Turning a person’s infatuation with their mobile device into a marketing tool for your brand is awesome.

That’s particularly true for multi-location brands that depend on the ability of their individual store locations to meet the real-time needs of their customers.

But despite realizing that a hyper-local marketing strategy for franchises offers the best possible return, most of the marketing for these multi-location organizations is conducted from some centralized corporate location.

Yes, this top-down approach ensures consistency and protects the online reputation of your franchise from poorly crafted messaging.

However, it also makes it near impossible for your store locations to leverage the “here and now” micro-moments that occur at the hyper-local level.

It is possible for you to give your locations more control over their local marketing efforts without putting your brand at risk.

Jump into the present with reviews

You know you need to monitor your reviews, but do you allow access to your franchisees to apps that help them monitor these reviews in the moment, and allow them to engage in real time?

Every business needs to monitor – and engage consumers on – reviews sites, especially if negative reviews pop up.

That’s virtually impossible to manage at the corporate level while simultaneously adding a touch of relevant personalization to the messages.

To combat this, allow mobile access to review platforms that give store managers and employees the power to respond – in a personal and real-time way – to reviewers.

Personalize your social strategy

Some 85% of consumers still prefer to buy something in-store than online. Multi-location brands must maintain their consistent online presence while somehow highlighting the benefits of the local buying experience they offer, to get folks in their stores.

Luckily, every store location is unique – even for national brands. The influences of a location, culture and community will undoubtedly bleed into the atmosphere each store offers.

Your franchisees can capitalize on this local flavor with their social media strategy. Store photos, announcements, special offers – these all help to create the personal connection between your local stores and their customers.

But it’s not enough to create social profiles for your local stores and then hand the keys to your franchisee. Consider crafting a social media guide to help your local stores hit the ground running in their effort to prove their local worth to the community.

Implement beacons

There are few better ways to make the most of a micro-moment than to implement a strategy using in-store beacons.

Help your franchisees create actionable moments through beacon communication. For example, if you’re a restaurateur, you could set up beacons in your store set to trigger a message to your patrons as they leave.

The message could install a bit of intrigue to the reader, such as:

Our hostess Emily is in love with our newest ice cream flavor. Will you be? Find out on Friday when we add it to our menu!

So long as your patrons had a positive experience at your restaurant, they’ll be highly motivated to check out this newest flavor.

Time messaging based on local happenings

Imagine if your store locations had the power to target their messaging based on something as local as weather.

For example, if you’re a retail franchise, and a rainstorm is approaching one of your store locations, you could craft a message or ad to remind folks to “Get your raincoats and umbrellas before it’s too late!”

This type of personalization is hard for any person to resist; but it’s also pretty difficult to make happen from a corporate level. You can’t be expected to stay on top of the local weather patterns of all your stores!

Instead, rely on your franchisees to use this type of micro-moment messaging so that they can truly stand out as a local brand.

To meet mobile, you have to be mobile

It seems obvious, but is worth mentioning: the only way to truly keep up with your growing mobile consumers is to make your marketers mobile. From access to mobile devices, wearables and, perhaps, augmented reality, your local stores can tap into the here-and-now moments of their local prospects and win over new and loyal customers.