Text Request Talks

5 Franchise Brand Growth Tips with Rolling Suds’ Aaron Harper

Business texting can boost your franchise, you just need the right tactics in place.

Here’s how to use text messaging to expand your franchise brand and empower your franchisees.

This article takes insights from our Text Request Talks podcast with Aaron Harper and further distills it into advice specific to texting. Harper is the CEO and Owner of Rolling Suds and previously served as the Senior Director of Franchise Development for Chem-Dry.

The following tips expand on how to add business texting to your existing franchise tactics.

Watch the full interview on YouTube.

1. Speed up your franchise development with text messaging.

Growing your franchise brand starts with selling more locations. Harper says that streamlining how potential franchisees reach out to start this process with you is a key component of franchise development.

So how can your own franchise make it easy for potential franchisees to reach out?

Advertise that people can text you directly to learn more about joining your brand. Your call-to-action “Text Us to Apply for a Location” can exist everywhere, including:

Billboards
Corporate social media accounts
Digital ads
Corporate website

Your corporate website, especially, will attract more leads when you use SMS Chat. It’s a widget that invites potential franchisees to start a text conversation with you from your website.

This tool works around the clock to draw potential franchisees, and can even start the application process for you when you set up autoresponders. Autoresponders automatically trigger custom replies to inbound messages. These replies can include links directing franchisees to fill out contact forms or requests for more information.

This simultaneously automates the start of your application process, while drawing potential franchisees directly to it. That means less work as you expand your brand and create more revenue opportunities.

2. Add business texting to your franchises’ arsenal.

Harper recommends that your franchisees utilize multiple communication channels. Since 62% of people read and respond to texts within a few minutes, business texting is a great one to add.

Text-enable your locations’ business numbers, so customers can reach them the way they most prefer to schedule services or inquire about stock.

Text Request enables you to text from each of your location’s business lines, so your entire team can text from the same place. Each location can have its own line, and there’s no limit to the number of users.

Text-enabling your phone numbers doesn't affect voice services, and this way you can text with customers from your computer or mobile app using your business number. That’s helpful for all the additional SMS marketing tactics we’re about to share below!

3. Build robust customer acquisition strategies through text.

Building robust customer acquisition strategies is the next step Harper recommends franchises take to grow their brands. He urges you to think of your corporate office as a leads center that sets your other locations up for success.

This is where our SMS Chat widget can come in handy again.

A byproduct of having so many franchise locations is needing to direct new customers to the one that is nearest them. When you add all your locations to your corporate website’s SMS Chat, customers can route their message to the location in the city that’s most convenient.

This ultimately draws new customers in with convenience and beats out competitors who don’t offer the same fast communication.

Once these new customers use the widget and opt in for messages from your franchise, you can then start sending them targeted promotion—which we’ll discuss more below.

4. Share regular SMS promotions about your franchise's offers.

Now that you’re generating customers for your locations, it’s time to keep them coming back.

Harper says you don’t want to leave your locations on their own to do this. Instead, aid your locations by regularly sending SMS promotions about seasonal discounts or new offers to the contacts you’ve gathered.

Start by categorizing your customers into groups, or segmented lists, based on things like past purchases. For example, consider who's bought certain things that might also be interested in a complementary product or service.

Once your contacts are in groups, you can send mass texts that target their needs. Mass texts work like BCC email, so any responses become one-on-one conversations that customers can then use to schedule their next service or ask further questions.

Harper attributes most of his own franchise development success to playing an active hand in driving customers to his locations.

5. Send mass texts to keep franchisees up-to-date on best practices.

Harper says that ongoing education and support for all locations needs to be a priority for franchise development. Keeping everyone within your franchise connected is an enormous task, but text messaging helps make it smaller. Mass text everything from:

Upcoming brand events
Tactics working well for others
New partnerships or tech
Brand highlights
Customer success stories
Survey links to report performance

Mass texts give your corporate team the power to reach everyone at once. Any replies become one-on-one conversations that can be used to further help franchisees.

Ongoing communication like this is what will drive growth across your entire franchise.