Franchise marketing consultant: when should you hire a specialist?

What does a franchise marketing consultant do?

A consultant advises and designs; the execution lies with your own team or an agency. Typical assignments:

• A marketing strategy and annual plan for the franchise brand.
• The split of the marketing fund between national and local.
• A baseline measurement of visibility per location in Google and AI.
• A playbook and training for franchisees.
• Selecting and managing agencies.

See also a marketing plan for your franchise brand and a marketing handbook and brand portal.

What does a franchise marketing consultant cost?

Consultants usually charge by the hour or a fixed price per project. Below is what our hourly rate of €65 means per month, excluding VAT.

Consultant, freelancer, agency or in-house manager?

Which option suits you depends on what you are missing: knowledge, execution capacity or direction.

Why a specialist rather than a generalist?

A generalist knows marketing; a franchise specialist also knows the tensions. How do you win over franchisees who do nothing with marketing? How do you account for the fee? How do you measure per location instead of per domain? These are questions where experience with franchise brands makes the difference. Also read why regular agencies cannot manage per location.

Who provides the advice at Franchise-Marketing.nl?

Gijs Bodenstaff has been active in online marketing and local SEO since 2010, set up a franchise brand himself and has written several books on visibility for franchise chains, including the 2027 handbook for franchise chains. He works from the office at Herengracht 280 in Amsterdam, with a permanent team and ten trained freelancers for execution. You can read more about him in Gijs's background.

How to choose a good franchise marketing consultant

Do not just ask about marketing experience, ask about experience with franchise brands. A consultant should be able to explain how they bring franchisees on board, how they measure per location and how they deal with the marketing contribution. Ask for an example of a plan or report, and agree in advance what the advice will deliver and when it will be finished. A fixed quote prevents surprises. Also pay attention to the rapport with your board and franchisee advisory council: a consultant who speaks the language of entrepreneurs gains buy-in faster.

Also agree how knowledge will be transferred. A good engagement does not end with a report gathering dust in a drawer, but with a team that can carry on independently. So ask for working agreements, templates and a short training for the people who will carry out the plan. Set dates for reviewing progress together, for example after three and after six months, and decide which figures should have improved by then. That way you pay for results at your locations and not just for advice, and you know exactly when the consultant's role can be scaled back.

What does a three-month consultancy engagement look like?

To make it concrete: this is how an average engagement runs for a franchise brand with twenty to fifty locations. In month one, the emphasis is on analysis. We assess three to five locations in Google, Google Maps and AI assistants, review the marketing plan and how the fund is spent, and talk to a few franchisees about what they are missing.

In month two comes the plan: a division of tasks between head office and locations, a calendar for the coming year and a proposal for reporting per location. We present the plan to the board and, if desired, to the franchisee advisory council. In month three, we guide the start of execution with a pilot group, and hand over templates and working agreements to your own team or to an agency.

After three months, we look back together at the first figures. Then you choose: carry on yourself, use us as an occasional sounding board or outsource the execution. A similar set-up, but aimed at the whole team, can be found under franchise workshops.

Finally, an honest caveat: a consultant is not always the best choice. If you have no structure at all, no in-house marketing capacity and little time to think things through yourself, a fine plan soon gathers dust because nobody can carry it out. In that case, it works better to start straight away with a hands-on team and let the strategy grow step by step with the first results. If you do have people in-house but lack an overview or specialist knowledge of local visibility and AI, a consultant can deliver big gains in a short time. Feel free to discuss this in the first conversation; a good adviser will also tell you when their role is not the right one at that moment.

How does an engagement with a consultant start?

1. A free 30-minute introductory call.
2. A scan of three locations.
3. A fixed quote for the advice.
4. The plan, presented to the board or franchisee advisory council.
5. Guidance during execution, or a handover to your team.

Start with the free, no-obligation marketing scan or see contact details and directions.