How To Build an Incredible Franchise Sales Website

For many budding entrepreneurs, the decision to invest in a franchise may be the most financially consequential decision of their life. Given the weight of that decision, it’s essential that a franchise sales website screams professionalism and opportunity from the first glance through every page, image and form.

To better understand what makes a great franchise development website, 1851 Franchise has boiled down the wide world of widgets and web design to three neat criteria: First impressions, Content, and Ease of Use. 

To illustrate the importance of all three of these metrics, we interviewed 1851’s own digital project manager, Jeremy Kesselman.

Where To Get Started?

“Franchise development websites need to have a clear goal — a clear objective in mind,” Kesselman said. “You have to know who your target audience is. A good question to ask yourself is, what is the profile of your franchisees? Develop the persona, just like you develop the persona for your user base.” 

The franchise sales page doesn’t have to tell the brand’s entire story, nor should it assume the reader has all of the most vital information to make a decision. Instead, franchisors should focus on studying their target audiences and providing them the exact input and information they need at every stage of their investigation.

By curating the copy and dialing in the scope, franchisor websites can make a great first impression and quickly move readers along into the content of the page. 

Content Is King

A flashy webpage may impress some, but if you want to convert readers into franchisees, “content is king,” Kesselman said. 

“Good content, related to the subject matter at hand, is essential,” he said. If the sales page doesn’t have killer content, “it’s not going to be successful. You can’t assume that the reader is dying to know everything you have to say — you have to hook them and draw them in.” 

The franchise sales website is often the first stage of a prospect’s inquiry, but it also often returns at the final stage — the last thing they look at before deciding to invest. When it comes to the copy on the page, not a hair can be out of place. 

Every Platform Counts

“It goes without saying that any website has to be able to work on cell phones and tablets,” said Kesselman. Kesselman suggested an exercise of looking at the web page on every device you own, including your cell phone, your tablet and your desktop. 

“Make sure it looks good on all screens. Images can sometimes be really big when they don’t need it to be,” he said. 

If your webpage looks sharp on a simple desktop browser, but the customer looks again on his cell phone and sees a poorly cropped mess, this could hurt the franchise’s image and hinder a sale. 

Cross-platform functionality represents a key pillar of ease of use, one of the criteria used to judge franchise sales pages. 

Know Your Audience

“If you design a web page with the wrong target audience — big mistake,” said Kesselman. 

For example, many pages like to include a chatbox on the sales website to link readers to a sales associate immediately, but not all chat boxes work. 

“You have to look at the target audience. Do they use chat?” said Kessleman. If readers aren’t using the chatbox, drop it. “With a chatbox, it can make a page load slowly if not done right.”

Instead of a chatbox, simply respond in a timely manner to all requests via email or phone, said Kesselman. A buggy chatbox not only hurts your first impression but also marks poor ease of use on the web page. 

Call To Action

So you’ve built a brand with a solid business model, a sterling reputation, and a beautiful, functional web page. What’s left? A call to action.

Every sales situation ends with the dramatic moment when you hand the customer the pen to sign on the dotted line. It’s the call to action common across all great sales and communication, so how do you nail it? With clarity and ease of use. 

“You need a clear call to action with an easy-fill form,” said Kesselman. Don’t over-complicate the form with requests for needlessly detailed information that could deter or slow the customer’s path to completing the form. 

“Whatever the call to action is, it is it has to work on a cell phone, or anywhere, and be responsive on that device,” said Kesselman.