Metal Supermarkets Provides its Franchisees with the Tools for Marketing Success

While some franchises place a priority on attracting qualified candidates and bringing them into the system, Metal Supermarkets places equal importance on ensuring their success as a franchisee. The Canadian-based franchisor actively assists its owners with digital and local marketing strategies to help them take advantage of opportunities within their market and grow their business.

Metal Supermarkets provides its franchisees with marketing and social media training to help them customize and enhance their local marketing campaigns. It also offers programs that can assist new stores with immediate sales or later build and grow their business over the long term. The franchise also closely monitors several metrics of program success and solicits feedback from its owners.

Metal Supermarkets’ director of franchise development Joseph Riner discusses the company’s comprehensive plan of working with its franchisees to implement programs to drive sales and profitability.

Can you discuss the role of digital marketing and technology in your franchise development and marketing efforts, especially in the context of recent industry trends?

Riner: We rely on digital marketing and personal outreach to generate and nurture leads efficiently. SEO and SEA, targeted ads, and CRM tools help us reach the right candidates while keeping engagement high. Industry trends show that franchise buyers do extensive online research, so having a strong franchisee-focused website is essential, and making sure we can be found online is a big part of our investment.

How do you bridge the gap between franchise development and marketing?

Riner: Marketing attracts and educates prospects, while development builds the relationship and closes the deal. Consistent and clear brand messaging helps educate candidates and sets expectations about our opportunity, while proper lead qualification helps to ensure alignment between both teams.

What are some factors you look for when adding a franchise location in a new market?

Riner: We look at market demand, business density, real estate availability, and competition. The ideal market has a large base of metal-consuming businesses, present across a wide range of industries.

What are some of the challenges and benefits Metal Supermarkets faces in operating franchises in both Canada and the United States?

Riner: The biggest challenges are navigating different national or state/provincial regulations, plus financing options for candidates. However, our extensive experience in navigating both markets gives us a solid foundation for continued expansion.

How do you leverage your marketing efforts to attract new franchisees, while maintaining consistency with the existing brand identity?

Riner: We focus on our nearly 40-year history of success in franchising and how the core of our business sets us apart from others in the industry. We highlight real franchisee success stories across a wide range of markets and our franchise development marketing is targeted and unified across platforms to ensure consistency.

Building strong relationships with franchisees is crucial. How do your marketing efforts contribute to fostering such relationships, and what role does franchisee satisfaction play in growth?

Riner: Marketing doesn’t stop at signing a franchise. We provide ongoing resources like digital and local area marketing strategies, and timely reports on performance insights to help franchisees grow. We also have a local area marketing specialist, whose role is to engage with franchisees about marketing, build a relationship and help them understand and capitalize on local opportunities. We also measure franchisee satisfaction twice per year, and the feedback helps us to orient our goals and objectives. After all, their success continually fuels brand growth.

How do you ensure that your marketing strategies provide franchisees with the tools they need for growth?

Riner: We make sure to invest in and offer both proactive and reactive initiatives to help franchisees. Reactive programs help generate sales opportunities. This is especially important for new stores where franchisees are more interested in seeing a definable return on their marketing investment. Proactive programs help to build the brand over the long term which is a benefit to the entire network. We monitor campaign KPIs on an ongoing basis to ensure they remain effective, updating our marketing mix as trends change.

Franchisees also receive in-depth training on fundamental marketing tools, like social media, and how to best utilize the available marketing systems, along with emphasizing which local area marketing tools help them execute targeted campaigns in their communities. We also provide data-driven insights into what’s working across locations, allowing franchisees to edit their strategies for better results.

How do you measure and track the effectiveness of your marketing and development plans and the execution of the plans?

Riner: We track key performance metrics across both franchise development and franchise marketing. This includes the number of qualified leads per month, conversion rates, and cost per acquisition. On the franchisee side, we monitor KPIs for each campaign, which can be as specific as the number and value of sales directly generated from a program, or as broad as awareness-based metrics like website traffic, CPM, and many more. Each year we also conduct a comprehensive review of our marketing investment which helps us get a clearer, long-term picture of the effectiveness, while also ensuring we are remaining transparent and accountable to franchisees. Franchisee satisfaction surveys also play a critical role in refining our approach and ensuring our marketing efforts align with their needs.

What excites you the most about the future of Metal Supermarkets?

Riner: We’re excited for expansion opportunities in untapped markets, advancements in digital tools, and increasing demand for metal in niche industries. With more than 200 open territories, there’s still so much room for growth.

What advice would you give to emerging franchise brands looking to establish a strong presence in both franchise development and marketing?

Riner: The advice is very straightforward: define your ideal franchisee, invest early in digital marketing, streamline your sales process, and focus on franchisee success post-sale. Adaptability is key. Markets and regulations are always evolving.