This Public Relations Firm Has Reached Its Highest Ranking Yet on Entrepreneur’s Top Franchise Supplier’s List

A successful franchise brand must communicate with multiple audiences at once—from consumers and franchisees to prospective owners and local communities. They must understand how to connect all those pieces, combining national brand-building with local market strategies that drive awareness, traffic, and growth.

But many franchise owners realize this type of outreach isn’t exactly their forte. Many more understand that to make effective connections, they need help from a professional. That’s where the team at Konnect Agency comes in. This year, the firm ranks #2 among public relations agencies on Entrepreneur’s Top Franchise Supplier List—marketing its fifth consecutive year on the list, and it’s highest ranking ever.

To create this year’s list, we conducted our annual survey of franchisors, pulling from more than 1,000 responses. More than 180 suppliers are ranked across 13 different categories.

From emerging franchisors to well-established brands, respondents identified which suppliers they work with and then rated their satisfaction with them in areas of quality, cost, and value.

Each supplier received a score based on the survey results and was ranked within their respective category. More than 60 franchise brands reported using Konnect Agency’s services, giving it a nearly perfect score with an average rating of 4.92 out of 5.

Founded in 2009, Konnect Agency is a strategic PR agency with 50+ specialized experts across 11 states and three offices. It helps franchise owners build campaigns that are built on “equal parts instinct and intelligence with bold ideas that are grounded in data to create cultural relevancy that is executed with strategic rigor.”

“What really differentiates us is that we understand both sides of the equation: building a brand consumers want to experience and creating a business that prospective franchisees want to join,” says Amanda Bialek, president of Konnect Agency.

Helping brands navigate the rapid evolution of AI search

As consumers increasingly turn to artificial intelligence (AI) platforms for recommendations and answers, the credible third-party content and authority brands build through earned media can help shape how they show up in those conversations. One of the Konnect Agency’s biggest areas of focus this year has been helping franchise brands understand what it means to be visible in this AI-driven world. That means leveraging AI search as well as generative engine optimization (GEO)—the process of optimizing your site’s content so it appears within search queries on AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

“What’s exciting for us is that this evolution reinforces something we’ve always believed: great communications strategies start with understanding how real people are searching, what questions they’re asking and where they’re going for trusted information,” Bialek says. “The platforms may be changing, but that fundamental principle hasn’t.”

AI isn’t changing the foundation of how Konnect Agency approaches communications, however, but is simply expanding it. “We don’t approach franchise marketing with a one-size-fits-all playbook,” Bialek explains. “Every brand has different growth goals, different franchisees, and different consumers, so we build strategies around what will move that business forward.”

Click here to learn more about Konnect Agency and to find out if this supplier is right for you.