Why FBR Awards Should Be Part of a Winning PR Strategy

How to get more exposure for your franchise clients with the most important industry recognition in franchising

Photo: The Stretch Zone Team, a 2023 Franchisee Satisfaction Award Winning Brand

Public relations and marketing pros know that winning awards is a useful way to spread awareness, build credibility, differentiate the brand, and gain validation. While there are numerous awards in franchising, Franchise Business Review’s (FBR) awards are the only awards based exclusively on direct feedback from franchisees and employees via an independently administered survey.

What Awards Does FBR Bestow?

Franchisee Satisfaction Awards

Also called the Top Franchises Awards, these awards recognize the brands that offer the best franchise opportunities based on owner satisfaction. FBR (confidentially) surveys over 35,000 franchisees from 350+ brands every year and asks franchisees to rate their franchisor on key areas of the brand, including training and support, culture, leadership, and financial opportunity.

We announce the annual list of the Top Franchises in January, but we also announce quarterly awards lists in various sectors, including Top Franchises for Women, Top Food Franchises, Top Franchises for Veterans, and Most Profitable Franchises, among others.

See the most recent list of Franchisee Satisfaction Award winners here.

If your client has received a Franchisee Satisfaction Award, they are part of an elite group of franchisors. They are demonstrating their commitment to the franchisees currently in their network, using their feedback to gauge the health of their system, and incorporating franchisees’ feedback into how they support and scale the brand going forward.

Franchising@WORK Awards

The Franchising@WORK Awards recognize the best franchise companies to work for based on employee ratings and feedback. We survey thousands of corporate franchise employees, franchise owners’ employees and franchise supplier employees each year and ask questions about workplace culture, job satisfaction, company leadership and management, core values, and more.

We announce the award winners in June in both franchisor and supplier categories. Receiving a Franchising@WORK Award demonstrates that your client is a top place to work within the franchise sector and they are committed to building and maintaining a positive culture that values employee satisfaction, engagement and professional development—a powerful tool for attracting new hires and retaining top talent—especially in a challenging labor market.

PR companies are also eligible for a Franchising@WORK Award. Find out how you can qualify.

How to Leverage the FBR Awards to Help Your Clients (And Yourself!)

FBR awards are an opportunity to celebrate your clients’ accomplishments, get more exposure for the brand, and spread positive stories about franchising.

Each time we announce an awards list, winners are sent a PR toolkit, including free graphics, a press release template that includes more details on the research, and tips for promoting their award.

Touting your client’s FBR Awards can help you gain national and local media attention, which in turn, will differentiate them from competitors, help them grow their brand, and validate that they have a positive culture.

Beyond promoting your clients’ award-winning status, there are powerful ways to use the data from their FBR survey in your media outreach and promotional efforts:

• Share their franchisee satisfaction report publicly. Making franchisee satisfaction data publicly available shows transparency and helps potential buyers make better informed decisions. FBR gives clients lots of ways to share the data: a high-level report summary report that can be downloaded from a dedicated profile page on the FBR site, graphics to add it to their own site, and in email campaigns to current prospects. Bonus—if they opt to share their data on FBR’s site, they’ll get an SEO boost. Google LOVES our reviews. (Ask your client for a copy of their report if you don’t see it publicly available.)

• Create infographics. Use data points to create statistics/infographics to use in drip campaigns, display on the client’s website, and post on social media.Check out some examples from others in 6 Creative Ways to Up Your Public Relations Game.

• Use demographics and data when you pitch. Use data from the client’s whole franchise community and/or staff, or focus on different segments—regional, women, younger or older—franchisees and employees to tailor angles that interest the media.

• Incorporate quotes and testimonials. Our clients receive access to all the text comments franchisees and employees submit. Some share their name and might be willing to allow you to use their feedback as testimonials.
  

Review the questions and demographics we capture in our standard franchisee satisfaction and employee engagement surveys.

Next Steps

1. If you aren’t familiar with FBR, learn more about our awards and schedule a call to talk with us about how we can make your job easier.

2. If you have clients with 10+ franchisees open and operating that HAVEN’T surveyed their franchisees, get them to register ASAP so we can include them in our awards and content. Similarly, if they have 10+ employees, get them into our Franchising@WORK research to qualify for an award.

3. If your clients are FBR clients, reach out with questions or for ideas on how we can help you get more exposure for them.

4. Visit our website for brand exposure opportunities and download our Media Kit for more details.

Related Content:

6 Creative Ways to Up Your Public Relations Game

See real-world examples of how franchisors are making franchisee satisfaction data the focus of their PR strategy.

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