Franchise brands have a unique challenge when it comes to content production. Each franchisee has its own marketing needs, creative ideas, and customer expectations to fulfill. This can make the life of the central marketing team incredibly hectic, especially in the weeks leading up to a campaign. Franchise brands can struggle to keep up without a process or a method to simplify it. As a result, brand messaging can become fragmented, and presentation can become inconsistent.
This is when branded templates come to the rescue!
What are branded templates?
Branded templates are pre-designed, customizable assets that can create consistent brand messaging across all franchise locations. They provide a framework that enables franchisees to create their own on-brand content adapted to local market conditions.
In other words, branded templates bring calm and consistency to your content production process, even if you're a franchise or multi-location organization!
How branded templates benefit content production
Branded templates are a powerful tool for franchise brands looking to simplify content creation and maintain consistent brand messaging across franchise locations.
Here are 4 ways templates can benefit content production:
1. Reduce content creation time
Franchisees or local marketing teams can use existing templates to create content, reducing the time it takes to search for the correct formats, designs, colors, or fonts. They choose the correct template, create content, and distribute it as needed. Your teams will have significant headway in content production, so campaigns will go out earlier than expected. Yet, your brand identity will still be on point.
2. Adapt to local market conditions
Templates enable franchisees to create their own on-brand content adapted to local market conditions. This allows franchise locations to connect more effectively with their target audience, making it easier for them to build a loyal customer base.
3. Increase consistency
It is vital to be consistent in your brand messaging and visual elements to build a strong, recognizable brand that is easily identified by customers. By providing a library of pre-approved templates, franchise brands can ensure that all franchise locations have the same brand appearance, even though messaging differs. The central marketing team determines how much freedom franchisees get by locking specific brand elements, such as fonts, images, or texts.
4. Streamline the approval process
Templates simplify the approval process for franchisees' marketing materials. This can reduce the workload for brand headquarters' marketing teams and enable them to focus on strategic initiatives rather than spending time on approving individual franchisees' marketing materials.
Learn more about the ROI of branded templates
Tools to maximize the benefits of Branded Templates
Using franchise marketing software or a branded template platform can take the benefits of branded templates to the next level. These platforms not only allow franchisees to edit templates but also to distribute them via all online and offline channels, including social media, print, and narrowcasting.
Some platforms, like Marvia, also have DNA mechanisms that enable you to preload templates with individual outlet data like menus, opening hours, languages, or specific imagery. Another valuable feature is workflows that ease the approval process. Before publishing content, the central team can review new or edited templates to ensure they align with brand guidelines, like the tone of voice.
If you're interested in learning more about how branded templates and software tools can benefit your franchise brand, you can get a free demo of Marvia's branded template platform to start creating content faster with fewer resources and bottlenecks.