FranX | Franchise Digital Advertising for Dummies

The Next McDonald's (Big Idea)

Pay to PRAY: Stop Doing This!

With pay to play you know what you are getting.

Example: a franchise broker brings you a lead, you qualify the lead, and when the lead converts you pay a commission. A win-win.

Pay to PRAY: You hire a new franchise development director, a new agency, you spend some dollars, you’re disappointed with the results, you hire a new development director, new agency, spend more dollars, same disappointing results…

You get stuck and, from a mindset standpoint, your strategy relies more on praying than deploying development and marketing assets that yield predictable results. You consume those development dollars before the table is set!

The reason - you’re probably too dependent on outside vendors or the wrong vendors. Like religious leaders that sell indulgences and offer quick-fix salvation, too many vendors are offering you the affordable, quick-fix, feel-good for the moment, franchise development strategies that will only disappoint. But hey, you’re praying it will be different this time.

It's not only the vendor's fault. After all, they are offering you what you’re asking for.

Time to take accountability. Time to internally set your strategy, inventory your brand assets and create durable and renewable assets such as franchisee stories, franchisee videos, team videos, powerful FDD differentiators and committed team.

Once you do this there will be a lot less praying and a lot more control and results.

Time to plant those seeds. See our bottom thoughts!

News You Can (Actually) Use

• Is the Global Housing Market About to Crash?
   
• More Americans Are Quitting Their Jobs. What this Means for Franchising

Killer Brands

A Place at Home - We all know that the home care agency market is crowded, but for good reason.

With an ever-aging baby-boomer generation, the marketplace for at-home services will continue to outstrip supply. While there are many franchise brands in this space, A Place At Home offers a fresh opportunity for franchise buyers. Why? Well, it starts with the team. The executive team at A Place at Home is building an amazing organization, amazing media, and an approach that is always on. Check out their media, their LinkedIn page, and watch their videos.

There are real differentiators here and for the right franchisee candidates, this is a next-gen home care franchise opportunity!

Franchisees Kicking Ass: The Franchisee Is King

How to Succeed as a Multi-Unit Franchisee - John Greff is the owner of seven locations of Workout Anytime brands. Here’s how he grew a successful franchise portfolio.

John Greff spent many years as a petroleum engineer before fully exploring what it would mean to be his own boss. Like many franchisees starting out, Greff didn’t know much about the concept of franchising. He was even skeptical that it would impede on the freedom of owning his own business.

“I really wasn’t too keen on the idea of franchising. In my mind, I had this stigma that these companies were going to restrict the things that I could do and charge me a lot of money to do it,” Greff said.

This quickly changed as Greff began exploring the franchising world and noticed that franchisees tended to be more successful than independent businesses. Wanting to pursue something he was passionate about, Greff looked into fitness franchises and soon discovered Workout Anytime, a brand that seemed to do things a little bit differently.

“One of the things I noticed when I was going through the P&Ls for gym brands was that they had some very high expenses in particular areas such as staffing and rent,” said Greff. “When I came across Workout Anytime, they were able to balance the equation. I really found the sweet spot where you can operate at a very high ROI and have repeated success with the model.”

Read his full story here.

Yo Broker, Sell My Franchise

Footprints Floors*, a 100-plus-unit Denver-based flooring franchise, just received the ultimate validation of its business model by selling two franchise units to two separate franchise consultants who evaluate franchising opportunities all day, every day.

Footprints Floors awarded units to Andy and Michelle Snyder and Don Brammeier, seasoned franchise industry pros with experience selling dozens of different brands. Until now, neither had ever bought one of the brands they were selling.

“We couldn’t be any prouder that two franchise brokers who work with hundreds of brands chose to invest in us. It speaks to the strength of our business model” said Bryan Park, the brand’s CEO.

The Bottom Thoughts

Many will read this, nod their heads, and forget about it. But data is truth, and truth is data (we are sure someone important said that).

Leads --especially franchise leads--take time to mature.

Seeds take time to grow.

Houses take time to build.

Marriages (unless your last name is Cage) take time to get to the alter, or say yes to the dress.

But in franchising, many think you buy a Google, Facebook, LinkedIn or Bing (*don’t do that) ad and magically, that day, leads start coming in.

Sorry, Charlie (or Chuck), it doesn’t work that way.

Leads can take 3 months, 6 months, a year to start developing. And, that time is increasing when the economy is good (risk-averse stay calm).

Which leads mature quicker?

Those already in the buying mindset (picked franchising now exploring). Current franchisees (supply and demand). Sometimes resales.

So, how do you measure digital ads? It’s tough. Because the money you spend today should impact you in November (ain’t nobody got time for that). But, it is an important lesson, because it will change your approach to lead generation.

Could be worth trying a bigger spend to see the impact. But, even that, our friends, is a crapshoot.