How Sylvan Learning’s MARC Platform Supplies Franchisees With the Tools They Need for Local Marketing Success

For over 40 years, Sylvan Learning has been a leader in supporting academic excellence, igniting intellectual curiosity and inspiring a love for learning in students all over the country. Since its founding in 1979, Sylvan Learning has come to be the fastest-growing supplemental and enrichment education franchise in the U.S. and has developed a strong presence in countries all over the globe, including Canada, China and Vietnam.

As Sylvan Learning continues to expand its services, innovate engaging technology and perfect personalized learning to deliver real results for students, the brand is making sure to prioritize local marketing for franchisees. After all, the franchisee is the one on the ground, bringing students into Sylvan Learning and changing lives .

First and foremost, Sylvan Learning offers franchisees a flat all-in royalty rate of 16% of monthly gross revenue that covers all fees and costs associated with running their business, including national marketing expenses. While Sylvan routinely runs national marketing campaigns for the brand, a differentiating piece of the company’s strategy is to allocate plenty of support and helpful resources for local grassroots marketing.

Local marketing support

“Here at Sylvan, we strive to support franchisees in every way possible , especially when it comes to local marketing,” said Nicole Thomas, Senior Director of Franchise Solutions and Local Marketing. “We have a local marketing team dedicated completely to franchisees and their support. In addition to assigning a one-on-one marketing representative, we create onboarding plans and have training and support for every new franchisee that comes into the system.”

Not only do Sylvan’s marketing representatives give each franchisee individual attention, they also supply owners with all of the tools they need to run local campaigns on their own .

One of the newest tools is MARC (Marketing Assets Resource Center), an innovative technology platform and website that gives franchisees a one-stop-shop platform for all of their marketing resources, including campaign calendars, Facebook assets, promotional schedules, flyer templates, webinars and much, much more. The platform shows what other franchisees in the system are doing locally and provides a simple guide for how owners should create their local marketing plans.

Customized marketing campaigns

Unlike other brands, Sylvan Learning franchisees are encouraged to create local marketing campaigns best suited for their own communities. The Sylvan team also provides scripts for starting conversations with local influencers like PTA presidents and local businesses geared toward parents. This builds community involvement and lends credibility to centers while raising awareness about what services they offer students and their families.

“Our local marketing team offers monthly webinars to give franchisees a prescriptive plan on their unique approach,” said Thomas. “With the MARC technology platform, all of the marketing tools franchisees need are available at the owner’s fingertips and our team is here to provide support. We want to make it as easy as possible for our franchisees to execute local marketing strategies, which is why we are glad to handle all email outreach and provide detailed guidance on whom to contact at each local school.”

Because of these tools, franchisees like Sarah Miller and Kent Kolbow, who own 11 Sylvan Learning locations in Indiana, were able to develop an incredibly successful Black Friday promotion last year.

“We were able to review what other franchisees had done for Black Friday in the past, and tweak it to work for our markets,” said Miller. “From there, we developed a one-day sale, and with the help of the corporate team, honed it over three years. Each year, we’ve seen an increase in revenue of up to 75% year-over-year and shared how we executed the program with the rest of the system. We are lucky to have a corporate team that is always willing to listen and partner with the franchisees to find the best solution for all of us to be successful.”

During its 40th anniversary last year , Sylvan encouraged franchisees to celebrate in their own unique ways by hanging up posters, running promotions or hosting local events. By assigning local marketing representatives, allocating resources and handling email promotions for each school, Sylvan makes it easy for franchisees to create a successful event.

“For franchisees, these local marketing tactics are an effective way to increase enrollment and spread the word to parents,” said Thomas. “At the end of the day, local marketing and community involvement are absolutely key to helping students achieve academic success, which is Sylvan Learning’s ultimate goal.”