5 Marketing Tips to Drive Franchise Leads

It’s one of the most common questions asked by franchise development professionals: “Where are my leads?” But in order to answer that question, franchise-sales professionals must be familiar with what their colleagues are doing a few offices down in the marketing department.

Marketing to franchise leads requires constant action from franchise development leads and their sales teams. Whether brands are looking to build top-of-funnel awareness or nurture leads who have already submitted an inquiry, here are five marketing tips that will help drive franchise leads.

Get to Know Your Target Audience and Ideal Candidate

Before a marketing campaign can produce results, franchisors need to know everything about who their target audience is. Without a deep understanding of their ideal candidate and the demographics that should be on the receiving end of any campaigns, marketing dollars will go to waste.

For example, Workout Anytime’s director of franchise development Terri Harof said, “There are three different segments that consistently pop up for us when it comes to strong leads. First, there are people who are going to retire but they’re not ready to stop working. Second, we get a lot of interest from people who are already in the fitness industry working for another franchisee, but they’re now ready to make the jump to become a club owner themselves. Third, we’re hearing from franchisees who are with other brands but are looking to diversify their portfolios.”

By understanding what segments are likely to lead to qualified candidates, Workout Anytime is able to tailor its franchise development marketing campaigns to those three segments. Ultimately, this attention to detail provides the brand with a stronger starting point versus targeting a wider audience that could potentially lead to more tire kickers than anything else.

Make Content King

When it comes to marketing campaigns that have the most impact, content is still king. 

“Whether you’re selling products or franchises, I’m a believer in content,” said Greg Goddard, director of development and franchising for Penn Station East Coast Subs. “Lead generation is interesting because everybody is concerned with a big number when it comes to the number of leads that you have. But to me, the objectives have to align with your goal. Most leads are relationship-driven — operators will research stories that explain what a franchise opportunity is really about. That’s why research and content matter.”

The importance of content goes beyond sponsored articles, bylines or blog posts. Social media is another crucial medium that franchise development teams can’t ignore when looking for leads.

Eric Martin, vice president of franchise development for Happinest, the parent company behind Lawn Doctor*, Mosquito Hunters* and ecomaids, advises franchisors to “Engage in some type of social media activity. We use LinkedIn and Facebook quite a bit for marketing when it comes to pushing out content. But it has to be consistent — it can’t just be posting on social media once or twice a year. It needs to be an ongoing focus.”

Build and Maintain a Strong Franchise Development Website

Once a candidate discovers a franchise opportunity, one of the first places they’ll check out to start their due diligence process is a brand’s franchise development website. That’s why, according to Martin, the information that brands present about themselves can’t be overlooked.

Martin said, “Have a development website that has information that’s useful to buyers. We all know that people are researching brands for months, so whether it’s through stories on franchisees, videos or links, give candidates the opportunity to really learn about your brand through your site. You need to put a lot of information on it.”

Paul Pickett, chief development officer for Wild Birds Unlimited*, agrees. “Have a robust website with a lot of content that tells the story behind the story and shows the motivation and emotion of existing franchisees,” Pickett said.

Don’t Neglect Your Leads Once They Inquire

Franchise development teams have to be careful not to write off leads once they inquire. While they’re moving in the right direction, candidates who have yet to sign on the dotted line still need to be marketed to in order to keep the franchise opportunity top of mind. 

“It doesn’t matter how good your leads are if you don’t follow up with them and attend to them. You have to provide them with an amazing experience regardless of how many good leads you have,” said Pickett. “Franchisors need to up their game on their processes, communication and consistency on dealing with the leads they have.”

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

One of the most important things to keep in mind when marketing to drive leads is that there’s no shortage of techniques to employ. Even if some strategies are designed to build brand awareness, they play an important part in the lead generation process. 

“We use portals for big picture awareness and lead generation. You have to put yourself out there in a variety of different ways,” Martin said. “A lot of people start their search for a business-ownership opportunity by researching franchising, and they end up landing on a business portal. I don’t want to compete with portals for leads at that level. Portals give people the opportunity to find our opportunity, and then they can dive deeper and engage with us.”

By having numerous marketing campaigns running at the same time, franchisors have a greater chance of reaching candidates at every stage in the discovery process. This creates a full-circle moment for candidates and creates the narrative that a brand is everywhere and its opportunity is being talked about. Ultimately, that brand buzz will be invaluable.

“You have to be in a lot of places at the same time and know that it’s going to be more and more difficult to track where leads are coming from. People need to see your brand and be inspired by it on multiple levels in multiple ways before they engage,” said Pickett. “In franchise development marketing, there’s no silver bullet.”