Powills: Where does $10K net you the most franchise leads?

So, that big fancy franchise consultant helped you become a franchisor. Or, you were hired to run FranDev, but your budget doesn’t align with the company’s expectations. Or, you are struggling to jump-start your growth and don’t know where to spend your dollars. I get it. Franchise development is not easy for a multitude of reasons. If a franchisor were to give me $10,000 and task me with buying ads to get just one franchisee, how would I do it? Well, it’s much more complex than just saying buy this or exhibit there. Here’s why. The first challenge you have to overcome with franchise marketing is the fact that there is no silver bullet. I have talked about this. You have talked about it. There is no single place where you can spend dollars and magically gain a franchisee. It just doesn’t happen. Now that that’s out of your head, let me help you with one other obstacle. When measuring the success of your campaigns, it is not as simple as, well, I bought that ad, and it didn’t do anything for me. Advertising, marketing, PR, social media, digital – yeah, none of them works that way. Before I begin breaking down ideas on where to spend that money, let’s examine what you have. I have talked about the importance of your website. If it sucks, you are going to be pushing a heavier rock up your mountain. People inquire through the Web. That’s where your prospects give you their name. That’s where they go from baby franchise leads to toddler franchise leads (sorry about the baby references — I have a 2-year-old). Go to your Google Analytics now (the beauty of technology is that you can open up another browser and read this and look at that) and examine a few things: • Do you even know what Google Analytics are? If not, take one hand, slap the other hand and shame yourself. If your franchise consultant, consultants, marketers or advisors have not introduced you to the beauty of this tool, slap their hands, too. • Are your analytics tied to a separate franchise development site? I hope so. You are marketing the franchise opportunity, shouldn’t you send them to the place where they can get dedicated franchise information? • Now start analyzing. How many people have come to your development site in the past month? How many inquires do you have? Subtract the latter from the former. This gives you your current potential. Your goal should not be to go get more 1s on a 100-point scale (1s being the curious people who are neither serious nor sophisticated). Your goal should be to snag some of those 50s — the people who are looking at your site now, just not giving you their information. • Do you know what a referral source is in relation to Google Analytics? If not, find it on the left panel. This will give you a little insight into where people are gaining an impression before clicking into your site. The challenge with these clicks, when they come from pay-per-click or an ad is that the first impression takes them from a small little ad into your site. The franchise candidates go from you saying you are great to, well, you saying you are great. This does not create 50s. But, what you can see in your referrals are potential places to spend. • You know that question about where you want to develop? If you say, “Wherever I can snag a prospect,” that is garbage. You should have an idea of where you want to grow and how you will grow. What would happen if you picked 5 states and put all of your budget and effort into those states until you recruited 20 new people in each? Well, you would have 100 new locations. Look on your analytics. You will get some temporary assistance by looking at the locations of where people are coming from. This isn’t perfect, but if you click on “time on site,” it will give you the towns where the first impression is already taken care of. This lets you know where to spend your money. What I just wrote is just the beginning. It does not paint the whole path. But, it helps me frame my answer to where I would spend $10,000 for just one deal. There are two real options. Option 1 is spend $10,000 on one shot. However, this is like a single hand of blackjack. It could hit and turn a 50-percent profit. Or it could fail, and it’s “see you later $10,000.” If I were going to take this swing, here’s what I would do: 1. I would put the money where wealthy people may see it. American Airlines, for instance, has a first-class publication. While I am not sure you are going to get an ad for $10,000, you know the people who will potentially see it either have money or fly a lot and could potentially want to do something different. 2. Do you ever read profiles in business publications where the reporter asked the interviewee what they read? One category is always golf. Prospects read golf magazines. Could be worth taking a swing. 3. Kiplinger’s. Our clients have had great success with this publication. The challenge with the one-shot hit is that you cannot predict who will be reading it and when. The other challenge is that the spread is wide, meaning you cannot exactly target the areas you want to grow. You might not want to sign that one deal in California. In marketing, it’s all about message, and then timing. Does your ad say, “Buy my building” or “No. 1 in category”? Excuse my French (my wife speaks it, and so does Philip), but no one gives a shit about your building or your perceived category ranking. What they care about is a great product, the territory they want, a solid potential ROI and a sound leadership team. That’s it — at least to start. To close out, if I wanted to take a few shots for the $10,000, where would I spend it? 1. Facebook ads. Think I’m nuts? Are you on Facebook? Have you been on there in the past few days? You’ve probably been on Facebook more than on Kiplinger’s. 2. LinkedIn. What do people do on there? Duh, look for jobs and for business opportunities. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know that you fish where the fish will bite. 3. Sports sections. Why? It’s still the go-to section. Prospects care about sports, or at least a lot of them do. I am not going to give away the farm. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you want more ideas. But there are no secrets in development: It’s about spending as much money as you can where your prospects live, act and read. If you don’t know where they play, ask your current franchisees. I bet they have a ton of intelligence into what they read. Happy hunting.