The top digital marketing supplier and website vendor’s refreshing take on what makes franchise development sites most effective.
ClickTecs is a Canada-based digital marketing agency, servicing businesses through their specialized combination of marketing creativity and technical expertise. With over a decade of experience in web marketing, ClickTecs provides consulting to companies across the world, from small, start-up franchises to large, multinational brands.
1851 Franchise connected with Jamshaid Hashmi, president and CEO of ClickTecs, to learn more about how his business approaches the creation of franchise development sites and how suppliers can help their partner brands launch and boost them to generate success.
When asked about questions franchisors should always ask of suppliers, Hashmi said that it’s imperative that the supplier in question provides a list of franchise development websites they have built and gives the franchisor the ability to connect with those clients. Doing so provides insight into all of the brands with which the supplier works, showing transparency which in turn, boosts the company’s reliability.
Hashmi noted that franchisors should also ask if the websites created and designed have SEO tags already implemented on the site or if it is an additional service. If it is not a service already included, brands should look elsewhere. Similarly, it’s important for franchisors to ask that they receive full admin access to their Google Analytics, not just partial access, Hashmi said. Brands should have a strong level of autonomy and clear access to all touchpoints within their marketing assets so as to easily leverage and keep track of their own analytics whenever they choose.
In addition, franchisors need to ask how suppliers determine the taxonomy of a website and what pages are included in the navigation. Hashmi stated that knowing how a supplier is clearly servicing its partner brands is crucial to understanding the degree of quality the supplier delivers. As a means of determining how successful some businesses are and how their taxonomy affects placement, franchisors need to inquire about examples of the supplier’s highest-converting websites.
“Dig further by asking what the conversion percentage is, too,” said Hashmi. “If a company cannot provide clear answers and service you with quality development, they may not be your best option.”
As a standout resource for franchise development website design, Hashmi expressed the pride he has for the quality content ClickTecs provides.
“Our sites have consistently won awards in 1851 Franchise’s Development Website Award rankings,” said Hashmi. “We are also an SEO company, so we spend a lot of time building the strategy behind the SEO that will be implemented on a franchisor’s website. We don’t just design pretty websites; we build them to convert and be functional and visible on search engines.”
As a company at the forefront of digital marketing services, ClickTecs has noticed some distinct trends in 2019 that all brands should be aware of when creating and updating franchise development sites.
“Currently, we’re seeing tracking pixels, remarketing codes and dedicated landing pages for paid campaigns,” said Hashmi. “We’ve also noticed regular blogging about franchise-specific keywords within industries and prominent lead forms. Another trend we’ve started seeing is dedicated franchise development websites instead of a page or a section of an existing site that seems like an afterthought on the consumer site.”
However, with trends surfacing, there are formats that become outdated simultaneously. What ClickTecs sees as the most outdated site format, according to Hashmi, is a site with only one page dedicated to franchise development. In a time of bountiful online resources, a single page of information isn’t viable anymore.
As a final send-off, Hashmi provided the most important piece of feedback for franchisors: in order to leverage a franchise development site, brands should prominently link to their new franchise development site from their consumer site.
“A great source of finding new franchise candidates comes from the consumers who use a franchise’s products and services,” said Hashmi. “Be sure to tell stories of your franchisees, of their challenges and success, by using a variety of media, preferably video.”
There is nothing quite like providing a personal touch to a brand. With an increase in traffic, potential candidates are certain to find and delve further into a franchise opportunity if they can connect with the brand based on the outward appearance of and the quality and quantity of content for a franchise development site.
