Estevan and Hannah, at Think Bright Marketing the preferred digital marketing vendor for Generator Supercenter franchising, aim to discuss strategies and provide resources for your market, offering clarification on their goals and approaches, including Google Ads.
Think Bright Marketing aims to drive brand awareness, phone calls, and form submissions for new Generator Supercenter franchises, as these factors contribute to sales of installations and maintenance. The company emphasizes discussing specific goals with each franchise to determine how to best allocate resources for their local market and business.
Hannah and Estevan state that the strategy for new franchises is unique due to its simplicity, scalability, and results. They explain that they take a corporate-approved marketing strategy, distill it, and apply it at a localized level, which allows new franchises to avoid startup costs and quickly implement a proven game plan.
The social and ad strategy focuses on analytical, differentiator, and emotional concepts to reach various types of buyers. The analytical aspect includes numbers, unit performance, and pricing; the differentiator highlights turnkey installation, code compliance, and certified technicians; and the emotional element showcases how generators provide peace of mind by ensuring uninterrupted daily life.
The marketing funnel consists of awareness, interest, consideration, nurturing, and closing stages. The awareness stage uses broad marketing to achieve top-of-mind recognition, while the interest stage engages the right audience with analytical, differentiator, and emotional messaging. The nurturing stage focuses on converting interested leads into customers through strategies like email marketing campaigns and promotions, leading to the final close, where corporate resources and sales pitches are leveraged.
The main marketing platforms utilized are Google, Facebook, and Instagram, with YouTube as a secondary platform. Google is used for targeting users with high purchase intent through keywords and for brand awareness, while Facebook and Instagram are used for various content types like blog posts, analytical data, emotional appeals, and installation photos to tell a consistent brand story.
A new franchise’s marketing budget depends on its opening date, with minimum spends of $1,500 for Google Ads and $300 for Facebook for brand awareness, or $750 for Facebook and Instagram for more impactful campaigns. The speaker recommends a budget of $3,500 to $5,000 in ad spend approximately two to three weeks before launch, ideally using their gold package, which is equivalent to a full-time employee and covers various marketing aspects.
The primary goals of the program are phone calls and form submissions, with an emphasis on form submissions for lead generation that supports both immediate sales and long-term drip campaigns and remarketing efforts. The program’s effectiveness is primarily measured by form submissions, as phone calls are considered a bonus due to the difficulty in filtering out spam and unqualified leads.
Selling generators is a seasonal business, with typical slowdowns in December, January, and February, and a transition period in April before peak season begins in May. While areas like New Hampshire, Maine, and upstate New York experience later starts to spring and summer, their demand for generators extends an extra three to four weeks longer than other regions.
Initial results for a new franchisee can be expected in the first month, though they may be “poor” and require refinement. Consistency in the marketing program should be achieved by month three, at which point the market and performance metrics can be understood well enough to predict future results with fair accuracy, assuming no major weather events.
New franchises can access their localized website and related resources, including Google Analytics and Tag Manager, with corporate approval. Approved vendors or owners can edit pages, receive form submissions, and gain further access by emailing corporate for permission, ensuring full transparency and control over their marketing investments.