Did you know email marketing is one of the most impactful digital strategies at your disposal? In fact, email generates conversions 40 times more effectively than social media.
If your franchise isn’t leveraging email marketing to connect with customers, both nationally and locally, you might be missing out on significant opportunities to grow and expand.
Let’s explore how email marketing is driving growth for franchises in Australia and unlock the key strategies to maximise its impact.
How Email Marketing Fuels Franchise Growth
Effective franchise marketing requires aligning the broader corporate strategy with local area marketing (LAM). When these efforts work hand in hand, you create a powerful, cohesive marketing approach that drives both brand recognition and customer loyalty.
Email marketing delivers one of the highest returns on investment. For every $1 spent, email marketing can generate about $36 in return. It’s a cost-effective way to boost revenue while making the most of your corporate and LAM budgets.
Here’s how email marketing can help your franchise grow:
Build Stronger Customer Connections
While corporate emails reach a wide audience, franchisees can create deeper, more personal connections by tailoring emails to local customers’ preferences, and incorporating local references and images. Personalised communication fosters loyalty and enhances the customer experience, helping franchisees resonate with the community, which is particularly important in a diverse market like Australia.
“Understanding and engaging with the local community can significantly boost a franchise’s visibility and customer base.” Business Franchise Australia
Inspire Repeat Business
Personalisation isn’t just about making connections—it’s about keeping customers engaged and coming back. Sharing exclusive local offers, new products, or special promotions to stay top of mind will encourage repeat business.
A brand that does this particularly well is Poolwerx, Australia and New Zealand’s largest pool service provider. A global franchise success story born out of Australia, Poolwerx has over 130 franchise locations. Each local store leverages email and SMS marketing, social media, web platforms, mobile apps and more to communicate customer messages, including special offers (example).
Stand Out in a Crowded Market
Whilst the Australian franchise sector has remained steady over the past five years, it remains a highly competitive space to do business in. Standing out from the crowd is more important than ever and email marketing is helping franchises do just that. Regular, personalised emails keep your franchise top-of-mind and show your involvement in the local community, helping you rise above the noise.
Learn What Your Customers Want
Email marketing can provide valuable insights into customer preferences. By tracking metrics like open rates and click-through rates, you can learn what content resonates most and when they want to hear from you.
For example, we know the best time to send emails to customers in Australia and New Zealand is on Fridays:
An email sent on a Friday tends to record the highest open rates and click-through rates, it’s also the lowest send count for the week, meaning there is less competition for attention in the inbox.
Collecting this data through an email marketing tool allows you to fine-tune your approach based on data – helping you to be more successful with every send.
9 Must-Try Email Marketing Tips for Franchises
Ready to make the most of your email marketing efforts? Here are some expert tips for creating effective campaigns:
- A/B Test Your Subject Lines for Impact
The subject line is your email’s first impression–it’s the key to whether recipients hit “open” or ignore your message. A/B test subject lines to find the best performers, enabling you to refine your strategy with data-backed insights. Aim for brevity—keep them under 10 words to grab attention in the inbox.
- Personalise to Boost Engagement
Adding personal touches—like addressing customers by name or offering birthday discounts—can increase open rates by 26%. An email marketing tool, like Constant Contact, makes it easy to add personal details and preferences at scale, removing the heavy lift and time needed to personalise communications for every customer.
- Grow Your Email Subscribers Organically
A high quality email list is key. Steer clear of purchased lists and focus on building a genuine subscriber base that has opted in. Use sign-up forms on your website, encourage in-store sign-ups, and offer incentives to grow your list organically over time.
And importantly, don’t hide the unsubscribe button – it keeps your list clean. Making it easy for customers to opt out will also mean they are less likely to report your emails as spam, helping to protect your credibility with email providers.
- Build Trust with Consistent Branding
An effective way to boost clicks and engagement is to make sure your emails are instantly recognisable. Email tools built with franchises in mind allows you to keep your branding and content consistent across multiple locations.
Franchisees can use branded templates and localise where necessary, and franchisors can approve campaigns before they’re sent, ensuring the brand identity is reinforced across every communication.
- Maximise Franchise Reach with High Deliverability Rates
For your email campaigns to succeed, they need to reach your customers’ inboxes. Choose an email platform provider that has a high deliverability rate to ensure your messages arrive where they’re meant to – not in spam or junk folders. Constant Contact has an industry-leading deliverability rate of 97%, with best practices built into the platform to help improve your sender reputation giving you comfort with every send.
- Use Segmentation to Avoid Inbox Overload
While many customers appreciate regular emails, sending too many can lead to a high unsubscribe rate. Today’s advancements in AI and automation can help marketers and small business owners to create engagement-based segmentation and targeted marketing campaigns that balance frequency and engagement.
For example, build a list of highly-engaged franchise customers and keep them engaged across their preferred channels of communication, rather than sending promotions to customers who don’t open emails.
- Work Smarter with Automation
Email automation not only saves time but increases customer engagement and revenue. Recovering lost sales with abandoned cart emails? No problem! With Constant Contact, you can automate welcome emails, follow-ups, reminders, and personalised messages to stay top-of-mind with your customers, without adding to your to-do list.
- Optimise for Mobile
With 70% of emails opened in mobile apps, mobile optimisation is crucial. Use mobile-friendly designs to ensure your emails look great on any device. This not only positions the brand positively, it encourages your audience to read your content.
- Use Strong Calls to Action (CTA)
Emails should inform and inspire action. Create compelling CTAs, A/B test them and track their performance to help guide decision-making in future. This data helps you refine your messaging, engage your audience more effectively and drive them to take action, whether that’s visiting your website, app or reaching out to your customer service team.
Why Australian Franchises Choose Constant Contact
“Greater investment in online platforms and mobile technology will help franchised businesses better understand their customer base and create targeted initiatives through product recommendations and improved communication.” – Franchising in Australia Industry Report, March 2024
Centralised Franchise Marketing
Simplifying local marketing while maintaining brand consistency can be a challenge. A platform like Constant Contact makes it easy for franchisees to manage email and social media marketing while adhering to brand guidelines. This allows for personalised, local engagement that fosters customer loyalty, whilst also allowing for unified corporate governance at the HQ level.
Tools to Drive Growth
When your franchisees succeed, your brand grows. Constant Contact offers a variety of capabilities that allow franchisees to customise their local marketing efforts at scale, without draining time or resources. From centralised messaging to scalable tools, you can streamline communication and boost engagement across all locations.
Flexible Support Options
We believe that the best support comes from local people who can genuinely understand your business. Constant Contact offers a range of support options—whether it’s phone, chat, or video tutorials— from our team based in Brisbane, Australia.
We’re dedicated to ensuring that our franchise customers can get the help they need when they need it.
“APAC SMBs are the most likely of any country to need the most help with email marketing.”
Constant Contact Small Business Now Report, 2024
Trusted by Franchises to Deliver Results
Franchise marketing that drives ROI doesn’t have to break the bank. With Constant Contact, you can maximise your digital marketing efforts without the high cost, making it an ideal choice for franchises in Australia that are looking to grow efficiently. Contact us to access Constant Contact’s exclusive rates for franchises.
