CMO Roundtable with Smoothie King's Chief Marketing Officer, Marianne Radley

What marketing tools and strategies do you use to attract your ideal multi-unit operators to your brand?

Our brand’s mission remains at the core of our B2B and consumer marketing efforts, which is to inspire people to live a healthy and active lifestyle. We use this mission, and Smoothie King’s core principles, to decide what marketing strategies are put in place to attract multi-unit franchisees. It’s important that we partner with operators who share our passion for being a positive influence on people’s lives through nutrition. To ensure we reach the correct audience, we leverage several tools.

Maximizing channels

By leveraging owned channels and secured media placements, we can drive organic engagement between franchisees and the brand. Our franchising website is our primary owned channel, offering comprehensive insights into the Smoothie King system, brand story, financial expectations, and user-friendly elements to facilitate direct communication with our sales team.

We also regularly produce informative content about our brand, such as blogs discussing broader industry topics and testimonials from existing franchisees. To complement these communications, we've implemented an authentic public relations strategy to capitalize on the influence of media and industry influencers. By emphasizing growth plans and brand distinctiveness, we’ve earned positive media coverage that has enhanced our brand’s appeal to entrepreneurs.

Trade shows

Our team participates at industry trade shows throughout the year to increase our reach to target audiences and foster meaningful relationships with prospective franchisees. We’ve seen a great value in joining panels at these events to share success stories, trends, and presentations as it helps reinforce Smoothie King’s standing as a leader in the industry. The personal connections forged at conferences lay the foundation for long-term partnerships, making them an important component of our franchise development strategy.

Monthly discovery days

We host monthly discovery days at our headquarters in Dallas to provide prospects with a more personalized experience when interacting with the Smoothie King leadership team. They gain deeper insights into our business model and engage with brand representatives to learn more about franchising with Smoothie King. The information shared during discovery day has fostered trust and transparency, a vital element of a strong franchisor-franchisee relationship. Our authentic vision, strong presence among the QSR industry, and consistent support for franchisees sets Smoothie King apart. We will continue to leverage marketing tools and strategies that align with our brand to assist in attracting multi-unit operators who share our vision.