Franchise Companies Solve Age-Old Marketing Challenges with Zcubator???

(Franchise Buy) - By . Updated Jul 10, 2012

Media Contact: Monica Rutkowski, Fishman Public Relations; (847) 945-1300 x235; mrutkowski@fishmanpr.com

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Franchise Companies Solve Age-Old Marketing Challenges with Zcubator™

New FranConnect management system sets franchisee marketing on autopilot

Reston, Va. (INSERT DATE) – In a recent study of 300 franchise companies, FranConnect, the leading provider of franchise management systems, found that 62 percent of small business owners are struggling to keep up their local marketing campaigns. To help franchisees and franchisors navigate the increasingly complex marketing landscape, FranConnect has unveiled Zcubator™, a single platform that gives franchise systems the ability to easily manage and evaluate the effectiveness of multiple marketing channels, all with a single login.

Despite the fact that a franchise’s success is largely dependent on comprehensive marketing strategies, very few franchisors recruit new owners based on marketing expertise. A general lack of marketing acumen and time leads to inadequacies in the many critical components that fall under local marketing. With this in mind, FranConnect set out to create a platform that puts marketing on autopilot while giving franchisees the guidance and tools to help achieve their revenue goals.

FranConnect’s recently appointed President of Global Operations, Keith Gerson, has worked for large brands in the franchising industry, bringing an insider’s perspective to the challenge. “As a past FranConnect customer, I have experienced the strength and breadth of the existing FranConnect solutions. The integrated and comprehensive approach to marketing that Zcubator offers is unlike anything I have seen in franchising,” said Gerson. “We developed one system to streamline and simplify one of the most critical elements to running a successful business, both at the corporate and local store levels.”

The Zcubator platform houses all aspects of franchise marketing and includes a comprehensive suite of nine marketing applications. From publishing and managing social media, to centralizing marketing assets, to conducting customer surveys, to creating and managing email campaigns and print ads, franchisors have the tools to streamline franchisee marketing while gaining greater control of their brand image. The analytics provided – click-through rates, contact source reports, purchase history – help owners focus on the campaigns that generate the greatest ROI. Franchisees don’t have to guess whether a campaign is effective and franchisors don’t have to wonder how and if franchisees are marketing at the local level. 

Zcubator has proven to be most effective when it comes to the management of a franchise system’s social media campaigns. As this marketing tool continues to rapidly evolve, franchisees and franchisors struggle to sustain a cohesive social media strategy, if any at all. According to a survey by the International Franchise Association, only 22% of franchisors use Facebook, and those that use social media are unable to control content, leading to inconsistent messaging and a lack of unified branding. By centralizing the process, Zcubator gives businesses the opportunity to successfully build a social presence and maintain one voice through multiple channels.  

“We’ve listened to dozens of our existing clients - they tell us franchisee marketing continues to wallow in disarray,” said FranConnect Founder and CEO, Amit Pamecha.  “Most franchisees are too busy running their local businesses to dedicate the time to keep up with marketing demands. Some will give up, or find an array of outside service providers to do the work for them, which leads to a frustrating disconnect among the various strategies. Zcubator offers a single cloud-based platform for running a franchisee’s entire marketing strategy.”

Under Pamecha’s leadership FranConnect has grown to become the world’s largest technology provider to franchise systems with over 450 franchise brands as customers. The company has enjoyed 20-30 percent revenue increases each year for the last eight years. Pamecha holds a MS in robotics from Johns Hopkins University and a B. Tech from IIT Delhi; he also holds patents on public key infrastructure and metamorphic robots.

About FranConnect, Inc:

FranConnect is the leading provider of Franchise Management Systems as more than 450 brands use the company’s comprehensive systems to establish, grow and manage their franchise operations. FranConnect’s integrated suite of applications allows franchisors to manage all aspects of their operations including Franchise Sales, Marketing, Financial Data Collection and Analysis, Royalty Invoicing and Automated Funds Transfer, Contract and Legal Document Management, Customer Relationship Management, Help Desk, Franchisee Support, Online Training, Supply Management, Automated Ad-Builder, E-mail Marketing, Franchisee Websites, ZIP Code Locator Service, QuickBooks, Peachtree and POS Integration. For more information, visit www.franconnect.com.

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