Whatever your specific role was, you will already be familiar with what a marketing campaign in your sector should look like. This could be a great place to start, so consider leveraging your experience and contacts to set up an efficient marketing franchise there. 

4. Have an active online presence

One of the unwritten rules of running any kind of creative service is to make sure you have an active online presence. Whether it’s generating leads, attracting the attention of other potential content partners, showing that you have an active response rate or even just showing that your company is real and can be verified can have a big impact on your business.

Good online channels are essential when it comes to showing off your body of work, services, and notable clients that you’ve worked with. Impress potential customers with a smooth and intuitive website and you could be well on the way to growing your organisation quickly.

Start a marketing franchise and push your growth to the next level

Marketing isn’t an easy industry to crack, but with the right expertise and advice at your side, there’s no reason why you can’t start your own marketing business. And, with a bit of momentum, you could very quickly grow your business to rival some of the biggest agencies in the sector.

But if marketing doesn’t sound up your street, you can have a look at the UK franchise directory for a full list of other sectors and franchises that you could work in. Whatever your financial situation, skills, experience and future ambitions, there’s a franchise out there for you.