Broadland Business Park based TaxAssist Accountants has won ‘Best Franchisee Marketing Support’ at the Franchise Marketing Awards 2020, beating 11 other well-known, leading brands to the top spot.

The winning award entry emphasised the substantial financial investment the franchisor made to the brand awareness budget and the increased marketing support measures which have been put in place during the pandemic. These enhanced support features included a COVID-19 Business Support Hub on the website to share news, articles, Q&As, videos and webinars. It also included timely and increased social media posts and client guidance covering key Government announcements, with over a million emails in total sent to clients on behalf of the franchise network.

The entry also highlighted how it sets its network up for success by providing a suite of marketing initiatives including a national lead generation service, a centralised email service, national and local social media activity, local marketing advice and planning, TV and digital advertising and guides for pricing and profitability among many other initiatives. 

The judging panel were very impressed with the levels of support, with Pip Wilkins, Chief Executive of the British Franchise Association, and one of the judges, describing the win as “well deserved”.

James Mattam, Group Business Development Director, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have won this prestigious award in a highly competitive category against other well-known and successful brands. This is a real reward for all of the fantastic teams at the Support Centre who have pulled out all the stops to maintain truly outstanding levels of marketing support through these unprecedented times. 

“Our franchisees and their clients always come first in all that we do. We wanted to ensure our clients could access grants, funding and furloughing support quickly and have one less thing to worry about. Our franchisees were in huge demand by their clients and we stepped in to help with some of the support, with responsive and regular communications.  Being part of a franchise network really offered a layer of protection during these times and now we’ve enhanced our brand and reputation on the back of this hard work.  The award win is the icing on the cake.

“A key decision we made, as franchisor, was to reduce our franchisees’ marketing costs, but replace this with our own investment of over £100,000 from management service fees back into the brand awareness budgets.  This is likely to increase between now and the end of the year to continue driving new business to the network”.

The high level of marketing support was also reflected in TaxAssist Accountants’ recent National Client Satisfaction Survey, in which clients praised still being able to easily contact their accountants for help and guidance about how to access Government support and funding during the lockdown, whether it was using video meetings or calls.

TaxAssist Accountants hold regular Virtual Discovery Days were you can learn more about the business development and technical support on offer to help you build a substantial practice. Call 0800 018829 to find out more.