As a franchisor, you need to attract the right people to purchase franchises from you – that is, those who are going to be totally committed to the success of their businesses. But in order for that to happen, you need to be able to get their attention in the first place.
Purchasing a franchise is a big decision. When people take this step they are investing a lot of themselves into it – not only in terms of money but also time, commitment, and a big change of career and lifestyle. Obviously it’s not something most of them are going to undertake lightly.
So how do you go about generating franchise leads?
These days, people are very likely to do their own research online when looking for franchise opportunities. If they find an opportunity but can’t get much in-depth information about it, they may just give up and look elsewhere.
Creating good quality online content is a first step towards generating leads, and this needs to be done very strategically in order to get noticed in the first place. In particular, you need to be put yourself in the shoes of prospective franchisees and see things from their perspective, and focus your content according to their needs and desires.
The basis of content marketing
You need to create content that is well-written, high-quality and which connects to your audience in a personal way. It needs to provide information that is useful to the reader with no waffle or padding.
Your landing pages also need to be created in such a way as to easily lead the reader to the next step. This means including a clear call-to-action, personal success stories of other franchisees, and useful and highly informative content that can be downloaded.
Optimise your content so it is easily findable – that is, it is well indexed for relevant terms with search engines. While once upon a time this was often achieved merely by inserting quantities of keywords and search terms into content, Google and other search engines have since improved and expanded their ranking criteria. While keywords still have a place, search engines are now more geared towards rewarding content that has high value for its audience in terms of being factual, well researched, informative, insightful and useful.
Weaving your brand story throughout all areas of your site, social media pages and marketing campaigns. It’s essential here to enable people to engage with your brand. Linking to your content from your LinkedIn page for instance enables people to engage in conversations and discussions about your brand.
Posting testimonials and personal success stories on your landing pages and social media sites. These days, people are less attracted to marketing hype and spiel, and are more likely to pay attention to word-of-mouth information, such as reviews and personal accounts.
Offering downloadable content such as reports or free e-books. For example a recent campaign by a US company involved providing a free e-book on secrets to successful franchising to potential clients in exchange for their email addresses. This campaign resulted in a conversion rate of 22% – considerably higher than average rates.
Posting different types of content, including videos or infographics. Repurposing content can also enable you to leverage your previous postings. This might include boosting content by posting it on LinkedIn or Facebook to increase audience engagement, or creating a webinar or video around your written content.
Of course becoming a franchisor is a big step to take! If you would like to set up a franchise but are not sure how or need more information, we can help. Contact us for a discussion about your potential franchise today.
Thanks for reading, The Franchise Institute Team 1300 855 435
