By Heather Ripley
You’ve built a solid business plan for your automotive care franchise and your franchisees are doing well. But you’re still not recruiting new owners as quickly as you’d like.
One of the best ways to attract interest from potential franchisees is to develop a public relations strategy that shows the success of your current franchisees.
If you are a parent or a pet owner, you know that showering your children or pets with praise is one surefire way to get them to continue making positive steps. The need to be celebrated isn’t limited to 6-year-olds or fur babies, however. We all like to be honored.
In fact, learning how to celebrate your staff and your franchisees is something all great leaders should know how to do.
But did you realize that bestowing your franchise owners with well-deserved awards can be used as a PR tool to recruit new franchisees?
Turning your awards program into a press release or a series of social media or blog posts is a great way to use PR to help your company stand out from your competitors.
The Role of Franchise PR
As an automotive franchisor, you’ve no doubt helped create a marketing budget that utilized advertising, email and snail mail campaigns, door hangers with coupons and other specials, and other paid promotional gimmicks to help your existing franchisees draw in customers. You may have even used some of your marketing budget to take out ads in franchising magazines so you can draw in some potential franchise candidates.
But marketing alone can’t fulfill your franchise development endeavors alone.
You need to target potential franchisees even before they know they want to enter the world of automotive franchising. The only way to do that is by using PR to build your franchise brand and boost your reputation throughout the general population.
The role of public relations is to get third-party publications to tell your story in a positive light and to present your team as experts in the automotive restoration, repair or customization industries. This can be accomplished through traditional means—like a press release or a media pitch—but effective PR agencies also use awards as a way to showcase your franchising organization.
When your franchise is successful enough to make it on the Inc. 5000 or Entrepreneur Franchise 500 list, you signal to franchisee candidates that your company is stable and growing. Winning awards voted on by your franchisees is also an excellent way to showcase your commitment to your franchise owners.
And that’s the mission of an effective automotive franchise PR agency: to have your story told by the media, to position your leadership team as the authority on automotive care and to help you win the awards that get noticed.
Promoting Your Existing Celebrations
If your company is like most franchises, you probably already offer an annual convention or conference. This not only allows your franchise owners time to network and learn from one another, but it also gives you a chance to provide some ongoing training while your team is all in one place.
At some point during this convention, you may even host an awards ceremony. Giving awards for the most sales, the best customer service or the most improved store can lift your franchisees’ spirits and spur them to participate in some good-natured rivalry to win awards at the next convention.
But if you also publicize your awards in news outlets or trade publications via a press release, you are sharing your company’s best side with the rest of the country. These types of releases showcase your commitment to identifying and praising your team’s hard work.
Recognition shows franchise owners that you value their contributions, and it shows potential franchise owners that their successes will also be applauded if they join your franchise group. People are drawn to companies that praise their employees, franchise owners or other associates because everyone likes to feel celebrated and appreciated.
So when a potential franchisee hears your company’s name, they will remember that you often honor your franchise owners, giving you a leg up on the competition.
Showcasing Your Franchise’s Viability
Publicizing your franchise owners’ achievements is also a subtle way to let franchisee candidates know that your company has a viable business model.
When a potential franchise owner begins searching for a franchising organization to invest in, they want to know that they have a more than decent chance to be successful as a franchisee. What better way to show them the merits of your business model than by touting the success of its franchise owners?
By issuing a press release about the awards both you and your franchisees have won, you can ensure that potential franchisees see all of your company’s successes.
And don’t forget to add these press releases to your own website or repurpose your releases into blogs because an interested candidate will visit your site often. Research for the Franchise Performance Group suggests that as many as 67% of purchasing decisions are made after extensive online research, and franchisee candidates visit the franchise opportunity’s website about 16 times before making a decision.
Make your awards and your franchise owners’ achievements a win-win for your franchise development team by investing in a little public relations to share the news. You’ll show potential franchisees that you value their results, and you’ll also show how successful your business model is in the process.
Heather Ripley is founder and CEO of Ripley PR, an elite, global public relations agency specializing in the franchising, skilled trades and B2B tech industries. Ripley PR has been listed by Entrepreneur Magazine as a Top Franchise PR Agency for seven consecutive years and was recently named as one of Newsweek’s America’s Best Public Relations Agencies for 2024. Heather Ripley was recently named as a 2024 PRNews Top Women honoree in the business entrepreneur category, and she was recently named as ACHR NEWS’ Top Women in HVAC. She is also the author of “NEXT LEVEL NOW: PR Secrets to Drive Explosive Growth for your Home Service Business,” which is now available on all audiobook platforms. For additional information, visit www.ripleypr.com.