When it comes to franchising, consistency is key. Consistency in marketing strategies, messaging, branding, design, and atmosphere is so incredibly important for franchises.

However, maintaining brand consistency and adhering to brand guidelines is difficult for even small businesses with a single location. Add another location or even several across the country, and the challenge becomes overwhelming.

So, how can franchises maintain brand compliance effortlessly and affordably in a way that eases corporate efforts and supports each franchisee? The answer: with the help of a Franchise Marketing Portal and we have the details you need to get started.

What Is a Franchise Marketing Portal?

Franchise Marketing Portals—also known as “Brand Portals,” "Web-to-Print Portals,” or "Ordering Portals”—are online storefronts where franchise owners and their team can access and order all branded materials and assets including:

• Direct mail materials (postcards, catalogs, envelopes, letterhead, etc.)
• Promotional products (pens, apparel, signage, event tents, etc.)
• Printed materials (business cards, brochures, door hangers, banners, flyers, etc.)
• Digital assets (logos, digital catalogs, online ad designs, mailing lists, etc.)

By placing all branded assets in one place, and streamlining orders, franchises are able to quickly and easily obtain the brand-compliant materials and assets they need to successfully represent the overall franchise’s brand and deliver their message.

Within Marketing Portals, franchisees can even easily customize certain design elements including contact information on business cards, website URLs on postcards, images on brochures, or addresses on signage without ever compromising brand compliance.

The Benefits of Franchise Marketing Portals

Better Support for Franchisees

When someone joins your franchise, sending them franchise brand guidelines and the corporate marketing team’s contact information isn’t enough. Sending them design assets and templates for marketing materials is too much. When franchises handle supporting their franchisees in these ways, they risk inconsistent branding and an overwhelmed franchisee.

With a Marketing Portal utilized, all a franchisee needs to do is login to your Marketing Portal and they then have access to all the branded assets that you allow them to have access to.

A Protected Brand Through Brand Consistency

With Franchise Marketing Portals, only users who are given access to the portal can place orders. Design templates and materials are pre-approved by corporate and align with brand guidelines and are the only materials franchisees can order. Because of this, all franchise owners, whether in California or New York, have the exact same materials resulting in consistent branding and a protected brand throughout your entire franchise.

Even if franchise locations are given the ability to personalize location specific information on design templates using the custom-built online design tool, the overall branding and design remain consistent.

Completely Custom-Built

Marketing Portals, or Brand Portals, are custom-built for each franchise and reflect each franchise’s needs. This includes the design of the interface, the product selections, the payment setup, the design tools for products that include customization, and more.

Marketing Portals even allow you to customize who has access. For example, a new franchisee may only be able to view and order certain materials or a certain quantity while more established franchisees can access all branded products.

Grows & Scales with Your Franchise

All franchises have the goal to expand and increase the number of locations they have. Yet, the larger a franchise gets, the harder it is to make changes to marketing assets while maintaining brand compliance.

However, Marketing Portals are designed to scale with your franchise. Because Marketing Portals are just one online interface that all franchisees access, it’s easy to make changes to products, add or remove products, update designs, or update your branding. Once changes are made, your Franchise Marketing Portal users only have access to the newly approved branded assets.

A Decrease in Waste

Franchise Marketing Portals offer a print-on-demand experience. This allows franchisees to place smaller quantity orders as needed instead of large orders which may not be used resulting in wasted money.

Accessible Anywhere & At Any Time

Marketing Portals can be accessed 24/7 and orders can be placed 24/7 meaning no matter what time zone a franchise owner is in or how they delegate their time, they can place orders when it’s most convenient for them.

Plus, because everything about Marketing Portals is handled within one online interface and is accessible wherever there is internet access, franchisees can place orders wherever they are and corporate can easily keep track of orders and invoicing to better support their franchisees without having to contact them.

Inventory Fulfillment & Management Options

When you have a large franchise, chances are you have marketing materials that are used regularly. To help franchisees obtain these materials quickly, Marketing Portals offer a complete inventory fulfillment and management option.

The collateral that is ordered frequently is already produced and placed in your printer’s warehouse. When a franchise owner needs these materials, they are sent directly to them, cutting out the entire production time. Alerts are even sent to you when inventory is low so you can ensure the materials your franchisees need are always ready for them.

Increased Efficiency

Franchises that take advantage of a Marketing Portal see an increase in efficiency. This is because what used to take them a large amount of time, now takes them only seconds. Instead of franchisees running around and making calls to obtain brand-compliant marketing assets, all they need to do is log in to the Franchise Marketing Portal, choose a product, make changes, if necessary (including names on business cards or addresses on postcards), and then place the order. For orders that they place regularly, all they need to do is visit their job history and place a reorder with one click.

How to Look for The Right Franchise Marketing Portal

Once you’ve decided to take advantage of a Franchise Marketing Portal, you need to find the right one that fits your franchise’s needs.

When searching for the right Marketing Portal, be sure to look for a portal that offers:

• Complete customization capabilities
• An easy-to-use platform
• A system that makes managing assets and user access easy
• Tools and capabilities that maximize efficiency
• An all-in-one, easy to access online platform
• Scalability for your growing franchise
• A wide variety of materials and solutions that can be integrated
• Fast turnarounds with inventory storage options
• Affordable pricing
• A customer service team that is trained in your specific franchise’s portal

At Kingston Printing, we offer all the above plus more and we guarantee that implementing a Marketing Portal within your franchise’s operations will allow you to better support your franchisees, ensure brand compliance is met, help your entire franchise run cost and time-efficient operations and so much more.

If you’re interested in the benefits of a Marketing Portal for your franchise, click the button below to schedule a free demo today!