Marketing With Purpose Kit: Customer Connection in a Data-Driven World

Faces in franchise marketing changed the results for IMAGE Studios, whose ads performed better once successful beauty pros appeared in them, not just the gorgeous salon suites. In this week’s Marketing With Purpose Kit from The Bliss Business Podcast, host Mike Liwski sits down with Liane Caruso, Fractional CMO at IMAGE Studios and founder of helloCMO, who has more than 20 years of experience leading growth for multi-location and franchise brands.

In this episode we explore:

• Why we still buy from people we know, like, and trust, even as dashboards multiply

• Aligning KPIs with franchisee success, AUVs, and retention, not just lead metrics

• Leading with open, honest communication when franchisees have their retirement on the line

• Why one message has to reach a hundred franchisees in many different ways

• The A-B test behind the Faces Not Spaces campaign

• Why top-of-funnel awareness still matters, and how one source of truth ties it together

Liane starts with a worry: amid so many KPIs, dashboards, and ads, storytelling gets lost. In franchising, she says, marketing has two jobs at once. It has to grow the brand and support each franchisee’s local success, because that is what drives system growth.

That takes empathy and constant communication. Franchisees have put their retirement on the line, so IMAGE Studios keeps communication open with personal phone calls. Because people receive information differently, the team uses video announcements, monthly town halls, weekly newsletters, and weekly round tables.

Her clearest data story is an A-B test. IMAGE Studios had photographed its spaces for years, but ads featuring successful, happy beauty pros performed better, which led to the Faces Not Spaces campaign. She also explains why franchisees, who are not marketers, need to understand top-of-funnel spending, and how a shared spreadsheet gives the team one source of truth across vendors.

That same instinct, putting people and context around the numbers instead of letting dashboards speak alone, guides how Zero Company approaches paid search and social.

Key Takeaways

• (2:40) On why connection still matters: “At the end of the day, especially in business, we still buy from people we know like and trust.”

• (6:17) On leading franchisees through uncertainty: “We want to make sure that the trust is always there. We don’t want to erode that trust by any means.”

• (8:30) On reaching a whole franchise system: “It is constantly sharing the information, but just in a whole bunch of different ways.”

• (11:47) On the Faces Not Spaces campaign: “Not just highlighting the beauty of the space itself, but really the beauty of the business owner in the space, thriving.”

• (14:06) On why top-of-funnel awareness matters: “You can’t just convert someone at the bottom without all of the other things that have to come in at the top to get the decision made.”

• (22:01) On purpose and empathy: “I think marketing is empathy, in essence.”

FAQ

Is the marketing funnel broken?
Liane Caruso, Fractional CMO at IMAGE Studios, does not feel that way for a lot of brands. She says top-of-funnel awareness is critical when entering a new market, even though it is hard to tie to lead generation.

How do you keep marketing human in a data-driven world?
Liane Caruso says to keep people at the center of the work. An A-B test at IMAGE Studios showed ads with successful, happy beauty pros performed better than ads showing only the spaces, which became the Faces Not Spaces campaign.

How do franchise brands communicate with franchisees who take in information differently?
Liane Caruso says IMAGE Studios shares the same information in many ways: video announcements, monthly town halls, weekly newsletters, and weekly round tables, so each franchisee can receive it in the way that works for them.

Great marketing does not just sell, it serves, and Liane Caruso shows what that looks like for a franchise brand. Learn more about IMAGE Studios at imagestudios360.com. See Liane’s guest profile, watch the video version, and explore more Marketing With Purpose Kit conversations.

🎙️ Hosted by Mike Liwski

🎧 Produced by Tullio Siragusa