2 Website Mistakes That Are Killing Your Franchise Development

The internet was the leading source of franchise sales in 2017. In fact, the International Franchise Association (IFA)’s 2017 Franchise Development Report found that digital sources dominated lead generation efforts. Though referrals still played a major role in franchise development, print, brokers, and trade shows were utterly outperformed by SEM, display advertising, social media advertising, and portal advertising. 70% of survey respondents indicated that they used digital search to find available franchises in their area.

With so many prospects evidently getting online and searching for local opportunities, there has never been more riding on your brand’s website. In fact, Franchise Update Media’s 2017 Annual Franchise Development Report estimates that a whopping 13% of digital franchise development services money is now being funneled into franchise websites. That number is truly astonishing when you consider how much is eaten up by pay-per-click marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing, social media advertising, digital asset creative, ORM… and the list goes on.

If you haven’t audited your site in awhile, but are not 100% pleased with your current franchise development services or results, today’s post is for you. Read on to learn two fundamental website mistakes that we see killing franchise development.

• No clear calls-to-action. Your site might be brimming with high-value information, beautiful and engaging videos, and glowing reviews, but it’s all meaningless if you don’t have adequate calls-to-action in place.The goal of a page needs to be glaringly obvious to any visitor. And that doesn’t mean every page has to point the prospective franchisee to a contact form, PDF download, or phone number to call. For example, a great blog post might wrap up by directing the reader to others like it; or an industry analysis page might end by directing the reader to a page offering a franchise opportunity locator tool, which then can push for that conversion.The point isn’t to shove your opportunity down the readers’ throat at every turn, but rather to keep them engaged, on-site, and properly oriented as you take them through the sales process, step-by-step. Approach your website design as though you’re telling a story, or taking the user on a journey. This big-picture “narrative” approach is markedly different – and more effective – than the typical mistake of stringing together a bunch of loosely connected pages, with only the navigation bar to tell users what’s in store.Including clear and consistent calls to action, whether they’re fancy contact forms or simple “NEXT: [Page Title]” buttons, is nonnegotiable. The alternative is working hard to secure traffic to your page, then leaving your user lost and unsure of where to go next. Unsurprisingly, this fundamental mistake kills franchise development.
• Mismanaged testimonials and reviews. Dedicating entire web pages to Testimonials and Reviews is generally considered to be a dated practice. Doing so can actually make your brand seem less trustworthy for the few people who bother to visit those pages at all.That said, there are some fantastic ways to leverage testimonials and reviews for your franchise development. The best way is to pair one with the appropriate content. Not only does an embedded quote do wonders for the overall “production value” of a page, but when properly paired, it will get read much more often, and can actually add value to the user experience.For example, check out our homepage, where you can see the following testimonial for our franchise development services: “ClickTecs was able to generate high quality and geographically targeted franchise candidates for us at a rate that exceeded our expectations.” This would have zero impact on a dedicated testimonial page, but in this case, it actually adds value, both because it shows franchise development prospects a satisfied customer, and effectively summarizes the value of our service. Moreover, the quote looks great embedded on-page, and the name and CEO attribution lend it a degree of credibility most people find only on third-party review sites.

Need more help with your digital franchise development?

You can find out more about our franchise development services, online reputation management, and website optimization at https://clicktecs.com/contact-us/.